Arc: Can a Brand be an Influencer?

Hey,

Apparently, Chrome isn’t the best browser out there.

No, it’s not Brave either.

It’s Arc.

What’s Arc?

Like we said, it’s a browser, but a lot cooler, organized, and efficient, and the following tweets are a testament to how obsessed people are with it.

When was the last time you signed up on a waitlist for a browser?

One million people have done this for Arc’s Windows version. In just over a month, ‘Arc Search’ already has 0.5 million users.

Their Mac OS version of the browser and mobile app are much bigger.

The Artc of Building in Public

The tech industry has not had the best reputation in recent times. They are labeled as the ‘bad guys, spying on you’ and working behind closed doors against your best interest. The Arc browser defies all of this.

Transparency is one of the core values at the Browser Company. Anything you need to know about the brand is already available on their socials - how many users they have, are they doing well, what goes on in their board meetings, and even their monetization model. This is quite refreshing and sets the tone for how you perceive the brand.

No One Can Do Content Marketing Like Arc

There are two extremes when it comes to being the biggest cheerleader for your company. The first set of people are those who think they don’t need to ‘sell’ their product at all, and the other extreme is those who think their social media is a billboard to plaster your brand — Arc strikes a balance.

Josh Miller, the CEO of the Browser Company, is a master in marketing and branding. If you look at his Twitter posts in the last 30 days, 97% of the time, he is talking about Arc, but not once do you feel that you are ‘sold’ anything.

Another great example of a super content marketing move is their ‘We might not make it’ series.

It is a limited series that breaks down the top 5 reasons the Browser Company might not make it to next year.

In one of his Twitter posts, Josh shared that for the next year, they are focusing on building the best infra for AI agents and local personalization on the product, along with world-class interactions and interfaces. They also plan to increase their market share aggressively. He mentions, with ~$85 million in the bank, next year is going to decide if Arc lives.

Arc is racing against time, and they thought to take their users on that journey, what an idea!

Marketing without a Marketer

Do you want to meet the brains behind the killer marketing strategy for Arc? Well, meet no one.

They opened their first-ever marketing position only a couple of days back, so you know it’s only going to get better from here. They recently hired people in their design team from Apple and WhatsApp.

If I were to point at two things that the Browser Company nailed, it would be Community and Influencing.

1. Community:

From asking people’s inputs on product features and designs to ‘truly’ listening to them, the Browser Company is very engaged with its audience. While they do have excellent support, with their core engineer responding to almost every single user, it extends much beyond that. Their founder reads every single tweet and takes time to respond to feature requests and anything in general about the company.

Impressive how this core value is seen in every employee at the Browser Company.

They also do small yet special things like ‘Membership Cards’. At the end of onboarding, each user gets a membership card that makes them feel like they are a part of something.

They also have a ‘credits’ page on their website that mentions every single user that used Arc 1.0, the very first iteration of the product.

It’s like a wall of fame for early adopters.

2. Influencing

As soon as you open YouTube, you will see hundreds of videos on the Arc browser and how it compares to other browsers. While those videos have been helpful in bringing attention to the application, Arc’s best influencer is Arc itself.

Their videos are different from the brand videos we are used to seeing; they are more personal and intimate. Arc posts vlogs often, in a classic YouTube creator style. They feature events like board meetings and offsites, as well as the everyday behind-the-scenes moments of startup life.

People enjoy this content as it helps them feel connected to the journey and part of the experience. Josh also often records Q&A sessions, where he’s super candid and vulnerable.

But considering the super ambitious goals of the company for the next year, leveraging external influencers could also be a good idea.

What do you think?

We discuss more on Arc’s potential influencer marketing strategy in our next episode of Influencer Matchmaking on YouTube. The video will be live soon, so do subscribe.

While you are at it, check us out on Instagram too.

See you next Tuesday with yet another brand!