Honesty as a marketing strategy + some questions about marketing
Well, I have to admit it first — I am bad in marketing, and I have no idea where to start. I can do backend, frontend, design, DevOps, and analytics, but marketing is something really weird and yet unexplored for me.
The first time I made an attempt to promote my indie product (https://telescope.ac) was about three months ago — I simply made a ProductHunt post (https://www.producthunt.com/posts/telescope-6) that helped me to get my first users and even some paying customers. However, the growth has slowed down immediately after that — mostly because I decided to focus on features and visual styles instead of immediately starting promoting the product elsewhere. Yes, I know that, ideally, you have to do both, but my resources were and are very limited.
The thing is I try to build my product around the idea of honesty. The platform itself is tracking-free, has no scripts or ads, and allows users to download their data in one click, and the way I want to do marketing should be aligned with the values of the platform. The question is the following — what marketing strategies do you like, love, and find particularly useful? Which ones of them can you call 'ethical' or 'honest'? Can honesty by its own be a marketing strategy?
Would love to hear your thoughts about that!
I don't think we're ever bad at marketing, just beginners…
Don't worry about the drop after product hunt. It is just what happens. The product hunt audience isn't really likely your target market and your pretty much like everyone else that posts to product hunt. A jump for a day or 2 and then down.
On the ethical side there are lots of products doing that at the moment to different degrees. I'm doing it with https://contentr.app, I won't sell the data, your data is your own. I do have GA on at the moment but that'll be dropped soon. https://leavemealone.app/ from @dinkydani and @jivings is a great example. Another is https://getmakerlog.com (you might have heard of it ) from the great @sergio there are different ways to do it but generally being good is a good thing.
I'm not a marketing professional, I am an engineer learning marketing so my advice kinda comes from that space.
There are alot of dark patterns in marketing, usually they are on VC funded, growth crazy sites that need to grow 400% week on week or else they have to lose the table tennis tables.
But there is alot of good marketing stuff out there too. The good stuff is usually less on quick hits and growth and more focused on building long term business and products and building an audience.
It's worth checking out,
https://growthhacklist.com from @tobihikari it's got some really good interviews with people building and growing products. https://marketingexamples.com/ from Harry Dry is full of really great examples of good marketing.
There are some books that are worth checking out too.
1 Page marketing plan by Allan Dib - https://successwise.com/1pmp/ it's more about getting a plan and putting it together.
This is Marketing - Seth Godin - https://www.sethgodin.com/ Obviously Awesome - April Dunford - https://aprildunford.com/obviously-awesome/ The Mom Test - Rob Fitzpatrick - http://momtestbook.com/?ref=stk
One thing I have figured out about marketing is that alot of it all comes down to copy writing, and being able to write. Check out the 60 second sales hook by Kevin Rogers it's a really good read about writing and using it to promote your products / services. https://60secondsaleshook.com/
Podcasts there are 2 I have been enjoying and learned alot from
Everyone hates marketers with Louis Grenier https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/ it's very broad and covers alot of different types of marketing and ideas and tactics.
Business of writing podcast with Rachel Mazza and Laura Gale https://www.businessofwritingpodcast.com/ It has a bigger focus on the copy writing side of marketing but I do think that's where the really good stuff is.
I also have a bunch of blog posts coming around this topic and learning marketing.
Yes, honesty can be a great marketing strategy, but more often than not it isn't what you're trying to convey to people but how you're doing it that's crucial. If you ever find the time, along with James' book recommendations I'd suggest reading Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. It goes into a lot of detail and offers practical tips (and even exercises!) to help you shape your message in a way that's easily digestible and, most importantly, memorable.
"The platform itself is tracking-free, has no scripts or ads, and allows users to download their data in one click"
See, that's cool, but in the current wave of privacy awareness, you'll have to do an immense job at constructing a concise message that your target audience will walk away with and remember for later.
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