I have been a fan of Prof. Scott Galloway ever since I discovered him and his works years ago. His words, both written and spoken, always seem to contain dollops of knowledge and wisdom in them. In fact, one of his interviews went viral a few months back, majorly because of how well he was able to read into and articulate the sh*tstorm at Twitter when Elon Musk took over.
This is why, when I received a scholarship to take up a course in his edtech company Section4, I immediately grabbed it. The course, called Viral Growth was a sprint-type one that lasted only a couple weeks. It focused on teaching the STEPPS concept, formulated by Wharton professor Jonah Berger.
If you’re wondering what the hell a STEPPS is, it’s basically a condensed marketing strategy that stands for a combination of: Social currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical value and Stories.
💸 Social currency — People want to feel like insiders. Infuse game mechanics and showcase your inner remarkability to catch people’s eyes
💣 Trigger — A brand that’s top of mind is tip of tongue
😊 Emotion — By embedding high-arousal moments in your customer journey, customers will be more likely to act by sharing the content or experience with others
📣 Public — If it's easy to see someone doing something, it's easy to imitate them
💡 Practical Value — Customers want to share helpful content. So, package your expertise or showcasing savings in your pricing
📚 Stories — Telling stories ensures that it stays in the customer’s mind for a long time to come. Making the customer the hero of the story makes it even more memorable!
Being a part of the marketing team at HackerRank, naturally my first instinct after completing the course was to introduce my teammates to the concept, and look at our company’s efforts through this new lens together. So, I did a workshop.
I paused for a few minutes to give my teammates a chance to gather their thoughts, and after we all wrote down and discussed our honest perspectives and grades we’d assign, it was time to answer the question, “So what?”
These recommendations require a lot of effort, time and resources, which just isn’t feasible. So, it was time to prioritise.
which led to some cool action items!
