HARRY'S: LOOPING THEIR WAY TO THE TOP

Morning friends!

Firstly, what did you think of the emoji in the subject line? A newsletter friend of mine (yep, I have newsletter friends now) told me that I need to add an emoji to my subject line... so here we are!Just like getting told to add an emoji to the subject line, there are many times in life when I am brutally humbled. You know, when someone educates you on something that kinda made everything you thought was right - wrong. Well, I had one of those this week. You see, I've spent the last 6 months obsessing about newsletter funnels within businesses. It's literally what I implement for our clients. Don't get me wrong they are effective as f*ck and have worked the dream for our clients. But then this week I came across Alex Garcia's breakdown of growth loops and well... I was impressed, to say the least. What you're about to learn:- Exactly what a growth loop is

- How Harry's acquired 100k emails through one

- How you can implement a growth loop into your business.

This one might be a tad more technical than usual, so bear with me!

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Company Overview

Valuation: $1.7 Billion (Source) 

Est. Revenue: $153.1M (Source)

Harry's is an American company that manufactures and sells shaving equipment and personal care products via online and retail channels. The company is known for their subscription service where customers receive new razor blades, shaving cream, and other grooming products by mail.

To put it simply, they're a subscription razor company.Yep, another one. If you know nothing about razors, here's a VERY quick rundown of the "big dogs" in the industry:

- Gillette: They're the dominant name - HUGE audience

- Dollar Shave Club: Low-cost option that dominates the subscription game - HUGE audienceThey both have one thing in common - a HUGE audience.

Harry's on the other hand had a huge problem... their audience didn't exist. So, they had to build one overnight. And here's how they did just that...

Breaking Down The Strategy

When 99% of DTC brands go-to-market, they have one initial focus: sell the f*ck out of their products.

They often build out a funnel that looks something like this:

This is what I would say is a "classic" marketing funnel. The brands then use a shotgun approach to flood that awareness section of the funnel. Paid social, PR, PPC, organic social, you name it!

The problem with this standard funnel is that to get more results (in this case purchases) you need more awareness. So, your results are directly tied to the efforts at the top of the funnel. It's a vicious cycle that can lead you to heavily rely upon one channel.

Harry's is not part of the 99% of DTC brands though. Their initial focus wasn't on making quick cash. They needed to build an overnight audience remember? This meant that the standard marketing funnel just wouldn't cut it.

So, Harry's took a very different approach.

They didn't focus on revenue, they didn't focus on sales. They just focused on one thing - creating an audience. Harry's knew that if they could build that overnight audience then the sales and revenue would come. But they couldn't do that on their own. (This is where the growth loop comes in.)

Unlike a funnel which is input -> output. A growth loop reinvests your input to create another output. It goes Input -> Action -> Output -> Input (and it continues forever) - hence being called a "loop". Whereas a funnel requires you at the top. A growth loop works for you - once you get it started.

So how in the world did Harry's build an overnight audience through a growth loop?Honestly, much simpler than you'd think. Their process looked like this:

1. They created a two-page micro-site

2. They ran Facebook ads to drive traffic to the squeeze page

3. They collected emails and emails only (key point) on the squeeze page.

4. After someone submitted their email, they were re-directed to a referral page.

5. On the referral page was a gamified referral program

Which meant their growth loop looked something like this:

If you haven't cottoned on. Harry's essentially built a system where their audience would compound at a rapid pace. Their ads would push the input -> user sings -> user refers 3 people -> they sign -> they refer 3 people. You get the point.

And it really did allow them to grow an overnight audience. Just look at these results:

- 100k emails collected

- 65K referrals

- All in 1 week!Yes, 65,000 people came through referrals in 1 week! Meaning they were averaging around 3 referrals per user. Crazy!Now, I know what you're thinking: "Niall, this is just a standard referral programme".

You're honestly not wrong. But what you need to see is the genius behind it.

1. Choice to focus on audience"Build it and they will come" is the fattest lie anyone could tell you. It's just not the case. Harry's was very much aware of this and put all of their marketing strategy on building an audience first. A decision not many DTC brands make. 2. Pure focus on emails

There were so many other things Harry's could have tried to collect, but they didn't. Their landing page (see below) was so simple and had a clear objective - just collect emails.

3. They offered genuine incentives

We all love a freebie and that's the exact reason this growth loop worked so well. No one is inviting anyone to your product if you don't incentivise them enough.

All in all, it was a genius growth loop, put together magically.

Harry's literally came into a market where the market share is dominated by 2-3 major brands and built an audience that competes in 1 week.

Huge amounts of users. In a short amount of time. With little effort. What more could you want from a marketing strategy?

How To Implement It

Growth loops aren't new. But they are revolutionary to a business when implemented. If you look at the big platforms growing at a rapid speed organically, there's a good chance a growth loop is involved. Here are just a couple of examples of some of my favourite growth loops: - Linkedin

- Substack

But enough about other people, how can you do it?It all comes down to asking yourself one question: How can I incentivise users to market for us?

Here is a quick idea off the top of my head...Context: You run a water bottle companyGrowth loop: When someone buys a water bottle they get a piece of paper with a QR code and instructions on it. The instructions explain that if they take a selfie with them and a friend both holding their water bottles, then upload it to the QR code link - you'll send them a freebie. If they post the photo on both friends' Instagram you'll send them a bottle each.That way you'll have customers encouraging their friends to 1. Buy bottles to get the freebie. 2. Have a huge social presence from the posts.

You may not own a water bottle company, but if you do own a DTC or B2C brand then I'm 90% sure a growth loop will help you.So get a piece of paper out and write "How can I incentivise customers to market for us?" on it. Then stick that paper on your mirror and have a good long think about how you can do it!Want specific tips? Reply to this email - I promise I'll reply :)

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This has been a breakdown of Harry's marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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