Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@bcartier

bcartier/marketing-checklist.md

Last active June 17, 2020 15:22
Show Gist options
  • Save bcartier/a47006fb0e27b587cea91dda7c361fed to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save bcartier/a47006fb0e27b587cea91dda7c361fed to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Download ZIP
Marketing Checklist
Raw
marketing-checklist.md

Pre-Launch

Market Research

Competitive Landscape

  • Make a list of competitive/alternative services.

    Finding competitors
    Competitor data to collect
    • Link to their website.
    • "One-liners" and taglines competitors use.
    • Pricing and business model.
    • Blog/RSS link.
    • Social media links.
    • Key employees on social media.

  • Subscribe to RSS feeds of your competitors' blogs.

  • Follow your competitors and their key employees on social media.

  • Set up Google News alerts for competitors.

  • Set up Site Alerts for competitors.

  • Subscribe to industry newsletters, magazines, trade journals etc.

Customer Research

  • Find people in your contact list who might be future customers. Get their feedback on your idea.

  • Attend meetups or conferences for your target market.

  • Meet another entrepreneur who has a similar or competitive product.

  • Make a list of your competitors' customers:

    Finding competitors' customers
    • Check their Twitter followers, mentions.
    • Look through their Facebook fans.
    • Find people who follow them on Linkedin.
    • Check their website. Some companies list customer stories on their websites.

  • Reach out to your competitors' customers, find out what they like/don't like.

  • Create an "early access" list for potential future customers.

PR Preparations

  • Create list of tech, startup, and industry blogs.
  • Create list of local small business journals (eg: Crain's Chicago).
  • Create list of local bloggers and journalists in your industry.
  • Create a "Media Kit" page (check out this example).

Landing Page

  • Come up with a name and domain name.

  • Write a site tagline and elevator pitch.

  • Create a logo.

  • Set up a landing page.

    Landing page tools

  • Create "About" and "Contact" pages.

  • Create pricing page:

    Pricing ideas
    • Create a free or trial tier for your paid product.
    • Offer a 100% satisfaction/money-back guarantee.
    • Make product invite-only to start.
    • Offer free/discounted access for early adopters/beta testers.

  • Add social media follow links to landing page.

  • Set up analytics to learn about who signs up, bounces, etc.

    Analytics platforms

Email Setup

Blog Setup

  • Choose a blogging platform

  • Research keywords that you'd like your site/blog to rank for.

  • Create anchor posts or pages for keywords you'd like to rank for.

  • Have a blog post brainstorming session:

    Blog post ideas
    • Little known features of your product.
    • Highlight use cases for your product.
    • Highlight customers who are using your product.
    • Interview industry specialists.
    • List of popular sites in your industry (be sure to notify them after you publish it!)
    • See these lists of ideas from Buffer and Hubspot.

  • Add email signup form or link to all blog posts.

  • Add social media follow links to all blog posts.

Social Media Setup

  • Search for availability of names on social networks using KnowEm.

  • Choose the social media accounts you'll use:

    Social media platforms
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • Snapchat
    • YouTube

  • Standardize profile image, background photo, links and call to action across social channels.

  • Join Triberr.

  • Put premium content behind "pay with a tweet".

Post-Launch

Customer Outreach

  • Send a coupon code to close friends and family members to let them try your product.

  • Send early access notification to customers identified in research.

  • Reach out to your social media followers, ask them to try your product.

  • Cold call ~20 people who might be good customers.

  • Connect with potential customers on Linkedin, reach out when they accept.

  • Watch a first time user use your product.

  • Ask your customers for feedback directly (individual outreach).

  • Run an early-stage cold email campaign.

    An early-stage cold email campaign
    • Make a list of 30 prospective early customers' email addresses.
    • Send three cold emails per day for ten days. Experiment with messaging, take note of what works.
    • Send three follow up emails per day for ten days. Experiment with messaging, take note of what works.
    • Scale it up. Find more prospects, set up an automated drip campaign, rinse and repeat every month.

Free Promotional Channels

  • Post your product on directories and review sites (Matt McCaffrey has compiled a great list on Github).

  • Write and distribute a Press Release.

  • Write and distribute an eBook, exchange it for email signup.

  • Write and distribute a white paper, exchange it for email signup.

  • Give free access to influential bloggers in the industry.

  • Build a "best of" page with your best blog posts that you wrote or contributed to other sites (ProBlogger calls this a "Sneeze Page").

  • Make sure all blog posts have high quality images.

    Places to get free stock images

Paid Promotional Channels

Recurring

Blogging

  • Build/update publishing calendar for your blog.

  • Regularly post blog posts on your blog(s).

  • Solicit guest posts from early customers and fans of your product.

  • Repurpose existing blog posts:

    Repurposing blog posts
    • Record/post video of you reading the post on YouTube.
    • Turn posts into a podcast.
    • Create an infographic based on the post.
    • Create a Slideshare or Prezi of your post.

  • Promote your blog content:

    Blog promotion techniques
    • Send post to your email list.
    • Promote on your social media.
    • Email friends and relatives, ask them to share if relevant.
    • Send to other bloggers for feedback, ask to share if they like it.
    • Add your latest blog post or landing page to your email signature.

Email

  • Send a regular email newsletter with blog posts, use cases, customer stories, etc.
  • Promote email list on social media.
  • Send 20 cold emails per week to connect with early customers and get direct feedback.
  • Send new users a personal email introducing yourself.

Social Media

  • Set up automated regular social media posts.

    Social media automation tools

  • Join Facebook and Linkedin groups where your product might be beneficial.

  • Send exclusive offers to LinkedIn/Facebook Group owners.

  • Join Twitter chats related to your industry/product.

  • Show what happening "behind the scenes" at your project on social media (eg: pictures of your workspace, in-development features, etc.).

  • Build/update publishing calendar for social media.

  • Post blog posts from your blog (or partners' blogs).

  • Give early users discounts for taking pics with your product.

Public Relations

  • Ask bloggers with list articles to add your site to their content.

  • Reach out to small business journals, reporters, bloggers. Inform and ask for coverage.

  • Find professors and students with .edu sites to link to your content (good for SEO).

  • Find reviews or lists of similar products. Ask to be added or leave a comment about your product.

  • Guest post on other blogs.

    Guest posting
    • Build a list of blogs that are a good fit for your product and accept guest posts. Save their contact form/information.
    • Write a few posts on your own blog first (to use as a demonstration).
    • Create a list of "pitches," blog post ideas with a title and one paragraph summary that might grab bloggers.
    • Pitch the blogs one idea each. See what they respond to.
    • Help promote your posts via social media, email lists, etc.
    • Reach back out in a month and try another pitch. Try to become a "regular"

  • Leave non-spammy comments on blog posts related to your industry or product.

  • Join and participate in forums related to your product or industry.

External Sites

  • Answer relevant questions on Q&A community sites (check back regularly)

    Q&A Communities

  • Leave comments on Slideshare presentations.

  • Review industry-related books on Amazon, Goodreads.

  • Write how-to guides/videos related to your product/industry:

    How-to sites

Optimizations

  • Run a customer poll (can also generate content for your blog or social media channels).
  • Create another side project to promote your product (read more).
  • A/B test your landing/payment pages (check out Optimizely).
  • A/B test email newsletters and promotions.
  • Implement Twitter cards on your blog posts.
  • Implement rich snippets in Google search results.
  • Collect and show testimonials from your happy users.
  • Analyze user signup flow (check out the teardowns here).
  • Test your website on multiple platforms, make sure speed is good.
  • Use Website Grader to pinpoint website improvements.
  • Create and track weekly traffic and growth goals.
  • Time social media posts and email newsletters to when your audience is most likely to respond.
  • Make sure each page on your site has a clear call-to-action.
  • Implement live chat to capture leads and allow them to ask questions (Intercom seems to be the most popular).
  • Segment traffic by source and audit conversion rates.
  • Set up automatic analytics reports to be emailed to you each week.
  • Experiment with various signup form locations, colors, and sizes.
  • Add "Exit Intent" popup to your blog/site.
  • Create an FAQs page.
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment