Monetize 💰

Notes on monetization, TikTok, and diversity and inclusion

Hi there! I share a weekly update on ways to be a better marketer, brand-maker, team-builder, and person. If you enjoy this, you can share some love by hitting the Substack heart button above or below. 

This week’s three links include a story from the Reforge team, which is about to kick off their new season of growth training programs. Are there any programs or workshops or classes you take to improve? I’d love to hear about them. My favorites are Reforge, Demand Curve (growth), and SuperHi (brand and visual design).

Have a great week,
Kevan

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❶

The awesome potential of monetization as a growth strategy

by Reforge

Summary:
The Reforge team, which holds some seriously good growth workshops (I’ve taken one before and can vouch for ‘em), put together this monetization blog post as a sneak peek of an upcoming Reforge workshop. The premise: Monetization and growth are not mutually exclusive. You should think of monetization as one of your growth levers.

In fact, monetization is even more powerful than the usual growth levers of acquisition and retention:

Here are three other takeaways that the Reforge team highlights:

1. Acquisition costs continue to increase due to limited channels, increased competition, and disappearing data tailwinds.

2. This means that Monetization will become a more important lever in our Growth Model. There is a false belief that Monetization comes at the expense of growth, this is incorrect.

3. There is a growth opportunity for teams that are willing to embrace the inherent challenges and put Monetization on an equal footing with Acquisition and Retention.

❷

TikTok for brands: This is how it works

by Ilyse Liffreing, AdAge

Summary:
The TikTok marketing blueprint becomes clearer every day. This AdAge blog post hits some highlights: hashtag challenges, original songs, the Creator Marketplace, and of course influencers, influencers, influencers.

jason wong @EggrolI

doe finally beat our previous daily revenue record and tripled january’s revenue numbers 6 months of figuring out the proper marketing stack we finally got it influencers on Tiktok, twitter and IG have been an absolute powerhouse we don’t even started spending on paid ads yet

❸

What happens to diversity and inclusion when you ask people to “assume good intent”

by Annalee, The Bias

Summary:
It seems like assuming good intent would always be a good thing, but this post points out the challenges with this rule and the implications on diversity and inclusion. The quote below is a good summary, but the full article is well worth a read, especially for the “step on your foot” metaphor.

The harm is that telling people to “assume good intent” is a sign that if they come to you with a concern, you will minimize their feelings, police their reactions, and question their perceptions. It tells marginalized people that you don’t see codes of conduct as tools to address systemic discrimination, but as tools to manage personal conflicts without taking power differences into account. Telling people to “assume good intent” sends a message about whose feelings you plan to center when an issue arises in your community.

(ht: Courtney)

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Thanks so much for reading. Have a great week!

— Kevan

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