Hello there
This is the #5 Issue of Weekly Dan.
Welcome to 22 new people who have joined this week. You are nice.
Every Friday, I share 5 golden nuggets with you:
1 personal insight
1 marketing tactic
1 product for inspiration
1 thought-provoking question
1 great resource
Let’s get going.
Personal insight
We described 36 (!) acquisition strategies for Indie Entrepreneurs in MakerBox Workbook.
That’s a lot.
But here’s a catch — not everything will work out for everyone.
Here’s my story.
I’ve tried to grow my presence on Reddit for 1 month. I’ve commented on other posts, asked engaging questions, and repackaged valuable threads.
Sometimes my posts went viral (50K impressions), and sometimes they got me banned.
But at the end of the day, I haven’t achieved any business goals with Reddit
Likes ain’t cash.
That’s why I decided to drop this channel and focus on IndieHackers instead.
I will definitely have FOMO after reading another Twitter thread about going viral on Reddit. But it’s still better than spending time on a channel that doesn’t work for me.
Indie Entrepreneurs don’t have time and money to do everything. We need to focus on the ideas that work.
What is your acquisition channel that works?
Marketing tactic
Let’s say you wrote a one-liner on Twitter.
Your average follower reads it and thinks about you for 10 seconds max.
If you write a great thread, they might think for 2 minutes about you.
These numbers are ridiculous. You can’t build a personal brand this way.
But what about 60 minutes?
Sounds better.
That’s why you need to jump on the podcasts.
I’ve recently been on my first podcast episode. If you want to understand MakerBox strategy, check it out.
Here is a framework to get more podcast episode invites.
Find 20 podcasts
Google “Best podcasts for YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE”
Google “New NICHE podcasts in 2022”
Search Creators on Twitter with the keyword “podcast”
Outreach Creators
Follow and like recent tweets
Write a personalized message in which you compliment the latest episode
Wait until some Creators invite you to the next episode
Prepare for the episode
Ask to send the questions
Prepare the answers (especially data)
Align all answers around your Personal Brand Positioning
Record a great episode
Use storytelling to answer the questions
Joke and be an easy-going guest
Share spiky opinions that are ideal for discussion
Tell listeners how to find you and your product
Promote it
Write a Twitter thread with key ideas from the episode
Write a newsletter issue with key ideas from the episode (checkmate 😎)
Product for inspiration
A few months ago, I tweeted “What is the best newsletter tool?”.
A lot of people replied with ConvertKit, Substack, and Revue. You know, the Big 3 of newsletter business.
But one product caught my attention. Meet beehiiv, well, a newsletter tool.
There are three things I advise to steal from them:
Have a dedicated page for each use case. Beehiiv has four major use cases: Publish, Grow, Monetize, and Analyze. Each one has a mini landing page.
Some of your users are interested in feature X more than others. Create a short landing page to leverage this curiosity.
Name your Nemesis. Beehiiv doesn’t compete with every newsletter tool. Instead, they compete specifically with Substack. That’s why they have an interactive calculator to highlight their benefits.
Don’t be afraid to name your competitors. Instead, show precisely how your product is better than theirs.
Record product videos. Beehiiv has a YouTube video for every feature. They are short, Loom-style, and straightforward.
If your users don’t get enough support, they won’t pay you. Create product videos and explain every use case and complex feature.
Pro-tip: don’t steal their name. Nobody likes bees.
Thought-provoking question
If you increase the price x10, what would your product need to deliver?
You are in danger if you are building SaaS and your monthly plan is < $5.
Charging too low is a shortcut to going bankrupt.
There are three reasons why:
You are limited on acquisition channels. Buying ads or investing in expensive content production will likely have negative ROI.
Your churn rate will be terrifying. The fewer users pay, the less they value the product, and the more they tend to abandon it.
You need A LOT of users. Just to hit $10K MRR, you will need 2000 users. Just think about this. Two thousand paying customers.
But if you increase the price to $50, these problems become irrelevant. The only problem is it’s scary as hell.
That’s why let’s start with the value.
Multiply your product’s value by 10
What value does your product provide now?
What segment of the target audience do you serve now?
How has the product flow changed?
Understand how to achieve it
What do you need to guarantee success scenario?
Do you need more human touch?
Do you need more personalization?
Experiment with your offer
Increase the price x10
Try new acquisition channels
Make first sales manually
Bottom line.
Increase the value → Increase the price.
Great resource
I have written 3000-4000 words daily for the past two weeks.
It’s exhausting.
But five years ago, I couldn’t even write 500 words.
Writing is not easy, but it gets easier. Especially if you follow best practices from great writers.
That’s why I present you a Writing Handbook by Julian Shapiro.
Think of a $999 copywriting course, but 100% free and without the fluff. Yes, it’s that good.
Julian deconstructs these topics:
How to understand what’s worth writing?
How to generate insights for this topic?
How to rewrite for clarity and style?
I can’t imagine a better reading for your weekends.
That’s it!
What have you enjoyed about this issue?
By the way, I will try a new format of Weekly Dan.
Expect a pilot issue next Tuesday ⚡️
Absolutely not a CTA
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