What's New: Creating engaging, interactive content
(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)
Are you running out of content ideas?
- Create engaging, interactive content by introducing gamification, interactive email campaigns, and live events.
- The key to cold calling prospects? Don't go in with a fixed set of questions. Let the conversation guide you, and go from there.
- 4 failed projects in 1 year. Yossi Segev nearly gave up, but rediscovered his love of building, and is now at $1.1K in revenue.
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Creating Engaging, Interactive Content 🤩
These insights and strategies can help you captivate your audience through content that invites them to participate, interact, and connect with your brand!
Know your audience
Understanding your audience is the foundation of creating content that resonates. For that, you need to conduct thorough research to identify your target demographic, their preferences, and the platforms they frequently use.
Storytelling with a purpose
Storytelling is not just about conveying a message; it's also about creating an emotional connection.
So, try to craft narratives that evoke feelings, spark curiosity, or tap into shared experiences. The more relatable and emotionally resonant your story, the more likely it is to draw your audience in and encourage interaction.
Incorporate multimedia
Diversify your content by incorporating various elements, including videos, infographics, and animations. Experiment with different formats to see what resonates best with your target audience.
Gamification strategies
Introduce gamification elements into your content to tap into people's love of competition and achievement. Whether it's quizzes, polls, or interactive challenges, gamification not only makes your content more enjoyable, but also encourages participation.
As part of the game, consider offering rewards or incentives!
Livestreaming and webinars
Leverage real-time engagement through livestreaming and webinars. Live events create a sense of urgency, encouraging more active participation.
User-generated content campaigns
Harness the power of your community by incorporating user-generated content (UGC) into your strategy. Encourage your audience to share their experiences with your brand through photos, videos, or testimonials.
Be sure to incorporate a branded hashtag.
Interactive email campaigns
Email marketing is powerful. Transform your efforts by making emails more interactive, incorporating clickable elements, interactive images, and personalized content tailored to each recipient.
VR and AR
For a full immersive experience, consider incorporating virtual or augmented reality into your content strategy. While this is more resource-intensive, it can provide a memorable, shareable experience for your audience.
VR and AR are especially effective for industries like real estate, travel, and retail!
Discuss this story.
Your Go-to for Technical Documentation 📄
This issue is sponsored by GitBook
GitBook combines powerful docs with AI-powered search and insights to give technical teams a single source of truth for their knowledge.
Effortlessly create, surface, and improve documentation in the tools you use daily - such as Slack, GitHub, and VS Code.
Demystifying Cold Calls 📞
by Mac Martine
When I first started reaching out to people to pick their brains about their business processes and pain points, I was scared of rejection. I was also scared of bothering people.
Combatting the fear
At first, I planned out my questions and tried to follow a formula. Over time, I realized that most people are cool, and love talking about themselves!
If someone doesn't want to talk to you, they simply won't respond, or will say so (usually politely). So, by the time you get to an actual conversation, the person is willing. Therefore, there's no need to be nervous or worried!
Let the conversation guide you
My most valuable conversations have been those where I can stay calm and relaxed, and let their responses guide me to the pain point I am trying to uncover.
Trying to follow a prescribed set of questions is much less productive. Go with the flow, and encourage them to go deeper. The deeper they go, the more pain and value you will extract.
After just a few times of reaching out to people and having these conversations, I was super comfortable with it. It became something I didn't have to think much about. I attribute my success to going through this process, as it has been the big difference in how I approached my apps that have done well versus those that haven’t.
Get inside their heads
There's no better way to get inside the head of your customer than to have insightful conversations, no matter what stage you're in.
Hopefully, this encourages you to face any fears you have around starting conversations with prospects or customers, and to recognize the value you are bound to walk away with if you do so!
Discuss this story.
In the News 📰
from the Growth Trends newsletter
🛠 WhatsApp announces new tools for Channels.
🔎 Insights into B2B marketing trends.
💲 Link to your product here. Our most affordable ad.
🤗 Here's how to repair a damaged business partnership.
🛣 Paths to product-market fit.
🗑 A shocking amount of the internet is already AI-generated garbage.
Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.
Yossi Segev Rediscovered His Love for Building 💞
by Yossi Segev
Last time I posted, I told you about my latest failed project. It was a frustrating post about how, after months of development, I couldn't land a single paying user.
It was a humbling experience, and when I decided to shut down that last project, I almost gave up on indie hacking entirely. At that point, I had spent the whole year launching four failed projects in a row.
The turnaround
In December 2023, I launched SEO Stuff. As I write this, SEO Stuff is 45 days old, and has generated $1.1K+.
Here's how I came up with the idea: SEO tools are expensive! I imagined a great keyword research tool, minus the expensive monthly subscription. My users buy credits as a one-time payment, and if they run out of credits, they can always buy more.
Validation
I decided I was not going to write a single line of code at the start. Instead, I tweeted this:
This initial tweet helped me gather over 30 beta testers, so I got started on the MVP. Before getting to work, I set the following ground rules:
- Use only off-the-shelf components. If I needed to customize it, I'd find another way.
- No wasting time on analytics or bug reporting; that's what my test group was for.
- Everything was open and free for the beta group.
- No wasting time on payment infrastructure until (if!), I actually needed it.
After few days, I had a working MVP. This is what it looked like when I gave it to the testers:
Beta feedback
Once my testers got their hands on the MVP, I began asking for feedback. I got amazing input and ideas, and I really felt I was designing the product with my users. I had a great time, and for the first time in almost a year, I actually enjoyed building!
Some testers even asked to pay ahead of time.
Doubling down on development
The next step was to implement the payment infrastructure, and open access publicly. I launched the new version on December 4, and made $110 on the first day. I was so excited!
SEO Stuff currently has 95 paying users, and here it is 45 days later:
Don't give up. Keep shipping!
Discuss this story.
The Tweetmaster's Pick 🐦
I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:
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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Thomas Griffin, Darko, Mac Martine, and Yossi Segev for contributing posts. —Channing
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