Direct mail still works if you avoid common mistakes

Julian ShapiroContributorShare on TwitterJulian Shapiro is the founder of BellCurve.com, the growth marketing team that trains startups in advanced growth, helps you hire senior growth marketers, and finds you vetted growth agencies. He also writes at Julian.com.More posts by this contributor

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We've aggregated many of the world's best growth marketers into one community. Twice a month, we ask them to share their most effective growth tactics, and we compile them into this Growth Report.

This is how you stay up-to-date on growth marketing tactics - with advice that's hard to find elsewhere.

Our community consists of 1,000 startup founders and VP's of growth from later-stage companies. We have 400 YC founders, plus senior marketers from companies including Medium, Docker, Invision, Intuit, Pinterest, Discord, Webflow, Lambda School, Perfect Keto, Typeform, Modern Fertility, Segment, Udemy, Puma, Cameo and Ritual .

You can participate in our community by joining Demand Curve's marketing webinars, Slack group, or marketing training program.

Without further ado, onto our community's advice.

Advertising in Discord/Telegram communities

Insights from Varun Mathure of Midnite

Discord/Telegram can be a great place to find engaged, niche communities for advertising. However, do not treat it like a typical ad channel. Community marketing is its own art, and there are many principles to doing it effectively. Here are just a few:

• Treat Discord/Telegram users like you would Reddit users: they'll reject being advertised to unless there's legitimate, authentic value being provided.
• Work with moderators to offer services that make their moderation duties easier. Perhaps a bot or tool that would be legitimately useful to the community while also organically pitching your startup.
• Have a well-respected community member vouch for you - it goes a long way toward building trust with the rest of the community. Always start by building relationships.
• Have a member of your team active in the community. Don't just advertise; contribute regularly.
• Run promos/incentives that encourage members to post your product screenshots or share your product output in the community. In other words, incentivize a frictionless way for community members to become your brand ambassadors.

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Most common direct mail mistakes