win entire communities - the node strategy

👋 Hi! Welcome to the Proof Studio newsletter.

Nothing grows revenue like actually knowing your customer.

Every week, I send you tactical advice on figuring out what your customers actually want, so you can build it and sell more of it.

Fundamentally, every consumer brand is wrestling with the same question:

Acquiring customers one by one gets expensive after you tap out early adopter audiences (e.g., paid ads). Organic content and creator partnerships work, but they’re hard to truly forecast.

So today, I want to talk about the concept of finding your nodes, who can propel you straight into premium customer communities and teach you a ton about your users. As a brand, you can also offer value (ideas at the end) and create a unique, mutually beneficial relationship.

What is a node?

I’m borrowing this term from botany. A node is the point on a plant stem where new growth (like leaves, branches, roots) spring from. It’s packed with stem cells and acts as a growth hub.

Analogously, a node is an authority figure that a whole community already trusts on the exact problem you solve. Often they’re professionals who are complementary to you and offer a valuable service to your exact ICP.

Every consumer category has them:

The salon haircare industry has this playbook down pat. The OG brands like Wella and now modern brands like Kerastase and Oribe all partner with hair pros in their own salons. Not because those pros have huge followings (some do, most don't), but because a hairstylist is who real people believe about hair. When your stylist hands you a product in context, that recommendation carries more weight than any well-placed ad.

Plus, a skilled stylist can make your product perform at its absolute best (vs a consumer trying to figure it out alone). Their client sees the fullest expression of what your product can do, and that's what sells it. A node who really believes in you can be a bridge to hundreds of sticky users.

Why working with nodes is so valuable

Nodes (1) bring you into their community and (2) teach you a ton about it.

Let’s follow the haircare thread and say you’re the CMO of a haircare brand and you’ve partnered with a stylist. The stylist doesn’t just help you reach more people. They’re essentially a big package of customer research that you should dig into.

Nodes are data aggregators, whether they know it or not. A good hairstylist has diagnostic conversations every single day with the customers that you want.

They’ve seen thousands of hair journeys and pain points. They know what different types of clients are excited or embarrassed by. They know which products are miracles and which ones suck. And they know the exact words that customers use to describe their needs.

One pro stylist holds the distilled wisdom of THOUSANDS of customers (and can also eliminate the noise).

They can also help you figure out where other nodes hang out, if you ask questions like:

How you can be helpful to nodes

As a brand, you actually have a ton to offer the right nodes. I’ve worked with tons of nodes (board certified doctors, nutritionists, coaches) while building in consumer health and they were all looking for different things that I could offer.

Things you can help them do:

After you learn about their individual motivations, you can assemble the right structure. The structure of working with a node is not one-size-fits-all, but I can tell you that it should NOT be a pay-per-post situation. You really can’t buy a node transactionally because they have a professional reputation at stake.

Structurally, you can think about:

Start by figuring out who your customer already trusts on this problem that you’re solving, and then go make yourself valuable to that person.

These kinds of relationships are the most fun. Optimize for the long-term!

Lorel