What You'll Learn Today

In 5 minutes, you'll be learning about the following:

1. When AI Goes Wrong: The $1 Chevrolet Tahoe Incident
2. 9 Must-Have Email Examples for the Fashion & Apparel Industry
3. ​Buying 10 Companies, Making 8-Figures with Boring Businesses, & More with Fikes CEO, Mark Sims [PODCAST]​
4. AI-Assisted Car Shopping & Buying
5. Elevate Product Search and Discovery with AI

What did everyone enjoy last week?

The most clicked link was ... 11 AI Tools We're Using to Grow Our Clients & Our Own Brands​

Cheers,

Jim Huffman, GrowthHit CEO
​(Want a friend? Let's connect on Twitter or LinkedIn)

WHAT IS YOUR NEXT BIG IDEA? ​
​3 Startups to Inspire Your Own

1/ Everyday Dose - It's Coffee. But Better.​

The Takeaway: This product blends coffee with mushrooms and collagen, delivering steady energy without the crash. It’s a smarter, functional drink tapping into the rapidly growing wellness trend.

2/ Clare: Online Paint Store​

The Takeaway: A smart idea, Clare simplifies paint shopping with an online-only model, offering curated colors and peel-and-stick samples to avoid overwhelming trips to the hardware store.

3/ Lily AI: Elevate Product Search and Discovery with AI​

The Takeaway: Enhances product search by tagging items with emotional context, helping retailers improve recommendations and drive conversions through personalized shopping experiences. This is the future of personalized retail.

THE GROWTH MARKETING OPERATING SYSTEM

​​Announcing "The Growth Marketing Operating System" [PRE-ORDER]

Remember "The Growth Marketer’s Playbook" from 6 years ago?

It sold 1000s of copies and even topped Seth Godin on Amazon for 72 hours.

Well, I've learned a lot since then. The real barrier to growth is not ideas or tactics.

It's a lack of systems.

Most efforts are scatter-shot, wasting time and money without direction.

Realizing this, I've created The Growth Marketing Operating System.

This is a program with resources, frameworks, and tutorials to build a solid growth system.

Exciting news: It launches this fall at $450, but I'm offering a special pre-order for $149 to the first 150 supporters.

Ready to leave behind the hit-or-miss approach and boost your growth?

​Pre-order now and secure your copy at this exclusive price.

HOW TO GROW YOUR STARTUP ​
​2 Growth Tips to Scale Your Biz

Here are the growth tactics, hacks, and stunts to help you grow your startup:

​1/ When AI Goes Wrong: The $1 Chevrolet Tahoe Incident​

In a widely publicized incident, a Chevrolet dealership’s AI chatbot mistakenly offered a Chevrolet Tahoe for $1 due to a prompt exploitation.

A user cleverly manipulated the chatbot into confirming the $1 deal, which quickly gained traction online, causing a major PR crisis for the dealership.

The story underscores the limitations of AI in complex decision-making environments, as the chatbot was not equipped to detect or correct this error.

Key takeaways:

1. AI needs strong guardrails: Robust safeguards are necessary to prevent exploitation.
2. Human oversight is essential: AI systems should have monitoring to catch such errors before they escalate.
3. Fine-tuning AI models: Smaller, more specialized models with controlled outputs can reduce the risk of such mishaps.
4. Content filtering: Applying filters to detect unreasonable or harmful responses can help avoid serious incidents.

Oh, and the guy didn't actually get the car for $1.

Read more here​

2/ 9 Must-Have Email Examples for the Fashion & Apparel Industry​

As the fashion and apparel industry continues to grow, email marketing is becoming increasingly important for online retailers.

Below are two impactful email marketing examples from top apparel brands that can help turn readers into loyal customers courtesy of Drip.

These strategies provide actionable insights to boost engagement and conversions, ensuring your brand stands out in a competitive market.

1/ Reduce Cart Abandonment

Beardbrand, a men’s grooming brand, effectively addresses this with a recovery email sent after a cart is abandoned.

The first email is this - no surprises here:

However, what's unexpected is the second email you get a few days later, from the founder himself, Eric

2/Encourage Buyer Engagement

Email marketing success relies on engagement—getting subscribers to open, click, and interact with your content.

Charlotte Tilbury exemplifies this by sending personalized, timely emails even before you abandon your cart.

After browsing without purchasing, you receive a compelling, relevant email designed to re-engage you with clear calls-to-action.

The takeaway? Encourage frequent interaction with your emails to boost engagement, improve deliverability, and keep your brand top of mind.

Check out 8 more examples here - LINK​

TOOL OF THE WEEK: ​
​AI-Assisted Car Shopping & Buying​

What's the Magic of Car Shopping with CoPilot?

• Never miss out on the best car
• Never overpay
• Never get taken advantage of

PODCAST: IF I WAS STARTING TODAY

​Buying 10 Companies, Making 8-Figures with Boring Businesses, & More with Fikes CEO, Mark Sims​

In this episode Jim talks with Mark Sims, founder and CEO of Fikes. Mark talks about the beauty of boring businesses, the strategy for acquisition and how to utilize your superpowers to grow a startup.
​
​TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

• The advantages of acquisition
• Telling and selling vs asking and understanding
• The beauty of boring businesses
• Leaning into your super power
• Mistakes to avoid
• The essential skillset from sports
• Milestones of a growing company

Would you like to be featured on my podcast? Email me at newsletter@growthhit.com​

BUILD IN PUBLIC​
​NEAT BUILD IN PUBLIC - RECAP!

We acquired Neat, the sweat-proof apparel brand, in September 2023, and it's been a whirlwind ever since!

​Here's a speedy scoop ​

September 2023

• ​Big News: We snagged Neat Apparel ​

October 2023

• ​Growth Magic: Unveiling My Hack for Neat's growth ​
• ​Influencer Oops: My not-so-shiny moment ​
• ​Growth Secret: Neat's No-Brainer Offer ​

November 2023

• ​Sale Scoop: Neat's Black Friday & Cyber Monday wins ​
• ​Sneaky Peeks: Neat's fresh look & feel, from products to cart​
• ​Why Neat?: All about the IP intrigue ​

December 2023

• ​Do Ugly Ads Work? You tell us ​
• ​90 Days Since Acquiring NEAT: Here’s What We’ve Learned​
• ​How Do You Make Good UGC Ads? (Examples from Neat) ​

January 2024

• ​Flew 2,856 miles for the ultimate photo shoot, ended up spilling coffee on our model.​
• ​Will This Sweat-Proof Shirt Ad Convert? (Let's see )​

February 2024

• ​The Ad That Could Change Everything for Neat’s Clothing ​
• ​Oops, We Ran Out! The NEAT (Accidental) Marketing Magic of Low Inventory ​

March 2024

• ​The 5 Pillars of Growth: A Sneak Peek at Neat™’s Growth Plan ​
• ​Paid Search: Can We Optimize Neat’s Google Ads for Success? ​

April 2024

• ​We Did It! The All-New Neat’s Website is Here (and It’s Awesome!) ​

May 2024

• ​Neat hits 4 figures in one day!​
• ​Neat is running out of stock (again). Preorder or Waitlist?​

June 2024:

• ​The $153 Mistake vs. the $24 Miracle: What We Learned About Paid Ads​
• ​Crushing it : 3.64 ROAS for Neat (Last 7 days)​
• ​Zero to Sold Out: How We Aced Our Core Shirt Launch!​
• ​How we took Neat’s conversion rate from 0.6% to 3.4%​

July 2024:

• ​Neat Reveals: The Email Welcome Flow for 50% Repeat Purchases​
• ​What color shirt do you want​
• ​Head-to-Head: A Preview of Neat’s Social Media Ads​
• ​Investing in the Right Move: A Recipe for 10X Growth​

August 2024:

• ​Neat Sweatproof Shirts: Gone But Not Forgotten​
• ​Pre-Order Test: From $100 to $1000 – Scaling for Success​
• ​Neat Feat: Our New Ad is a Total Knockout​
• ​Email Pop-up Showdown: Discount vs. Scarcity​

September 2024:

• ​Test, Test, Test: The Key to Ad Success​

What's new this week

​

Jim Huffman @JimWHuffman 💡 $22 billion. That’s how much is expected to be spent during Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. The question is: what’s your plan to capture those dollars? We all know this is the peak season of demand—but more importantly, how are you leveraging it for long-term… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1833822884344602886 4:0 AM • Sep 11, 2024 0 Retweets 0 Likes

​

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(Need help growing with paid ads? Hit us up at @growthhit )

Want more updates on how we're growing Neat?

A BONUS FOR YOU ​
​Something Fun . . .

Top Growth Tools & Resources​
​Tools and Resources

Here are some tools we find helpful:

• Best Testing Tool - Convert​
• Best Ad Creative Tool - Ad Creative AI​
• Best Email Marketing Tool - Ripple AI​
• Best Growth System - GrowthMarketingOS​
• Best Copywriting Tool - Smartwriter.ai​
• Best Cold Email Outreach Tool - Smartlead​
• Best CRM Tool - PipeDrive​
• Best Communication Tool - Slack​
• Best Project Management Tool - Asana​

LOOKING FOR MORE?​
​How Can I Help?

• My Agency - GrowthHit​
• One Off Task: Growth Task​
• My Operating System: GrowthMarketingOS​
• Podcast - If I Was Starting Today​
• My Book: The Growth Marketer's Playbook​