How We Unexpectedly Got
60,000 Users in 60 Hours
(And other ways to get users
without spending money)

A talk by Patrick Ambron
CEO of BrandYourself

A few cool things you’ll learn
• How to find anyone’s email
• How to pitch the press the first time
• How to help articles go “viral”
• Other ways to show lots of people your cool start up

BrandYourself started as a problem, that turned
into an idea, that turned into a mission

The Problem: Pete Kistler, a co-founder, was a
model student, but couldn‘t get an internship.
3.9 GPA
Successful entrepreneur
Leader on campus
Founder of multiple clubs
Several relevant internships

He was being mistaken online for
an ex-con with the same name

He couldn’t change it, because he wasn’t:
This Guy This Guy
or
A tech genius who could A high net worth individual
do it himself who could pay thousands for
a reputation firm to do it

So we made it our mission:
To help anyone get some control over their search
results with a simple and free do-it-yourself platform.

(check it out at http://brandyourself.com)

Where we started
• Had the idea in 2010 from a dorm room at SU
• No marketing budget, no resources, no clue
Where we are Now:
• 9 full-time employees
• Over 150,000 customers
• $1.5 million in funding
• Named #1 Emerging Business in NYS ($200k prize), top
app at SXSW

How did we get from A to B?

It started with a lot of building…

And rebuilding

and more rebuilding...

Until finally…

…we were ready for Launch!

Growth was pretty good right out of the gate…

but then…

…we hit a tipping point
60k users in 60 hours

So what happened?

On May 1 we announced a feature that
(accidentally) went a little viral

First, Mashable picked it up

It brought more traffic than we thought:
(not all Mashable articles are created equal)
An article trending on the front page for 2 days gets way
more traffic than a normal article

Once the story was “hot” other places picked it up

All these new users began sharing BrandYourself,
which compounded growth even more

Signups from direct sources and direct
Google searches sky-rocketed

Finally, all the new users created a
huge long tail effect
We signed up over 10,000 people from sources
that signed up less than 200 people each.

Some sent us users through their
own BrandYourself profiles

Others wrote personal blog posts

So What Did We Learn
(that might help you)?

1. Pitch the right publication

Once you choose, it’s time to

2. Pitch one feature at a time
(make sure it’s the one people care about)

Bad Pitch: Here’s a list of ten technical features you
won’t really understand. Will you write about it?
Good Pitch: We have a new feature that helps you do
something amazing that no one else can help you do.

3. Focus the story on specific

Bad Pitch: I just stayed up all night releasing this.
You should write about it
Good Pitch: Millions of people — like my friend
Jim — could never learn to speak Spanish. With
this new product he was fluent in two weeks!

Bonus: How to find a writer’s contact info
• Look for any connection possible (LinkedIn, alumni network)
• If you can’t find a connection, here are some tricks…

Find the company’s email schema
(firstname@company.com lastname@company.com)
• See if you know anyone else who works at the company
• Google
– [name] + email (or) email address
– [name] + contact (or) contact information (or) contact me
– site:companywebsite.com + [name] + email
– site:companywebsite.com + [name] + contact
– site:companywebsite.com + ken.lyons [at] companyname.com
• Contact them via LinkedIn first (you can’t contact them on LinkedIn
unless you have the correct email, so try each schema until it goes
through)

Great, now you have their
email?
What do you say when you
contact them?

Cold email: first time story
Hi xxx,
My name is Patrick, I'm a big fan of your work, and have been for while. I'm emailing you today about my
company, BrandYourself.com to see if you see any fit for a story on xxx.
To give you a quick background: We’re the first DIY platform that makes it easy for anyone to take control of
their own search results. We started the company when my co-founder Pete couldn't get an internship
because he was being mistaken for a drug dealer. We wanted to create a free product that put the power in
everybody’s hands. We’ve been able to launch, put together a great team with a great group of investors
(link)
While growth has been great (link to an article), I’ve always wanted to see an article on xxx.
Particularly because I think a two articles you wrote a few years ago did an amazing job summarizing the
industry. As a long time reader myself I think this is something readers would really enjoy.
I know you’re busy so just let me know if you have any interest.

Future emails: (Write the story for them)
Hi xxx,
Hope you had a good weekend! I just wanted to let you know we’re releasing an infographic you might be interested in. I think
it’s right in line with your content.
"How Will Google Remember this year's top Olympic Athletes"
Basically every year, new stars emerge, and they are surrounded by a lot of chatter. Once the games end and the chatter
dies, Google becomes their post Olympic legacy, and unfortunately it's not always in their favor. We looked at the 3 most
talked about athletes to determine what their post Google legacy will be (basically what people will find about them in
10 years). Michael Phelps "the Icon", Ryan Lochte "the rival" and Gabby Douglas "the newbie"
Some of our conclusions (I think each one could make an interesting headline):
–Michael Phelps will be forever remembered in Google as a legend, and not as a lazy stoner
–Lochte will be forever remembered in Google as the frat boy idiot who could never beat Phelps, and not as an
incredible 11 time olympic medalist
–Unfortunately, all the petty controversy around Gabby Douglas's hair will forever tarnish the memory of her historic
victory in Google.
Let me know if you're interested or if you want to jump on a quick call. Infographic is attached. If you have any questions, just
let me know.

4. Focus on your sign up flow

Ideal Home Page

Pretty good home page (thank you)

Really good home page

Obviously really bad homepage

Not as obvious bad homepage

5. Know where your product can be
viral (even if it isn’t a social network)
People will always share an interesting experience

People like to brag about

People want to do what
their friends do

Other companies that work
• DropBox: Invite a friend you both get free space
• Skype: Invite a friend and you both get to talk to
each other for free

6. Have a great product
“The quickest way to kill a bad product is good advertising”

Ok, but how do I have a

Solve a problem
VS.

1 billion
names are Googled every day
75%
of HR departments are required
to research candidates online

The Problem:
Most people are not represented by well-
branded content about themselves:
Nega%ve Irrelevant Hey,
that’s
not
me!

Solve a specific problem

We Were:
“Put your best foot forward on the web”:
• Manage your entire online reputation
• Own your Google results
• Track your digital breadcrumbs
• Create effective social media profiles
• Get more fans and followers
• Figure out how to blog
• Automate your social media outreach
• Manage your online privacy

Screenshot of our old website

Now, we’re this:
Own Your Google Results

Other things that have worked for us

1. Create content people
want to read and share

Share it in relevant places

Bonus Hack: How to
keep an article trending
•Article get’s published
•Promote it on StumbleUpon (cheap, fast way to get it in front
of even more people to get more likes, tweets, etc.)
•The more interaction, the longer it trends
•The longer it trends, the more traffic

2. Biz dev deals
• Get big companies with complimentary services to send traffic your way
• Start with a test: “Let’s test it in your newsletter before we try anything”
• Hit their social media/blogging team: They are always looking for good
content, free way to get in front of all their customers

3. Customer Service:
(the most underrated marketing channel
This is how you create passionate users who tell their
friends about you

Answer the phone
315 565 1799
Seriously, call us…

Send Personable Emails
We have an intern send jib jabs to new paying members to let
them know “they rock”
http://www.jibjab.com/view/VoemwvBIAQBdmHFC?utm_campaign=URL
+Copy&utm_medium=Share&utm_source=JibJab&cmpid=jj_url

Hold weekly Webinars
There’s no better way to scale personal demos

Meet your users in person whenever you can

Do something special every once in a while
I flew out and delivered homemade cookies and a trophy to our 10K user

By Patrick Ambron
CEO & Co-Founder, BrandYourself
@patrickambron
pambron@brandyourself.com