I Wish Marketing Was Easy
.. but it’s not.
Last week I was talking to a brilliant app developer. He launched his app few months ago and now he wants to “market it”.
BTW this is very typical in the startup community. We build our apps / products and then start thinking about getting users.
This is what I told him.
If developing an app is hard, marketing it is 10x harder (ali)
Why?
There are 100s of apps that are launched daily. It’s hard to get people’s attention for your product.
I read product hunt daily and I can’t even name 3 apps / products I saw there this morning. I saw a lot of cool stuff but, I can’t name any right now.
I wish I was wrong but marketing is not easy.
If you think of marketing as an after-thought, you will FAIL.
Marketing != Selling
Marketing = Educating
Start educating your potential users as soon as possible.
You can use content marketing as a medium. I know its a big word, but content marketing is not hard. It’s actually very simple. Here are some simple steps.
1 — Create a website (or landing page) for your app
2 — Install an email capture form on the home page
3 — Install Google Analytics
4 — Add a blog to your website
5 — Do some research and come up with 10 articles you can write. If this seems scary, just look at your competitor’s blog. What type of content they are producing. Steal some ideas from there.
6 — You can also use a tool like Buzzsumo to get some viral content ideas.
7 — Write and publish one article every week.
8 — If you suck at writing, it’s OK. That makes 2 of us. You can find ghost writers on Fiverr.com or Upwork.com
9 — You should also submit your startup to directories like Product Hunt, Beta list, and Startup list.
10 — Setup Google Alerts on your niche keywords and reach out to people who are writing about your industry or competitors. This is what I did to get my app featured in some news outlets.
Here is the step by step process > Free press for an app
Yes, marketing is HARD, but you can do it.
Again, just think of marketing = educating.
Your job is not to just to create beautiful apps. You have to tell your target audience about it. You kinda owe it to them.
Start educating people about your idea the day you write your first if statement. (ali)
Now over to you. Are you working on a startup?
How are you educating your target audience about your product?
