Ask HN: I am the software guy and marketing is hell for me

Disclaimer: I am also technical, just starting, and haven't proven these ideas yet.

But what I do is find marketing channels that leverage my technical strengths.

I write a technical blog, have for years. Some people now know my name.

I am starting a podcast with no ads except "Supported by " at the end. This idea is from Oxide Computing and their Bare Metal(?) podcast.

There are other ways I'm sure. Maybe attend a local Linux user group?

I will say that a lot of these methods take time. I have been publishing blogs for 11 years, 6 on the current one.

I'm the marketing guy and I'll give you some suggestions:

1. Stop hating, despising and/or looking down on your customers. Most business owners do this and are not good at hiding it. Customers are not a nuisance, they pay your bills and they respect you as a professional by paying for your work.

2. A) Know exactly what you are offering and exactly what it costs. Even if you will make custom solutions for customers, you have to know what the basic or most common use case will be and what you will charge.

2. B) Communicate exactly what you are offering and exactly what it costs. Put it on your website and other marketing material, put as much information about it on your website as you can. Be precise on pricing and offer solutions/products that cover most use cases. Even if you would have offered a great price to a customer, they already closed your tab because 99% of businesses who do not print their price are scamming their customers. Even if the customer was looking for a custom solution, having your standard prices printed means they can get an idea of your rates.

3. Don't block a customer from purchasing your product. Why are you obstructing them from clicking the purchase button by putting your annoying cookie banners and sign-up letters and chatbots in front of their face? Why is your website slow to load and jumping around? Why is your text illegible?

Oh great, they actually clicked the purchase button! Now let me jerk around this customer by forcing them to load seven different pages to confirm their purchase. Better have them agree on receiving marketing e-mails and put some more pop-up windows with spam in front of their face before they can put in their details. Better annoy them in every way possible with adress requirement, force them to register an account and make a very specific password. Surely they are so desperate to buy my product that they will accept any humiliation and annoyance to complete their purchase?

That's the basics and takes you a long way without having to learn more about marketing. Not knowing anything more about your business.

I think crossing the chasm resonates more for a later stage, rather than just for getting started. I read it and felt like it really applied a lot more to my experience at a multi-hundred person company trying to become sustainable and public.

Done, forgot I hadn't included it here. For simplicity, I can be reached at rob.lheureux.3@gmail.com.

Same thing for me. I can write any software and make basic PCBs but I couldn’t sell water in a desert