The document presents three effective tactics for startups to engage initial customers and create grassroots marketing: making customers feel good, providing context rather than just content, and understanding cultural relevance on social media. By enhancing social currency, personalizing content for specific audiences, and communicating in a culturally attuned manner, startups can foster trust and encourage customer advocacy. Additionally, readers are offered a chance to receive free marketing advice to tackle their specific challenges.

1. RAINMAKING
101
3 ways to get your initial customers to
market on your behalf
A TribeTactics.com minibook

2. HELLO (!)
2
2. WHAT YOU WILL GET
1. Generate more conversations about your startup by
making them feel good.
2. Increase trust in your startup through intelligent
empathy.
3. Foster a community by seamlessly blending in the
environments where your customers are.
3. LAST THING: A LITTLE GIFT FOR YOU
After reading this minibook, email us at hello@tribetactics.
com with your biggest marketing challenge with your
business and receive your 2 free quick wins that your
startup can leverage right now.
On the house and compliments of the chef.
0. WELCOME TO THE minibook
We are going to show you how to grow your startup
brand effectively using 3 quick tactics that get your
customers marketing on your behalf. They take little
effort to execute but help you achieve maximum
results from your marketing efforts– results that have
bottom-line return.
1. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
People do not listen to influencers and digital
advertising half as much as they listen to their friends
who are like them. The 3 tactics shared here will help
propel your content in a solid grassroots fashion,
making sure it resonates with people on an individual
level, so they are motivated and inspired to share it
with the people they care about.

3. CONTENTS
∎ Part 1: MAKE ME LOOK GOOD
∎ Part 2: GIVE ME CONTEXT NOT CONTENT
∎ Part 3: BE MORE CULTURED ON SOCIAL
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4. MAKE ME
LOOK GOOD
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5. Make me look good.
“What will this say about me?” is the subconscious thought someone
has when they are deciding whether to share your product or piece of content
onwards to their circles.
Social Currency is one of the biggest motivations that people have to talk about or
share something.
Social Currency is anything that makes the person feel important or look good. Think
insider information, invite-only events and products, or just genuine new information.
When we create something that makes the very act of sharing it makes the customer
look good, they have a much better drive to pass it on.
People love sharing stuff that makes them look good.
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6. Make me look good.
Successful brands find opportunities to make someone feel like a pioneer, a receiver
of something exclusive, or someone who has original and authentic taste.
To get started, think of how you can add Social Currency to:
∎ Your Packaging
∎ Your Distribution Strategy
∎ Your Tone on Social Media
∎ Your UX
∎ Your Email Communication
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7. A PICTURE IS
WORTH A
THOUSAND
WORDS
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8. Make me look good.
As a marketers, we have control over the customer
experience journey, and can map out all the things that
a customer touches.
To get more people talking about your brand, Every time we create something new,
stop and ask yourself: how am I going to communicate and frame this in a way that
makes the person who receives it feel important and look good?
When you do that frequently enough, you will find yourself getting into the habit of
identifying novel areas where you can innovate and capture your customer’s interest
so much they just have to tell a friend.
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9. GIVE ME CONTEXT
NOT CONTENT
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10. GIVE ME CONTEXT
NOT CONTENT
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11. Give me context not content
It’s 2016.
And customers have seen all sorts of original content at this stage. At TribeTactics, we
believe a successful startup today needs to be more competitive to keep a healthy
level of inbound traffic flowing.
If you really wanted to you can search up quality content on just about just about any
topic. Similarly, your customers are not coming to your website or social media to
consume content which they can get similar to elsewhere. They want street.
Context, is the new smoking. Because it provides your customers with content
personal to their particular circumstances, and is situation-specific.
This means that buyer personas are more important than ever, and what stage of their
buyer journey they are at. If you like, we can advise you on this.
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12. Give me context not content
By focusing on context, your content and communication stands out to your intended
tribe. They will feel that you are not only addressing topics that are important to
them, but also speaking in terms of contexts and situations familiar to them.
When you practice this, it assures your customers that you are on the same page,
allowing them to perceive you as relevant and even entertaining - by putting a FRESH
and original context spin on content they might have seen in the past.
Furthermore:
empathy,
REALLY SELLS
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13. Give me context not content
The primary purpose of your communication is to inspire, educate and convert. A
context-writing approach saves you time, and allows you to focus on being personal
and entertaining. We recommend you choose this over going through hefty research
to produce a piece of “original” content.
You can leverage, cite, and partner with existing content providers already out there,
and then dee-jay the content by adding context to it.
Some examples of a fresh context twist:
∎ Familiar content expressed through a different format [quick vine tips?]
∎ Leveraging Current Events [Hubspot wrote a great piece on this]
∎ Play the devil’s advocate [what if offline customer acquisition is cheaper?]
∎ Re-imagining content in terms of another industry
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14. BE MORE
CULTURED ON
SOCIAL
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15. Be more cultured on Social
When first building a tribe for your startup, your main vehicle of communication to
foster desire for what you sell is the sum of all the pieces of content, how you said it,
and how culturally relevant it is to whatever device and platform they saw it on. Social
etiquette.
TribeTactics Definition
Brand Personality =
(What you Shared + How you Said it) x Culture Fit
What You Shared: Buyer Persona-relevant Content
How You Said it: Content Format and Context
Culture fit: Platform-relevant, device-relevant, time-relevant Language and Style
Another word for culture fit is how NATIVE you can be on different platforms
(Vaynerchuk, 2013). Aesthetically but more importantly, linguistically.
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16. Be more cultured on Social
When your social etiquette is resonant and in sync with how your customers naturally
speak online, they begin to notice and develop affinity towards your brand and what
you sell. Social etiquette is how you communicate this while being mindful of the
place you’re in. Not necessarily polite, just mindful.
For example, the same customer can be on different places online, but in different
headspaces. You can use those as opportunities to be hyper-relevant.
Think of each customer as a well-traveled, cultured
person. Every time they travel to a new city
(platform) they are able to fit into the culture, and
speak the language.
What’s your tribe’s culture? How are you attuned to it?
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17. Bring the attention of your
audience over a key concept
using icons or illustrations
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18. Be more cultured on Social
Take LinkedIn as an example. When your customer is there, they are focused on
growing their professional influence, getting more endorsements, and more profile
views. Perhaps even a better job. What kind of content can we create that will help
them get more of their desired goals?
Speaking the language is often more important than speaking the topic as discussed
earlier on context. When you frame your communication with respect to different
cultures on different Your customers and their respective circles will notice.
They are more likely to mention you more because your personality is expressed in a
culture-friendly manner that feels natural and relevant to them and their friends.
Observe how your customers speak online. How they choose their intended
audiences and where they post to reach them. With this in mind, you can make
better-informed decisions about what kind of content to post and where, and most
importantly, how to say it such that you are speaking their language.
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19. LET’S REVIEW
Make me look good
Design product, content, and
experiences that make the
beholder feel important and
look good so they’re motivated
to share it.
Give me context not content
Adopt a context-first approach
to stay effective. Become
sensitive to situation-specific
problems your customers
need you for and deliver.
Be more cultured on social
Notice how your particular
market speaks. Use the same
words they use, and think the
same way they do to develop
trust on the path to building
your tribe.
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20. YOU JUST READ YOUR
FIRST minibook!
our office
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WHO ARE WE?
TribeTactics is a marketing agency for European
startups focused on growth. The startups we
helped grew in brand awareness and product
sales.
Our content, growth kits, and services help you
do 3 things:
● Find the customers that most need you
● Enchant and sell to them
● Inspire them to tell their friends
We will write more whenever inspiration strikes so stay tuned!

21. GIFTWhat’s your biggest marketing
challenge right now?
Get your 2 FREE quick wins tailored for your case.
You can email us at hello@tribetactics.com
We look forward to hearing from you!
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