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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.
- 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:
- 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.
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Create "About" and "Contact" pages.
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Create pricing page:
- 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.
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Set up email address to send and receive emails.
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Set up email list and signup form.
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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:
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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:
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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:
- 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.
- 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.
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
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Commission based advertising
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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:
- 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:
- 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.
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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
.edusites 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.
- 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)
- Stack Overflow
- Quora
- 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:
- 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.