Welcome to a new issue of Zero to Marketing.

Every month I pick a new startup and write a short case study explaining exactly how I’d grow it.

Let's dive in.
Revv describes itself as a search engine for stocks which in my opinion doesn’t do justice to what the product actually does.

When you search for a stock on Revv you receive a beginner-friendly analysis of all the most important elements to consider before investing in it.

A better description might be: “An AI engine that analyzes stocks in real-time and helps you make informed investment decisions”.
This is just a small part of what you see when you search for a stock
When I opened their site without any context I didn’t immediately realize I had to perform a search to see the product in action.

Instead I tried to scroll down the page but there was nothing to scroll. 
 
Although it was obvious in hindsight I think making it even clearer for first-time visitors with no context could definitely help.
I love that they have an ungated free demo on the homepage but instead of saying “Introducing the world's best search engine for stock” they might say “Try searching for the name of a stock to see how the product works”
It’s interesting how they chose to position this as a consumer app rather than a financial tool for professionals.

This is reflected in their pricing model which to be honest I find a bit confusing.

It seems like the product is freemium because I can already search stocks for free. So what’s the $0 plan for? Is that a free trial? But then it becomes $5/month? And what’s the difference between that and the $19/month plan?  

I’d definitely simplify all of that.
I’d structure the pricing page as a comparison between the free version and the premium $19/month plan making sure to clearly explain the real difference between the two
It’s a product for consumers but for a well-defined group. I think the biggest growth opportunity here would be getting it into the hands of people who already have an audience they’ve built trust with. 
 
I’d seed the product to YouTubers, podcasters, bloggers, and anyone with access to Revv’s ideal customer profile.  

For smaller creators I’d propose gifting them a free account for one year while larger ones would need to be compensated.  

To incentivize both small and large influencers to keep talking about Revv beyond the campaign they could also consider creating an affiliate program with a generous commission.
There’s no shortage of creators talking about this topic but the real challenge will be selecting those with real influence and engaged audiences by analyzing their profiles in depth one by one
The key to capturing consumer attention through these partnerships will be the sponsored content these creators produce.  

I’d spend time researching different platforms to see which content angles resonate the most.  

Providing creators with these insights will give them an edge in creating winning content while still allowing them the creative freedom they need.
For example just searching for a simple term like “best stocks” I found a couple of content angles that performed well and could easily be replicated with plenty of opportunities to mention Revv
I see that they’re starting to experiment with this and I’ve been able to track down an example they did with a popular newsletter.

The ad itself is pretty good but… it looks and feels like a sponsor. A lot of people will just open the email and skip it to scroll down to the main content.

What I suggest is that the product itself should be part of the main content.  

For example an author could write a newsletter issue about the 10 best-performing stocks of Q1 in their portfolio. Then they could mention how they discovered a standout performer using this new tool called Revv.
A blend of content and ad that feels organic ensures people don’t develop that banner blindness effect where they consciously or unconsciously ignore anything that’s sponsored
This is one of the rare cases where I wouldn’t recommend making search a priority.

The reason is because it’s an incredibly competitive niche with very few bottom of the funnel opportunities.

They could create content around more top of the funnel topics but going through the difficult process of ranking for a few low-converting terms isn’t something I’d focus on initially.

I would only create a few landing pages targeting high-intent commercial terms like “AI analysis stock platform”.
When even long tail keywords are dominated by popular sites with domain authority in the 80–90 range it’s probably not a game worth playing especially when just starting out
When people discover a new product and consider buying it the first thing they do is google the product name to see what others think about it.

Revv might face a strange problem here.

There’s a car rental company in India also called Revv that has terrible reviews.  

So when someone googles the brand name they’ll see all those one-star ratings and might not immediately realize it’s for a different company.
Revv’s priority should be creating a listing on popular sites like Trustpilot and encouraging existing customers to leave reviews to protect their brand
I was thinking about a free tool they could build to attract new users and one idea might be a real-time investing game with a virtual leaderboard.

This way people could use insights from the free version of the product to see how their choices would perform without risking real money.

Adding gamification with a leaderboard and making it easy to invite friends to play and compete would make the experience more fun and more importantly spark word of mouth.

This would help players develop the habit of using the product for their analysis leading to a higher chance of converting to paid users over time.
Other products are already doing this but that shouldn’t discourage Revv because it proves it’s a good idea that users enjoy
However word of mouth works when you already have customers and to get those first users they need to manually do things that don’t scale.

I’d start by using the product’s social media accounts to engage with potential customers:

- Identify products their target audience might use (e.g., a trading platform like Robinhood)  
- Browse through their content and find people who engage with it 
- Open individual profiles and leave thoughtful comments on related content

Many people out of curiosity will check out Revv’s profile and some might decide to give it a try.
The best part of this tactic is that it’s highly targeted because you can simply click on a profile and instantly see if they fit your target audience
That's it for today.

See you next month with a new case study.

Andrea
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