📦 - Novorésumé Shares How to Create Viral Content

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Banter

Saturday, April 10th, 2021

A live look at the state of social audio:

DTC’s sticking with podcasts for now, but if you join DTC+ you can jump on any podcast for live Q/A, so basically same same 😉.

Welcome to the Saturday edition of DTC Newsletter! In this issue you’ll find:

📦 A case study in creating viral content from the Novorésumé team.

📦 A deep dive into Pelaton’s high-impact, hyper-aligned partnership with Beyonce.

📦 How much is your business worth? Try this free valuation tool to find out.

📦 A thoughtful Mother’s Day suggestion for your email segmentation.

📦 Canva’s $15B valuation, Snapchat acquires Screenshop -- catch up on DTC M&A in our weekly roundup

Read to the end for an invite to our next FREE LIVE Workshop: The Amazon Growth Guide.

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Boardroom

Novorésumé is an intuitive resume builder SaaS. Our customers use the builder to create a well-designed resume in minutes, without the hassles of resume formatting.

Back in 2016, when we were getting started, we wanted to come up with a marketing campaign that would promote the product, drive sign-ups for the BETA version, and wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg in terms of ad spend.

At the time (and for around nine months), the builder was completely free, so our promotion budget was basically non-existent.

After some brainstorming, we decided to create a Novorésumé resume for a famous celebrity and pitch it to journalists.

At that time, Stefan (our cofounder) and I had just finished reading Elon Musk’s biography, so we thought he’d be the perfect celebrity to try and prove our idea of “Less is More” by summarizing all of his vast professional experience into a one-page resume.

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✏️ What We Did

Our exact process for executing the campaign:

Create a list of 100+ potential media partners.
Scrape all journalists that have previously covered Elon Musk.
Create Elon Musk’s resume & ensure that it covers all the interesting bits of his career.
Publish Elon’s resume on our blog.
Conducted a major outreach campaign to all the prospects we’d collected thus far.

The original resume was shared by Business Insider, Independent.co.uk, Time, Lifehacker, Sciencealert and many more. 👇

🚀 The Results

Overall, the campaign was a major success.

The PR we got from the resume drove over 120,000 new users within six months. The campaign was featured in 100+ different media platforms.

In addition, this surge of users allowed us to test-drive our platform and see how users interacted with it. Based on this data, we also learned what our users were willing to pay for, allowing us to create a Premium version of the builder that our customers loved.

🚨 So Why Does Content Go Viral?

It has to follow general principles.You can’t write a cookie-cutter article and expect the internet to love it.

More often than not, content goes viral if it’s:

Emotion-evoking: You’re saying something inspirational, shocking, insightful, or just something that goes against the popular narrative. Dove Real Beauty Sketches are a good example of going viral because of its extremely positive message.
Trendy: Your content is based on something that’s currently trending. For example, HootSuite created an ad resembling the opening of Game of Thrones.
Unusually funny or entertaining: This one’s usually harder to nail, as it’s dependent on stellar execution. The most popular example of this is the Dollar Shave Club’s ad.

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🏄‍♂️ Riding the Hype

In the case of Elon Musk’s resume, we were capitalizing on number two.

It was around the time when Elon was getting tons of media attention for the first time, and people were super hyped to learn about him.

We were pretty sure the resume would at least get some media coverage. However, that’s not the only reason Elon’s resume worked out so well.

He’s popular because of his career – he’s doing work that is changing the world. Naturally, people want to know how he started, what his past companies were, etc.

And conveniently enough, the format of a resume managed to convey all that information.

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📺 Why the Media Loved It

If you’ve ever done an outreach campaign, you probably know they’re hit-or-miss.

Especially if you’re pitching yourself to big media – more often than not, they just don’t care.

With Elon’s resume, it was a completely different scenario. We were getting a ton of love from online publishers.

⁉️So, Why Did this Happen?

The media’s #1 goal is to generate clicks.

If you’re pitching them YOUR company, chances are, it won’t get them the results they’re looking for (unless you’re already famous).

With Elon’s resume though, it was a mutually profitable partnership. Media websites would get a ton of clicks, and we’d also drive awareness for our product since the resume was made through our builder. Win-win!

Looking to up your resume game? Check out our builder here!

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Sponsor

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DTC x Celebrities

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This past year Peloton has become an increasingly popular choice for at-home fitness, as the Covid-19 pandemic forced people to retreat inside and rethink their workouts.

While many businesses have been negatively impacted, Peloton has benefitted from the pandemic. Online searches for Peloton nearly tripled in February 2020. By May 2020, quarterly revenue soared 66%, and paid digital subscribers increased by 64%.

The demand for Peloton has become so high that the company is struggling to keep up.

Some have been skeptical about whether Peloton’s success will survive the pandemic; however, their announcement last fall shows that they’re in it for the long haul.

On November 10, 2020, Peloton announced a multi-year partnership with Beyonce Knowles to produce themed workouts for its members. The partnership would commemorate the Homecoming season at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

The programs are inspired by Beyonce’s 2019 Homecoming film and live album, based on her 2018 Coachella performance, which celebrated her long career and the culture of HBCUs.

Peloton and Beyonce also gave away 2-year digital memberships to students at ten HBCUs. Further, the brand announced that they’ be building relationships with each of these schools to “pursue long-term recruiting partnerships at the internships and undergraduate levels.”

The announcement saw immediate success, as Peloton’s shares rose 8.6%.Consumers were equally as excited.

One follower on Peloton’s Instagram commented, “This is so powerful. My personal trainer [...] is a Howard student and he taught me how to use Peloton. This campaign is making me feel so seen and valued as a current Howard student and Peloton user. Thank you.”; Another wrote, “You market to ME, you get me! Peloton purchased.”

The Peloton and Beyonce collaboration is a win on all fronts. According to Peloton, Beyonce was the most-requested artist by their 3.6 million global members. This isn’t surprising, given that millions already have Beyonce’s music on their workout playlists. Beyonce’s music is genre-blending, with songs spanning from bombastic anthems to emotional ballads that motivate, inspire, and advocate for female empowerment. Pop, R&B, hip-hop, rock, country. She. Does. It. All.

But it’s not only her music that makes this partnership perfect. Beyonce is a global superstar, businesswoman, and activist with a massive fanbase. She currently has 166 million Instagram followers.

According to D’Marie Analytics, a social media analytics company, one post from Beyonce is worth $1 million in advertising. She is a social media master who understands how to connect to her fans, ignite conversations about everything, and sell (just take a look at her first Ivy Park collection with Adidas that sold out in a weekend).

Beyonce is also recognized for her high production quality, elevating and pushing how consumers experience music and media.

On top of that, Beyonce is a performer known for her fitness and endurance. She frequently talks about the importance of prioritizing her health to achieve her goals and be the best version of herself. She is hard work and excellence embodied – everything Peloton and its followers strive to be.

In partnering with Beyonce, a Black female artist, and building relationships with HBCUs, Peloton is taking steps to make the health and wellness industry more inclusive.

This is important now more than ever in light of recent events of various

companies such as the New York Times, Crossfit, and Conde Nast being ousted for toxic workplaces, systemic racism, and sexism.

Consumers are becoming more aware and have higher expectations from companies to be inclusive and mindful about their business practices. With more inclusive practices and partnerships, Peloton will certainly attract new subscribers that they may not have had access to before.

This partnership is equally beneficial for Beyonce. She collaborates with powerful businesses where she can profit massively and make a big impact.

Working with Peloton allows Beyonce to continue her mission to celebrate and promote Black culture to a global audience.

To date, Beyonce’s themed workouts have launched and are accessible through its app. And Peloton’s sales continue to climb: They now expect to bring in more than $3.9 million in total revenue in 2021 – exceeding initial forecasts of $3.5 to $3.65 million. With its business partnerships and sales trajectory, there is no doubt Peloton is one to watch.

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DTC+

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