Effective marketing strategies for growing your business in 2021

Executive overview

Most businesses try to build their own audience from scratch when they could be going where customers already are. Free and low-cost channels — marketplaces, tools, newsletters, YouTube — outperform hyped platforms like TikTok and Clubhouse.

Own your audience through email; everything else is rented. YouTube is the single biggest underutilised opportunity for most businesses.

Go where the customers already are — don't try to build the party from scratch.

Online marketplaces

• List products where buyers already congregate — another company has done the expensive acquisition work
• AppSumo Marketplace: books, courses, software for entrepreneurs; $1M+ paid out to sellers monthly
• Facebook Marketplace: no website or product needed to start testing demand
• OpenSea: largest NFT marketplace for digital creators and artists
• If no marketplace exists for your niche, consider building it

Tools and templates as customer acquisition

• Build a free or low-cost tool that solves a specific pain point; customers enter your ecosystem
• AppSumo examples: SendFox (email marketing), KingSumo (giveaways), TidyCal (scheduling) — each drives new AppSumo signups
• Thomas Frank gives away free Notion templates, capturing email addresses as the only opt-in
• Neville Medhora's product pricing calculator: answers "how much should I charge?" and gates the download behind an email
• Low-cost formats: Excel templates, Google Sheets, calculators — lightweight enough that customers actually use them

Weekly newsletters

• Email is the only channel you own — Instagram, Clubhouse, Facebook can remove your audience at any time
• 20–30% open rate and 5% click rate is achievable; size matters less than engagement
• Track active audience: subscribers who opened or clicked in the last 6 months
• Commit to one email per week for at least two years (the "law of 100")
• The Hustle and Morning Brew both sold for eight figures on the strength of their newsletters alone
• SendFox is free to start

Online events

• Events build network, customers, and partnerships simultaneously
• LinkedIn and Facebook let you invite an existing network to an event at no cost
• Partner with other creators or Shopify app developers: share registrations, cross-promote audiences
• South by Southwest moving online expanded access — online events remove the geographic barrier

YouTube

• YouTube brings you a potential audience for free, pays ad revenue as you scale, and hosts video at no cost
• One of the world's largest search engines; users increasingly search YouTube before Google
• Podcasting is nearly impossible to grow without an existing audience; blogging has declined; Instagram audience converts poorly
• Starting a channel is the highest-ROI marketing move for most businesses right now

Building deeper audience relationships

• Community: replicate the "regular customer" feeling at scale — Slack groups for intimacy, Facebook groups for reach
• Starting a WhatsApp or Slack group is easier than building custom software; custom platforms attract no one
• Circle.so works for private communities once you have traction
• Live streaming: weekly Q&As or office hours build connection without growing subscriber counts — focus is depth, not reach
• Streamyard is the simplest tool: bring on guests, share screens, stream to YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn simultaneously
• Find the format your audience actually wants (AMA, interviews, behind-the-scenes) by testing, not guessing

Overhyped platforms to avoid

• Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse: no access to your audience, weak audience connection, still early-stage as a marketing channel
• TikTok: optimised for time-wasting; large follower counts don't convert to customers; popular content formats (dances, viral skits) don't suit most brands
• Pick one primary channel — YouTube, email, podcast, or blogging — and build a quality audience there first