How to Reach a "General" Audience
Usually if you have a product you can find users by targeting their "watering hole" but what if its a very large general group of people?
My app targets people that journal, and my goto would usually be Reddit but places like r/journaling are very restrictive about what they allow.
I could still post in the general places, like r/sideproject, r/apps but I feel like I would have a far higher conversion rate if I could target their community specifically.
If people that journal had some other common traits perhaps I could target based on that but I feel like lots of different kinds of people journal.
So, how do I reach people that journal organically? Will I be forced to do ads?
Have you ever been successful in reaching out to an audience like this?
I'm sorry if it's too specific 😅
Is there some way you could narrow your focus to a smaller, more identifiable community? e.g. is there something that your existing customers have in common?
It could be anything - people who are into growing cactuses who happen also to be into journaling, to pick an absurd example - it's just a small segment of a potentially enormous market where you can make a start.
Hmm, interesting point Mark. Generally, the only way to reach small niches is through Reddit which tends to be a tricky beast.
I did recently start writing on Medium to market Introspekt, and Medium has a lot of writers.
Perhaps I could target writers that journal. I would think those circles overlap quite a lot.
Yes, it does seem likely that there’d be overlap there, seems worth trying. Good luck!
You could also ask whether people there are using digital journals on /r/journaling and if people do, or mention some kind of interest then ask them for feedback on your app.
It's often a how to spin it that makes the difference between helpful and spam.
They have a rule that forbids any post from even mentioning digital journaling. I got removed instantly and the mods were quite unpleasant to say the least.
Well, if that community is unpleasant, do you want them as your clients? You could also outsmart them. Take a paper journal thingy you have laying around, draw a mockup of your app in an artistic manner and add bits of text that you work on that today?
Have you tried elsewhere? Like on Facebook. I know there are many goups dedicated to Happy Planner. There might be some for journaling as well?
Well the mods are unpleasant, I hope the community isn't. But given how the mods reacted to just having the word app, I don't think outsmarting would work.
Thanks for the suggestions! I'll try Facebook.
👋
Someone posted a “how to market on reddit” article on here not too long ago. I’d suggest searching for that - it explained how to go about answering questions etc without actively promoting your product - essentially it boiled down to “be helpful and use your bio to market your product” (at least that was one aspect of the post I remember).
HTH
(Edit)
Ps: I’ve seen similar advice elsewhere for using Quora.
Also, if you engage in the writing communities on twitter you’ll probably find a similar strategy will work. Eg: https://www.ship30for30.com/
Hey, thanks for the response.
Is this the post you speak of: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/how-to-market-on-reddit-without-coming-across-as-soliciting-ae19dfb2e2
Hmm no, I can’t find it either. If I do I’ll update you.
Thanks, would greatly appreciate it.
Looked but couldn’t find. This new post might be helpful though:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-to-make-it-on-to-the-front-page-of-the-internet-e607ef7f54
Thanks Shaun, will take a look.