Meta’s infamous CEO and Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was recently interviewed by Joe Rogan — the highly-criticized host of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. It was as cringe-y and awkward as it sounds. Although I’m not sure why we haven’t canceled them yet (given the half-ass apology about spreading misguided COVID information or the problematic content moderation strategy), you gotta admit — these guys know a thing or two about growth marketing.
At the end of the day, Zuckerberg has grown a mega tech company and has greatly influenced the growth marketing tech industry today. In fact, he makes the rules — so as growth marketers, we can learn how to tackle growth marketing strategy from Zuckerberg himself, through his interviews.
The biggest takeaway for growth marketers from Mark Zuckerberg’s Joe Rogan Experience appearance was his use of market research and how he aligns his overall strategy. Skip Zuckerberg’s boring Jiu Jitsu talk — I listened to it so you don’t have to 🥲 — and dive into the do’s and don’ts of his growth marketing strategy.
Do: Align your product strategy with your growth marketing strategy
During the interview, Zuckerberg talks about the upcoming Meta project — a new VR headset known as “Project Cambria”.
Zuckerberg conducted and incorporated extensive research on how people use his technology so that he can best optimize the overall product outcome. In other words, he aligns his product strategy with his growth marketing strategy.
In the interview, he talks about the science behind the brain. He explains (or tries his best to) the way a user’s brain will process their physical movements with what they are visually seeing with the new VR device. And because of this, his team built the technology with minimal distractions in the VR world, so that users can easily process what is happening in their digital environment.
He’s also thought of all the ways his user may use the technology — such as hosting business meetings in a virtual reality environment, talking in the virtual environment, interacting with other people digitally, etc. And as such, his team built functionality to support each use case.
Don’t: Jump too far ahead of yourself
You can tell that he really understands the way his users interact with his product. His science-focused mindset shows when he speaks to Joe Rogan. What his growth marketing strategy lacks is the connection to — and understanding — of the current audience.
In the interview, he talks about the technology he’s building — he even insinuates that most homes will have VR systems instead of TVs within the next 5 years, which seems extremely fast. Zuckerberg fails to meet the public where they are currently at. And while VR is certainly growing — 14 million VR devices were sold in 2019 and the number is rising YoY — most homes in the US don’t have VR devices today.
“The number of VR users in the US is 57.4 million while the number of AR users is 90.9 million.”
Listen to your users and growth will follow
When you listen to your users and give them what they want, growth will follow. Having extensive market research and data to drive your decisions will help you guide your growth marketing strategy.
For example, Meta knows its tech-savvy community and is relying on early adopters. Because of this, it hosts a yearly virtual reality conference as part of its growth marketing strategy to discuss the latest in VR and metaverse tech. They also use the opportunity to unveil its major technological releases, like Project Cambria. This year, Meta Connect is happening on October 11, 2022.
You can watch a clip of the interview here
Or, you can listen to the full interview here