Do you have a promising startup offering a unique product? No matter how great your product is, you might be having a hard time finding customers.
One of the biggest obstacles new startups face is acquiring customers. Even if you have some customers, it is essential to consistently acquire new customers. This is where growth engines like Demand Curve Growth Program come into the picture.
No one can blame you for being suspicious of growth engines. After all, most “growth engines” will rip you off by offering generic tips that do not work in real life. But is Demand Curve Growth any different?
If so, then how? That’s what we are going to find out. But first, here’s a TL;DR for our busy readers:
- The Demand Curve Growth Program covers multiple channels of marketing. So, it works best on people who have little to no experience in marketing.
- The content can be categorized into 4 main modules: growth strategy & roadmap, ad crafting & optimization, acquisition channels, and conversion.
- Throughout the course, Demand Curve will introduce various frameworks and business models, including eCommerce, B2B, B2C, SaaS, etc.
- Some sections of the program prioritize ad budget to boost reach. New startups usually lack the funds to allocate so much to ads. An increased focus on organic growth might be more useful.
- The Demand Curve Growth Program is ideal for startups looking to ramp up their growth marketing.
- Their Slack community has the absolute best people to hang out and they do offer a lot of free information on their Twitter & Julian’s website (highly recommend to check out – I am personally impressed with Julian’s mindset)
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Before moving on, if you are in DTC or Paid Social Marketing, then join 4000+ marketers and founders in this newsletter. It’s free, and you’ll learn the latest paid marketing tactics:
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Here’s the most important information for you – I asked a friend before buying this program:
Now that’ mentoring program is part of the course. And to check further, here’s the story of Marc and how they grew with Demand Curve (article):
👉 Try Demand Curve’s Growth Program’s First Lesson for Free
Btw, I am a growth marketer like you and I have a podcast about growth marketing.
What is Demand Curve?
Demand Curve is a growth-marketing training company. Julian Shapiro, Neal O’ Grady, and Justin Setzer co-founded this Y Combinator-backed company to help new startups acquire new customers.
Demand Curve has helped hundreds of companies improve their growth marketing. The co-founders have years of experience helping other companies grow.
They have led growth teams at big companies like Webflow and Grammarly. Moreover, they are partnered with one of Silicon Valley’s top growing marketing agencies, Bell Curve.
The Y Combinator backing is not something you should overlook. Statistics show that a typical startup has a success rate of 10%.
Meanwhile, startups that Y Combinators back have a success rate of 80%. So you can rest assured that you won’t be wasting your money or time by going with Demand Curve.
The Growth Program
The Demand Curve Growth Program aims to grow early-stage startups. Company founders and the first team of marketing hires are the ones who should go through the program.
The goal is to build up a solid foundation for the company’s growth.
Moreover, the course covers multiple channels of marketing. So, it works best on people who have little to no experience in marketing. People who have experience in multiple marketing channels are unlikely to learn anything new.
If you want to learn a specific channel of marketing, you are better off taking a specialized course. So before you jump the gun, let’s take a look at what the program offers. Then you can decide whether it is a good fit for your needs.
Content
The program covers a wide variety of topics. The full Growth course contains a total of 41 modules. These are:
- Growth Principles
- Growth Fundamentals
- Market and Customer Research
- Competitor Research
- Value Props
- Acquisition Strategy
- Onboarding Flow
- Landing Page
- Conversion Tracking
- Advanced Conversion Tracking
- Landing Page Design & Development
- A/B Tests
- Ad Copy
- Ad Creatives
- Ad Optimization
- Google Search Ads
- Google Display Ads
- Google Shopping Ads
- YouTube Ads
- Amazon Ads
- Facebook & Instagram Ads
- Quora Ads
- Pinterest Ads
- Snapchat Ads
- Linkedin Ads
- Apple Search Ads & App Store Optimization
- Bing Ads
- Twitter Ads
- Ad Networks
- Direct Sponsorship, Conferences & Offline Meetups
- Influencer Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Organic Instagram
- Cold Outreach
- Referrals
- Email Marketing & Marketing Automation
- Screen Recordings & Heatmaps
- Conversion Rate Optimization
- User Surveys
- Email Marketing
- Deals
Most modules come with additional resources after the primary reading. Instead of explaining each module separately, we can categorize these modules into four main categories. These categories give us an overview of what you will learn in the program.
- Growth Strategy & Roadmap: The first category consists of topics that will help you find the best growth strategy for your business. You will also learn how to develop a growth map to keep track of your progress. This will help you stay organized and adapt to unprecedented circumstances. Modules like Growth Principles, Onboard Flow, Landing Page, etc., fall under this category.
- Ad Crafting & Optimization: In this category, you will learn how to write and create creatives for your ads. Ads are an essential part of increasing your reach. The program will teach you how to craft suitable ads for your startup. Modules in this category include Ad Copy, Ad Creatives, Google Search Ads, Google Display Ads, Google Shopping Ads, YouTube Ads, etc.
- Acquisition Channels: This section will teach you about the different channels you can use to acquire new customers. You will also discover which of these methods are optimal for your business. Modules in this section include Acquisition, Email Marketing & Marketing Automation, and more.
- Conversion: The final category is meant to help you optimize your sales funnel. By fixing any “leak” and making your funnel more efficient, you will be able to consistently acquire more customers. Conversion Tracking, Cold Outreach, Conversion Rate Optimization, etc., fall under this category.
The course covers everything you need to get started to acquire customers. But the content is not limited to the topics I have talked about.
Besides these topics, the program will introduce you to various key frameworks and concepts. These will give you a better understanding of what growth marketing means. As a result, you will have ample opportunities to improve your leadership and managerial skills.
👉 Try Demand Curve’s Growth Program’s First Lesson for Free
Extra Benefits
Aside from the primary content, Demand Curve offers additional benefits that you can use by purchasing the program.
The first perk is access to their Slack community. The community has over 1,600 people who are working in growth and marketing startups. It is divided into various sections like acquisition channels, business models, etc.
Here, you can ask the community any question or start discussions on any topic. Having a reliable community allows you to expand your network.
Another benefit you get is discounts on an extensive list of tools that startups use. Demand Curve and Segment have a deal that gives Demand Curve users a 10% discount on Segment.
Besides that, there are discount offers on other marketing tools like Intercom, Hotjar, ActiveCampaign, etc., for a year.
The final perk is access to Demand Curve’s internal forum. The forum has many useful articles that can answer many of the questions you might have.
However, it is no longer very active and has been effectively replaced by the Slack community to start new discussions.
Mode of Delivery
The Growth Program is mostly text-based. Over 90% of the course is in writing. But there are some videos in some sections.
Every module in the program is divided into two parts. These are:
- Lectures: Topics are first discussed in a lecture format. The number of lectures in a module varies. The Content and SEO module has one of the highest numbers of modules in the course.
The lectures are typically very detailed. But you will not need any prior knowledge on the topic to understand them. They also contain images, links to other resources, and templates to help you get a better understanding of the topic. - Projects: While the lectures may seem lengthy, you will be spending most of your time on projects. The projects are a step-by-step guide that will teach you how to utilize the things you learn in the module.
Projects can range from setting up a new page for your company to trying a new approach to re-target a website visitor. These are the most important part of the program, and you should focus most of your efforts on mastering them.
In the guided, you have access to all the materials. So, you can finish the projects at your own pace and move on to the next, but you have someone from the team always guiding you.
If you have the full Growth Program, you will get access to an instructor from Demand Curve. After finishing a project, you will email your work to a specified email address.
This will open a conversation thread between you and your instructor. The instructor will review your work and leave comments within 3 business days.
Projects will usually require multiple revisions to finish. So, there will be a back-and-forth between you and your instructor until your project is satisfactory.
The lectures cover a wide range of topics. So, you will have to go through them in your spare time. The information you obtain from these lectures will greatly help you deal with projects and boost your marketing knowledge.
Pricing
The Startup Growth Program contains all the lectures, projects, and access to a Demand Curve instructor to guide you throughout the course.
The initial price of the program was $5,800. But Demand Curve has been offering a 50% discount on its course since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, you can get the full course for just $25,00!
The plan also comes with a 7-day return policy. So, you can get the course, check if it’s a good fit for you, and then return it if you decide it isn’t what your startup needs.
Demand Curve also offers a course which gives you access to all the lectures and projects but you don’t get the Demand Curve mentorship.
To get access to this course, you will have to directly email Demand Curve and negotiate the price with them.
Updated refund policy: If after 30 days you’ve done the work and haven’t been able to launch at least one channel, we’ll give you a full refund. No questions asked.
Demand Curve Growth : Review
The Demand Curve Growth is a well-structured course for any new startup. But it is, by no means, perfect. Here I will discuss my favorite parts of the course, as well as my criticisms.
Things I Loved
The best part is that actually works with you for a limited period of time to get you up and running if you are not sure about the channel (it’s like hand-holding – that’s huge)
There is a lot to love about Demand Curve’s Growth program. The first thing that I liked about them was the quality of the lectures. Very few courses out there can match the quality Demand Curve offers. You can feel the expertise of the people behind the lectures when reading them.
When you first look at the modules, you will notice that there is a lot of emphasis on ads. There are specific modules that focus on ads for a particular platform.
But when you go through the course, you will find that having an ad budget is not compulsory. Demand Curve will introduce various strategies that you can implement to increase your organic reach.
Throughout the course, Demand Curve will introduce various frameworks and business models. These include eCommerce, B2B, B2C, SaaS, etc. You will receive personalized advice regarding the use of these models. These will greatly boost your startup’s growth if you can implement them.
Having an instructor to guide you throughout the course is incredibly helpful. You can ask about any problem you face, and the instructor will help you out.
Moreover, the instructor ensures that you properly complete each project before moving on to the next one. This aspect of the course helps Demand Curve stand out from other similar courses.
Besides lectures, Demand Curve gives you various useful resources. These include documents for further reading, templates, checklists, and so on. These resources can save you a lot of time for building landing pages, crafting ad creatives, or setting up analytics.
Things That Could Get Better
The Startup Growth course is amazing, but it still has a few hiccups. Here are some things that I think Demand Curve can improve on:
- There is too much text in the lectures. Many of the sections will become easier to grasp if they use videos and audio. This is especially true for instructional sections like setting up analytics.
Demand Curve is already addressing a lot of these issues. They have added a bunch of new content over the past year. They are also using more media in their lecture. I really appreciate how they handle constructive criticism and work to improve their issues.
Update: Demand Curve has fixed its landing page. This looks much better offering now (positioning is really important).
How is it different from CXL Mini-Degree?
I asked their team, how is it different too – Here’s what they said:
We mostly focus on giving you the tactical knowledge necessary to revamp your funnel and open up some viable growth channels. It’s very project based and totally focused on performing growth work for your own business.
CXL are video courses produced by a bunch of different industry partners. Overall, their content is mostly silo’d into specific topics, and isn’t designed to cover the gamut of growth topics in a cohesive way, which we do. It’s also more theoretical and doesn’t focus on directly applicable topics, and doesn’t focus on projects. More designed for large companies to offer upskilling to their employees.
We’re generally best for earlier stage startups. Founders or first marketing hires are normally the people going through the program. They’ve got a product, have some traction, and just need to learn how to sell it. We teach them how to do that with tactical knowledge and projects.
Final Thoughts: Should You Buy It?
The Demand Curve Growth Program offers a complete course for any startup looking to ramp up its growth marketing. Their content is top-class, and you can get it at a reasonable price.
Moreover, Demand Curve is constantly looking to improve its course and offer a better experience to its students. All things considered, the Demand Curve Growth Program gets my seal of approval.
👉 Try Demand Curve’s Growth Program’s First Lesson for Free
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