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8 Comments

Marketing Right Now Is #$%*ing Hard

  1. 2

    Yea it's inevitable that marketing budgets get cut before anything else :(

  2. 2

    Rand is insightful and tactful, as always, and his article even fits into the meta of his own advice. The human element comes first.

    To me, it relates to that blog post a few years back about how helping someone suffering an individual tragedy (say, a loved one who's terminally ill) has patterns for friends/family/supporters of what is OK and not OK to do. Those friends/family/supporters can only offer kindness toward the sufferer, and only the sufferer has permission to vent/rant/dump/lean on their network.

    Comparing an ad from Hotels.com (thankfully telling you to stay home) to an ad from BMW (advertising a $100k+ sportscar) nails it so well. And as the case of the bone broth vendor shows, you can do business in this time - if you are providing something of relevance toward those who have pressing needs.

    This article should be pinned to the top of the Coronavirus board until every IH member "gets it" and lays off the self-promo for less vital things. Give it the 30-40 days. Lay low. Get back to work.

  3. 2

    Excellent article. Thanks for sharing it!

  4. 1

    Ahhh super super helpful! Gave me a TON of new and exciting content that I want to produce over the coming weeks. Thanks! (:

  5. 1

    Great article from @randfish as usual!

    I've also been putting a lot of thought into marketing/communicating from Indie Hackers, although I feel I've been moving a bit too slowly to try to get my bearings. It's complicated by the fact that I have a backlog. For example, I recorded some excellent podcast episodes weeks ago that suddenly don't fit into the conversation happening online.

    I think the answer is I just release them, acknowledge the elephant in the room, and then switch gears with new episodes I record to make them more timely.

    Internet Traffic is up a massive 50% according to Akamai, and peak loads are 2X last year’s. Comscore says news sites are seeing 57% more visits and 46% more time spent reading than last year. Broadly, media and finance web traffic is massively up… Twitter’s earnings are down (b/c advertisers are pulling back), but monthly active users and time spent are way up.

    The massive increase in traffic to media and news sites, coupled with decreased ad spend and therefore cheaper ads, is an interesting (if only temporary) opportunity for those with online businesses and a sufficiently high ARPU to justify advertising.

    1. 1

      I feel I've been moving a bit too slowly to try to get my bearings

      I've gotta say I hope my wake-up call got to someone three weeks ago. If you were an influence in Tyler's change of mind, thanks. It may have bought Mexico a few days.

      More directly related to randfish's post, maybe taking a day to zoom out a bit from marketing and looking at the longer term goals is worth it just this once.

      Marketing channels are particularly noisy now. What is everyone forgetting about now? What were you journaling about in spring each of the last three years that isn't even on your radar this year? That's where I'd look for wins.

      Just my 2¢.

    2. 1

      Unfortunately ads aren't cheaper at the moment. Although CPMs are way down, from what I'm seeing in the media buyer world (especially FB/IG Ads) the general consensus is that CPAs are higher than usual.

      There are a lot more people online but fewer are buying (except for some specific niches).

      1. 1

        Very true, lower CPMs won't matter if they also correspond with fewer people signing up for what you're offering. E-commerce (esp. groceries and other necessities) is doing well, as are news and media, and remote work tools like video conferencing, etc.

  6. 2

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