4 ms·
Forget ads, SEO, and social media. Everyone is so used to low-value content and spam that they won't pay attention. And even if your intent to sell your SaaS is
by codingdave 2y ago
Forget ads, SEO, and social media. Everyone is so used to low-value content and spam that they won't pay attention. And even if your intent to sell your SaaS is legit, it is still spam when you are sending it into web sites that aren't interested.
Instead, think about who your audience really is - where else do they read, listen, and talk? In my experience, the best marketing happens when you can answer that question.
My favorite anecdote is that one of the successful SaaS companies I worked at grew in part due to radio ads on NPR. That worked because our market was education, and people who are professional educators tended to listen to NPR.
It can be that simple - if you reject online ads and presence as a marketing tool, what else is left? That is probably where to invest marketing dollars and energy. Be different, not part of the online noise.
- JohnMakin 2y agoI personally have never had any kind of positive ROI from online ads - I'm skeptical many people do and have a conspiracy theory it's all a scam except for maybe a small percentage of users. I know factually this can't be true, but IME, I cannot fathom how anyone returns a positive ROI from online ads in this climate.
- paulcole 2y agoImagine a marketing/advertising professional said, “I’ve never had any kind of positive ROI from trying to write software.” What would you think their issue is?
- JohnMakin 2y agoBut that’s not the promise of this ad software, right? Can you imagine it from that perspective?
- paulcole 2y agoDo your best to imagine the hypothetical scenario I posed. A marketing professional claimed that they’ve never had any profitable success from attempting to write software. What might their issue be?
- JohnMakin 2y agoThat they sucked at marketing. Sure, I do. Your socratic method has been illuminating.
- paulcole 2y agoWhy would failing to write software successfully mean that they sucked at marketing? Couldn’t a great marketer be bad at something they’re not skilled at?
- amenhotep 2y agoIf you're going to post like this you should at least be alert enough to notice when your interlocutor sees what you're doing and has anticipated your line, or at least believes they have.
- JohnMakin 2y agoSo, now that I answered your question - what’s your point? is your position that most ad buyers see positive ROI? Or that if you don’t, they suck at marketing? Surely the salient point here is that the advertiser with the monopoly (google) is selling a product that doesn’t benefit everyone, and mostly benefits them. This is well supported by what is coming out in the courts eight now. At least that’s what my point was, anyway. Thanks for your line of inquiry.
- candiddevmike 2y agoForget ads, but what you just described is advertising. OP, you need to figure out how to grow your user base and ad spend proportionally. Look into figuring out customer acquisition costs (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV). Keep the diff of those positive and in theory you have a working strategy.
- Suppafly 2y ago>My favorite anecdote is that one of the successful SaaS companies I worked at grew in part due to radio ads on NPR. That worked because our market was education, and people who are professional educators tended to listen to NPR. Same, although medical instead of education. I've noticed a few different times now when vendors were trying to sell us on big purchases, I've heard ads for them on NPR.