What's New: Is Zoom the new Twitter?

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

Is audience building on Twitter merely a distraction?

• For early-stage startups, the most powerful platform may be Zoom, not Twitter. Since building relationships can help with sales, perhaps (virtual) face-to-face calls are highly underrated.
• Influencer marketing transfers trust and attention from influencers to brands. Dru Riley shares tips on how your brand can break through the noise.
• Founder Arnaud Belinga built an MVP in 3 weeks, registered 250+ beta users in 4 hours, and hit $13,500 in 24 hours after pre-launch. Here's how he used lifetime deals to attract users and gain feedback.

Want to share something with 90,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

🔎 Zoom vs. Twitter for Early Growth

by Steve Procter

Zoom calls are the new Twitter when it comes to early growth strategy. Here's why!

The wrong focus?

I have always thought it was odd to use Twitter to push an early-stage startup brand. Why does a startup even need a brand when it has made zero sales? Make some money, and prove that there is a market to make more. Your two-person idea to become the next Jeff Zuckerberg is a long way from needing a brand. It needs to survive the next 24 months, and follower count doesn't pay the hosting bill.

Despite my reservations, I decided to try hard with Twitter for my new startup, Venture Cards. So, for the past ten days, I gave it everything I had. I wanted to figure out what I was missing, and see if I should bother using it long-term.

Some will say that ten days is not enough time to discover the possibilities. But...my brain is already frazzled! So yesterday, I got off of Twitter for the sake of my mental health.

Zoom-ing in

I now have an alternative growth plan that involves reaching out directly to my target clients, setting up Zoom calls, and having a (virtual) face-to-face chat about what I offer. Like many people, I've used Zoom a fair bit throughout the pandemic. I can often have 30 Zoom calls per week, 25 minutes each, with a short break in between, and still feel human at the end. Oh, and they have resulted in genuine relationship building and actual business deals.

Zoom calls haven't once left me wasting hours checking to see if I have one more like or follower. It is just the face-to-face communication we've been doing since forever, but virtual now. It's natural. It's how human beings work, and it's how business works.

Reaching out to potential clients

I need to reach investors to get them to join the platform, so I scour all sorts of places for their names. The research part is rough: Googling, finding lists, taking notes, etc., and there is no pretty way to do this, regardless of your market.

Primarily, I reach out to people on LinkedIn. Not the social posting side of it, but the 1:1 contacts and connections. My inbox on there is as busy as my email inbox. I have 13K LinkedIn contacts, and I've built them up organically since 2007. When I connect with new people, my history seems to awaken their interest, and a high percentage of them agree to a call.

I know that this can often be difficult for people with less time in the industry, since targets can be very picky about who they give their time to. You need to increase the percentage of positive responses as much as you can, and this is often just by trial and error. Keep your intro short, polite, and succinct, and monitor what wording works best for your product.

I never go in for a hard sale. It's just about showing them something I'm working on that may be interesting to them. The call is just a 25 minute discovery Zoom call, not a sell. I follow up on LinkedIn messaging because that channel is proven with them, so I do not switch to email. I prefer the slow approach, but I am sure that some hardened salespeople would choose to go a bit tougher.

In conclusion, please do not fall for the myth that you must have followers before you launch. Followers do not equal paying customers. Every second spent chasing likes is a moment not driving clients. I suppose that, for me, social media is branding, and phone or Zoom calls are selling. And, at the beginning, selling is all that matters. Survive your first two years with cold hard sales, then start creating a brand.

What are your thoughts on Zoom calls for early-stage companies? Share below!

Discuss this story.

📰 In the News

from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani

💻 The hacking collective Anonymous has launched a cyberattack on Russia.

🇺🇦 Bitcoin donations to Ukraine are soaring amid Russia's invasion.

🗣 Facebook is considering a voice assistant to rival Siri and Alexa.

🏦 Citi is now the first megabank to kill overdraft fees.

💋 Men are asking guys on Reddit to tempt their partners to cheat.

Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.

🤩 Trend Alert: Influencer Marketing

from the Trends.vc newsletter by Dru Riley

Why it matters

Influencer marketing helps brands build awareness and find customers.

Problem

Brands need to break through the noise.

Solution

Influencer marketing transfers trust and attention from influencers to brands.

Players

Examples:

• Fenty Beauty: Cosmetics brand by Rihanna.
• HubSpot Podcast Network: Supports several B2B podcasts.
• Notion Ambassadors: Supports creators.
• Brycent: Promotes play-and-earn games like Axie Infinity.
• Audible Creator Program: A referral program for influencers.

Tools:

• SparkToro: Find websites that your audience visits.
• Social Blade: Get stats from YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and more.
• Semrush: SEO tools.
• InfluenceKit: Influencer campaign data.
• BuzzStream: Outreach tool for link building.

Platforms:

• Upfluence: Find creators to work with.
• Grin: Helps e-commerce companies manage partnerships.
• Influence.co: Professional network for creators.
• The Room: Platform for matching brands and influencers.

Predictions

• Influencers will launch their own products, opting for equity over one-time fees. Supa sold $1M+ worth of makeup in 90 minutes using Instagram. MrBeast launched 1K+ cloud kitchens in North America and Europe. Kat Norton made $100K+ in a day from her Excel course using TikTok.
• Native advertising will grow, as audiences learn to sense and skip ads. Influencers are incorporating products into storytelling; for instance, an influencer will share their favorite books instead of just mentioning Audible.
• B2B companies will embrace influencer marketing. HubSpot has a podcast network. Notion has an ambassador program. ConvertKit has The Art of Newsletters.
• Virtual influencers will play a bigger role in influencer marketing. Miquela formed brand deals with Telfar, Calvin Klein, and Prada.

Opportunities

• Do guest posts, podcasts, and keynotes. Borrow trust from established entities. Podcast hosts extend trust by sharing their audiences. Many Trends Pro Members found Trends.vc through my Indie Hackers interview with Courtland Allen.
• Use influencer marketing to land clients for your service. Delverise built a new landing page for Trends.vc, and we made a video testimonial. Red Antler leverages success with top DTC brands to land new clients.
• Offer services to influencers and brands. Rel Brands helps creators incubate and launch products. The Outloud Group helps B2C brands build relationships with influencers. Justin Moore helps influencers find brands to work with, and helps negotiate deals. Steve Stoute brokers deals with artists and brands, including Reebok and McDonald's.
• Turn your influence into equity. Dr. Dre cofounded and sold Beats by Dre to Apple. Kanye worked with Adidas to build YEEZY. Rihanna founded Fenty Beauty.

Risks

• Reputation risk: You are commingling brands. Embarrassing actions on either side can destroy trust on the other. Be careful who you work with.
• Bad fits: Does the relationship feel real? Has the influencer mentioned the brand organically?

Key lessons

• Find out the brand's goals. Do they want conversions or awareness? Use this to craft and price offers.
• Influencer marketing is the force that powers music features, book testimonials, and stock recommendations.

Hot take

• Celebrities and influencers are not one in the same. Celebrities are well-known people. Influencers influence decisions. They often overlap, but not always.

Haters

"It's influence marketing, not influencer marketing."

Sure. Non-personal brands have influence as well.

"This is less effective for B2B companies."

We've seen examples from Notion, HubSpot, and ConvertKit.

Links

• Who should I talk to about influencer marketing? The tweet behind this report.
• The Power of Mimetic Desire: Our drive to mimic is the force behind influencer marketing.
• The Transformation of Commerce: A look at live commerce.

More reports

Go here to get the Trends Pro report. It contains 200% more insights. You also get access to the entire back catalog and the next 52 Pro Reports.

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Trends.vc for more.

🌐 Best Around the Web: Posts Submitted to Indie Hackers This Week

🏃‍♀️ Most indie hackers have ideas, but few take action. Posted by Ben Tossell.

🖥 No-code is overrated. Posted by Blake Ashley.

😬 Are you over-polishing before validation? Posted by Michael Forrest.

📱 Why and how I automate Twitter DMs. Posted by Tiago.

🛠 Heroku and Render are no-brainer hosting options. Posted by Vinay Nadig.

😈 Share your controversial opinions. Posted by Brandon Strellis.

Want a shout-out in next week's Best of Indie Hackers? Submit an article or link post on Indie Hackers whenever you come across something you think other indie hackers will enjoy.

📧 How Arnaud Belinga Hit $13.5K in 24 Hours

by Arnaud Belinga

Hi indie hackers! I'm Arnaud Belinga, founder of Breakcold, a cold email outreach software with personalized, AI-powered icebreakers. On December 26, my cofounder and I bought a domain. Two weeks later, we had a MVP with over 250 registered beta users (here's how we achieved that!). One week later, we got a few monthly paying customers.

To foster growth and feedback, we needed more users, and faster. Enter lifetime deals!

Understanding the early adopter audience

These days, people expect a lot from young products. Without VC funding, it's hard to close the gap fast.

However, we knew that some SaaS early adopters were in Facebook Groups, and loved lifetime deals (LTDs).

Using short LTDs

A lot of people say that LTDs are bad. I believe that the bad reputation comes from the platforms that people typically use to distribute the deal, and the massive cuts they take.

However, if you don't need to rely on the money made from the LTD, it's actually a powerful way for bootstrapped startups to get early users.

We decided to offer LTDs for seven days. The goal wasn't to do big numbers, but to get a pool of early adopters that were willing to commit and give feedback. These people are also extremely used to new SaaS products, and could spot UI/UX issues, bugs, and errors really fast.

These folks may not be your average or ideal customers, but they are key to avoid building mistakes early on. Fail fast so you can iterate quickly.

On AppSumo

We decided not to launch on AppSumo for the following reasons:

• Your deal has to run for 120 days.
• You have to accept a 70/30 cut for AppSumo Select.
• You cannot do AppSumo Select if you have a baby MVP.

We wanted to gain momentum and continue our MRR growth. By avoiding AppSumo, we were also able to keep 100%.

Long LTDs distract you, and you don't want to avoid MRR growth for months. If you're going to do a LTD, calculate your costs wisely. You can assume that probably 30% of people buying the deal won't actually use it.

How to price

We decided to be creative here.

Again, the goal was not to do big numbers, so we played with the typical rules a bit.

We decided to set a price, then increased it every two days. The objective was to create urgency in the first days.

Create a specific landing page

We built a custom landing page for early adopters, and it was greatly appreciated by the community.

We shared our story and outlined our objectives:

All of this was to reassure buyers that we were a serious deal. I would say that this was the most important thing we did to make this launch successful.

Create a video

I created a video specifically for this launch. In the video, I went through the software, expressed our long-term vision, and shared our objectives for the year.

Reach out to distributors

1. Facebook admins: A few days before launching, we reached out to Facebook admins. This is highly important since you're not backed by big platforms. Just know that some of them will say no because they're exclusive to AppSumo.

2. Affiliates: We used GetRewardful, and affiliates brought us more than 30% of our revenue. Some people who bought the deal brought up to 10 people onboard through the affiliate program. Never underestimate this channel.

3. Invest in customer support: We had hundreds of conversations and tickets. Be prepared. Thanks to our own tool, we reduced the amount of tickets. We also did a Q&A on the landing page, and that helped a lot.

4. Try to generate reviews: By being nice, we generated a few reviews. People were cheering for us in many Facebook Groups, and that was just awesome.

Here is an extract of my favorite review:

We recently launched on Product Hunt. Check us out!

Discuss this story.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Steve Procter, Priyanka Vazirani, Dru Riley, and Arnaud Belinga for contributing posts. —Channing