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.
🔥 Roast My Landing Page
Learn marketing!!! Cannot even emphasize that one enough.
Thanks for this list! Really good stuff!!
I'm introverted, so marking has been really hard for me.
Yea same here. Kinda introverted so marketing gives me anxiety
thank you!
wishing you marketing clarity this year 🔥
nice one.!
Love it. Needed the reminder to focus on what matters and ruthlessly prioritize.
Awesome piece of content as always! Thank you very much for sharing Dan 🙏
Wow! I'm glad this article provided valuable advice and validation for my next steps. Thank you so much!
Oh my god. Thank you for this article. Gives me solid advice and validation for what I am supposed to do.
You can learn marketing like you can learn to code, but that doesn't mean you should. Be willing to take a smaller piece of a bigger pie and partner up with people who know what they are doing. Someone else will out market you, while you're still learning.
I wish I could super like this, or like it multiple times
I'm a major fan of the $0 investment one man startup. A lot of your points hit on how I design my startups. I actually just launched one today named Poket Dev on product hunt. It's an Unlimited Software Development Subscription. I'm getting my hands dirty with a subscription service based model.
Woow, great post!
I had/have the problem of building too much stuff at the same time, saas, extensions, etc.
Definitely have to learn to focus on one and grow.
Thanks for this!
I really like a lot of these ideas--number 4 particularly! I would love to see a follow-up post on soliciting authentic feedback, when you know most of the people you're talking with are going to want to be nice.
#11. Learn to sell
Actually picking up the phone and calling prospects is the number one fastest way to grow any business. Take the time to read some books on sales skills and put them to use.
Yeah, I stuck with my current product for the last 4 month and zero revenue. Probably it’s time to switch 😅
Great post, Dan! I agree with most of your tips, especially the ones about starting small, charging one-time payments, and building an email list. These are essential for indie entrepreneurs who want to get profitable quickly and avoid wasting time and money on things that don't work.
I would add one more tip: validate your idea before building anything. This is something that many indie makers skip or do poorly, and end up creating products that nobody wants or needs.
You can use tools like Google Forms, Typeform, or SurveyMonkey to create simple surveys and ask your target audience about their problems, needs, and preferences.
You can also use platforms like Reddit, Indie Hackers, or Product Hunt to get feedback from potential users and customers.
Validating your idea will help you avoid building something that nobody wants, and instead, focus on creating something that solves a real problem and provides value to your audience.
It will also help you refine your value proposition, positioning, and messaging, which are crucial for effective marketing.
Thanks for sharing your insights and experience, Dan. I look forward to reading more from you.
100x better info!
But, I need to tell you. It's not vital to do one-time sales. I think that's can cause a problem specially if you are paying to keep your product running. Instead of one-time, I'd think affordable, and I'd add a layer of personalized service.
These are some nice tips mate! I've done a couple of launches on Product Hunt, but I see that this site is mostly dominated by a clique that falsely raises up the engagement. Are you doing anything to get over that?
This is a great list, Dan. I especially like 7 and 8. I don't do these often enough. Thanks for the reminder.
great! you are welcome 🙌
I approve of this approach.
merci 💪
Dan, a humongous thank you for this!
Really helpful!
This is the slap in the face I needed to stop trying to optimize my backend's maintainability by rewriting it from random functions to OOP. Hoping back on the value proposition train. Many thanks.
Great summary!
Great Info
Great post!
@kronop This is so real. thanks for the post.
im gonna use this coding my first saas now
You've got some great ideas here, and you deliver them in very down-to-Earth way...thank you.....what would you suggest is the best way to get feedback from others.....I have a simple to use data integration tool that is going through a sluggish phase sales wise and need some independent feedback re the downturn in the economy
Thanks for sharing. Super used.
Amazing! Thanks for sharing your experience
Definitely tons of wisdom gems here. I think the biggest thing is knowing when to pivot. If you're doing the same things/trying new things + ultimately not seeing results for months, it's time to revisit the product or service.
I have a pretty niche product that has been on the market for about a month, with 4 people doing the free trila, but no paid conversions yet. Would anyone be willing to give me some feedback via DM?
I am having the same problem......why don't we help one-another out by giving one-another feedback? Interested?
Sure, send me an email: [email protected]
This is one of the realest post shared here in a while. Doing complete justice to the title.
Thanks for the no-nonsense, get-it-done advice.
Insightful advice. Indie Entrepreneurs need to know the harsh reality and focus, focus and focus as you rightly said. Well said.
There are really great tips! Thanks for sharing.
I still find getting the first users hard, but these are really good tips. Thanks!
Thanks for the great tips!
Thanks for writing this
Dan, your are straight to the point and practical. Like no BS stuff👍
Thanks for sharing this, Dan! Would you have any suggestions on where we can get ruthless feedback from the community? I tried to make a post before but didn't really hear back from anyone.
Thanks, Dan, this piece gave me the idea to make a fake door test for my design SaaS before launching it and building an email list first.