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My Twitter account reached 100,000. Here's 7 of my favourite marketing tips. And a little story :)

My Twitter account reached 100,000 followers today. So I thought I'd share the 7 tips folks found most useful from the last two years.

And a little story about how I got started.

1/ Sell outcomes, not features

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2/ Don't think about “capturing emails”

Think about creating something worth subscribing to

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3/Simple CTA trick:

Add a few words to your button to handle the user's biggest objection to clicking

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4/ My favourite landing page formula:

1/ Explain the value you provide (title)
2/ Explain how you'll create it (subtitle)
3/ Let the user visualise it (image)
4/ Make it believable (social proof)
5/ Make taking the next step easy (CTA)

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5/ Cold emails should be simple

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6/ Make your marketing REALER.

Same title. Same painting. Same subreddit. One gets 300 votes. The other gets 70,000.

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100,000 is a lot. It's funny to look back...

I'd get back from work, hang out on this forum, help people out, and hope they checked out my site. That's how I got started.

You can't wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them —
Paul Graham

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Anyhow. Thanks for reading. And thanks to the Indie Hackers who helped me get momentum.

I'll leave you with a photo of me making the website two years ago. Excuse the ironing board and cardboard window. We'd just moved in.

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PS — If you enjoyed this and would like more marketing tips...

please do subscribe to the newsletter or head to Marketing Examples to browse all the case studies.

Over and out

  1. 2

    Top-notch work as usual!

  2. 2

    amazing. congratulations on a well-earned milestone.

    curious about your new course. how's that going?

    also, what do you use your twitter account for, generally? (e.g. are you mostly using it to convert new newsletter subscribers? to drive traffic to your site in general? to get more backlinks to pages for SEO?) and is it effective for that purpose?

    1. 2

      Cheers Channing.

      Course is a nightmare NGL... Currently in the phase where feel swamped... and that I'll never finish it.

      Re Twitter. I'm skeptical of it. The algorithm is constantly changing. Think of all those huge brand accounts with 300k followers who now have 3 likes on each post... And I think it's only going to get harder for brands.

      That's why:

      a) I'm trying to get more of “me” on the account.
      b) I nearly always plug my newsletter at the end of popular tweets / threads...

      When I finally sell something... I'm pretty sure email will outsell Twitter 10:1

      But... there's so many indirect benefits of being “big” on Twitter. Backlinks / sponsorship / word of mouth / dm's / opportunity to talk at events...

      So... yeah.

      I don't think I've ever actually linked the website or an article of mine as a sole tweet. If you want to get people to your website through Twitter... rarely link to your website. Counterintuitive.

      1. 5

        Everyone gets that sinking feeling like 40% through creating a course. If you can build a website on an ironing board, you'll be fine. Just do a few laps of the garden and keep going - you have the added benefit (and pressure sure, but mostly benefit) of knowing that loads of people will want your course.

        Congrats on the milestone!

        1. 2

          Cheers Chris. Appreciate the encouragement :)

  3. 2

    One word: Inspiring! What's next for @harrydry?

    1. 1

      Cheers. I'm currently working on a course. So head down on that till August.

      Then we shall see. I have plans after that... but one thing at a time I think :)

  4. 1

    Wow, Iove all the tips and ideas. Can you please share marketing ideas foe service base <a href="https://holapaints.com/best-cordless-paint-sprayer/">battery paint sprayers project</a>project

  5. 1

    This was explained so well ! Great post !

  6. 1

    Thanks so much, @harrydry. I follow your newsletter and it's my favorite :)

  7. 1

    Very condensed article. Perfect refresher too for intermediate/advanced marketers that temporarily forgot one or two, like myself! Thanks.

  8. 1

    While reading It felt like a great experience.
    Excited to apply these tips in my SaaS startup.

    Thank you a lot .

  9. 1

    what would you say concerning looking for clients in the B2B market on LinkedIn?

  10. 1

    Nice post, mate. After reading it, all I wanted was to subscribe to your newsletter. Seriously. Keep up the good work!

  11. 1

    All your tips are spot on. Congrats on the new milestone.

  12. 1

    Where is the 7th tip? :)

    1. 1

      was this one

      but I took it off the Indie Haker post

  13. 1

    Congrats! How do you embed your newsletter here?

    1. 1

      It's something called an Indie Hacker series. Not 100% sure on how to set up. I believe @channingallen might be able to help :)

      1. 1

        Legit. Btw just saw your talk in London. Good stuff on "luck". You said smth to the effect of "many of you might think I was lucky, but if the Yeezy site didn't work I would've done Harry Potter, etc."

        Professor Austin created a classification on luck in '78 if memory serves. He distinguished between blind luck and serendipity (and sagacity and altamirage but whatever).

        And serendipity is essentially what you were pointing to. With enough motion, you're bound to stumble onto something.

        https://www.younglingresearch.com/essays/luckframework

        1. 2

          i like that distinction. thanks for checking out that video :)

  14. 1

    Hi @harrydry, I got to check your Twitter handle. I really like it. There's so much value. By the way, my team and I are working on a social network called Wylo. We have an official handle and looking to grow and garner some users there. Can you suggest me a few hacks and tips for the same? Thanks.

    1. 2

      @RjYoungling is right.

      Also... I'd give up on a brand handle and go all in on building it from your personal account. No one cares about brands

  15. 1

    Wow, this is one of the best newsletters I've got in a while. Stored as a note and ready to use it! Thanks :)

  16. 1

    Well done Harry! Amazing content as always and deserve the cult following you have :)

  17. 1

    Haha #1 reminds me of the good ol’ Shot on iPhone memes 😂

      1. 1

        I’m no expert at marketing... but I’m pretty sure those videos gave Apple a good boost 🔥 🤣

  18. 1

    I've just checked your website, really cool and thanks for sharing

    1. 1

      pleasure - cheers for checking out :)

  19. 1

    Congrats, great insights as always! Cheers.

  20. 1

    Congrats! My favorite one is number 3. :)

    1. 1

      Ah nice. So... that's actually part of a much bigger step-by-step landing page guide you might find useful :)

  21. 1

    This is great stuff. Thanks for sharring!

  22. 1

    Any tips on growing twitter accounts?

    1. 3

      IMO this hits most spots:

      The other thing people don't talk about much is actually do “cool” stuff. There's a reason why Elon Musk has a lot of followers. He doesn't do any of the above.

      1. 2

        This is the point! You can post everyday very informative posts and sometimes somebody will be interested but not engaged.

        I like how @dvassallo describes it "Do something interesting in real life, and describe it to us." Interesting is the key word.

  23. 1

    This post ist just awesome! Thanks!

  24. 1

    Congratulations on your achievement and thanks for all the tips! I started doing #1 recently and it pays off. Instead of showing features of my game Engine I'm making games and showing them. I got 60 more followers in 10 days. Went from 200 to 260. Looks nothing compared to your 100k 😅but I guess it takes time?

    Did it happen gradually over those two years or were there one or more pivotal moments that made it blow up?

    How much influence did external traffic to your Twitter had?

    Cheers!

    1. 3

      Congrats on 260. It's a slow old game at the start then it picks up :)

      IMO it's much harder to grow a “faceless” account than one with a real person behind... So if growth is your priority might be worth considering.

      On my Marketing Examples milestone page I shared the road to 70k. So take a look through. One big moment was Steve Schoger recommending me. That got me from about 10,000 to 15,000 in one day!

      https://www.indiehackers.com/product/marketing-examples/500-twitter-followers--LiILvZx2FNnOh-REMlU

      I recommend my Twitter to anyone who subscribers to my email list. But... twitter has great mechanisms to help you grow :)

      1. 1

        This is brilliant! Very actionable advice. I'll be sure to check out those links and consider the "facefull" (🤔?) approach if that word's even allowed 😂. The fact that I rarely take any pictures of myself clearly doesn't help.

        Oh, I can hear my wife asking me for a photo already! And my mother back in my home country! Ohhh nooo.

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