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> If you're good at marketing you can shift quite a lot of fabric For me marketing is always the toughest part . How do you do your marketing ? What tips can

> If you're good at marketing you can shift quite a lot of fabric For me marketing is always the toughest part . How do you do your marketing ? What tips can you offer us that save the most time and money spent ?

rhizome 8y ago
tl;dr: Learn retail. It's kind of funny that people will get advice to get CS degrees, take a boot camp, learn a language, etc. to execute on an idea, but for soft skills you never see classes for business or marketing recommended. People could take 2-3+ business/marketing classes in the time it takes to learn React from zero Javascript knowledge. Instead, people are told to sign up to Stripe Atlas or Shopify and Instagram. "...and then a miracle occurs."[1] Imagine a bizdev person saying, "for me, programming is always the toughest part, any tips?" and the response being, "Oh, you should definitely sign up for Stack Overflow. Simplifies things quite a bit." This may reflect a conceit on the part of programmers that it's soooo much more complicated and important, and the business side is full of chads and beckys who talk too loud on speakerphone (yes these people are a cancer, but that's beside my point). Biz/Mark has its own, shall we say, "Data Structures and Algorithms" to it, there's just no one set of books that everyone (...) agrees on. Even so, people have been selling fabric for thousands of years, there's not much that the internet changes about that, or many if not most other business categories. 1. https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4003/4633000725_8817dcedb9_b.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4003/4633000725_8817dcedb9_b.j...
- Swizec 8y ago
  Look around for what I call The MicroConf Crowd. Practical advice on the business part of business abounds. Books courses and more. Often targeted at programmers. The Independent Consulting Manual is a good place to start, then go down the list of authors and read their other stuff. They often do a christmas sale too. Follow Patio11 on twitter, read his stuff. Follow Amy Hoy, do 30x500. Then spread out from there. If you’re funded, great! All the same advice applies, you just have more gasoline to pour on the fire. Try things faster.
  - soulchild37 8y ago
    Ah yes this, I am lucky to discover the MicroConf Crowd early on in HackerNews. Patio11 taught me how to raise my salary in my full time job. Amy Hoy got me off the couch and start building products (that user wants). Not to forget advice from Rob Wailing, Kai Davis etc too.
- ggg9990 8y ago
  Some of those “Chads and Beckys” (I must be old as I don’t recognize those terms but know exactly who you are talking about) bring in absolutely massive amounts of revenue. Furthermore they can often be cheap since they’ll work for less than they can make elsewhere as long as they can have status markers (private offices, etc.) I made good money employing them.
fridaysoff 8y ago
Marketing and advertising is a 24/7 job for me. As soon as I take my foot off the pedal my sales suffer. You can automate some of it with email flows and facebook/instagram advertising , but you still have to stay on top of the analytics and keep the content fresh. The thing that works really well for me is treating the customers like human beings. The customer is always right. Being nice flows out and then your customers want to help promote your business on social media etc. Try everything.
- jcims 8y ago
  I work in IT. I never respected sales, Until I tried it.
fabricexpert 8y ago
It really depends on your business / niche but what works for me is: - Get to know potential customers. This means talking to them, making friends with (some of) them, getting involved in the community around your product etc. - Build up a solid blog, instagram etc. for inbound and discovery marketing - Giveaways / discounts can give you a temporary boost - Tell your story well, if you're a small business people love to buy from you, and they even accept slower delivery and issues if you personalize your support - Go to relevant events / shows, try to get featured on podcasts etc. - Work on SEO - Pay for ads directly to bloggers, vloggers and relevant content sites - Send free samples to targeted influencers - Use but don't abuse your mailing list What doesn't work for me is buying traffic from google/facebook, they just tend to send junk through with an appalling bounce rate.
gbersac 8y ago
The bible of marketing : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC10HA/?coliid=I2YIAW7ADWWUPH&colid=2OR35QLZHFU23&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC10HA/?coliid=I2YIAW7ADWWUPH&... Simple straightforward and so insightfull !

rhizome 8y ago

tl;dr: Learn retail. It's kind of funny that people will get advice to get CS degrees, take a boot camp, learn a language, etc. to execute on an idea, but for soft skills you never see classes for business or marketing recommended. People could take 2-3+ business/marketing classes in the time it takes to learn React from zero Javascript knowledge. Instead, people are told to sign up to Stripe Atlas or Shopify and Instagram. "...and then a miracle occurs."[1] Imagine a bizdev person saying, "for me, programming is always the toughest part, any tips?" and the response being, "Oh, you should definitely sign up for Stack Overflow. Simplifies things quite a bit." This may reflect a conceit on the part of programmers that it's soooo much more complicated and important, and the business side is full of chads and beckys who talk too loud on speakerphone (yes these people are a cancer, but that's beside my point). Biz/Mark has its own, shall we say, "Data Structures and Algorithms" to it, there's just no one set of books that everyone (...) agrees on. Even so, people have been selling fabric for thousands of years, there's not much that the internet changes about that, or many if not most other business categories. 1. https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4003/4633000725_8817dcedb9_b.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4003/4633000725_8817dcedb9_b.j...

Swizec 8y ago
Look around for what I call The MicroConf Crowd. Practical advice on the business part of business abounds. Books courses and more. Often targeted at programmers. The Independent Consulting Manual is a good place to start, then go down the list of authors and read their other stuff. They often do a christmas sale too. Follow Patio11 on twitter, read his stuff. Follow Amy Hoy, do 30x500. Then spread out from there. If you’re funded, great! All the same advice applies, you just have more gasoline to pour on the fire. Try things faster.
- soulchild37 8y ago
  Ah yes this, I am lucky to discover the MicroConf Crowd early on in HackerNews. Patio11 taught me how to raise my salary in my full time job. Amy Hoy got me off the couch and start building products (that user wants). Not to forget advice from Rob Wailing, Kai Davis etc too.
ggg9990 8y ago
Some of those “Chads and Beckys” (I must be old as I don’t recognize those terms but know exactly who you are talking about) bring in absolutely massive amounts of revenue. Furthermore they can often be cheap since they’ll work for less than they can make elsewhere as long as they can have status markers (private offices, etc.) I made good money employing them.

fridaysoff 8y ago

Marketing and advertising is a 24/7 job for me. As soon as I take my foot off the pedal my sales suffer. You can automate some of it with email flows and facebook/instagram advertising , but you still have to stay on top of the analytics and keep the content fresh. The thing that works really well for me is treating the customers like human beings. The customer is always right. Being nice flows out and then your customers want to help promote your business on social media etc. Try everything.

jcims 8y ago
I work in IT. I never respected sales, Until I tried it.

fabricexpert 8y ago

It really depends on your business / niche but what works for me is: - Get to know potential customers. This means talking to them, making friends with (some of) them, getting involved in the community around your product etc. - Build up a solid blog, instagram etc. for inbound and discovery marketing - Giveaways / discounts can give you a temporary boost - Tell your story well, if you're a small business people love to buy from you, and they even accept slower delivery and issues if you personalize your support - Go to relevant events / shows, try to get featured on podcasts etc. - Work on SEO - Pay for ads directly to bloggers, vloggers and relevant content sites - Send free samples to targeted influencers - Use but don't abuse your mailing list What doesn't work for me is buying traffic from google/facebook, they just tend to send junk through with an appalling bounce rate.

gbersac 8y ago

The bible of marketing : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC10HA/?coliid=I2YIAW7ADWWUPH&colid=2OR35QLZHFU23&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC10HA/?coliid=I2YIAW7ADWWUPH&... Simple straightforward and so insightfull !