Funding, Sales, eCommerce 💎
👋 Welcome!
In his latest newsletter, Stefan Palios provides us with a great overview of all-remote incubators and accelerators. The all-remote approach presents some benefits, which in-person do not. These include being able to meet more people from different backgrounds, easy scheduling and going “niche without losing scale opportunities.” Stefan lists a variety of different funds some are a year-long, others only three months, some are purely women-focused, while others are only for “Atlantic Canadian” entrepreneurs. A highlight is the Wells Fargo accelerator, which is looking for broad innovation. They are offering up to $1m in funding and require no board seat. Read the full thread or for a more in-depth review read the newsletter.
😺 Products of the Day
August 5th, 2020
🥇 Instagram Reels: A new way to create and discover short videos on Instagram.
🥈 Piqls: Video-marketing that works.
🥉 ReAim: Platform to make sending push-notifications easier.
🚀 Maker News
Online Sales Tips
Anthony Diké shares a thread with 20 great tips for selling online. My favourite is still to not overthink it, just launch and iterate as you go. If you don’t take action you will never learn what works and what doesn’t. Equally important is building that audience and community as people love buying from friends and those they trust. I totally agree with the importance of being authentic, as it builds and strengthens the trust between you and your customer. His final two tips build on this, thinking long-term and aiming to be useful. Because if you “consistently and authentically help people achieve their goals,” then “people will find ways to give you money.” Read the full thread.
Newsletter Welcome
After signing up to 50 newsletters, Janel shares her learnings on landing pages, past issues and welcome emails. Of particular interest to me are the differences in how writers welcome their new subscribers. These include:
For virality, some add social sharing buttons;
Some ask questions to start a conversation;
Others alert their audience when they will receive the newsletter;
Some point to their websites or social platforms;
Some share the best hits; and
But my absolute favourite is the Yue Jun, who shares an image of a handwritten postcard in his confirmation email. So personal, brilliant! Read the full thread.
eCommerce Growth
Web Smith shares some insights from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management that summarises the years ahead. Going forward, many people will not return to retail shopping after COVID-19 and eCommerce is set to continue its boom. This will create new opportunities not only for the big internet players but IMO also for new niche eCommerce startups and small retailers expanding there digital offering using Shopify and other NoCode platforms and tools. Never before have micro-entrepreneurs been able to launch and build products and services so quickly and at such low-cost.
💭 Afterthought
To finish the day, a tweet by Pomp that explains much around the current creator explosion. “People want to subscribe to people, not organizations.” So go build your product or services under “your own name and reputation”. The audience you build and nurture will trust you and your products. Take care and see you tomorrow!
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