Don't be a launch-day spammer.
Someone you've never met before messages you out of the blue asking for your "support" on their big launch today.
Sure, you're happy to help fellow indie hackers out, but this just feels like spam.
On the other hand, if you've done the launch-day spray-and-pray, then there's a good chance you've been banned from at least one community.
We can do better than this.
If you want a higher conversion % and to avoid spam complaints, this is what I recommend you do instead:
-
Start at least a few weeks ahead of your planned launch.
-
Reach out to people one on one and ask them about themselves, have real conversations.
-
On launch day reach out again and ask if they'd be willing to support the launch. Only after getting permission, then share the link.
-
Follow up a day or two later to thank them and share how it went (again, no links).
It's more work but you get much higher conversion rates and are unlikely to get reported as spam (since they asked you for the link).
If you start far enough ahead of time you can easily have more than a hundred of these conversations across different channels and groups.
Always provide value up front and treat people like people not numbers, it will pay out dividends over the long term.
Best of all, you'll make real friends along the way.
I always help out when asked, but I do warn them that now they are on my "reach out" list for my next launch 😂
Not a bad idea. :)
But I'd suspect people would still forget that you helped them in the past.
If you respond in the same thread they asked you for help then they will see the chat history. Otherwise you can explicitly remind them.
Absolutely.
I got random emails from IHers scraping them I'm guessing, as well as DMs on Twitter, Reddit, Slack, Discord and just about any other group where startup founders hang out.
It's extremely annoying to receive what is basically spam and then have the audacity to ask me to upvote their product on Product Hunt or Hacker News or whatever. How about you do some actual marketing?
I originally shared this post in Indie Worldwide and on Twitter in response to some spam complaints we were getting. I feel this is something we can do a lot better on as a community. No one cares about your launch unless you put the time in first to care about them.
Amen! Someone said it.
It's the worst practice. If you cold message strangers about your launch, their #1 reaction is to report you as spam and ignore you as a person. You basically "kill" a potential relationship for a single like/upvote. Not smart!
Wish more makers were thinking about the long-term negative impact before spamming communities & DMs.
This is golden advice, Anthony!
Having an engaged audience plays a crucial in a successful launch. The more you invest in nurturing and building out genuine relationships, the better your results will be.
That's correct Anthony. Spray and Pray never work. Investment in building a good relationship should be the goal. That goes a long way.
As a new IndieHacker with a small personal and product audience, I was wondering what kind of value I could provide to someone with a bigger audience. Not asking this in jest. Wondering how I can best help so I become worthy of reciprocation!
Some ideas:
Do something for them for free and without asking for permission first
Be among the first people consistently responding to their posts with thoughtful responses
Find early conversations with other similarly sized creators and mention them
Write a blog or Tweet thread analyzing what they've done well
These are all some ways you can get on their radar even if they are quite popular.
Awesome. These are super helpful insights. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
Great post, Anthony. Very true!
Thanks George!
Useful tips, Anthony. 🔥🙌
I usually don't mind, especially if they have taken the care to personalise the message. If it is annoying I just ignore it. I get your larger point, where it may not be a big deal for me, but can be for others.
Yeah, join group and spam. I hate these kind of people.
But I usually support people's product launch on PH/IH, twitter & telegram mainly.
I like people who are human enough and have engagement.
It doesn't take much effort to be human on the internet. The bar has been set very low.
Was something around this guy, and still a bit ashamed
Love this 👏🏽
People are people, whether it’s business or not. Treating them as such makes a difference .
Anthonyyyyyyy, I'm on your Slack. Good stuff man. Great post.
Appreciate you 💯
Agreed.
Upvote my thing.
Never hear from them again.
Or at least until the next time they are launching.
Yup 🙄