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If you had $500-$1000/mo to spend on pre-launch marketing, how & where would you spend it?

One thing I’ve learned over the years that building the product is the easy part (as a developer) but getting people to find it is a skillset I’m lacking :)

I’ve got plenty of ideas about where to get started and some very obvious places to find my target market (B2B software in a certain niche) but not enough time in the day (or brain power) to work on marketing and design and development.

Since my day job is a Software Engineer, I’m looking to stick in that space and carve out a bit of money each month to pay someone to help out with the marketing, customer research, and growth side of things. I've done absolutely no marketing (or even thought about it) at this point.

Knowing I’m ok with paying a bit ($500-$1k/mo), where would you guys recommend I start? Hire a contractor and tell them what to do, hire an outside “firm” to handle it, bring on a virtual assistant and do the heavy lifting myself, or please let me know if there are more options!

Like I said, marketing & growth is not my area of expertise :)

Thanks!

Disclaimer: I’m very aware of the general consensus that marketing should start before product development, but in this particular case I used the product as a way to learn new tech before I landed my current role, so, here we are :)

  1. 9

    If I had 500-1000 in monthly spend, I'd use both free and paid models to grow.

    Here's the breakdown that I would use.

    Free opportunities

    • Look for communities to join related to my target audience (FB Groups, Slack groups, Telegram, Reddit, stuff like IndieHackers/HackerNews but for my target audience, Medium publications, etc.) It all depends on the market, but I'd aim to have potential visibility of 100K+ when you combine all followers/members of these communities
    • Start writing a good post (I see most people say write one post a week, I'd rather spend 4 weeks on a fantastic piece instead of writing 4 mediocre ones)
    • Promote that piece of content on all the communities I have found. Add an opt-in for a newsletter or early access to whatever I am building
    • Answer 10-15 questions on Quora every month (saving them as a draft while writing them, and publishing them over the course of several days. I've hit 50% conversion rates through organic Quora traffic on newsletters, so it's a solid way to boost your numbers if you do it right). Just look for questions with a lot of followers, answer the question better than anyone else, and get free exposure. Quora sends out Digest emails every day which contain links to the best answers within people's interest. I've had one question being sent to over 5 million people in total through its Digest. It's amazing free publicity.
    • Above all: I would definitely NOT focus on SEO. I'm not sure why many people are recommending that here. SEO is great, but not during your first few months. Google still has this weird restriction for new sites where it's hard to hit any front page for great keywords for a long, long time. SEO is definitely very low on the list to get your pre-launch sign-ups if you don't already have a website that is established in Google's search results.

    Paid opportunities step-by-step

    • I'd have a general sense of how much I can spend per new sign-ups (is it $1? $5? $10?) This is the Cost Per Acquisition, also known as CPA
    • I'd set up a landing page (I use Unbounce's $99/m) with great copy and ability for visitors to get early access or get notified when I launch; you can also use Instapage, Cardd, WP, Webflow, whatever
    • I'd launch the 2x2x2 marketing model on Facebook: create 2 different images (Use Canva's freemium product), 2 different ad texts and 2 different audiences, and combine all those to make a total of 8 ads. I'd dedicate $5 to each campaign and check the results daily to figure out what works. ($40 a day for as long as I can run it). Main goal: sign-ups, not visitors
    • I'd optimize the 2x2x2 model by pausing ads that don't work and optimizing the ones that do (turning of 3 ads allows you to increase spending on each ad to $8/day)
    • If I can make the CPA work on Facebook, I'd continue using that while spending 80% of my remaining budget of $500/$1000 per month
    • If I can't make the CPA work on Facebook, I'd hop over to Reddit and do the same thing: 2 ad copies, 2 subreddits to advertise, 2 images. Run the same model there, to figure out if I can hit my CPA target - I'll use the things that worked on Facebook to write better ads
    • If I again can't make the CPA work on Reddit, I'd hop over to Quora's ad platform and try the same model there to figure out if I can hit my CPA goals there - I'd use the stuff that worked on FB and Reddit to write better ads
    • If that doesn't work, Twitter is my last hope to hit my CPA goals. Launch the same model there - and again I'd use all the stuff that worked on other platforms to improve ads.
    • No matter whether I can make Facebook work for ads, I will always run retargeting ads on Facebook focused on people visiting the primary landing page. Create 2 ad copies, 2 images, and run those for website visitors. Optimize these ads and take the spend into account to understand the CPA costs (for example: if I spend $20 on ads on any platform and get 0 sign-ups, but spend $1 to get 4 sign-ups through my retargeting campaign, I have spent a total of $21 to get 4 sign-ups. So, if my goal is to hit $10 CPA, I'm well within my range).
    • While doing this, I'd also constantly look at my landing page to see what I can optimize. I'd install Hotjar's free plan to look at how people are interacting with my website.
    • Obviously, I'd also install Google Analytics to track all results on my site

    I know this looks like a lot of work and a lot of understanding of how these platforms all work. But the thing is, these ad platforms aren't overwhelming. You can set up ads within an hour. These platforms are optimized to be user-friendly (except for Adwords, Adwords is shit because Google wants to run your campaigns).

    And that's it. That's why I'd do with that budget because I've done it before and saw results. And sometimes I didn't see results, so I skipped that part all together and just focused on creating a great product and marketing that when it was done. In some markets, getting beta access is not the best way to go. But in those cases, sending newsletters is usually still an option so I'd pivot to that. Once I had my product ready, I'd send it out to all the people on my email list, and go from there.

    Let me know if you have any questions, happy to help

    1. 2

      i think so many more people need to look at what Frank's talking bout. There is a stigma against ads here for no reason.

    2. 1

      I like your answer but I have to disagree with a couple of things:

      1. The sooner you start working on SEO the better. Of course it's difficult for new websites to rank for competitive terms but if you do things right (essentially going after long tail keywords and building links) you can start seeing results in 3 to 6 months.

      2. As for Facebook Ads, splitting a $40 budget into multiple ad sets it's not a good idea. You need at least 50 conversions per week per ad set for the algorithm to optimize correctly, and with a small $5/day budget you'll never complete the learning phase. It would be better to concentrate resources on a single ad set and use the dynamic creative feature instead.

      1. 1

        Thanks for the reply, Andrea.

        1. Honestly, SEO is great and in the long term it will definitely pay off. But if you're in your pre-launch phase I wouldn't suggest focusing on it when there are other channels that can bring in more traction way before you see any results with SEO. I'm a big supporter of SEO for the long term but for the short term, I personally don't see the benefit. 3 to 6 months is a long time when you can potentially already see results from ads within a few days to a week. Plus, if you're going to take a deep dive into backlinks, understanding how they work, and more importantly building them, the time you need to invest in it builds up really quickly.

        2. I agree that the $40 is not a great idea in the long term due to a low number of conversions but it will at least allow you to - during the first days - see what makes people engage with the ads (will they even visit your website? And if they do, what kind of proposition makes them click?). It's impossible to ever reach 50 conversions on your website if you can't get any targeted traffic to your website in the first place.

        Using the dynamic creative feature is recommended, although when you're just setting up 8 different ad versions (take the following into account: it's 2 audiences, so that's only 2 ad sets and $20 per ad set - which you also need to do when using the dynamic creative feature) I found it to be quicker when I just create separate ads. Especially since there are several elements that you can test within the dynamic ads. It gets more complicated instead of easier rather quickly because Facebook encourages you to add a lot of variations (especially when you're just starting out with ads - if you're already used to running campaigns then going to the dynamic feature is definitely recommended).

        1. 1

          Fair points, let's say there are multiple ways to achieve the same goal 😉

  2. 6

    It’s difficult giving advice without knowing more about your product, but in general I would start with content marketing.

    I would write one blog post every week. It should be really good and have the potential to resonate with your target audience.

    I would then:

    • Post it in relevant communities
    • Promote it using paid ads
    • Optimize it for SEO

    Make sure to have an effective way to capture email addresses.

    Once you start building a list, nurture them with informational content that also talks about your product without being overpromotional.

    If you do this consistently for some months hopefully you should start seeing some traction.

    You could use your monthly budget to hire a freelance writer if you don’t want to write yourself, and use the remaining part for ads.

    1. 3

      I would second this advice. It's hard to get more granular without knowing more details, but content/SEO/paid ads is usually a very good group of tactics that work well together.

    2. 2

      Love it! Really informative, and honestly seems like really sound advice.

      I think starting with content marketing is a great play and promoting it using paid ads is a really interesting idea I hadn't thought about. Thanks for taking the time to write that out :)

    3. 1

      Would you promote the landing page with paid ads too?

      1. 1

        I would test Google Ads if the product is already in demand.

  3. 4

    One part of having a successful business is how you get customers, if you have no way of getting to customers profitability it isn't a business.

    I recommend listening to podcasts and reading books like Traction by Gabriel Weinberg.

    That will give you a much better overview.

    Then do the marketing for yourself and then outsource it.

    1. 1

      Totally agree! A business is not a business without.. business :) I’ve just got Traction and going to give it a read. The hard part is I don’t have enough time to work on the dev/design and follow-through with whatever marketing tips I get from the book.

      So it sounds like you’re leaning towards getting the ball rolling myself, then pay someone to help me with the day to day tasks involved there (growing the instagram following, reaching out to potential customers and setting up meetings, etc.)?

  4. 3

    I think this one question can help the determine first strategies to try: Are people looking for the type of solution you provide or are they unaware that a solution to their problem exists?

    If you think people are looking for a solution: Content marketing, SEO, Adwords, etc., can be great places to start. Definitely focus on laying down a foundation for SEO.

    If people may not be aware(i.e., new technology that people don't even know exists): Social ads, video marketing, PR, partnerships, etc., can be a good start.

    Also, be sure to match up your marketing strategies with your price point.

    1. 2

      Really good point about matching up with the price. Price point is going to start out at ~$29-49/mo (just for reference).

      I think, to your point, content marketing, SEO and Adwords is probably going to be the best solution to start getting a bit more feedback.

  5. 2

    Google Adwords is one of your best bets. Depending on what your business is and who you would be competing for words. Properly set-up your google ad-words with google analytics for your industry. Try automating most of your marketing efforts with Zapier, automate the process that sends leads generated from these efforts to your CRM. one of my customers spends close to $800K a year on AdWords. The ROI ratio is around(1:10) $1 returns $10. This is in the health industry.

    also, you can go to South America and hire an expert on this topic for $300-500 a month.

    Good luck.

    1. 1

      Thank you! Really great stuff here, I'm definitely going to look into Adwords a bit more.

  6. 1

    @mikefogg - Hey, how you doing ?
    This post comes a tad bit late. However, I would like to know - how was your prelaunch marketing experience ?
    Can you talk a bit more about your experience ?

  7. 1

    Only one goal: Build an audience

  8. 1

    I would round up a big group of ideal users who have a bit of weight in the niche you're trying to serve, give them free all accounts, and use however much of the $500-$1,000/mo it takes to show my appreciation to them for their time. Maybe that's sending someone a free logo t-shirt or sending the woman who loves pizza a gift card to the place she mentioned in a tweet the other day along with a note saying "thanks so much for the time you've taken using my product, your feedback has been priceless." If these folks are also indie makers, I'd use it to buy their products and sign up for their services.

    In other words, I wouldn't worry about using that money to drive paying users, I'd use it to show appreciation to whoever is willing to jump in and provide critical feedback on the product and potentially help spread the word once it's dialed.

  9. 1

    some really good replies in this thread.

    i will add an important point. There is no such thing as "good marketing advice". Marketing is 95% contextual

    1. 2

      Oh, just wrote a massive comment in this thread but then saw your comment, Pete. I actually second hiring @harrydry :)

  10. 1

    If the product was developed to learn the technology and you didn't talk to customers before building then you are not launching you are starting your true customer discovery efforts. As the founder you must take part in these activities because you will need to consider adding features, shifting your target customer/market, adjusting your messaging. There are folks who specialize in the "early customers" problem who may be able to assist but the more fundamental challenge is--as you freely acknowledge--you started with a technology-driven approach when a successful business requires focus on customer needs and providing a solution that address and delivers value worth paying for.

    1. 1

      Very true! I did start with tech in mind (and really only focused on that, of course) but spoke to plenty of potential customers and have one paying currently for the Alpha product. I think you're right. For now, I think it makes sense to take a step away from the product side of things and start doing some more customer outreach & learning. Cheers!

  11. 1

    You need customers to know your true market, you need to know your true market to market to them. Validate, build the lean MVP, validate, get customers, validate validate validate (throw more validation in there for good measure).

  12. 1

    What works for me, may not work for you. There is no one size fits all approach here. I'm a big fan of offline advertising, but that's just me. I'm going to echo Traction here, definitely give that a read.

  13. 1

    Content market makes always sense, in B2B software even more. My suggestions is to start a blog for your niche. Or use linkedin. You would solve two problems at the same time: attracting users and better understanding what to build.

    This is the part you won't like. You can't outsource your relationship with customers. Building trust and understanding the real problem is hard enough when you have a direct relationship. When you are looking st the world through someone else's lens, it's almost impossible.

    And this without considering the fact that the person you hire could be the relationship for themselves and leaving you with nothing.

  14. 1

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