Marketing strategy post-profitability

Discussions
#1

Hey guys. So I haven’t posted any of my little mini podcast episodes here yet since it felt a little self-promotional-y / fake-business-guru-y.

I’m not like trying to “build an audience” amongst bootstrappers or whatever. But more than anything just doing this kind of stuff because it’s an outlet to talk about the stuff that I’m thinking about. And it would be cool to get some feedback.

So today I talked a little bit about some decisions I made on marketing strategy:
http://kalenjordan.com/post/113521666929/marketing-strategy-post-profitability

Would be interested in feedback / whether this passes your BS sniff detection :smile:

#2

It wold be great to see a transcript, because it’s hard to skim though audio. The player also doesn’t display the length.

Listening to the podcast I’m your perfect audience, I’m struggling with this.

Around 25%, yeah, I agree that direct sales is important. At 50% you haven’t progressed much.

@75%, yeah just building is very dangerous.

Basically you expanded an idea a little too long IMHO.

#3

Cool thanks. Ya I’m not putting much time into it right now so I probably won’t get the transcript done, but I know that would probably be helpful. It’s mostly just a rant to get the ideas out of my mind and onto the interwebs as quickly and easily as possible :smile:

So you’re post-profitability then as well? (Using the word “profitability” loosely hear to mean “making a living from the income”.)

#4

Haha, no, I’m pre-first-customer stage :slight_smile:

#5

Great podcast Kalen! Lot’s of interesting thoughts and I definitely find myself wondering about the same stuff.

I have pretty much the same situation with mailparser.io. I’m sort of profitable, with a steady stream of new customers. Like you, I love developing new features and don’t really enjoy direct sales.

I read an interesting article on medium which made me think about how I want to position mailparser.io: https://medium.com/nothing-ventured/what-startups-can-learn-from-the-mittelstand-399842086221

I think focusing your energy on developing a powerful product is not a bad idea if you are bootstrapping in a niche market and if you have some kind of traction. As long as you offer the most advanced solution for your niche, growth should be stable and steady.

Putting a lot of effort into marketing will for sure work as well and lead to success if done well. But then, as you said in your podcast, is this something you as an engineer would enjoy doing?

#6

Thanks Moritz! “Great” is surely a bit of an overstatement, but I appreciate the kind words :slight_smile: Great article - love that analogy.

Congrats on your success with mailparser!