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checklist_page |
The Side Project Marketing Checklist |
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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).
See this list of landing page tools for services that make creating landing pages easier.
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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 on-site messaging to capture leads and engage customers as they land on your site.
See this list of email marketing tools for services that make managing email easier.
- Set up email address to send and receive emails.
- Set up email list and signup form.
- Create a standard email template for your brand.
- 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.
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Create an online course or guide around your product/industry
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.
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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.
- 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.
- Audit and improve your conversion rate (see this checklist for detailed steps you can take)
- 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.
- Experiment with various proactive on-site messages to promote engagement and conversions.