layout | title | permalink |
---|---|---|
checklist\_page |
The Side Project Marketing Checklist |
/marketing-checklist/ |
If we knew what were doing it wouldn’t be called research. - Albert Einstein
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Make a list of competitive/alternative services.
##### Finding competitors
- [Alexa](http://www.alexa.com/find-similar-sites)
- [AlternativeTo](https://alternativeto.net)
- [AngelList](https://angel.co/)
- [Product Hunt](https://www.producthunt.com/)
- [SimilarSites](http://www.similarsites.com/)
##### 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.
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Subscribe to RSS feeds of your competitors' blogs.
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Follow your competitors and their key employees on social media.
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Set up [Google News alerts] for competitors.
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Set up [Site Alerts] for competitors.
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Subscribe to industry newsletters, magazines, trade journals etc.
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Find people in your contact list who might be future customers. Get their feedback on your idea.
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Attend meetups or conferences for your target market.
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Meet another entrepreneur who has a similar or competitive product.
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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.
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Reach out to your competitors' customers, find out what they like/don't like.
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Create an "early access" list for potential future customers.
- 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]).
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Come up with a name and domain name.
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Write a site tagline and elevator pitch.
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Create a logo.
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Set up a landing page.
##### Landing page tools
- [Unbounce](https://unbounce.com/)
- [Squarespace](https://www.squarespace.com/)
- [Rocketpages](http://www.rocketpages.net/)
- [Launchrock](https://www.launchrock.com/)
- [Github Pages and Jekyll](https://help.github.com/articles/using-jekyll-as-a-static-site-generator-with-github-pages/)
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Create "About" and "Contact" pages.
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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.
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Add social media follow links to landing page.
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Set up analytics to learn about who signs up, bounces, etc.
##### Analytics platforms
- [Google Analytics](https://analytics.google.com)
- [Mixpanel](https://mixpanel.com/)
- [Kiss Metrics](https://www.kissmetrics.com/)
- [Webmaster Tools](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools)
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Set up email address to send and receive emails.
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Set up email list and signup form.
##### Email list services
- [Mailchimp](https://mailchimp.com/)
- [Mad Mimi](https://madmimi.com/)
- [Constant Contact](https://www.constantcontact.com/home/signup.jsp)
- [FreshMail](https://freshmail.com/)
- [Buttondown](https://buttondown.email)
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Create a standard email template for your brand.
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Create transactional emails for when users sign up/purchase.
Content Marketing is all the marketing that’s left. - Seth Godin
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Choose a blogging platform:
##### Blogging platforms
- [Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/post/new)
- [Medium](https://medium.com/new-story)
- [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/)
- [Ghost](https://ghost.org/)
- [Squarespace](https://www.squarespace.com/)
- [Wordpress.com](https://wordpress.org/)
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Research keywords that you'd like your site/blog to rank for.
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Create anchor posts or pages for keywords you'd like to rank for.
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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].
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Add email signup form or link to all blog posts.
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Add social media follow links to all blog posts.
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Search for availability of names on social networks using [KnowEm].
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Choose the social media accounts you'll use:
##### Social media platforms
- Snapchat
- YouTube
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Standardize profile image, background photo, links and call to action across social channels.
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Join [Triberr].
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Put premium content behind "[pay with a tweet]".
You should be talking to a small number of users who are seriously interested in what you’re making, not a broad audience who are on the whole indifferent. - Jessica Livingston, Founding Partner at Y Combinator
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Send a coupon code to close friends and family members to let them try your product.
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Send early access notification to customers identified in research.
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Reach out to your social media followers, ask them to try your product.
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Cold call ~20 people who might be good customers.
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Connect with potential customers on Linkedin, reach out when they accept.
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Watch a first time user use your product.
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Ask your customers for feedback directly (individual outreach).
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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.
I don't care how much money you have, free stuff is always a good thing. - Queen Latifah
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Post your product on directories and review sites (Matt McCaffrey has compiled [a great list on Github]).
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Write and distribute a Press Release.
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Write and distribute an eBook, exchange it for email signup.
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Write and distribute a white paper, exchange it for email signup.
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Give free access to influential bloggers in the industry.
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Build a "best of" page with your best blog posts that you wrote or contributed to other sites (ProBlogger calls this a "[Sneeze Page]").
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Make sure all blog posts have high quality images.
##### Places to get free stock images
- [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/)
- [Skuawk](http://skuawk.com/index.html)
- [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/)
Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Paid social and search advertising
##### Social and search advertising platforms
- [Google Adwords](https://adwords.google.com/home/)
- [Linkedin](https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/ads)
- [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/business/products/ads)
- [Bing](https://secure.bingads.microsoft.com/)
- [7search](http://7search.com/)
- [Twitter](https://ads.twitter.com/)
- [StumbleUpon](http://ads.stumbleupon.com/)
- [Pinterest](https://ads.pinterest.com/)
- [Instagram](https://business.instagram.com/advertising)
- [Launchbit](https://www.launchbit.com/)
- [Izea](https://izea.com/)
- [SponsoredReviews.com](http://www.sponsoredreviews.com/)
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Commission based advertising
##### Commission/affiliate advertising platforms
- [Commission Junction](http://www.cj.com/advertiser)
- [Affiliate.com](http://www.affiliate.com/)
- [Rakuten Marketing](https://rakutenmarketing.com/affiliate)
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Sponsor a local meetup or conference for your target customers.
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Sponsor podcasts your customers might be listening to.
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Sponsor/advertise an industry newsletter (check out [Newsletter.city]).
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Set up a user referral marketing system (try [this open source app] or [this list of paid apps]).
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Run an engagement contest with prizes or free products for winners.
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Buy email or lead lists.
Blogging is like work, but without coworkers thwarting you at every turn. - Scott Adams
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Build/update publishing calendar for your blog.
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Regularly post blog posts on your blog(s).
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Solicit guest posts from early customers and fans of your product.
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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.
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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 is the Jason Bourne of online: somebody’s always trying to kill it. It can’t be done. - Unknown
- 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.
We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people. – Pierre Omidyar
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Set up automated regular social media posts.
##### Social media automation tools
- [Hootsuite](https://hootsuite.com/)
- [Sprout Social](https://sproutsocial.com/)
- [Buffer](https://buffer.com/)
- [Recurpost](https://recurpost.com/)
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Join Facebook and Linkedin groups where your product might be beneficial.
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Send exclusive offers to LinkedIn/Facebook Group owners.
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Join Twitter chats related to your industry/product.
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Show what happening "behind the scenes" at your project on social media (eg: pictures of your workspace, in-development features, etc.).
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Build/update publishing calendar for social media.
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Post blog posts from your blog (or partners' blogs).
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Give early users discounts for taking pics with your product.
The art of publicity is a black art; but it has come to stay, and every year adds to its potency. – Thomas Paine
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Ask bloggers with list articles to add your site to their content.
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Reach out to small business journals, reporters, bloggers. Inform and ask for coverage.
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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.
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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"
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Leave non-spammy comments on blog posts related to your industry or product.
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Join and participate in forums related to your product or industry.
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Answer relevant questions on Q&A community sites (check back regularly)
##### Q&A Communities
- [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/)
- [Quora](https://www.quora.com/)
- Industry or geographically specific forums
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Leave comments on Slideshare presentations.
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Review industry-related books on Amazon, Goodreads.
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Write how-to guides/videos related to your product/industry:
##### How-to sites
- [Snapguide](https://snapguide.com/)
- [Guides.co](http://guides.co/)
- [eHow](http://www.ehow.com/write-for-ehow/)
- [Lynda](https://www.lynda.com/)
- [Pluralsight](https://www.pluralsight.com/teach)
- [Skillshare](https://www.skillshare.com/)
- [Udemy](https://www.udemy.com/)
- 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.