Most first-time founders obsess over product too much 🚨
But distribution is ultimately the king 👑
99% of your success depends on people discovering your product, using it and becoming paid customers
Here are 10 tips to help you build those marketing muscles: 💪🏼
1. Show up on 1 platform and build in public
Pick one social platform (Twitter, Linkedin or Tiktok) and start documenting your product journey from today. Write like you would write a public diary and add key observations and notes to help others. Show proof of progress.
Bonus tip: Post less about your features, but more about benefits
Marketing is about sharing stories and experiences. Don't list a technical feature alone, show how it actually helps a specific customer with a pain.
twitter.com/thisiskp_/status/1533830576880373760?s=20&t=ZajPilvBseV5G8-zghkLQA
2. Try waitlists vs open for all
As a resource-constrained founder, you can't serve everyone at once. Use a waitlist for your product to make it exclusive early on. Include an opt-in form with qualifying questions so you can decide what kind of early adopters you want first.
3. Become a content curator in your niche
The Internet is filled w/ too much information. People in your niche/vertical are definitely seeking distillation/curation. Curate and share helpful resources, tools and playbooks. This is often the easiest way to become 'discovered'.
4. Become a content creator in your niche
What's even better than curation? Creation. Write original content -- insights, threads, advice, lessons learned so others can benefit. If you can share what's obvious to you but maybe 'helpful' for those who are early, you build trust.
5. Be attached to the problem, not the solution
It is tempting to obsess over your initial solution. But it's wiser to be open-minded so people can guide you towards what they want.
"Treat your initial idea as a stem cell vs a fully formed organ" -@jasonfried
6. Calibrate your offer carefully
Constantly share new use cases & cull the stuff that's not resonating. Eventually, you want to land on 1 'killer' use case that a set of people in a specific niche will find it impossible to not share w/ their friends
twitter.com/thisiskp_/status/1348681208264323072?s=20&t=Gqqd8aab0l5fPtTcX7aaPQ
7. Be stoic about copycats, focus on customers
A lot of first-time founders delay marketing because they're afraid someone will steal their idea
Sure, that risk exists. You can't control copycats. All your favorite startups attracted dupes. Get used to it and focus on users.
8. Overcome your fear and include pricing early on
Remember this quote: "Price is a proxy for priority" [it's nothing personal]
It helps you learn who among your audience/customers 'really' want your solution - this piece of info is valuable so you can serve them better.
9. Don't scale or optimize before 10 paid customers
Too many founders are not doing things that don't scale
Stop focussing on how to scale because when you have less than 10 paying customers, you don't have a business yet
It's just a bet, so be close to the customers
10. Lastly, if you're a developer-turned-founder, don't discredit marketing as a 'nice-to-have'. In today's day and age, it is a non-negotiable.
Ask @dagorenouf 😂
twitter.com/thisiskp_/status/1516014916708278275?s=20&t=ZajPilvBseV5G8-zghkLQA
These are some top of mind tips from my 2 years of advising 500+ founders. What else? Are there any burning questions I can help with?
Reply to this thread and I'll get to as many as I can
11. Thanks for reading this, I hope you've found this thread helpful.
Follow me @thisiskp_ for more insights/tips for founders
Like/Retweet the first tweet below if you can: 🙏