If you are an Entrepreneur who sucks at marketing
Hey, this is Gee. I noticed that most pre-profitable Entrepreneurs struggle with the same problems. That's why I wrote this self-help marketing guide.
Painkiller vs vitamin products
Essential business questions
Marketing channels that work
Proven conversion tips
Iterate and stay consistent
Practical marketing tactics
Join 500+ entrepreneurs learning to master marketing. Get actionable insights delivered to your inbox every week.
Your marketing starts the day you pick your product idea.
Some products can reach $5000/mo. Some can't (or it will take you 5 years and 2 burnouts).
But most importantly — you are building a painkiller and not a vitamin.
KILL YOUR VITAMIN PRODUCT AND BUILD A PAINKILLER
I hate the idea of "launch and see what sticks"
If your audience is not on Twitter / Product Hunt, it will be a failure 98% of the time.
I don't expect you to generate a 50-page business plan. But please spend 10 minutes answering these questions:
If you lean towards the generic answer — stop for a moment. This is not a coincidence. You just don't understand your audience well enough.
Here's a thing:
If you launch a commodity product that isn't different in any way, your audience will ignore it. You need to have an angle. And this angle should be there because your audience wants it.
There are no shortcuts. You need a proper mix of marketing channels.
If you have an email list, you can pre-launch your product there
Still cool — can get you free newsletter shout-outs if you make it to top-5
Note: There is no silver-bullet marketing channel.
Some people will get 0 results with cold emails. Some people will have a $50,000/mo business that thrives on emails. You need to find out what works for your business.
Are you a developer? 80% chance your landing page is shit.
Here are proven tips to improve it:
Your landing page is not about your product. It's about what your customers will get from using your product
Replace 'we' and 'our' with 'you' and 'your'
Showcase good product visuals that make people want to try your product
Record a Loom-style product video with your comments
Write a Founder message explaining why you build this product
Add more social proof so people believe what you say
Follow this copy structure: Emotional heading with a promise + Straightforward description
Use only 3-4 colors on your landing page
Limit any listicles to 3-5 points — people won't remember more
Make the next action simple and desirable
Remove 'subscribe to get our updates' from the bottom
Stop being arrogant in your marketing copy
Don't make your landing page wide — it's hard to read
Remove all animations
Don't be desperate (no EARLY BIRD OFFER PLEASE SIGN UP)
Remove purchase parity pricing and money-back guarantee
Good landing page = Good conversion rate = Happy Founder
Jump on the call with 30 people who haven't seen it. Ask them to share the screen and comment on what they see. You will suffer. This will be the worst 15 minutes of your life. But you will also learn a lot.
Entrepreneurship is not easy. Nothing will work on the first try.
Marketing channels will stop working. Your audience will ignore you.
I can't stress this enough — just try different things.
Product Hunt launch failed? → Okay, do some cold emails.
No response? → Conduct some interviews.
Found a pain point? → Build a free tool for it.
Please, don't expect your micro-SaaS to earn $5000/mo after 2 weeks of publishing blog posts. It's a long run.
Some months will be a plateau. Until you find out what's working. Sometimes you might even need to start again.
Maybe the product you've launched is good enough to earn $500/mo. But not $5000/mo. This is the part of the journey.
Good luck!
Practical marketing tactics you can use today
It's not that hard if you know what to write.
First, always start with an emotion. People don't buy 4 features of the to-do app. They buy what can be achieved with a to-do app.
So, you open with a promise: Ship products faster, Increase your conversion, Feel calm, etc.
Don't overpromise and don't call yourself the best. Just say what your product can deliver.
Great. Emotional promise + Rational explanation.
Good marketing copy = simple.
That's a big topic. But ultimately it consists of 3 sub-questions:
What content does your audience search on Google? (50%)
How can you get more websites to link to your website? (40%)
How can you make your website more fast & accessible? (10%)
It's easy to build, relatively easy to rank, and definitely easier to use as a promotion of your paid products.
With AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews changing how people find information, you need to optimize for AI discovery.
Remember: AI search engines prioritize helpful, accurate content. Focus on solving real problems with clear explanations, and you'll naturally rank well in AI-powered search results.
IF YOU ARE JUST GETTING STARTED, YOU DON'T NEED TO DO ADS.
You will just waste your time and money. Focus on sharpening your positioning and improving your marketing funnel.
Make sure that you need ads. Absolutely sure you need more website visitors?
Get ready to experiment with every headline and creative in ads.
Common questions about marketing for entrepreneurs
Sure, if you are okay with your target audience being broke. Also, Indie Hackers are the small market that tends to build internal tools for themselves. Perfect for being stuck at $300/mo.
Yes, they do. Just as they search on Google and click on Facebook Ads. You are not your customer. You are building the tool (a rare pattern for an average person). Market to regular people, not to yourself.
Sure. It's not mandatory. Audience building just gives you leverage: Your Product Hunt launches get more upvotes, Your HackerNews posts get early comments, Your landing page gets free feedback. Leverage is important for Entrepreneurs.
Here's a simple framework.
Every week, you either:
Pick one goal for your week. It will be easier to come up with relevant tasks.
Marketing = content + links to your product. Ads are content. Emails are content. Tweets are content. SEO tools are content. You need to be good at getting attention and providing free value. That's what content marketing is about.
You should build a good product. But it's not enough. Every niche has hundreds of "good products" that compete for the same customer with a limited budget. You still need to get website visitors and convert them to purchase. That's on marketing.
Have questions about marketing? Let's talk!