How Notion Does Marketing: A Deep-Dive Into its Community, Influencers & Growth Playbooks

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses Notion's marketing strategy, focusing on three key areas: community, influencer marketing, and growth marketing. It provides insights from leaders in each of these areas, including Ben Lang (former Head of Community), Lexie Barnhorn (Head of Social and Influencer Marketing), and Rachel Hepworth (CMO and former Head of Growth & Enterprise Marketing).

🙋 Q&A

[01] Take a Risk on Community

1. What were the key initiatives that the Notion community team focused on in the early days?

• The community team launched an ambassador program to identify and empower top Notion users with large followings to spread the word about the product.
• They also built out a template gallery, allowing the community to contribute and share their own Notion templates, which helped onboard new users.

2. What are some common mistakes that startups make when trying to build a community?

• Expecting short-term success and tying community efforts to unrealistic metrics from the beginning.
• Spending too much time on finding the perfect tools and platforms for the community, rather than just getting started.
• Hiring the wrong community lead who lacks passion for the product and the necessary scrappiness.

[02] Embrace Influencer Marketing

1. Why does Notion's influencer marketing strategy sit separately from the social media and content teams?

• Influencer marketing requires a different approach than traditional brand marketing, as it involves handing over messaging to external creators rather than fully controlling the narrative.
• Placing influencer marketing in the middle, rather than under social or content, allows it to contribute to multiple marketing efforts in a cross-functional way.

2. What are the key steps in Lexie Barnhorn's influencer marketing playbook?

• Identify the right influencer personas and audience fit.
• Set up a CRM system to track the outreach, negotiation, and campaign management process.
• Be prepared to negotiate fair deals with influencers.
• Automate repetitive tasks to free up time for relationship building.
• Tie influencer campaigns back to business metrics using UTM links and tracking.

[03] Further into the Funnel: How to Operationalize for Sticky Customers

1. How does Notion differentiate between brand marketing and performance marketing within the organization?

• The brand team focuses on top-of-funnel awareness and community-driven initiatives, while the marketing team is more revenue-focused on areas like product marketing, growth, and demand generation.
• This division allows each team to apply the right level of control and metrics-driven approach for their respective responsibilities.

2. What are some of the key strategies Rachel Hepworth's growth team uses to convert and retain paying customers?

• Focus on an "activation" metric that measures the conversion of free users to paying customers, rather than just top-of-funnel signups.
• Identify leading indicators of user activation, such as specific user behaviors, and optimize for quick feedback loops.
• Use segmentation to tailor the onboarding experience and messaging for different user personas and job functions.
• Regularly evaluate the team's priorities and be willing to shift focus and resources away from less impactful initiatives.