Growth November 25, 2020

🚀 SaaS makers update your affiliate terms & conditions right now

Hi there.
IndieLetters.com is a bi-weekly briefing of marketing knowledge, tools & learning resources for solopreneurs, and makers like YOU!

Imgur
Update your affiliate terms and conditions by @YannickVeys

HypeFury, a smart Twitter scheduling tool, just started making $6K MRR within 6 months mainly due to the affiliate program.
As Yannick was just checking his tool in Google search, there was an ad on top of it with a nice Trademark icon, but the problem was 'he was not running that ad' And it was one of the affiliates stealing their traffic.
So the lesson is, be vigilant and keep checking google for your search terms when you have an affiliate program. And add in your affiliate terms that someone can't advertise on your brand name and misspellings.

Imgur
CourseMaker →

CourseMaker is a new self-hosted online course platform for developers. Slick course creation experience, open-source Gatsby theme if you want to roll your own, affordable hosted option if you prefer. 50% launch discount for October.

Grow your biz super fast by sponsoring an Indie Letters issue.

Subscribers: ~1750
US Audience: 90%
Open Rate: ~44%
Click Rate: ~13.5%

👉 Book a Sponsor Ad directly →

Imgur
Does product differentiation really matter? by @bigben

Yes & No.
You can build a small side hustle with a product that has no differentiation or by offering a single service a big competitor is already providing for a fraction of cost. That's 100% possible.
To scale to a big startup, you HAVE to differentiate your product. Especially when there is an incumbent in that market. There has to be a reason that everyone chooses a specific product that becomes the leader in that space and it is not a random thing.

9 growth marketing hacks to get your first 100 customers

Treat every customer like they're your first, and reap the rewards.
Leverage already established channels such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Quora. And remember one size doesn't fit all. So tweak your content.
Do quick SEO. You are a SaaS form builder, go after long-tail keywords like: "No code form builder comparisons" or, "No code alternatives to Typeform". Organic traffic is a great 'always-on' source of leads.
Hunt for Press coverage. Press outlets suffer from massive FOMO. So if you get featured in one press, others will automatically publish about your startup. Use HARO to reach out to journalists. It boosts SEO too.
Go to Where Your Customers Are. Tinder targeted offline at the start. Etsy also participated in local fairs. The same is the case with Uber, Lyft, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
Do partnerships. Businesses rely on distribution and distribution comes from connections. Connections are often mutual: You give me something, I'll give you something.
Encourage word of mouth marketing by having a strong referral system. AirTable has a referral system of giving 10$ referral credits to each user.
Have a strong affiliate program to get more backlinks. And if you suck at marketing, it's an essential thing for your SaaS. RewardFul is the best software for running an affiliate program.- Use exit-intent pop-ups to generate email leads.

Imgur

Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation (Tweet)
Success is a derivate of consistency (Tweet)
Without commitment, you'll never start, but more importantly, without consistency, you'll never finish (Tweet)
Design resources for developers (14.2K stars)
Marketing for Engineers (10.5K stars) by @sagunsh
Have a look at this free & crowdsourced database of 90+ cold email templates by @olive
Use Carbon.now.sh for creating and sharing beautiful images of your source code
Free trials don't pay the bills. You need paying users, and you need those paying users to stick around for as long as possible. (Tweet)
To unlock more snippets, 👉 come Inside.