15
9 Comments

61 marketing + growth + community building things I did and didn't do to grow my business from $0 to 7 figures...

I officially started Ministry of Testing in 2011, though it had been going as an online community since 2007. I've always handled the community & marketing side of things.

Here is my reflection (ie brain dump) of my efforts. Happy to answer any questions.

  1. I never lost focus that it was all about the community first
  2. I never lost focus that it was about improving the testing industry
  3. I always asked myself if what I was doing would be helpful
  4. I listened to the community
  5. I never did surveys
  6. I made decisions based on what I felt the community wanted
  7. I focused on things one day at a time
  8. I kept doing what worked, dropped what wasn't
  9. I experimented lots with the community, some things worked, others not so much.
  10. We co-created many things - from forum posts, to articles, to events and a testing card deck!
  11. I started a weekly newsletter before most people were doing it
  12. I kept at the newsletter even when it made me proper stressed some days
  13. I collected blogs from the community and shared them in an automated way
  14. I stole ideas from across the web/globe that I thought would be a good fit for the community
  15. I stayed mindful that some tactics work for others wouldn't work for us
  16. Always did my best to remain an ethical business
  17. I focused on doing good things that I thought were valuable
  18. Always thought marketing activities with a specific ROI sucked, too many things can't be measured.
  19. I showed up, every single day.
  20. We made it a safe place, cut out the spam and bad vibes.
  21. Never got too obsessed with analytics or data, with community, you can see when things are working, or not.
  22. I looked for win-win scenarios
  23. We grew sustainably
  24. Never spent money on ads
  25. Ignored the competition
  26. Sucked at SEO
  27. We did well on social
  28. Built a real community, on and offline
  29. Looked for opportunities to help testers grow
  30. Built a brand that testers loved
  31. Invested in keeping a community forum going even when things were quiet
  32. Sporadically posted to Quora and Reddit
  33. Created a FlipBoard which drives almost as much traffic as social networks
  34. Created a LinkedIn group in the early days which drove a lot of early members
  35. Linked Group was great as another message/email marketing tool (functionality no longer exists)
  36. Cried with the moderation I had to do with said LinkedIn group
  37. Created 30 day challenges for the community to participate in
  38. Regularly publish articles from the community
  39. Became a place where testers want to speak
  40. Always paid all our conference speakers travel expenses
  41. Allowed members to host meet ups with our brand, current count is now over 60.
  42. Always avoided being salesy, but didn't hesitate to shout about the things we were doing.
  43. Learned over time, that whilst our customers were testers, mostly it was their employers who paid the bills. This means we had a constant steady flow of sales, rather than huge spikes.
  44. Never used the company to elevate my personal brand
  45. Connected with other testers on LinkedIn
  46. Created events that I believed testers wanted and needed
  47. Recorded all talks from all our conferences, these became the later foundation of our online learning SaaS/community platform.
  48. Hacked things together in the beginning from hosted platforms and Wordpress just to get things done.
  49. Over time moved away to building our own thing.
  50. Started a testers slack group and moderate it with love. Almost 8k members.
  51. Started a separate Ministry of Testing slack group where we talk testing but also promote all the things we do. 4k members.
  52. Intercom, Mailchimp, Buffer, Discourse, Slack are our main tools for marketing.
  53. Started an online/Shopify store to sell swag.
  54. Created (via a collaboration) a TestSphere card deck - we sell it via our store and at events.
  55. TestSphere card deck is used at meetups and events across the globe.
  56. Gave away t-shirts at conferences. Testers would wear them in many other places, including competitors events :D
  57. Gave away stickers for laptops 'n' what not.
  58. Create back packs as gifts for speakers.
  59. Created a scholarship programme where testers can donate their fees to instead of taking the money. We would match fund it.
  60. Our conferences grew from guidance and support from active community members.
  61. Always remind myself that people are humans who need to be respected and cared for.

Thanks for getting this far :)

  1. 4

    That's awesome!

    If you had to build a new community today, what would your top ~5 points be from the list above?

    1. 2

      Oh good question. Hard one too, obviously depends on the biz/product/community...not necessarily on the list above, I would focus on:

      1 - great content long term content
      2- creating real connections
      3 - Instagram
      4 - owning/building all the content and tech from the start
      5 - a slack or a simplified forum

  2. 3

    Thanks for sharing with us Rosie. This is why we need a bookmark feature on indiehackers to save some stuffs for later 😂

  3. 3

    Thanks for all the details Rosie! Sure I'll be putting many of these things to use haha! :)

  4. 1

    Thank you Rosie for this awesome list!

  5. 1

    Astonishing list! Thanks for sharing.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 50 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 18 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments