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Marketing is scary for a solo developer

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Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#181

Post by supperburg »

aembleton wrote: post #143
supperburg wrote: post #129

Minecraft had zero marketing. Tesla had zero marketing. Anyway, if you wanted to market your product how would you even do that? Just buy ads on YouTube and google?

Tesla had and continues to have enormous amounts of marketing. Loads of articles have been written about them; plenty of press generated. Elon Musk, making grandiose claims about self driving gets repeated ad nauseam. All this is marketing.

Actually none of that was a factor for the model s, x, roadster or really even the model 3. In both the former and latter case the viral popularity was fueled by the fact that the products were intrinsically good, although flawed, and filled a gap in their respective markets that was neglected by large corporations. The “Elon musk is just a marketing guru” thing is a super annoying misinformation spread by people who only started paying attention to Tesla and EVs in general after Elon musk became famous.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#182

Post by j4yav »

mdorazio wrote: post #166
_teyd wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app has a list of topics that anyone can add to. Each topic has a due date so you know when it is wrapping up, and they also have an explicit context and outcome; the topic creator sets the context, and the outcome is the bit that everyone collaborates on by editing together/using the discussion thread. Once the topic is done and a decision made, you lock the topic, saving the context, decision, and the discussio…

Ok cool. So if I had to sum it up elevator pitch style based on what you’ve provided so far, I would call it a collaborative project management tool that uses threaded discussions for deliverables and decision making. Is your target and experience to replace existing PM tools like kanban boards or work alongside them?

To work along side them, we are really just thinking about the collaborative decision making bit. We do have document editing built-in (WYSIWYG markdown editing), but issue trackers for example, backlogs, kanbans would still be in place for _doing_ work.

I can imagine replacing Slack, for the right team. We are a small team, but internally we use our own app (all the time) plus Google Chat (rarely, for quick pings).

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#183

Post by jimbokun »

make_it_sure wrote: post #165

I'm a developer. I haven't done marketing at all, just posted my product in a few communities and took off. Why? Because if was a big need for what I built and worked really well. If your product is super needed by the market, you don't have to do much marketing, but a great marketing person will get such product to the moon

So the key for you was you had already done "market research" in the sense you new there was a need for this product and how to reach the communities that needed it.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#184

Post by sanderjd »

magicroot75 wrote: post #26

I work solely in marketing/advertising and have no clue how to code. I generally enjoy technology, which is why I'm on HN. I think marketers and developers need a stronger culture between ourselves. The tools of marketers (data mining, consumer behavior analysis, surveys, market testing, etc) aren't just a veneer to be applied at the completion of a development project. Marketing, when done correctly, informs UX. Mar…

I think you're exactly right about this!

But just to provide some insight (which you probably already have) into the mind of a different kind of person: I can both recognize the truth that marketing is critically and synergistically important, and also have just a deep seated allergy to it. I have concluded that being a freelance / independent developer or even a very early stage startup developer is not a great fit for me for this reason. I thrive more when there is lots of work to do that is not deeply attached to marketing a new product.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#185

Post by andruby »

j4yav wrote: post #103
nicoburns wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes it better than what’s out there? There are a lot of tools in this space!

It's designed from the ground up for async collaboration and focus (you collaborate on decisions like you might an issue, rather than interruptive chat discussions or worse, meetings.) It's based on how I saw collab work at a unicorn I worked at that was doing remote work well pre-pandemic, and that I've seen replicated elsewhere. However, it feels very foreign to people who haven't experienced that. What I've seen i…

Have you considered recording a video of you using it?

Have a rough landing page. Add the video. Post a Show HN. How I would consider marketing it after that is through "content marketing". Ie: start a blog/insta/twitter/youtube channel where you post relevant stuff for people trying to solve or improve remote collaboration. You can show your solution, or talk about common problems you've seen, etc.

Good luck!

(I'm curious to see your solution!)

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#187

Post by ketzo »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #134
magicroot75 wrote: post #26

I work solely in marketing/advertising and have no clue how to code. I generally enjoy technology, which is why I'm on HN. I think marketers and developers need a stronger culture between ourselves. The tools of marketers (data mining, consumer behavior analysis, surveys, market testing, etc) aren't just a veneer to be applied at the completion of a development project. Marketing, when done correctly, informs UX. Mar…

> I think marketers and developers need a stronger culture between ourselves. I fully agree. I've worked with an incredible b2b salesman before. He wasn't very technical, but he was always curious about what was possible and how difficult it would be to accomplish. Going to a conference with him as the technical expert was amazing. Customers were a gold mine for information. We always looked deeper to find the proble…

Engineers tend to have this conception of all salespeople (and, to the point of the GP, marketers) as con-artists: "how can I convince this rube to buy my crap?"

When in reality, as you discovered, the best salespeople are the ones who are able to really, truly understand the problems of their customer base and help them find solutions. That is an incredibly special skill, and one that should never be underrated.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#188

Post by WORMS_EAT_WORMS »

bastardoperator wrote: post #172

A marketing director forced me into spamming our customers. I objected, said it's going to be a bad idea, copied everyone. He was furious I challenged his authority, told me I don't know a thing about marketing which is true. I do however know unsolicited email is not appreciated. I eventually get overruled and flip on the spam machine. This is a Monday evening. By Tuesday noon our support lines are flooded, twitter…

Honestly, this just depends - depends on who your audience is and what your service is. No one likes spammy and cheesy emails but can be super effective and a company's biggest conversion medium.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#189

Post by datavirtue »

metadata wrote: post #12

Jon Yongfook has a brilliant approach - he writes code one week, then does only marketing another week. https://twitter.com/yongfook I plan to follow that as it completely eliminates the habit of "just have to fix a few things on the software side and then I'll get on with blogging/tweeting/...".

You have to be able to get into a marketing groove, though. It takes a lot of cajoling to get my brain to switch gears.

I need someone who can live and breath marketing the way I live and breath software. I can get into a marketing groove but it going to detract from building. No way around that. Switching back and forth is going to burn me out.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#190

Post by codpiece »

koonsolo wrote: post #108
codpiece wrote: post #80

I'm a marketing technology consultant. I've built or optimized systems for many tech companies you know and love. I've always wanted to share my knowledge; write a book, do a training series, etc, but I simply can't market myself. The hustle needed to be seen feels too...gross.

Why does it feel gross? You would be helping a lot of people. Do you think how for example Andrew Chen markets himself and his book is gross?

I think it's the hustle of social media to be heard that turns me off. The 'thought leader hustle' feels artificial, manipulative and needy.

I think it comes down to what you hear in this very thread, and often expressed by engineers; marketing and advertising to consumers can feel deceitful.

Business to business marketing is very different. You present your value to customers, they explore, and reach out when ready for more information.

If I could mentally associate myself with someone like Chen vs Gary Veynerchuck, Ryan Holliday, or Seth Godin, I would feel less 'gross'. I suffer the same problems as the OP and others here.

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