Engineering as Marketing: interactive infographic
In Traction (the book by DuckDuckGo's founder), one of the ideas shared is that of #engineering-as-marketing. i.e.: using developer time not just to create the final product, but also cool extra tools/mini-sites available for free and likely to attract your target audience.
I personally really like this idea because everyone is doing the same thing and engineering as marketing seems like a clever way to break through the noise.
So, in this spirit, here's an example:
My main audience are people learning English. So I published this interactive chart:
https://americanipachart.com
- Giving away for free: an interactive infographic with audio, with all the sounds of American English. Innovative; useful to teachers and students alike.
- Lead Magnet: if people want to download the chart, including a print version, they need to sign up to the list.
- Promotion: for now, just Facebook groups.
See the product page for stats. The goal is for it to become a staple of English-language education, let it run and grow on its own, virally, after a while.
My main product, so far, has been for people who learn English from French (so mostly France, Québec, Belgium, Switzerland), but I'm planning a more international version to learn English from any language (for people in Germany, South Korea, Brazil, etc.). So this chart is a way to start getting leads/traction on the international market.
Planning many more similar sites and tools.
Has anyone dabbled in engineering as marketing? What did you learn?
Tech P.S.: I think the chart is pretty cool in terms of technology. It's all SVG, browser support is very broad (even IE!), and it works offline too (the fonts and audio being embedded into the document.)
