The story behind “if Spotify playlist was a cold email” pt.2
All the insights and numbers, so you can analyse yourself what happened.
Agenda
My thoughts on why the post went viral.
“Spotify playlist” becoming a LinkedIn trend.
How I built a network of amazing people (CEOs, VPs, Heads of Departments) that I’ve been targeting for a long time.
I`m no Shakespeare, but I’ll try my best to be as clear in my thoughts as possible here.
Let's go
My Thoughts On Why It Went Viral
I didn’t chase viral nor did I want to start a LinkedIn trend.
I just wanted to create a funny cold email playlist and share it with people in my network.
Imho, chasing a viral or wanting to start a trend is like going for a knockout in boxing.
Rarely ends the way you want it to be.
You’re better off sticking to the game plan and constantly jabbing.
Occasionally, you'll land some haymakers.
Two main reasons why I think my post took off.
It combines things that normally don’t work together.
Cold emails/Outbound sales - we all know how difficult it is.
Music - we just can’t live without it. Plus, a lot of us enjoy creating playlists.
The weirder the combo, the more curious we are on: “how does it all work together?”
Here's an example:
I send cold emails on a daily basis.
I’ve been waiting for a new Kendrick album to drop.
I love all of Dave Chappelle’s specials.
Now you tell me I can throw them all in one basket and somehow create something out of it? Yoo, sign me in! I want to see where it goes.
2. There’s a household brand name behind it - Spotify
Boosting smth using other brands has proven to be very beneficial.
Imho, Spotify's brand extension on cold emails enhanced the exposure of my post.
It also introduced me to a new audience without me having to create it in the first place.
It’s like me throwing a party and inviting a couple of my friends.
When all of a sudden the invitation somehow leaks on a Fb group of our University and hundreds of people end up crashing the party.
Don’t underestimate the power of the network effects.
It also gave me some social proof.
Imo, you gave me more credit than I deserve just because of it.
Also, there these more obvious reasons:
Authentic
True
Creative
Easy to consume
Funny
What’s authentic usually isn’t polished and is imperfect. We all have our own imperfections.
That’s what makes us who we are and that’s why we tend to enjoy authenticity.
Creating playlists is something that I’ve been doing for years.
I`m not a Michael Jordan of outbound sales. I've written some cringy cold emails in my life 😀
I love to have a good laugh.
Also, most of us can smell marketing efforts when we see them.
Those little things that give us insight that’s something off: UTM links, same message across different platforms, etc.
My post didn't have any of those. Just a few #hashtags.
Marketing efforts push us away, unless, done really well. Here's a great example of social media game at its best:
Spotify Playlist Becoming A Trend
From the mentions and hashtags I’ve seen, there are at least 100+ different playlists with a business twist on them.
A lot of people and companies joined the party.
There were the ones who just shared my playlist:
and 2k+ more people. Thank you all for that 🙏🏻
But, what blew my mind is how many people created their own playlists.
I genuinely think that most of them did their own playlists because they wanted to have a laugh with their network.
And their playlists were way funnier than mine 😀
Here are some of those playlists that I loved the most:
Companies joined the party as well:
I know I missed some great playlists here. But the list is already really long.
Drop in the comments your favorite ones that I missed 🙏🏻
Building a great network
This is the craziest thing that happened.
I went from 2,6k to 6,5k followers in one week.
Half of the people who sent connection requests/comments/DMs were those to whom I ideally want to speak when doing cold outreach.
They fit the ICP perfectly.
Think about this: who understands the pain of sending or being on the receiving end of cold emails? Or at least, who understands what cold email is?
It’s people who:
a. send those cold emails (SDRs, BDRs, AEs, Recruiters, etc)
b. receive them (CXOs, VPs, Heads of the team, Managers, etc)
Just with one move, I got their attention.
It’s not like, I was knocking on their doors (well, at least in this situation).
Network effects did their job and the best thing happened: someone introduced me to them 🙏🏻
It had me cracking up for at least 2 days after my post went viral.
I go through 5+ years of spending 6-8 hours a day trying to get their attention.
And just with one post, I got the attention of those people. They were really open to exchanging messages with me.
Literally, some uno reverse stuff 😀
So, the main lesson that I`m able to take from here:
People, in general, don’t have a problem giving attention to something where they can learn new things or become better after reading/listening to it.
There’s just so much stuff that is meh.
We just have to genuinely try our best to bring actionable and new learnings to them.
If we’re able to deliver it - the results will come. Just don’t chase the outcomes. Control the inputs.
Thanks for reading 🙏🏻
Drop your thoughts on why this thing took off and became a trend.
Btw, every two weeks, I’ll be posting here some of my prospecting frameworks and cold email copies.
If you feel like it will be helpful to you too, please subscribe.
Yurii
Great work, will create one myself as well! 🚀🙌
Nice one, trendsetter!