Hate marketing? 😱 Love building? 😍 Engineering as marketing is an incredibly effective way to get users for your startup.

If you're a technical founder who hates marketing allow me to introduce you to a channel you'll LOVE: engineering as marketing.

What is engineering as marketing?

Build a new asset (tool, calculator, game, micro-site, document maker or other, see below) that solves a problem for your user. Distribute it, generate leads, and drive users of the asset into your product.

👀 See it in action

Here’s some really cool examples of engineering as marketing!

Productivity tool Llama Life built fidgetpage.com - an online fidget spinner game.

The spinner has been spun an incredible 58,000 times.
After a few spins, the visitor is asked if they’d like to try a “cool productivity app” - with a link to the Llama Life app:

🪜 How-to: a step-by-step guide: 3 parts

So how do you use engineering as marketing to power growth for your business?

Step 1: decide what you want to build

Two things to remember:

You can use code, no-code or even just online tools
You can build something totally new, or deconstruct a functionality from your existing app

Here’s a (long!) list of engineering as marketing ideas:

• Calculator
• Microsite
• Game
• Idea generator
• Database of benchmarks
• Directory of links
• Quiz
• Plugin
• Browser extension
• Maker: video, image, document, profile picture
• Analyser
• Report

Step 2: build your product

Engineering-as-marketing is so effective because:

• You can build fast and lean
• You can solve a problem for your user
• You can make it shareable
• You can make something unique
• You can make it free

So remember to consider this when choosing what to create. You want to focus on something that solves a problem or motivates the user to share. This will create awareness for your idea, and your product.

Step 3: Distribute it

Your new asset can be promoted using all the ideas on the first100users.com website. A great example is a Product Hunt launch that will drive usage, and then people into your product.

In many cases your idea is more likely to get traction because engineering-as-marketing ideas are often shareable, valuable and free.

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