Marketing 101: Whisper, speak, shout

Did you know Ciao can be used both for starting and ending a conversation? (“hello” and “bye”) Always found that interesting.

Only read the rest if you have ever felt:

• marketing your product or offering is super hard,

• building a product is super hard,

• validating an idea before you have an MVP is impossible,

• afraid of taking the leap to building your own thing (on the side, or full-time),

Quick Question: Have you thought this since September 15th:

I'm asking because I said our product would have a "private launch" on September 15th. But it's now September 28th, and nothing has happened yet!

I'll explain why I'm asking you to think about this, and why it’s important in the last section.

Ciao,

Last week, I shared how you can come up with product ideas - and then how to market them, with a promise that I’ll share more about how to market the product in the initial days. That’s what I’ll be covering today.

Why am I sharing this?

Long story for another day, but here’s the short version:

Ertiqah’s Mission 1/9: Make a sh*t ton of money.

Ertiqah’s Mission 2/9: Help others launch their company. Convert ideas → products. Provide a roadmap so they feel less “uncertain” and fearful of “But will it work? Can I even build it? How will I market this?”. I already do it in private for anyone who reaches out - but this would be done at scale once we’ve cracked M#1 (man’s gotta eat travel).

Ertiqah’s Mission 3/9 can’t be achieved without #1 and #2 being cracked. And same goes for the rest.

Marketing Rule of 7

For the marketers or sales leaders reading this, you must have heard the above quote at one point or another. You’d also know about the Marketing Rule of 7 (I didn’t know the term, just the concept: you should read the details in my Perplexity Chat here).

(For those that do not know, Perplexity is an AI tool you can use for question-answer style searching. Way better than Google! Perplexity + Bing has been my combo for over a year now).

Enough jargon-dumping,

I’ve already told you the how in previous editions, but I’ll drop the links in the “References” section at the bottom if you want to revisit. I’ll share here what we are doing, and what it has done for us so far (20+ Signups so far), and what are our next stages in marketing:

Whisper, Speak, Shout

1. Whisper: Don’t launch. Don’t shamelessly advertise. Just subtly let a small proportion of people know that you are building something. Here’s how we’ve done it so far:
   

   1. Discord Server - It’s a laser-focused, ICP-centered server with about 90 members (used for pain validation as well).
      Acquisition Channel: Reddit & Facebook Groups.
      

   2. Newsletter - It’s a relatively broader (/diverse) audience, we’ve got people from 20+ different countries here and 7 different job functions - and it’s a “closed channel”.
      
      You know about “LiGo by Ertiqah” but not what it does, or whom it is for (I think?). Because you are not really the “ICP” here. But if you know about it, it’s because you are following our build in public journey - to avoid the la*dmi*es we hit and see what works and what doesn’t work.
      
      Acquisition Channel: LinkedIn primarily. Pretty much all of you are connected to me on LinkedIn.
      

   3. LinkedIn, Twitter & YouTube - open channels, broader audience. I created a video of how I used AI to create the landing page for LiGo (see below). The product is not the “primary” focus - but it still gets visibility to the product. Shared the video over LinkedIn + Twitter.
      
      Acquisition Channel: Friends, past-colleagues, people I’ve met in person or online (?).

2. Speak: Launch, but privately. Primary aim = get feedback & a starting point for your metrics. See which part of the funnel people drop at. You can find more details about a sales funnel with an example in this Perplexity Chat (read this especially if you’re from an engineering background). We have just now moved to this phase, and here’s the results so far:

   1. Relevant Reddit communities: You have to be creative here. Because in 90% of the subreddits, you can’t just directly “mention” a link to your product. Rassam did a deep-dive into that a few weeks ago, you can read it here: Create a Reddit Marketing Strategy with AI in 20 mins.
      
      So far, one post has gone out (by Rassam - he’s leading the Reddit efforts). Here are its statistics (it was a very high-value post but it is NOT about the product as the primary item):
      

      

      Tangible results: 40+ landing page visits, and 5+ sign ups so far.

      
      If the subreddit allowed directly posting the link to the product, the tangible results would be 10x the current one (trust me.. I’ve had 1000+ views on YouTube videos in a single day with about 50-60K post views in the past (2018-2020).
      
      But we were forced to use this funnel:
      “Reddit post → curious people visit Rassam’s LinkedIn profile → even more curious people find the link to LiGo’s landing page → potential ICPs then sign up”. See how much “friction” there is? Yet, it got us 40+ views on the landing page.
      
      This has just started. Today is Day # 1. 
      
      Status: In Progress.
      

   2. Relevant Facebook Groups: Most groups allow sharing links. It’s more or less the same as Reddit in terms of posting. Go where your ICP is, and post there. Then engage on the post if anyone comments.
      
      Status: Not started.
      

   3. Listing on less-known directories: You’ve probably heard of AppSumo or ProductLunch, because those are well-known. There’s hundreds more which are much smaller and niched-down. List your offering/product there.
      
      Status: Not started.
      

3. Shout: Do the public launch! Open the flood gates. Go crazy - by now, your idea is validated (or… discarded - in which case, drop it - move to the next idea). This stage is recurring - it must never stop. Here’s how we plan to do it:
   

   1. Public announcement on our LinkedIn & Twitter handles.

   2. Coordinated launch on well-know directories like ProductHunt or AppSumo.

   3. Blogs sprint (draft 50+ articles, then post 3 to 5 each week for the next unlimited number of weeks). You need SEO - this is the ONLY engine that works on its own.

   4. Reels (YT Shorts, TikTok, Instagram, probably even LinkedIn and Twitter considering their algorithm changes at this point, lol).

   5. Long-form videos (YouTube).

   6. Articles on well-established sites with high-domain strength, e.g. Medium.

   7. Paid ads (maybe - will think about it).
      
      Status: Not started.

… but how do I build the product?

So far, we’ve covered how to “market” the product, how we are planning to do it, what stage we’re at - and what’s worked so far. This is likely mainly useful for technical people. For those that are from a non-technical background (70% of you), I’ve plenty of things coming for you, but in the meantime - know this: AI can do 80% of the development heavy lifting for you. I say this because:

1. I have never developed a website or a web app in the past.
   (Disclaimer: I’m a Software Engineer. But my primary technical experience has been in AI domain, so no websites. I did create a few using Wordpress, etc. but never a custom one - so they don’t count0.

2. Yet, I coded the entire product using AI (but yes, I know python and javascript).

3. I have shown “trailers” of that so far, links below - and I will be going deeper in the future on my YouTube channel (primarily focused on how to use AI for non-technical founders/professionals). If you see either of the two videos, you will realize that I actually did NOT write a single line of code myself. It was all English, prompts and copy/pasting. None of these require you to be “technical”. But if you are.. of course, that’s a plus.

Coming back to the question I asked in the start.

This is a motivational section - if you don’t need it, don’t read it.

The answer to that question, for 99.9% of the people would be: “Nah, you’re not that important bud”. 

And that is the GREAT thing about life .. no one gives a sh*t about you. Which is why the “fu*k around, and find out” philosophy is the best one!

1. People have their own problems, and failures to deal with. Enough to keep them busy 23.9/6.99 of the time.

2. People have a relatively short memory - no one remembers the “facebook post you made 2 years ago that got 0 likes and got you roasted by a dozen people”.

Then, why do you care about failing or embarrassing yourself in the pursuit of your morally, and ethically sound goals? Go do it! Take the first step. Fail. Be proud of it. Wear it like a badge of honor.

Do you know how many times Muhammad Ali was punched in the face and knocked out as a kid (kinda embarrassing, right?), until he built the muscle to go pro and win the world championships, etc?

Neither do I… the past failures get buried in the future success. GO FOR IT!

And if you do:

• I’ll be the first subscriber to your newsletter.

• I’ll be the first signup on your product.

• I’ll be the first one to share your offering.

100 Day YouTube Channel: Progress so far

I have been sharing that religiously every single day on this Twitter thread - today is Day 6. Pls show some luv ❤️ (no pressure).

Since I started, the channel’s gained:

• +13 subscribers,

• +50 watch hours,

• +1.1K views.

References

1. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Not Sucking at Coming Up with Ideas

2. From Idea to "Oh Sh*t, This Might Actually Work" (Part 2 of 2)

3. How 1 AI prompt does the work of a $250K CMO

4. Create a Reddit Marketing Strategy with AI in 20 mins

Million dollar AI strategies packed in this free 3 hour AI Masterclass – designed for founders & professionals. Act fast because It’s free only for the first 100.

Join it here for $0. 🎁

That’s all for today!

Ciao,

Junaid

Don’t hesitate to reply to this email if you’d like to turn anything from the above into a conversation. Cheers!