Hey from NYC! 

Happy Sunday. I hope you had an excellent and productive first week of December.

I called 10 friends on Friday to let them in on a huge secret: it happened to be the best day of the year. 

I started with an incredible workout at The Fort on the UES and made a new friend. KV closed two really exciting creator deals for beehiiv (insane talent). I surprised my friend Rachel at work (she’s a vintage reseller who did $125K in handbag sales on TikTok Live in October), went to a solo movie (perfect nap time), and grabbed dinner with my friend Natalie.

And while many days I get so into building (my company KV, my clients' work, my life), on Friday, life flowed incredibly well. 

But Q4 is a sprint.

Finish strong, plan for next year, and get your growth engine aligned for January.

So consider this your strategic reset. Your 2026 checklist. The stats and growth levers top companies are doubling down on right now to drive efficient, high-volume growth.

If you haven’t forwarded this to your C-suite yet, you’re already behind.

Here’s the list: 

  1. # of “owned awareness surfaces” you maintain

  2. # of team LinkedIn posts

  3. # of creators (big + mid-tier partners you invest in)

  4. # of UGC creators

  5. % of traffic/leads coming from “answer engines” and AI surfaces (SGE, chat search, AI overviews)

  6. # of social commerce and live-selling experiments run per quarter (TikTok Shop, IG Live, link-in-bio digital products)

  7. # of existing customer upsell or expansion offers shipped per quarter

  8. Expansion revenue from existing customers as a % of total new revenue (NRR / upsell-driven growth)

  9. % of ad creative variations generated or iterated by AI (vs fully hand-crafted)

Hitting revenue and pipeline targets with budget discipline, short payback periods, and clear CAC-to-LTV economics is at the top of C‑suite agendas.

This list will go beyond that and help you think about different areas you can build, own, and scale.

Now, let’s look at 1-9 in a funnel-shaped order: top-of-funnel → mid-funnel → conversion → retention/expansion → efficiency/scale (AI + creative).

Top of Funnel: Awareness + Distribution

  1. # of owned awareness surfaces you maintain

    1. What it is: 

      1. Channels you directly own + control where your brand shows up consistently

      2. Examples: Website, newsletter, socials, online communities, company podcast, recurring content series

    2. Why you should care:

      1. This is one of the highest leverage and growth levers you can build over time. Owned surfaces drive attention, leads, and credibility as they compound.

      2. ​​More high-quality owned surfaces = more predictable attention, easier demand capture, and less dependence on paid or rented channels like creators. This compounds into lower acquisition costs, stronger brand equity, and a larger pipeline.

    3. How to build it: 

      1. Start with 1–2 surfaces where your ICP already hangs out (e.g. LinkedIn + email)

      2. Add complementary surfaces quarterly: templates, webinars, SEO pages, a lightweight show, micro-communities

    4. How to track it: 

      1. Really easy to track with social posts with tools like Keyhole

      2. You can use beehiiv to track everything important on your email

      3. Goal benchmark: 5 active surfaces by end of 2026 that are done really, really well

  1. # of team LinkedIn posts per week

    1. What it is:

      1. Total number of LinkedIn posts published each week by your company page + team members (founders, sales, marketing, CS, product)

    2. Why you should care:

      1. If you aren’t active on LinkedIn, do you even exist? This is a direct proxy for how visible your narrative is in the market and how often your ideal buyers are reminded that you exist.

      2. Higher, consistent volume from multiple voices increases reach, trust, investor eyes, customer eyes and opportunity creation

    3. How to build it: 

      1. Start by getting 2–3 champions (often founders and 1–2 sellers or marketers) to commit to posting 2–3 times/week with clear content lanes (company hype, product wins/insights, market news)

      2. ^ The owner should be your marketing team ^ 

    4. How to track it: 

      1. LinkedIn has analytics on both personal profiles + the company page to review impressions, engagement, and follower growth. Use this at the start. 

  1. # of creators (big + mid-tier partners you invest in)

    1. What it is: 

      1. Always-on creator programs are it for 2026 B2B companies and B2C. This is different than UGC. These are creators who have audiences filled with your ICP who turn into brand champions and deliver assets regularly. The best part is that you grow as they do. 

    2. Why you should care: 

      1. These creators are the fastest, most trusted path into your ICP’s attention in 2026 > paid ads and brand channels on both trust and conversion. This is an asset for compounding reach, narrative control in your category, and one of the highest-ROI growth levers you can build.

    3. How to build it & track it 

      1. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

  1. # of UGC creators 

    1. What it is: 

      1. UGC engines are all the rage in B2C and are trickling to B2B so well. It’s like every founder I talk to is using SideShift or Heave (I know the founders of both, so message me for a discount and intro)

      2. UGC is suuuper inexpensive videos ($15-30/video) made daily by creators. You boost these videos with paid, too, and they perform so well.

    2. Why you should care: 

      1. Volume is key in content right now. The fresher the creative, the better, and flooding platforms works well with UGC. This is your best way to get inexpensive UGC that actually works well.

      2. Don’t be one of those lame founders who say, because it isn’t super polished, creative, it’s not worth flighting. YOU ARE WRONG… every time I do this, it has incredible CACs and outperforms the most polished creative. 

    3. How to build it: 

      1. Sideshift: Find, track, and pay creators directly on the platform. More manual management of the creators. Nick, the founder, is awesome, and we both went to Wisco! He gave me this code for you guys 👇

        1. USE THIS CODE “HAPPY” FOR 20% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH OF SIDESHIFT

      2. Heave: Will do everything for you, including sourcing, flighting, and managing. Very easy. David is the best! 

    4. How to track it:

      1. Shortimize

Mid-Funnel: Discovery + Intent

  1. % of traffic/leads coming from answer engines and AI surfaces

    1. What it is:

      1. Share of traffic or leads coming from AI discovery channels like search engines

    2. Why you should care: 

      1. Not only is this consumer habit increasing, but there is also so much data rn that talks about how high these customers convert vs. from traditional search (example here)

    3. How to build it: 

      1. It’s basically SEO on crack where you build super crawlable assets. I love the team at Profound led by Dylan, who is crushing it and gave me this code for you guys 👇

        1. xUSE MY CODE “KNIGHTVISION” FOR 50% OFF YOUR FIRST 3 MONTHS OF PROFOUND

    4. How to track it:

      1. Profound will do this for you ^ 

  1. # of social commerce and live-selling experiments per quarter

    1. What it is:

      1. You heard it here first, B2C brands are crushing it with live shopping on TikTok. B2B is up next. Creators and brands will stream and sell their products live, it’s pretty simple.

    2. Why you should care: 

      1. Incredibly cheap to operate this – throw your social media manager or favorite intern in front of the camera and let them roll. The right audience will find you if you can speak about your product well.

    3. How to build it: 

      1. B2C: You can start live-selling immediately and ship goods to purchasers 

      2. B2B: You can sell subscriptions via your link-in-bio for a hacky way to test this out. 

    4. How to track it:

      1. TikTok has a really strong backend for live-selling, and you can easily track everything right on the platform 

      2. Must-read article about “The World of Live Selling on TikTok”

Conversion -> Retention -> Expansion

  1. # of existing customer upsell or expansion offers shipped per quarter

    1. What it is: 

      1. Focusing on existing business is an incredible way to boost MRR, aka monthly recurring revenue, and you need to ship new products to make it happen

      2. Figure out how to upsell based on the new products you’re shipping each quarter and/or look into older, existing annual contracts and see where you can bring them into current pricing.

    2. Why you should care: 

      1. Boosts LTV from customers who already trust you without adding new logos

      2. Really good way to turn your customer success team into a proactive growth engine

    3. How to build it: 

      1. You should be testing new packages, add‑ons, seats, feature bundles, or pricing tiers, and doing everything you can to make your product more valuable to your customers

    4. How to track it:

      1. Track # of unique expansion offers launched per quarter + attached metrics: offer open/view rate, accept rate, incremental ARR, and impact on NRR

SIDE NOTE: This is the difference between #7 and #8

  • #7 = activity/inputs

    • This counts how many upsell or expansion offers you actually put in front of existing customers each quarter (emails, in‑app prompts, CSM plays, new bundles). Basically, tells you how often you are giving the base a chance to buy more.​

  • #8 = revenue output

    • This measures how much money you actually get from those existing customers as a share of all new revenue. Basically, tells you how effective your overall expansion engine is vs. new logo acquisition

Now onto #8….

  1. Expansion revenue from existing customers as a % of total new rev 

    1. What it is: 

      1. % of new revenue in a period that comes from existing customers expanding (upsells, cross‑sells, seat/usage growth) versus net‑new logo deals

    2. Why you should care: 

      1. A strong share of new revenue coming from existing customers means your product is working and delivering real value.

      2. It also makes growth more efficient than constantly chasing new customers.

      3. This is an early signal of durable NRR, faster payback, and how much you can reinvest in growth without burning cash.

    3. How to build it: 

      1. Tiering, feature gates, usage thresholds, etc. Product <> Marketing needs to align on this

      2. My fav is renewal‑plus‑expansion sales that present a clear path to “what’s next” for successful customers 

    4. How to track it:

      1. Tag each closed-won deal as “new logo” or “expansion,” then track expansion ARR as a share of total new ARR each month and quarter

      2. Track this w/ NRR, churn, and CAC payback so leadership can see how much growth comes from the base and shift resources between acquisition + expansion when this is working

Efficiency + Scale

  1. % of ad creative variations generated or iterated by AI

    1. What it is: 

      1. AI-generated share of all new and iterative ad creative (e.g., if you use AI tools in Canva, GPT, Runway, VEO, etc.)

    2. Why you should care:

      1. It massively increases testing volume at lower cost, speeds up learning, reduces ad fatigue, and improves CAC

      2. P.S. Don’t flight low-quality assets, obviously

    3. How to build it: 

      1. Play around with tools like Canva, GPT, Runway, VEO, Midjourney, Perplexity (those are my favs)

      2. To test: Build a creative testing cadence (weekly/bi‑weekly) where AI is responsible for producing the bulk of variants

    4. How to track it:

      1. Count total creatives vs. AI-touched creatives to get the % and compare performance = use this to set quarterly targets and show where AI improves CAC and speed

Well, How’d I Do?

If you run marketing or growth, this is your 2026 cheat sheet. Forward it to your team, pick 3 levers, and start building next week.

Remember, the entire point of marketing is to build a brand and boost revenue. 

This list includes the smartest, hottest levers top companies are using right now. 

We build many of these growth levers from scratch for our partners at Knight Vision, and can refer you to the best partner for anything we don’t specialize in. 

Reply with any questions! 

I hope you have the best week until we talk next Sunday. 

Julia

Let’s be more than friends

I yap on LinkedIn occasionally & more so hype up everyone I know

Tap my pic!

© 2025 Julia Knight.

Privacy policy

Terms of use

Powered by beehiiv