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🧠 The Growth Loop Meta Can’t Give You
A marketing flywheel that compounds results without over-relying on Meta.
Kody Nordquist
March 27, 2025
Welcome back to the 84th edition of Nord Media
Before we get started, I wanted to ask each of you two take a few brief minutes to help me learn a little more about each of you as well as help shape the future of Nord Media. Here are three very brief surveys that will help ensure that I’m able to deliver the most value to all of you and meet your needs in learning. Please help me by taking these ❤️
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Relying on Meta Ads alone is like powering a city with one generator.
When it’s working, everything runs smoothly. But the second it falters, whether from a storm, low fuel, or burnout, the whole system goes dark.
This is the risk of building your growth engine on paid media alone. You’re not building equity. You’re renting attention. And every time CPMs spike or creatives fatigue, your growth stalls.
I’m not saying don’t run ads. Just don’t depend on them.
Brands built for long-term growth still run Meta, but they’ve built engines that work from multiple directions.
Engines that keep going even when Meta goes cold.
So, in today’s newsletter, I’m breaking down how to build this EXACT flywheel for your brand so that you can lower CAC, increase retention, and grow sustainably without over-relying on paid ads.
Let’s dive in.
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The Marketing Flywheel
The idea is simple:
Instead of renting all your reach through paid ads, you build a system where every channel feeds the next.
Here’s how the loop works:
1. SEO brings in high-intent traffic
People search. You show up.
Organic traffic becomes the entry point, not an ad.
And it compounds over time.
2. Email turns visitors into owned audiences
You capture emails early with pop-ups, lead magnets, quizzes, and whatever fits the funnel.
Now you’ve got a direct line that doesn’t cost you a dime to re-engage.
3. Community + content builds trust
Social, UGC, Discord, Slack, Substack, whatever format fits your brand.
This is where you deepen the relationship and get repeat exposure without paying again.
It also fuels more SEO and email opt-ins.
4. PR amplifies the story
Press, influencer collabs, and partnerships build credibility and bring new eyeballs into the loop.
Not just for vanity but because it drives long-tail awareness and backlinks.
Together, they create a loop:
SEO feeds email
Email feeds community
Community fuels content and retention
PR supercharges reach
And the whole thing makes paid ads more efficient, not essential.
How to Build It
1. Start with value-driven content.
Create blog posts, videos, or guides that answer the questions your customers are already Googling.
This is how you start building SEO momentum. Not overnight, but steadily.
The goal isn’t to go viral. It’s to get found.
2. Capture emails early and often.
Once someone lands on your site, don’t let them leave without a way to follow up.
Use smart pop-ups, quizzes, gated content, etc, to grab emails.
This is how you shift from paid reach to owned reach.
3. Nurture with emails that actually deliver value.
Your welcome flow, post-purchase flow, and ongoing campaigns should build trust and drive revenue.
This is your retention engine.
Every email is a reminder of why your brand exists and why they should come back.
4. Build a community (even if it’s small).
Whether it’s a Slack group, an active comment section, or a consistent newsletter.
You need a place where people interact with your brand (and with each other) outside of the buy button.
This creates brand stickiness. It fuels content. And it helps your reach grow organically.
5. Pitch your story to the world.
PR isn’t just for tech launches or celebrity brands.
Have something newsworthy, like customer stories, founder journey, or product innovation.
Find ways to share it. Press, partnerships, and influencer shoutouts build trust and expand reach beyond ads.
When done right, this loop becomes a flywheel:
SEO brings the traffic.
Email captures and converts.
Community and content retain.
PR amplifies.
And paid ads make it all go faster.
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Closing Thoughts
Paid ads are a great accelerator, but they shouldn’t be the foundation your entire business depends on.
By building a system that captures attention, earns trust, and keeps people coming back, you create a marketing engine that gets more efficient over time.
It won’t happen overnight, but if you build it right, you’ll spend less to acquire customers, retain more customers, and stay steady even when paid performance dips.
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