Non-BS marketing tips for Indie Entrepreneurs

I hate to see Indie Entrepreneurs burn their savings. So here is my free marketing playbook. Simple and non-BS tips to get profitable in 2023. [8 more free marketing resources — www.makerbox.club/free-resources] 1. Start small Your first product will suck. It will fail. You can’t change it. So why spend months building it if you can spend days? • Instead of building a productivity app, create a Noition template. • Instead of building a marketing platform, launch a Productized service. • Instead of building SaaS, launch a One-time payment app. Focus on ONE use case for ONE target audience. Bad: AI-powered tool to generate Spotify playlists Good: Create Phonk workout playlists with AI Don’t try to change the world with your first product. Try to earn the first $ online. Start small. You will always have time to go bigger later. 2. Charge one-time payments Yeah, getting monthly subscriptions feels just like getting a paycheck. But getting $2000 MRR is x100 harder than getting $2000 in one-time payments. And if your goal is to get profitable, start with lifetime deals. You can add subscriptions later. But, Dan, I will need to find new customers every month! No, shit, Sherlock. We all do. Even if you have SaaS. People are tired of subscriptions. Especially in the recession. But anything <$49 is still an impulse no-brainer for USA / Europe. Leverage it. 3. Focus on one acquisition channel Don’t try growing on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram simultaneously. Especially when you have 100 followers there. You need time to master marketing channels. The more you defocus, the longer it will take you. • Your audience hangs out on Twitter? Ignore other marketing channels for 6 months. • You want to try side-project marketing? Launch a new tool every 2 weeks on Product Hunt. • You have a juicy keyword for programmatic SEO? Create new website pages every day. Focus ruthlessly. Be everywhere — be nowhere. 4. Aim for harsh feedback The indie community is awesome. But listen to its feedback with a pinch of salt. Most people will root for you just because they want you to root for them. They have no skin in your game. You need anti-BS people who will give your unfiltered, honest feedback about your business. Slide in DMs. Ask people to roast you. 9/10 will agree. 5. Build an email list Algorithms are fun until they are not. One day you build in public tweet gets 10k impressions. The other day it gets 100 views. You need a marketing channel that YOU control. Start a weekly newsletter. Create useful freebies for your audience. Build a healthy email list. It will change the way you do business. • Product Hunt launch? These people will support you • New feature? These people will give you feedback about it • Juicy discount? These people will buy because they trust you Nobody has ever said, “I wish I started an email list later”. 6. Stick with free tools Paid tools are distractions in 80% of the time. • You don’t need a paid tool to build an audience on Twitter. • You don’t need automation with 5 paying customers. • You don’t need fancy icons with 30 website visitors. Keep it simple and cheap. Use free tools until you can’t. 7. Talk about your product non-stop You don’t talk enough about your product. Even if you think you do, you don’t. Most of your followers have no clue you got a paid product. Want to get traction? Be your biggest promoter. Share your product authentically and non-intrusively AT LEAST once a day. It will still not be enough. But this is a good start. 8. Focus on revenue 24/7 I am sorry to tell you this. But nobody cares about your personal website. Or your privacy policy. Or fancy footer. Don’t build features that feel nice. Build features that move the needle. Imagine you are building a no-code website builder. • A/B testing feature will make an impact on revenue • Adding more templates will make an impact • Getting 100% on Core Web Vitals won’t Wake up and spend 100% of your time improving your value proposition. Every single day. Hit profitability. Then you are free to do whatever you want. 9. Know when to pivot My first product earned $2000 in 2 weeks. But I knew it didn’t have the potential to earn more. It was good but not GREAT. That’s why I launched a new product that earned $5000 in 1 week. The lesson is simple. Some products are better than others. You can’t produce hits every time. If you stare at $100 MRR after 6 months, it’s better to launch another product and earn money. Starting from scratch is not a failure. Ignoring the reality is. 10. Learn marketing No one cares about your development skills. Not a single customer bought the product because they liked the code. People buy products to get the job done. Even if the product is written in a terrible programming language with no unit tests. No one was born a good marketer. You were not born as a good developer too. So stop finding excuses for not doing marketing. Indie Entrepreneurship is not a fairytale for infantile adults. It’s a harsh journey. Spend 2 hours every week improving your marketing skills: • copywriting • marketing funnels • content marketing • word-of-mouth • positioning It will have more impact on your business than trying another shiny framework to make your app 0.1s. faster. __ And maybe talk to your users once in a while. But you saw that advice 100 times already.