⚡ MC - 11 Marketing Channels That Consistently Work for Founders

This issue lists the marketing channels most mentioned by founders on IndieHackers.com.

11 Marketing Channels That Consistently Work for Founders

The marketing channels below are ordered by the frequency of mentions. The list will include an overview of each channel  and a link to a more detailed post where you'll be able to learn more about each channel.

1. SEO (After Succeeding With Another Acquisition Channel)

SEO is a pretty saturated channel, and it usually takes months to start seeing decent traffic on Google. Most of the people who were successful with SEO tried to use other acquisition channels first. Many founders also noticed that SEO success was often by accident.  Learn more.

2. Product Launch Platforms (Product Hunt, BetaList, etc.)

These are websites with millions of users that feature new products on a daily basis. Product Hunt/Beta List are the top 2 platforms (in terms of traffic) for tech founders. Learn more.

3. App Exchanges / Marketplaces

Many huge platforms like Shopify, Slack and Salesforce have their own respective app stores. A surprising amount of founders had success being listed on them, like Finbarr from Shogun ($4.5k/mo), a drag-and-drop page builder. Learn more.

4. (sub)Reddit(s)

There are 100k+ active communities on Reddit. Chances are one - if not more than one - is related to your niche. Learn more.

5. Cold Email Outreach

This is simply reaching out to people you don't know yet via email and making them aware of your product or service. Cold email is a channel that is easy to get started with, but hard to master. Learn more.

6. "Powered by" Marketing

You've probably visited a website, seen a live chat widget and a small "powered by Intercom/Drip/[insert live chat provider here]" link at the bottom of the widget. It turns out this is an amazing channel for getting new users from your existing users who publicly use your product. Learn more. 

7. Hacker News

A good % of founders who were interviewed in Indie Hackers targeted other devs and/or technical people on Hacker News. Take Qbserve ($2K/mo), a time tracking app for Mac, and how they got their first users: "I created a Show HN on Hacker News, and Qbserve became one of the top submissions that week, bringing a huge stream of sales and feedback.". Learn more.

8. SEO (starting immediately)

The difference between 1) and this one is timing. SEO/search is probably the most competitive marketing channel out there.  Nowadays, you usually have to wait for months before you even start appearing in the top 100 months. There are certain exceptions, though. One of them is when there's a new category of searches appearing. Learn more.

9. Word of Mouth

Every product has a certain degree of word of mouth built-in. However, there are a few things you can proactively do to increase word-of-mouth. One thing is to find a segment of users with an audience that's also your audience. Learn more.

10. Software Directories

Capterra, G2, GetApp. These are the top 3 most popular software directories in terms of traffic. These sites are like traffic brokers. If you're a founder in a B2B niche, this is a channel worth considering. Learn more.

11. Freelancing Marketplaces

You want to be careful with this; just sending a message saying "Hey you don't need a dev, get X instead" is likely to get you banned from many platforms (after all, you're taking money away from them by saying their clients don't need to hire a dev and could use your software instead). Learn more.

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Snippets

• Heurio — A Google Chrome extension to make comments and collaborate directly on any live website.
• 3D Bay — Royalty-free 3D stock images.
• Alex Garcia — 9 Chrome Extensions For All Of Your Growth Marketing Needs.
• Alex Garcia — I've worked on over 300+ landing pages. These 12 learnings will help you convert traffic into customers.
• Bernardo — In 2 months, I got 1.2M impressions and went from 54 to 1,500 followers. Here are 9 tweets on how I've 30x my audience.
• Tom J —  Here's how side project marketing works.

Worth Reading

1. With Metaverses being all the rage now, Tinder's parent company, Match, has announced a 'dating metaverse'.  

2. Pinterest gets into live shopping with the launch of Pinterest TV  — a series of live, original and shoppable videos focused on areas like food, lifestyle, DIY, and more.

3. Facebook is helping content creators duck Apple's app store fees with custom subscription links.

 Good Findings

• Paying too much each month for software? From AppSumo Originals, upgrade your marketing & spend 90% less with SleekBio (bio link), TidyCal (calendar tool), & Shorty (SMS marketing).

Good Findings are paid ads that support Marketer Crew and are sent to our 3000+ subscribers each week. Book now →

Gif / Illustration

The paradox of choice & how Trader Joe’s solves for it -- selling 2x the amount per sq ft that Whole Foods does (Trung Phan)

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