Claude and I got high on growth loops

Happy Monday, people. Congrats… while the rest of us are still in the bathroom trying to brush the regret off our teeth, here you are, coffee in hand, ready to go.

Truth is… I’m still in bed. I scheduled this email last night. I’m wrecked… spent the whole weekend with Claude getting high on growth loops.

What is this growth loop you speak of?

Growth loops unlock growth. They're self-reinforcing cycles where your product's output becomes its input for acquiring or retaining users.

1. User interacts with your product

2. This action creates value

3. That value attracts or retains more users

4. Rinse and repeat and soon you’re surfing in a tux on the 4th of July.

Classic example: Pinterest. You pin something pretty, it shows up in Google searches, new users find it and sign up, then start pinning their own stuff.

Or Dropbox's "give space, get space" referral program. User action incentivized.

Growth loops are oh, so trendy, but also oh so helpful in understanding how an audience or customer base grows.

And I should care because…?

Here at Spontaneous Content, we care a LOT about audience. We know that audience is an asset that you can cash flow and leverage… an asset that compounds in value. But not unless you can grow it.

Enter growth loops. If you are trying to grow your audience, you have to be thinking about growth loops all the time.

Every piece of content you craft, every post you publish, every strategy you draw up, you should be stopping to consider growth loops.

I think about them in three categories.

1. Platform loops: These are engineered by the platform to grow your audience. Think YouTube's recommendation algorithm, LinkedIn's "your network posted this" notifications, or TikTok’s stitch feature.

2. Engagement loops: This is where you incentivize your audience to take action. It could be as simple as asking for likes and comments, or as complex as user-generated content campaigns.

3. Content loops: These are loops baked into the content itself. Cliffhangers, multi-part series, AMAs, viewer quests, contests Mr. Beast style, etc. This is where how you design your content impacts your growth.

Whether you're a solo creator or a Fortune 500 company, these principles are critical to your audience growth. So loop it up!

Now here’s where it gets really interesting…

Growth loops are a bit like the shell at the bottom of the bowl of raw egg. You see them clear as day, but every time you try to put your finger on them, they move.

No surprise that everyone’s looking for growth loop examples to help them brainstorm.

And so that’s where my wild weekend began. I saddled up old Claude, laid out some parameters, and got to work building a growth loop brainstorming engine.

I was actually pretty impressed at what we got done. 278 unique growth loops. Web, social, IRL, across different industries.

I slapped the results into a handy google sheet and… oy, Not so handy. Some of the ideas were pretty ingenious, but who is ever going to click through each of these and read them? It’s not practical.

So back to the saddle. Claude and I developed a simple, searchable website. BOOOOMMMMM.

Now, anyone can quickly find relevant growth loops for their specific needs.

Here… check it out.

We categorized the growth loops by industry, platform, growth stage, and strategy. This approach allows users to find loops relevant to their specific situation.

• Industry helps you narrow down your search or, better yet, see what works in other industries.

• Platform focus ensures you're using strategies optimized for your primary channels.

• Growth stage classification (new audience, big audience, or new launch from big audience) tailors loops to where you’re at.

• The strategy description helps you tailor loops to what you’re trying to achieve.

This is all about brainstorming. It's a simple tool to help you break out of your usual thought patterns and kickstart creative problem-solving.

But there’s more to this story

If you checked it out, you probably noticed the website looks... let's say "rudimentary."

And yes, it's hosted on a free Netlify drop site.

But seriously… I know absolutely nothing about coding. Seriously, nothing. I can’t even upload files to a file server without crashing my site.

Yet, with Claude holding my hand (ew), we went from concept to launch in about 3 hours. That includes defining parameters, generating all 278 growth loops and building the website from scratch.

Here’s a loom of how we did it.

The lesson here is simple. Content creation is changing because of generative ai.

This change means:

• more content

• faster content, and

• multi-modal content.

Is there going to be a lot of noise? Yeah. But there is also incredible opportunity to use the new tools we have to deliver more value (which is the whole point of content).

I set out to discuss growth loops. I found examples, and good reference articles. I could have written a pithy newsletter, and you might have read it and hopefully gotten something out of it. Then we’d both go about our day.

But with Claude's help, I created something entirely different. Something multi-modal. Something interactive. A tool you can actually use and experiment with yourself.

Time to macro-dose the future

If content is changing, that also means growth loops are going to be changing, right?

While we were in the thick of it, I asked Claude for examples of some growth loops for the kind of content we can make now that we’re have Generative AI.

It didn’t get it… it gave me a bunch of very practical loops for what we can do now with AI.

So I said, "I want you to imagine growth loops that take advantage of the capabilities of advanced AI systems that don't exist yet. These should be wildly futuristic and a bit out there."

And let me tell you, the results weren’t frame breaking, they were mind bending.

Now read this…

In honor of our loop fueled visit to the future, I’m closing out with a few resources you should check out. These are newsletters, podcasts, etc that do a great job of thinking about how Generative AI is translating to real world applications:

Shelly Palmer has been out in front on AI from the beginning, from a consumer, marketing, and business perspective

AI Solopreneur brings the heat with a ton of value, a systematic approach, and an accessible style.

Marketing Against the Grain is a marketing podcast, but these two CMOs are doing the best job PERIOD at exploring the applications of Gen AI and the future we’re building with it.

The Rundown AI is quick, frequent, and gets a ton of interesting links you don’t see other places.

Gary Marcus is a total sourpuss, but he’s the conscience of AI and he’s going to be saying “I told you so” when we’re all slaving away in the rare earth metal mines for our synthetic overlords.

That’s all for now. Until next time…

Be Spontaneous, ae

☯️