Free tool marketing

Market your products with free tools and increase your traffic and sales.

Free tool marketing, also called as side project marketing in the wild is used by solopreneurs to increase traffic, increase product awareness for their primary products.

Marc Louvion also calls it as marketing for product obsessed developers.

Marc Louvion' side-project marketing approach

Marc has a good article on marketing for product obssessed developers here. Worth reading.

Dan Kulkov' side-project marketing approach

Here's Dan's side marketing approach:

  1. Identify Problem: Find a simple problem connected to your paid product.
  2. Keyword Research: Ensure the problem has existing traffic (at least 1000/mo) using tools like Keywords Everywhere.
  3. Build AI Wrapper: Create a simple 2-screen AI wrapper for input and results.
  4. Utilize ChatGPT-3.5: Use ChatGPT-3.5 to generate fast results with a detailed mega-prompt.
  5. No Email Requirement: Don't ask for emails to generate results; encourage more trials.
  6. Additional Value Flow: Offer extra value on the second screen, like an email-gated resource.
  7. User Engagement: Enable easy restart and sharing features to encourage longer user sessions.
  8. Email Sequence: Implement a welcome email sequence for collected emails, offering freebies and warm-ups about your paid product.
  9. Product Hunt Launch: Launch on Product Hunt on Monday, aiming for top-5 ranking.
  10. Directory Submission: Submit to directories like Ben's Bites News and Insanely Cool Tools.
  11. Reddit and HackerNews: Post on Reddit and HackerNews, prepared for feedback.
  12. TikTok Marketing: Start a TikTok campaign, posting daily videos showcasing your tool.
  13. Influencer Features: Expect free features from AI influencers within a week.
  14. SEO Benefits: Gain SEO traffic from free backlinks acquired from influencers within a month.
  15. Auto-pilot Marketing: Achieve a marketing strategy that brings in new customers on auto-pilot within three months.

Sveta Bay's side-project marketing approach

Here's Sveta's side marketing approach:

  1. Identify the Problem:

    • Define the problem your side project will solve.
    • Understand how solving this problem will simplify selling your main product.
    • Identify the segment of your target audience that faces this problem.

  2. Build a Simple Product:

    • Utilize no-code tools or a simple tech stack to build the side project.
    • Aim to complete the development within one week.

  3. Promote Your Main Product:

    • Integrate a call-to-action (CTA) button on all pages of your side project.
    • Develop a welcome email sequence if you're collecting emails.
    • Offer a limited-time deal or promotion exclusively for side project users.

  4. Distribute Your Side Project:

    • Launch your side project on platforms like Product Hunt, aiming for a top-5 position to garner visibility and potentially get featured in AI & tech newsletters.
    • Share your side project on platforms like Reddit, HackerNews, Indie Hackers, Slack, Discord channels, and startup directories.

Dan and Sveta work on MakerBox.club & FounderPal.ai which are Actionable marketing resources and AI-powered marketing tools respectively. Aimed for helping solopreneurs. Worth checking out.

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