Designing Zero to One Growth Funnels with Julian Shapiro

Julian Shapiro is an active writer, creator, and angel investor. He’s also the founder of Demand Curve, a YC startup that provides tactical growth training to clients like Microsoft and Zendesk.

He’s also quite prolific across a range of social channels where he

deconstructs how things work - like storytelling and critical thinking - and

shares learnings along the way.

Julian’s tactical expertise is naturally in high demand, so we sat down

with him to jam on funnel construction, resource allocation, in-house

marketing, angel investing criteria, and more.

Phase I: Identifying Growth Channels

To determine a brand’s initial growth focus, Julian advises that teams lean

into competitive analysis, or researching how other companies in the same

vertical scaled. In practice, this can include tracking down founding

members of those teams to distill best practices, or combing through their

past interviews on podcasts or news outlets to uncover their growth

channels.

The outcome of this research phase is to zero in on where you should be

allocating your limited resources, regarding both time and capital

investment.

After determining which channels have been historically utilized by similar

brands, Julian recommends running tests on the channels you’re most

confident in, while secondary channels can be deprioritized for the time

being.

“When you’re first designing a growth funnel, consider prioritizing the channels you’re most confident will convert based on historical patterns.”

Phase II: Deploying Channel Tests

After clearly distilling growth channels, Julian recommends quickly

shipping experimental tests within each unique vertical. When determining

whether to outsource or build an in-house growth team to execute across each

identified channel, he advises teams to first consider the level of

competency that’s necessary for the platform in question.

For instance, if your brand might benefit from creating and running video

ads on Facebook (a channel that’s harder to quickly master), bringing in an

agency that’s equipped for large-scale production of content and creative

assets would be the way to go.

Meanwhile, most major forms of content marketing — landing pages, product

copy, drip emails and email campaigns, original reports — that are embedded

in the fabric of your brand should rarely be outsourced. Rather, those

should be cultivated internally and led by someone that’s deeply embedded in

the core product and ecosystem in which your startup operates.

Julian points out that a seasoned copywriter embedded within the company

can quickly provide massive ROI, given that content touches nearly every

element of growth marketing.

Lastly, he adds that outsourcing or having an agency on retainer tends to perform well in three cases:

If attaining internal competency will yield more sunk time and capital than

it’s worth. If it’s a key channel for scalable growth that must be executed

quickly and flawlessly. If the agency or studio has proven its ability to

drive cost-effective leads that convert.

“On a channel by channel basis, it boils down to how good you have to be to do a great job at it, as well as how hard it is to get to that level. Some channels are hard to self-teach, and you’ll benefit from a third party’s vantage point and capabilities. In which case, you could stick with them externally for a while.”

Phase III: Leveraging Content Flywheels

Once you’ve clearly identified growth channels and begun to experiment

within each, Julian recommends evaluating your company’s content landscape

across parallel tech verticals.

According to Julian, too many early-stage companies jump straight into SEO

without figuring out how it maps to their needs, though SEO can sometimes be

a winning strategy for particular brands in unique subsectors.

This advice also goes for channels like podcasts or Twitter that are in

vogue at the moment, though might not actually be compatible with your

revenue drivers.

Finally, Julian droves home the point that the perfect growth engine still

can’t outstrip your core business fundamentals: making products that people

actually want.

“There's always going to be a new platform, new tech, or new copywriting hack. The world's constantly changing and chasing it can be fruitful, but it’s not what I recommend most companies focus on. Rather, recommit to the fundamentals.”

High-Performance Growth Marketers

When asked what makes a killer growth marketer, Julian shares his three staple criteria:

Self Starting

With an inundated content market, a creatively generative marketer —

someone who spins up innovative ideas and rapidly ships new experiments —

can take your growth to the next level.

Data-Driven

Metrics are a critical temp check when acquiring early users. A top-class

marketing hire can methodically run tests, properly implement tactics,

assess results with clarity, and iterate based on those results. Without a

foundational understanding of data, marketers are flying blind.

Copy Chops

Copywriting touches on nearly every growth channel, and having strong

writing chops relays a genuine understanding of user behavior. Fortunately,

Julian also notes that copywriting is an age-old practice that almost anyone

can learn through proven methods and pattern matching.