💎 Hidden Gems for 10x Marketers

These are the marketing tools and tactics that blow my mind.

Author

Tom Snyder
December 19, 2024

Marketing is about attention and storytelling.

The fastest to be understood wins.

The most compelling story wins.

Every day you need to decide what you’re going to do:

Pick Up Rocks: This is easy and available. This is “playing it safe” by using checkbox marketing strategies like paid ads, e-book lead gen, company-centric social media. Those that choose this option get overlooked and don’t make the impact they want. 

Sure, it’s tempting. Stick with what you know – what’s worked before. Soon, everything turns into a nail for your specific hammer.

Dig for Hidden Gems: This option is dirty and sweaty. These are the creative strategies that you don’t know will work – the ones you have to take a risk on. Diamonds are out there but they’re buried. It takes digging to discover them, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll be where you’re digging.

This option is harder (both to pull off and to convince your stakeholders to let you execute), but it is so much more fun and rewarding. This is the option for those that want to become a 10x marketer.

advertisement

Podcast Guest Launch: Get Placed on Podcast

Want to grow your brand without the grind? Podcasts are the secret weapon for reaching thousands of engaged listeners. 

We developed a streamlined system to handle the legwork that gets you featured—fast. 

Just ask Creator and Angel Investor Brandon C White. 

In 2 months, we delivered:  

- 6+ Live Links
- 8+ more recorded and booked  

- 50,000+ listeners reached     

Imagine the impact podcasting could have for your business. Ready to get heard?

today's treasure trove

😬 The Uncomfortable Truth

We live in the “attention economy” – everyone is vying for attention, and there are many “gurus” offering bad advice for gaining it.

  • “Do these ten things every day for 30 days to gain one million followers”

  • “Follow this strategy that Uber used 15 years ago”

  • “Here’s how to pull off a promotional campaign like the Barbie movie”

The uncomfortable truth is that these either won’t work for the brands we’re building, won’t work anymore, or never actually worked.

🎯 That’s Exactly What I Aim to Fix

If you’re reading this – I know you’re looking to become (or already are) a 10x marketer.

You, my friend, are ready and willing to put in the work to dig for the hidden gems.

I’m Tom Snyder, and I write Marketer Gems, while I work as a marketer at a B2B SaaS company. 

I taught high school math for a couple of years, then jumped into the coffee business and ran my own coffee shop here in Austin, TX for a while. It was stressful but exhilarating – I bought a struggling coffee shop, fixed the business, rebranded and renamed it, then sold it for a successful exit. 

Then, I dove into the marketing industry because I absolutely loved creating new, interesting campaigns, content, stories, positioning, brands, products, and anything that wow-ed an audience. 

🗡️ This is my Quest

I’m here to help you Dig for Hidden Gems that will 10x your marketing – the ideas, analyses, apps, articles, podcasts, threads, whatever, that will create buzz and engage your audience. 

(and have fun while we’re at it 😉)

Let’s dig in ⛏️

♟️ Tactics & Campaigns for 10x Marketers

🧘 Branding and Positioning

  1. Have a clearly offensive, yet unashamed brand (Shinesty, Pit Viper)

  2. Be unabashedly obscene (Keyword Sh*tter)

  3. Position your brand as a worthy contender by taking shots at the big industry players (Punching Up, Posthog)

  4. Strategically buck the trends and stand out (Doing the Opposite)

  5. Don’t avoid controversy, create it (Manufactroversy)

  6. Manufacture a war between your brand and a competitor (Popeye’s vs Chick-Fil-A)

  7. Capture attention with nostalgia (Memelord.tech, Pit Viper)

  8. Be the first, the best, or the loudest in your industry

🌱 Product-Led Growth and User Activation

  1. Force product-led growth by keeping your platform from being white labeled (Gumroad, Passionfroot)

  2. Capture product-led growth by adding a “powered by” badge on your free/lower tiers (Softr)

  3. Gamify using your product

  4. Launch a template marketplace (Notion)

  5. Build or acquire free tools that complement your product (Answer the Public)

  6. Give users a way to use your product, even when they can’t use your product (T-Rex Runner)

  7. Host challenges for users to employ your product (Flutterflow, Build the Keyword)

  8. Activate your obsessed niche communities (Stanley)

🧑‍🎨 Advertising and Creative Campaigns

  1. Make your ads insanely self-aware (Oatly)

  2. Take your worst testimonials and use them for badvertising (Liquid Death)

  3. “Stop the stroll” with your product on retail shelves (Chaos Packaging)

  4. Hijack attention without official advertising or sponsorship (Pele’s Puma Deal)

  5. Interrupt a high energy moment by slowing everything down (Coinbase, Calm)

  6. Manufacture protests against your brand (Tucker Max)

  7. Launch a fake product on April Fool’s Day (Google)

🧪 Experiential and Guerilla Marketing

  1. Create experiential marketing campaigns that are wild (A24 Films)

  2. Create a beautiful, useful micro-site

  3. Hijack dating apps for your brand’s avatar or character (A24 Films, Deadpool) 

  4. Gamify the inbox (Feastables)

  5. Make your website a product demo in and of itself (Tailscan)

  6. Create a product usage visual (Github)

🦠 Viral Marketing and Storytelling

  1. Use data storytelling to generate virality (Spotify Wrapped)

  2. Publish a “State of the Industry” report using your own data (SamCart)

  3. Analyze a brand on your blog and get their attention (like so many of my Marketing Teardowns)

  4. “Leak” your emails so users feel like they got let in on a secret (Virgin Voyages)

  5. Make it seem like the whole internet is talking about your product (Thunderclap)

📣 Leveraging Communities and Advocates

  1. Become synonymous with a specific day or time (Owning a Holiday, Ocean Spray)

  2. Win #1 Product of the Day on a launch site like Product Hunt or Uneed (Marketer Gems)

  3. Be a badge collector by launching on as many launch websites as possible (Product Hunt, Uneed, CtrlAlt.cc) 

  4. Make your brand avatar obsessed with a celebrity (Duolingo)

  5. Create a brand character (Mailchimp, Reddit)

🕹️ Gamification and Engagement

  1. Build a micro-game your power users will love (Ramen.tools)

  2. Produce a “documentary” where your brand breaks the laws of physics (Hi-Tec)

  3. Launch something new to rekindle interest in something old (Oreo)

  4. Create a job board for your target market (Wiz)

  5. Give your customers a puzzle to solve related to your industry and a prize if they do

🤺 Competitive Edge and Market Disruption

  1. Capture your competition’s failures (McBroken)

  2. When your competitors zig, you zag (Apple, Liquid Death, Doing the Opposite)

🤖 Automation and AI

  1. Put robots to work for you (Programmatic SEO)

  2. Use AI for content, but tell readers you did (Pudding.cool)

  3. Create AI-driven product recommendations (Amazon)

🤝 Networking and Community Building

  1. Build and (at least partially) execute a Dream 100 List (Greg Isenberg)

  2. Encourage employee advocacy by providing ready-to-post content

  3. Host exclusive events for power users

  4. Launch a Slack or Discord community for your industry (Beehiiv)

  5. Publish an award ceremony of professionals in your niche

  6. Build a public leaderboard (ShipFast)

⚒️ Tools for 10x Marketers

🛬 Landing Page & Forms 

🎨 Graphic Design 

🛒 Directory/Marketplace 

🤓 Market Research 

✅ Productivity 

🤖 AI & Automation 

👶 Digital Adoption 

📈 Product Analytics 

📧 Email Marketing 

🔎 SEO 

📽️ Video 

🤳 Social Media Management 

🫨 Don’t Leave Yet

If you haven’t already subscribed – this is your sign. Join over 16,000 of the most ambitious marketers and get new tools and tactics in your inbox every Monday and Thursday.

If you have – who can you share this with?

Talk to you soon.

✌️,

Tom