Oct 2, 2024
This weeks newsletter includes
Background 📓
Nick had just gone through a tough breakup and had a lot of emotions to process. That’s when his relationship with journaling began. By writing a little bit each day, he quickly felt a sense of relief. Realizing others were likely going through similar experiences, he decided to build an app to help with the journey. Knownwell is an AI journaling app that offers daily insights, including messages of support and encouragement. After experimenting with various approaches, Nick found success with a text message slideshow format he saw online, which stoked drama and crafted an engaging narrative. The twist? He added wholesome endings to tie in the app’s value proposition, offering a positive, uplifting resolution to every story.
Strategy overview 📚
"I now understand the saying first time founders focus on product and second time founders focus on distribution. Everything is easier with users.”
He had finally built his dream app, but soon realized the toughest challenge was yet to come: acquiring users. His TikTok page shows the range of experiments and concepts he tried, none of which seemed to stick—until August 8, 2024. That’s when he launched a new format that skyrocketed to over 45K views, changing the course of his app’s growth. This is the story of how Nick Frankl created an AI journaling app called Knownwell and used a trending format to discover product-content-fit on TikTok.
Here are some of their most successful videos and how they did it 👇:
🎬 Toothbrush
438K+ Views, 5K+ Likes, 700+ Saves
Hook: “I think you left your toothbrush…..”
Format: text messages screenshots + app screenshot + slideshow
Why this video worked:
iMessages = credibility
People love drama
Naturally ties in app screenshot into the story
Story is cont. in the caption
🎬 Breaking no contact
104K+ Views, 2.7K+ Likes, 600+ Saves
Hook: “Hey sorry for breaking no contact but…”
Format: text messages screenshots + app screenshot + slideshow
Why this video worked:
Investable plot = couples breaking up
Sound matches mood of story
Introduces his app within the first 4 slides
Key Takeaways from this Content Strategy ⭐
Understanding his users pain points
He realized that it would make sense to experiments with trying to understand why type of users would use his app and the situation they would be in.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
There were a couple of other therapy apps that have found success with this strategy, he simply hopped on the trend and modified it to fit his niche.
It’s important to fail early on so you know what bad content looks like
You need to first try and create content so you have a baseline to compare too.
Drama sells
People love investing their time into drama and stories. He used that to his advantage to create an engaging ad.
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