What's New: TikTok works for acquiring SaaS users

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

If you think that only teens use TikTok, think again:

• An estimated 53% of TikTok users are over 30 years old, and SaaS founders (B2C and B2B!) are increasingly finding success with attracting paid users on the platform. Here's how.
• Your secret weapon in marketing? Creativity. Harry Dry's short lessons and copywriting tips can help you leverage your creativity to your advantage.
• Founder Linda Miles launched Cogency, a project management platform, to zero users. Below, she shares how she recently acquired her first 10 users, including what channels didn't work and why.

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

📲 Acquiring SaaS Users Through TikTok

from the Growth & Acquisition Channels newsletter by Darko

According to Statistia, 21.7% of US TikTok users are between 30-39, 20.3% are between 40-49, and 11% are older than 50. The idea that only teens use TikTok is no longer true, and TikTok works for acquiring SaaS users as well. Here's how!

TikTok for SaaS

One example: I came across this post in a Facebook Group on SaaS growth a few months ago:

(The name of the Chrome extension is Tactiq.)

I got in touch with Samuel, and interviewed him for Indie Hackers. He shared some really interesting information, including a list of the TikTok videos that worked for him.

Here's another example: Back in September, The Verge reported on how a TikTok video crashed a website that helps you find research participants.

The video was basically a girl telling others about a cool way to earn some extra income by completing paid surveys. Apparently, the video brought 40K new signups to the survey website, according to a member of the Stanford Behavioral Laboratory:

We have noticed a huge leap in the number of participants on the platform in the US pool, from 40K to 80K.

Okay, TikTok works for B2C SaaS. But what about B2B?

TikTok got its start with B2C content, as teens posted videos of fun, interesting things. But this is steadily changing!

I keep seeing more B2B-like profiles, such as pages of developers with tens of thousands of followers. Same with marketing. The side hustle niche is also pretty big.

If things continue this way, I can see TikTok becoming a top acquisition channel for an increasing number of SaaS founders.

Indie hacker Michael Andreuzza got an unexpected surge of traffic (probably from someone mentioning him in a video) to WickedBlocks, a website providing UI blocks for both developers and non-coders:

And yes, he got paying users from the TikTok surge.

Getting started

Make sure you're creating quality content. Post videos, and target people by age. Reaching out to influencers is also a great way to start. I know a few people who used to run TikTok Ads through influencer content, and they were able to gain traction organically. Be careful if you're in Europe, though, as you can't run ads in the US unless you get an account manager to enable this for you.

Also, before working with a certain influencer, be sure to take note of the people who like and comment on their posts to gauge their ages. This can help you decide whether this influencer is a good fit for your product.

Have you had any success with TikTok? Share your experience below!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Growth & Acquisition Channels for more.

📰 In the News

from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani

💸 Money laundering through NFTs is growing.

💰 This year, you can get your US tax return in crypto.

🥔 Potato milk might be the next big milk alternative.

📉 Facebook's one-day crash ranks as the biggest ever in stock market history.

👸 The Queen of England is launching her own ketchup brand.

Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.

🧠 Creativity is Your Secret Weapon in Marketing

from the Marketing Examples newsletter by Harry Dry

Marketing can be a mystery, but these tips can help!

Three short lessons

1. Magic Veggies: In June 2018, Belgian supermarket Delhaize changed the names of its fruit and vegetables to encourage more kids to eat them. Carrots became "Orange Rockets." Zucchini became "Troll Bats." Sales increased by 151%. In the words of Bill Bernbach:

Creativity is the last unfair advantage we're legally allowed to take over our competitors.

2. Seven links: When I created Copywriting Examples, the goal was to rank number one on Google. To do this, I need to have backlinks. So last week, I texted everyone who had interviewed me in the last two years, asking them to update the article with a “P.S.” about Copywriting Examples. This alone helped me get seven new links!

This isn't clever, it's obvious. So ask yourself: "What obvious thing are we missing?" This is a better question than “What exciting thing could we be doing?”

3. How ConvertKit grew from $1.5K to $100K MRR: This week, I read an excellent thread from ConvertKit CEO Nathan Barry, explaining how he used direct sales to grow his email marketing platform. Here are four lessons from the thread:

• Start with a niche: When ConvertKit launched, it was just for bloggers. There's a big difference between “Want to try this random new tool?” and “Want to try this new tool made specifically for people like you?"

• Don't sell. Instead, ask about frustrations. Nathan would email first, then offer to call and help people through their frustrations, allowing him to show off ConvertKit:

• Remove the biggest objection: Most calls would end with potential users telling Nathan that the product sounded great, but switching would be a hassle. So, he offered to migrate customers for free. Forms, sequences, templates. One by one.

• Always ask for referrals: Once one blogger was set up, Nathan would ask for introductions to others. It's much easier to persuade a friend's friend than it is to persuade a stranger. Soon, referrals drove as many leads as cold outreach.

Today, Convert Kit hits $29M ARR.

Two copywriting tips

1. Simplify, then exaggerate:

2. Narrow your scope until you're number one:

One favorite tweet

Here's George Mack with a lesson in contrast:

Which marketing tip resonates most with you? Let's chat below!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Marketing Examples for more.

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

🥺 The aftermath of my diasappointing Product Hunt launch. Posted by Wojtek Krzcinski.

⚖ Balancing indie hacking with FIRE. Posted by Hugh Dawkins.

🤔 Is it all about luck, or is it hard work? Posted by Brandon Strellis.

⏲ Unconventional productivity hacks. Posted by Omri Hurwitz.

😬 I'm scared to do marketing. Posted by Khoj Badami.

👎 Examples of ineffective cold emails. Posted by Paolo Amoroso.

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.

👥 Linda Miles on Her First Ten Customers

by Linda Miles

Hi indie hackers! We launched Cogency, a project management tool, in May 2021. Our hopes were high, and we assumed that once we launched, customers would just come rolling in. Well, we launched, and...nothing.

We quickly realized that attracting even a single customer is a huge task, and it takes a lot of work! As developers, we tend to think that the project is just the technical part of things, but the marketing is just as important.

Anyway, we just got our tenth paying customer! In the grand scheme of things, it seems like a very tiny number. But to us, it's a tremendous achievement. If 10 customers see value in our service, it means that we are doing something right!

AMA!

What acquisition channels have you used?

We've tried several different avenues:

• Google Ads did not work for us very well because it's difficult for us to establish differentiation on that channel. Explaining in just a few words about how we are different from services like Zoom or Teams just didn't work. We ended up getting a lot of individuals clicking the ads, but they did not really care about collaboration.

• Blog posts helped a lot, but it's a lengthy process. In our case, we did not have a prior following, so it took some time.

• I don't like to be on social media, and neither do my cofounders, so Twitter was a non-starter at first. But we finally bit the bullet, and now, Twitter is our main acquisition source.

• Indie Hackers has been our second most successful channel, and we've also gotten great advice from the community.

• We recently launched on AppSumo, but that isn't going very well. AppSumo is only featuring products that already have a ton of reviews and customers, so we are buried somewhere deep in its feed. It's kind of disappointing, because we had hoped to at least be found in the "New to AppSumo" section, but it didn't work out that way.

• We recently joined a few Facebook Groups, and we'll see if that will convert into real customers!

• We also try to work on SEO as much as we can, but we're not sure how much it actually helps. Last month, we started a newsletter that goes out to all of our members, plus anyone who subscribed from our landing page.

What is your biggest challenge in marketing?

There are no more new ideas out there really, so the only thing that you can do is to be better than the competition. We, for instance, have been compared to Zoom a lot, which is fair. But we are so much more than that! The real-time collaboration of the four essential daily tools that we offer is what sets us apart, but until folks try it, it's pretty hard to explain the benefits.

Have you taken funding?

At the moment, we are completely self-funded! I am full-time on this. However, from time to time, I do pick up some minor gigs to help keep me above water.

It is a lot of work, and that work never ends. I've learned that founders have to have unlimited patience and motivation. However, I would not trade it for anything!

Discuss this story.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

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

🏁 Enjoy This Newsletter?

Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.

Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.

Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Darko, Priyanka Vazirani, Harry Dry, and Linda Miles for contributing posts. —Channing