Marketing is scary for a solo developer • Hacker News Board

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#11

Post by TekMol » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:16 PM UTC

    Instead of publishing a blog post, I add another
    feature to my product. Instead of sending a tweet,
    I tweak CSS on my site.

Same here. But I do consider that marketing. The product is the marketing. The better the free product everyone can use, the more the existing users will use it and like it and talk about it. "Build it and they will come" works nicely for me.

I do absolutely nothing but coding. Yet a handful of big companies approach me every year, asking for B2B deals for my software. Even though I do not even mention anywhere that I offer anything. And once or twice a year, I say yes. Usually resulting in a long term B2B deal which brings in a usage fee in the 5-figures-per-year range.

    Uku worked on the code for more than a year, and
    revenue started coming in when a co-founder in
    marketing joined

Reading this, I wonder how my business would evolve if I did this type of active marketing. And I wonder: Is it worth it? Even if outbound marketing brings in more customers, it still is time spent that I could spend on my software. Which I love see growing and getting more and more amazing.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#12

Post by metadata » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:18 PM UTC

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/...".

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#13

Post by unbanned » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:19 PM UTC

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/...".

I am not clicking that link.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#14

Post by AussieWog93 » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:20 PM UTC

JimWestergren wrote: post #7

Upvoting for the honesty. And I feel the same way. Earlier I had a consultancy company but I noticed that the clients rather wrote contracts with the other consultancy companies that had sellers, was good with small-talk, met in person and and gave them coffee. It didn't matter that my service was much better with half the cost.

Jordan Peterson, of all people, spoke about this once. One of the things his experience taught him was that when you are "talking to a company", you are not taking to the company itself but one of their employees who has their own goals and career ambitions.

For example, in my business (selling open-source oscilloscopes, mostly direct to public but sometimes to universities or retailers), I found that offering a broad array of payment options and proper invoicing was more important than bulk discounts.

The employees I'd talk to weren't trying to optimally allocate their employer's resources, but minimise the fucking around required to get the purchase signed off on (or, in a few cases, get those sweet, sweet Amex points).

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#15

Post by j4yav » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:21 PM UTC

ushakov wrote: post #10

my advice: build a great product and offer it to consultancies, who can suggest it to their clients i spent $0 and 0s on marketing/ads/promotions but make a nice side-income off consultancies selling my software and services it's a win-win: you get revenue, they get something they can offer their clients

Where do you find these consultancies who'd use your software? It sounds perfect for my product/situation.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#16

Post by ushakov » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

TekMol wrote: post #11

Instead of publishing a blog post, I add another feature to my product. Instead of sending a tweet, I tweak CSS on my site. Same here. But I do consider that marketing. The product is the marketing. The better the free product everyone can use, the more the existing users will use it and like it and talk about it. "Build it and they will come" works nicely for me. I do absolutely nothing but coding. Yet a handful of…

Revolut for example does not advertise

They built a great product and offer customers money to refer to others (e-mail me if you want a code)

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#17

Post by _teyd » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

I feel like I've been in quicksand for the last year. I've built something that my cofounder and I are using internally for remote collaboration, along with a couple support people, and it's great. But none of us have been able to figure out how to talk about it in a way that generates interest. This is really hard if you're more of a natural builder than a seller.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#18

Post by TekMol » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:25 PM UTC

ushakov wrote: post #16

TekMol wrote: post #11

Instead of publishing a blog post, I add another feature to my product. Instead of sending a tweet, I tweak CSS on my site. Same here. But I do consider that marketing. The product is the marketing. The better the free product everyone can use, the more the existing users will use it and like it and talk about it. "Build it and they will come" works nicely for me. I do absolutely nothing but coding. Yet a handful of…

Revolut for example does not advertise They built a great product and offer customers money to refer to others (e-mail me if you want a code)

If they don't advertise, I would love to know how they got over ten million people to watch this video ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QabM_PvBtsI

14 million views and only 776 likes? That sounds very much like this video was somehow shoved down peoples throats.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#19

Post by ushakov » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:30 PM UTC

j4yav wrote: post #15

ushakov wrote: post #10

my advice: build a great product and offer it to consultancies, who can suggest it to their clients i spent $0 and 0s on marketing/ads/promotions but make a nice side-income off consultancies selling my software and services it's a win-win: you get revenue, they get something they can offer their clients

Where do you find these consultancies who'd use your software? It sounds perfect for my product/situation.

usually they find me first!

after we establish a relationship, we just exchange ideas what other software/features we could build that they could sell

it's a great thing - they get to make money doing sales, i get make money building software

if you'd like to, you can e-mail me and i can suggest some agencies

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#20

Post by ushakov » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 12:31 PM UTC

TekMol wrote: post #18

ushakov wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Revolut for example does not advertise They built a great product and offer customers money to refer to others (e-mail me if you want a code)

If they don't advertise, I would love to know how they got over ten million people to watch this video ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QabM_PvBtsI 14 million views and only 776 likes? That sounds very much like this video was somehow shoved down peoples throats.

maybe it was embedded in some marketing materials