🗞 What's New: A LinkedIn growth strategy that works

Don't sleep on LinkedIn for finding beta testers and paid users:

• Create a job on LinkedIn to recruit volunteer beta testers. Make it super easy for them to test, then follow up with them to convert them!
• Focus on the four P's of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) to reach product-market fit fast!
• $192K MRR from an AI writing tool. Jozef Gherman eliminated his free tier, and saw a 50% revenue spike in one month.

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by Juston Berg

We onboarded 189 beta testers for free using LinkedIn. Here's how!

Shipping is easy, growth is hard

After building our MVP in just 48 hours, my cofounder and I were pretty stoked. We needed beta testers, and we aimed to convert those testers into active users.

After sharing our new SaaS with ~80 people, we netted one signup. Thanks, Mom.

Here's the thing... most people, even those close to you, don't care. They may check out your landing page ("That's cool!"), but most won't take the next step.

I'm fairly active on LinkedIn, so we decided to develop a growth strategy there. We went from zero to 189 beta testers in just four days.

The strategy

1. LinkedIn jobs: First, we created a LinkedIn company page, and posted a job to recruit volunteer beta testers. Do this under your personal profile, then select the company page you created to post the job. After posting your job description, LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to promote your job for free. Do this, but don't forget to cancel later! You'll see three times the applicants.

2. Capture interest: When creating a job post, LinkedIn will give you two options for connecting with applicants. You can either email, or send them to a link. Make it super easy, since these folks will be spending their time testing your product. Since we're building an online form builder, we chose option two. This allowed us use our own technology to gather the information we needed.

3. Communication: Instead of communicating directly with all 189 applicants, we decided to use a newsletter. Our beta testers had opted in, and the assignment included testing of email signup and delivery. Instructions were super simple, and we set clear expectations for how long the testing process should take.

4. Gathering data: We used open-ended questions and simple form fields to capture feedback. Use this as an opportunity to collect testimonials for your product!

5. Follow up with testers: After the testing deadline had passed, we sent a follow-up communication thanking the testers, and providing another opportunity for those who hadn't tested yet. This netted another 20 responses. We also offered to write a brief recommendation for the testers who completed the assignment. It was the least we could do to assist those looking to build experience and find employment.

In closing, while beta testers aren't necessarily qualified leads, we've seen users sign up daily!

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from the Trendy Software Ideas newsletter

🎭 How to close more sales with emotion-driven SEO.

🎯 Location targeting is a big problem.

💲 Link to your product here. Our most affordable ad.

💻 Finding keyword match types in Google Ads.

🤩 Tell the truth, but make it interesting.

🚘 Why Americans stopped buying convertibles.

Check out Trendy Software Ideas to discover more software ideas inspired by recent news.

by Sheridan Bulger

Understanding the four P's of marketing can help you hit product-market fit (PMF)!

1. Product

The product, of course, refers to the SaaS app itself. However, it does not end there. The product may also include support, service-level agreements, API integrations, professional services, help documentation, etc.

Developers often think of a product just in terms of the lines of code in the IDE, but the product is the totality of the offering: Its features, overall benefits, and quality.

2. Price

When considering price, it is important to consider your total costs. You want to make sure that they will be covered. This means understanding the total cost of production and maintenance, as well as the target lifetime value to customer acquisition cost ratio.

If you are priced high compared to the market averages, make sure you are offering a luxury service. If you are using a pricing scheme that varies from the norm, be able to articulate why this scheme is beneficial to the customer.

3. Place

This refers to how the product gets from the manufacturer to the customer. It includes distribution channels, store placement, and accessibility for the target market.

This also includes the website content and help center.

4. Promotion

There are various methods of promotion that should be used for different phases and businesses. Here are a few broad categories:

• SEO.

• Your personal and professional networks.

• Direct engagement: This includes cold outreach via social media, email, or phone, as well as attending events and shows where you can promote your product to potential users.

• Paid ads: Don't start with these until you hit PMF.

Wrapping up

Remember that the four P's are all interconnected. For instance, a change in price might necessitate changes to your promotion strategy.

Check out my product, Essembi, to build better software, faster!

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by James Fleischmann

Jozef Gherman was working paycheck to paycheck with nothing in the bank, lingering credit card debt from college, and a string of failed products.

Then, he launched StealthGPT, an AI writing tool, and is now bringing in $190K+ MRR.

Building four AI products

Jozef invested $250 into what would become StealthGPT, and built a prototype. It took about six months before he was making enough money to pay himself.

StealthGPT is subscription based, with tiered pricing that offers varying levels of access. Each plan offers an increasing number of "Stealth Word" limits.

Jozef has also created three new products this year:

• AIBypass: An undetectable AI solution with different use cases than StealthGPT.

• RapidResume: An AI resume creator.

• AIDetect: An AI detection solution.

These small products are how he validates demand for new features within StealthGPT, and they also bring in additional revenue.

Jozef says he made the mistake of making his free tier too generous at first. It helped with initial adoption, but it quickly became clear that it was killing revenue.

So, he eliminated the free tier altogether. This resulted in a 50% revenue spike that month, and reduced the number of support emails.

Get funded, but avoid VCs

Jozef's expenses are $175K+ per month. His biggest expenses are payroll (~$44K) and Google Ads ($110K).

Jozef sought investment for StealthGPT, but not from VCs. He got $400K from angel investors and small family investment offices, in exchange for 8% of his company.

If you're going to raise money, he recommends going for a relatively small amount, and avoiding VCs. Angel investors and family offices tend to have more leniency in their processes, and a longer time horizon for investments to mature.

Plus, they're very hands off! So far, Jozef has spent about $300K of the investment.

Advice for indie hackers

You do not need funding to start a company! Don't worry too much about investment until it's time to scale.

Just buy a domain, launch your product, and connect it to the right audiences. If it fails, either the product or market didn't fit, so you should adjust accordingly.

It's never been easier to build a multimillion dollar business!

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Juston Berg, Darko, Sheridan Bulger, Harry Dry, and James Fleischmann for contributing posts. —Channing