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  • Customer choice and choosing the right words....The Growth Letter by Tim Cakir - Issue #56

Customer choice and choosing the right words....The Growth Letter by Tim Cakir - Issue #56

Hi friends,

With just a month and a half to go until the end of the year, it feels like time for one final push before the Christmas season begins.

I’ve already started thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, and I started wondering, should you wait for the fresh start of a new year to build new habits? Or is it better to start now, today, regardless of the date on the calendar?

Let me know which camp you’re in.

This article begins by explaining how a change of headline wording led to 10x conversions, and goes on to give you a 4-step process for finding “language - market fit.”

Put simply - use your customers’ words!

After more than a decade of running B2B growth teams at PayPal and investing at 500 Startups, Matt Lerner now spends his days helping early-stage startups with growth. He’s seen firsthand how changes in a handful of words can yield jaw-dropping differences in conversion — and accelerate a startup’s course to product/market fit. Here, he makes the case for starting with language/market fit first, and offers up his 4-step process for getting there.

Next up, some fascinating takeaways about Netflix’s choice engine.

  • Netflix’s goal is to help users find something to watch ASAP

  • They use AI to curate individual recommendations/collections with catchy headings

  • Trailers are tailored based on viewing history

  • Netflix wants to maximise “happiness per dollar spent” and looks for titles that provide the biggest viewership relative to their cost.

Netflix’s landing page is full of choice architecture tools – plausible paths, smart defaults, and carefully curated descriptions. But it doesn’t do all of the work itself. The platform takes cues from you, too, to serve up the content you crave.

Iceland’s tourism board did a great job of parodying Mark Zuckerberg and the Meta announcement. I had a laugh watching this, and it’s a good reminder that no VR or software will ever compare to getting outdoors in nature!

I recently added “Visit Iceland” to my bucket list, so maybe I should book that trip soon!

Move over SNL. This viral parody from the “Icelandverse” explains why travel is better without “silly VR headsets.”

Tool of the Week

It’s not the first time I’ve mentioned Best Self journals, but Becky and I have ordered a bunch and her parents will be bringing them over when they come to visit this week.

There’s really no other journal that compares to Best Self for daily organization, productivity and mindfulness. Unfortunately it’s now a struggle to get hold of these products as they don’t ship to Europe.

Buy the top productivity tools you need to succeed. Self Journal goal setting system and productivity planner, conversation starters, relationship tools, date night ideas and more.