Edward Sturm isn’t a programmer. But when it comes to marketing - and that’s what he does - he thinks like one.
Programmers naturally look for the shortcuts - the automations. Edward Sturm does, too.
Edward calls himself a “nerd marketer” and has grown a following of other nerd marketers in the last year - 100,000 of them - mainly on TikTok and Instagram.
As it turns out, there are many more “nerd marketers” out there than you’d think. He’s followed by famous entrepreneurs, CMOs, Heads of Marketing, and even plain old celebrities - all interested in nerd marketing.
And this following, as well as an obsession with optimization, has been enough to get him invited to intimate events with Ray Dalio and David Solomon, meetings with the founder of Duolingo, the private art collection at J.P. Morgan Chase, and to top creator summits.
What Is Nerd Marketing?
Here are the lines from Edward’s video about the psychology of pink clothing.
“I probably shouldn’t share this since people I know watch and know I wear pink all the time, but this is the reason I do it.
In the 1980s, psychologists painted jail cells with this specific shade of pink. It’s called “Drunk Tank Pink.” And found that prisoners were more calm as a result.
Then, football coaches began painting their visitor locker rooms with the same shade of pink to pacify their opponents.
So I got a bunch of t-shirts and button-downs in this color and found it makes people more likely to feel good around me and more likely to say yes. And that’s why I wear pink.”
He has another piece about how to get on podcasts as a guest - sharing shortcuts he used to go on 30 podcasts in 3 months without cold emailing. “I initially thought about cold emailing different shows but speculated there had to be a more efficient way… and there is!”
And then there’s this with 6 million views collectively where he shares content automation. Whenever he makes a TikTok, it comes out simultaneously - with no TikTok watermark - to every platform - Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and the list goes on.
While he has many more - this one may be his “most nerdy.” He found a media buying glitch allowing him to get millions of impressions and thousands of link clicks for a dollar-a-day ad spend. He calls it “The TwitterX Ads Glitch” and shares how to do it on his podcast for free or with a 20-minute video demonstration on TikTok Series.
For Somebody Who Talks So Much About Shortcuts, It Seems He Takes the Longcut
Edward Sturm puts out:
- A daily growth hacking podcast.
- 1-4 daily growth hacking videos.
- A weekly growth hacking newsletter.
I asked him about this. This was his response:
“The ultimate shortcut is the longcut.”
Then he told me to look up Mike Bloomberg. Really. Edward wrote a piece about his top TikTok lessons from posting without missing a day for a year straight. At the end of this piece, he shares this Bloomberg quote:
“Life, I’ve found, works the following way:
Daily, you’re presented with many small and surprising opportunities. Sometimes you seize one that takes you to the top. Most, though, if valuable at all, take you only a little way.
To succeed, you must string together many small incremental advances rather than count on hitting the lottery jackpot once.
Trusting great luck is a strategy not likely to work for most people.
As a practical matter, constantly:
-Enhance your skills;
-Put in as many hours as possible and;
-Make tactical plans for the next few steps.
Then, based on what actually occurs, look one more move ahead and adjust the plan.”
This article about top TikTok lessons, by the way, was originally his weekly newsletter. Why is this important? Because he then repurposed it into the previously mentioned article and a post on r/entrepreneur, which got hundreds of thousands of views. He asked if I could note this as he thinks it's a good example of nerd marketing.
Who Is Edward Sturm?
A look at Edward’s LinkedIn made answering this easy.
He was an early viral video producer on YouTube. Got into search engine optimization, doing it for companies like Microsoft, Time Inc., and P&G, and has 3 software companies.
I watched one of his early YouTube videos. Fake Celebrity Pranks NYC. His friend Brett Cohen, who’s now “Executive Director, Production and Partner Experience at Forbes” walked through Times Square with fake bodyguards and paparazzi - and fooled everybody into thinking he was an A-list celebrity. Clever.
Where Will Edward Take “Nerd Marketing?”
Here’s what I think given what he’s said on his podcast and what he’s told me.
Edward has this page with recommendations for the software he uses. He also talks extensively about bottom-of-funnel SEO, especially how it applies to software.
I think we’ll see Edward turn his brand into a hub to recommend his own software products and do it in a way that’s at the bottom of the purchasing funnel. Why? Software acquisition multiples are far higher than service multiples. Software companies are also comparatively easy to operate and scale.
Edward didn’t say this on the phone - he mostly said he wants to be Gary Vee if Gary Vee gave “hyper-specific step-by-step go-to-market instructions instead of mindset,” but I think this is a more concrete outcome.
My Takeaways So Far
Here are my takeaways so far from talking to Edward and looking at his content:
Repurpose content everywhere.
Double down on repurposing well-performing content and sharing it every several months. In the age of short attention spans and fleeting memories, good content is “evergreen.”
Automate as much as possible.
Don’t rely on expensive paid channels.
Optimize an inbound funnel.
Look for shortcuts, but the best shortcut is the longcut.