6 ms·

Show HN: Marketing software for solopreneurs who don't like marketing

74 points by bohlenlabs 3y ago

Hey folks, I made 2Quiet2Market for busy solopreneurs who are "too quiet to market" what they build. I've been building this since September 2022 because I am a software dev who likes to talk factually but doesn't enjoy to "pound the drum" and "toot the horn" to market my stuff. On the other hand, if I don't market my stuff, people won't know about it and won't buy it. Bummer. So what did I do to make life better for quiet or factual people like me who like to build stuff and want to make money with it? I made a web-based app that helps you create your own habit for marketing. When people have a habit, they are more likely to do what needs to be done (marketing in this case). The free plan of my SaaS contains these tools: * Positioning blackboard * Story Composer * Experiment Designer Positioning blackboards provide you with Lego-like building blocks to make your product look awesome and desirable. They clarify your marketing until you reach a story you want to tell that will make your customer buy. Story Composer helps you create those stories step-by-step, and Experiment Designer lets you plan which stories to tell on which marketing channels, with a recipe on how to execute each marketing experiment. Already with the Free plan, you can create your specific marketing playbook and turn it into a habit. The Free plan allows you to have 1 project with 2 blackboards, and an "invite" feature to have a friend look at your stuff. There are two paid plans as well: - the Pro plan offers unlimited projects and blackboards, as well as an integration with the Todoist.com task management system. It automatically turns experiments into to-dos to get them done. And: The Pro plan also allows you to edit other people's stuff if they invite you to do so. - the Advanced plan adds GPT to spice up the factual marketing copy from Story Composer, in order to make it more engaging for your audience. Have fun, please try it out, and tell me whether you can use it to market your own stuff to the world. It comes with interactive demos on its dashboard, and with comprehensive docs at https://2quiet2market.com/docs/ https://2quiet2market.com/docs/ Cheers, Matthias

gumby 3y ago
I love the idea of "marketing for introverted nerds" (though your title is better). I am meeting a friend this afternoon who could use this tool so of course I will mention it!
- bohlenlabs 3y ago
  Cool, thanks for your encouraging words, gumby! I hope your friend will have much success with it. Should any assistance be needed, make sure you join the online community for 2quiet2market.
- esafak 3y ago
  I like it too; it seems to be an untapped niche. And it opens the path to solopreneurs, founders, and startups without a marketer.
  - bohlenlabs 3y ago
    Exactly. Busy, solo introverts deserve to have as much success as extroverts with a team.
    - deprecative 3y ago
      Just don't confuse introversion for social anxiety or asocial folks. It's so annoying when folks do that.
      - bohlenlabs 3y ago
        No, of course not. I'm a big fan of Susan Cain's book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking". Introverts are not necessarily shy or anti-social – these are qualities found in extroverts and introverts alike. Introverts just need more energy when they are with other people. Extroverts even gain energy when they are with others. Given that the noisy, interruption-based marketing style does not work anymore today, introverts are perfectly skilled for marketing: The new forms of marketing that focus on helping people get their problems solved, they give introverts a big advantage. We introverts just didn't know that, I think. :-)
jaggs 3y ago
Nice idea. But desperately needs AI to do the heavy lifting. What is a message? What is its purpose? What about crucial differentiators, USPs, positioning, 4 Ps, ADA, funnel stages, inbound vs outbound, tactics, KPIs and a host of other really important stuff?
- mrieck 3y ago
  I agree it needs AI, but I was thinking it could be kept simple. You put features, ideal customers and the benefits on a board, then AI devises copy/messaging you could put in different places (on a landing page, in a social media post, or even generate memes?). It lists websites where to post that have your ideal user. It offers suggestions of what standalone tools you might be able to break off into one-off pages to do "engineering as marketing". Since it's marketing for devs who hate marketing (I'm one of those) I think if you get too deep into marketing best practice it would be tedious/boring. Just give small actionable things you can do given the data you input about the product. That would be useful. Problem for me is I know what I should be doing, but I'd rather just code the product. So it's a hard problem to solve.
  - bohlenlabs 3y ago
    Wow, thanks for those cool ideas, mrieck! I already added AI to spice up the copy that the user enters (it's part of the Advanced plan), but your other ideas go way beyond that, thanks! Indeed, the AI could suggest what to do. Regarding your 2nd paragraph: Yes, the true problem is not marketing itself with all its practices. The real problem is to make the user get into a habit and do it consistently. To help the user make it happen, I intend to add some kind of gamification and rewards. I was thinking about making it similar to those fitness apps that help the user eat less and exercise more. In this case, the message would be "build less, market more".
    - edmundsauto 3y ago
      > In this case, the message would be "build less, market more". Is your market people who don't want to build but want to market? I thought it was the opposite. Maybe something like, "spend your time doing what you like and still get users"
pedalpete 3y ago
This is great. Is the audience you are targetting start-ups? Or more lifestyle businesses? I've got 2 marketing projects right now. 1) to our users and people on the waitlist 2) to investors we've met with - more of a "what's new with us" thing. I think the 2nd is something that isn't given enough attention by start-ups that are in fundraising mode, though I'm not sure if that's a target you've considered.
- bohlenlabs 3y ago
  I'm targeting people who don't love marketing and are totally busy with something else. At the moment, that's mostly solopreneurs and small startups. It's up to them whether they wanna go down the lifestyle business or the hypergrowth route, however I think a startup going for growth would have a full-time marketer on their team anyway, right?
  - pedalpete 3y ago
    Depends on the stage and the type of company. Early stage pre-seed likely don't have a marketing person, and at seed stage may have a marketing person or part-time. But not always.
    - bohlenlabs 3y ago
      Yeah, you're right. It really depends on how far they are on their journey.
RileyJames 3y ago
Looks like a great tool. And the video demo really sold it well. The video demo did downscale / blur at times, which made it unreadable. https://imgur.com/a/91Sgvgt https://imgur.com/a/91Sgvgt Everything else on the site was extremely clean. Love it.
Sai_ 3y ago
I don’t think what is stopping someone from marketing is the lack of tools or templates or guides to follow. Unless the root cause is addressed - which is my case was that there seemed to be no direct connection between marketing effort and outcomes - every such tool will find a handful of converts and that’ll be that. The inability to market is a mindset problem, not a tools problem.
- bohlenlabs 3y ago
  So true. I can totally relate because I had the same problem. Whenever I write code, it either runs, or does not. It’s my fault, or I could say: it is my responsibility. This is different with marketing. It depends not only on me but on other people’s behavior. And most of the time, I couldn’t see any relationship between effort and results. Therefore, I have on my product roadmap a gamified loop with feedback, so that reluctant marketers have fun and keep being engaged to use the platform and stick to their habit.
  - esafak 3y ago
    You could seek permission from users to let you use their data to build a model to provide guidance.
    - bohlenlabs 3y ago
      Build a model? In the sense of machine learning or in another sense? Cool idea, what could that look like?
      - esafak 3y ago
        Yes, an ML model. If you built the machinery to connect marketing actions to business outcomes, as the OP complains about, you could recommend what actions to take. It's a straightforward machine learning task (supervised learning).
        bohlenlabs 3y ago
pharaohgeek 3y ago
Great looking tool. To me, though, the big roadblock to marketing is... how??? I'd love some tutorials or blog posts on marketing strategies, copywriting, and some of the other aspects of marketing that introverts or solo developers may not be experienced in. This tool looks perfect once you know what content goes into effective marketing.
- bohlenlabs 3y ago
  You're right. My tool (in its current form) is for people who know what they should do but simply don't do it. However, if it's more like "how???", then you might like this popular blog post: https://2quiet2market.com/blog/spme-marketing-habit-for-solopreneurs-who-have-other-things-to-do-besides-marketing/ https://2quiet2market.com/blog/spme-marketing-habit-for-solo... Tell me what you think about it.

74 points by bohlenlabs 3y ago

gumby 3y ago

I love the idea of "marketing for introverted nerds" (though your title is better). I am meeting a friend this afternoon who could use this tool so of course I will mention it!

bohlenlabs 3y ago
Cool, thanks for your encouraging words, gumby! I hope your friend will have much success with it. Should any assistance be needed, make sure you join the online community for 2quiet2market.
esafak 3y ago
I like it too; it seems to be an untapped niche. And it opens the path to solopreneurs, founders, and startups without a marketer.
- bohlenlabs 3y ago
  Exactly. Busy, solo introverts deserve to have as much success as extroverts with a team.
  - deprecative 3y ago
    Just don't confuse introversion for social anxiety or asocial folks. It's so annoying when folks do that.
    - bohlenlabs 3y ago
      No, of course not. I'm a big fan of Susan Cain's book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking". Introverts are not necessarily shy or anti-social – these are qualities found in extroverts and introverts alike. Introverts just need more energy when they are with other people. Extroverts even gain energy when they are with others. Given that the noisy, interruption-based marketing style does not work anymore today, introverts are perfectly skilled for marketing: The new forms of marketing that focus on helping people get their problems solved, they give introverts a big advantage. We introverts just didn't know that, I think. :-)

jaggs 3y ago

Nice idea. But desperately needs AI to do the heavy lifting. What is a message? What is its purpose? What about crucial differentiators, USPs, positioning, 4 Ps, ADA, funnel stages, inbound vs outbound, tactics, KPIs and a host of other really important stuff?

mrieck 3y ago
I agree it needs AI, but I was thinking it could be kept simple. You put features, ideal customers and the benefits on a board, then AI devises copy/messaging you could put in different places (on a landing page, in a social media post, or even generate memes?). It lists websites where to post that have your ideal user. It offers suggestions of what standalone tools you might be able to break off into one-off pages to do "engineering as marketing". Since it's marketing for devs who hate marketing (I'm one of those) I think if you get too deep into marketing best practice it would be tedious/boring. Just give small actionable things you can do given the data you input about the product. That would be useful. Problem for me is I know what I should be doing, but I'd rather just code the product. So it's a hard problem to solve.
- bohlenlabs 3y ago
  Wow, thanks for those cool ideas, mrieck! I already added AI to spice up the copy that the user enters (it's part of the Advanced plan), but your other ideas go way beyond that, thanks! Indeed, the AI could suggest what to do. Regarding your 2nd paragraph: Yes, the true problem is not marketing itself with all its practices. The real problem is to make the user get into a habit and do it consistently. To help the user make it happen, I intend to add some kind of gamification and rewards. I was thinking about making it similar to those fitness apps that help the user eat less and exercise more. In this case, the message would be "build less, market more".
  - edmundsauto 3y ago
    > In this case, the message would be "build less, market more". Is your market people who don't want to build but want to market? I thought it was the opposite. Maybe something like, "spend your time doing what you like and still get users"

pedalpete 3y ago

This is great. Is the audience you are targetting start-ups? Or more lifestyle businesses? I've got 2 marketing projects right now. 1) to our users and people on the waitlist 2) to investors we've met with - more of a "what's new with us" thing. I think the 2nd is something that isn't given enough attention by start-ups that are in fundraising mode, though I'm not sure if that's a target you've considered.

bohlenlabs 3y ago
I'm targeting people who don't love marketing and are totally busy with something else. At the moment, that's mostly solopreneurs and small startups. It's up to them whether they wanna go down the lifestyle business or the hypergrowth route, however I think a startup going for growth would have a full-time marketer on their team anyway, right?
- pedalpete 3y ago
  Depends on the stage and the type of company. Early stage pre-seed likely don't have a marketing person, and at seed stage may have a marketing person or part-time. But not always.
  - bohlenlabs 3y ago
    Yeah, you're right. It really depends on how far they are on their journey.

RileyJames 3y ago

Looks like a great tool. And the video demo really sold it well. The video demo did downscale / blur at times, which made it unreadable. https://imgur.com/a/91Sgvgt https://imgur.com/a/91Sgvgt Everything else on the site was extremely clean. Love it.

Sai_ 3y ago

I don’t think what is stopping someone from marketing is the lack of tools or templates or guides to follow. Unless the root cause is addressed - which is my case was that there seemed to be no direct connection between marketing effort and outcomes - every such tool will find a handful of converts and that’ll be that. The inability to market is a mindset problem, not a tools problem.

bohlenlabs 3y ago
So true. I can totally relate because I had the same problem. Whenever I write code, it either runs, or does not. It’s my fault, or I could say: it is my responsibility. This is different with marketing. It depends not only on me but on other people’s behavior. And most of the time, I couldn’t see any relationship between effort and results. Therefore, I have on my product roadmap a gamified loop with feedback, so that reluctant marketers have fun and keep being engaged to use the platform and stick to their habit.
- esafak 3y ago
  You could seek permission from users to let you use their data to build a model to provide guidance.
  - bohlenlabs 3y ago
    Build a model? In the sense of machine learning or in another sense? Cool idea, what could that look like?
    - esafak 3y ago
      Yes, an ML model. If you built the machinery to connect marketing actions to business outcomes, as the OP complains about, you could recommend what actions to take. It's a straightforward machine learning task (supervised learning).
      - bohlenlabs 3y ago

pharaohgeek 3y ago

Great looking tool. To me, though, the big roadblock to marketing is... how??? I'd love some tutorials or blog posts on marketing strategies, copywriting, and some of the other aspects of marketing that introverts or solo developers may not be experienced in. This tool looks perfect once you know what content goes into effective marketing.

bohlenlabs 3y ago
You're right. My tool (in its current form) is for people who know what they should do but simply don't do it. However, if it's more like "how???", then you might like this popular blog post: https://2quiet2market.com/blog/spme-marketing-habit-for-solopreneurs-who-have-other-things-to-do-besides-marketing/ https://2quiet2market.com/blog/spme-marketing-habit-for-solo... Tell me what you think about it.