For the month of January—dubbed Juicy January—I set out to experiment and learn more about marketing and monetization:

• growth hacking, and how to set up acquisition channels
• content marketing, to provide value and get the product in front of potential customers
• conversion funnels, to convert interested shoppers into paying customers
• monetization strategies, or how to get people to open up their wallets

Some things I’m trying, and thoughts:

Content marketing

Provide value even for non-users

 - conventional content marketing wisdom is to write many blog posts offering your unique point of view, and share it in different communities/platforms. I had planned some topics to write for Sweet Jam Sites, as it makes sense for that product to talk about what JAMstack means for business owners, and for example, how to set up one themselves if they prefer to DIY. Yes, providing value for non-users can also be a tactic for get more actual users.  

Content doesn’t have to mean blog posts

 - but for Keto List, there’s already an over-saturation of articles online talking about keto recipes, the science, and the how-to, so I’m not sure how I can value-add much against that ginormous number. I’m no nutritionist or doctor, nor long-time practitioner expert. Instead, I wanted to make useful, practical content that’s synthesized off the data I collected in the listings. So I created seasonal and festive collections, like a Chinese New Year collection of keto sellers and bakers who are offering deals and promos on Chinese New Year snacks. That’s something no one else is doing in Singapore, and certainly something more on brand for what Keto List stands for.

Acquisition - cold sales, reciprocity

Find where your customers are by where they are selling their stuff

 - for Sweet Jam Sites, my initial problem was that I was targeting business owners of productized services. But the reception from the Facebook community seems lukewarm at best. If not them, then who? I’m sure there’s more non-technical founders, owners of service businesses and freelancers who would find my solution compelling. Where else could they be hanging out? I went online to hunt them down. I looked in Indie Hackers (not much), Makerlog (even less), Starter Story (promising leads). But a conversation with a friend got me thinking about where would freelancers list their services. So I went looking into a local bulletin platform called Carousell . It’s like a local but better version of Craigslist, and indeed, there’s many freelancers there listing their services, in marketing, accounting, admin. I scraped their websites and emails manually, compiled them all into a crude CRM spreadsheet. Next week, I’ll cold email them. I always hated cold calls and emails, so it’s going to be another interesting learning experiment on how to not come across as annoying and sales-y.

Give first, and hopefully they reciprocate

 - the key to using the Principle of Reciprocity is to be the first to give and to ensure that what you give is personalized and unexpected. For some of these leads with more potential, I even made a new JAMstack website based off their existing website, copy-and-pasting the content over. A bit more time-consuming, but I wanted to try this gifting approach to first demo what their new site can look like, and hopefully, to elicit some reciprocity. Even if the lead goes cold, at least I would have built up a series of different demo sites to show others. The next tactic is to create some sites for specific vocations, like accountants, marketing, etc.

 - following the same reciprocity principle, I also offered free websites to 3 users on the Beta Testing topic group in Indie Hackers platform, but no takers so far. Perhaps that’s not the ideal platform, since most there would know how to create their own website. Will try it elsewhere.

Some learning points

So much more to experiment and to learn, but so little time! With these experiments, especially cold calls, I’m definitely learning hw to overcome my inner roadblocks against selling, and understanding myself better. In the midst of that, the fact that I’m having to sell this hard made me think that perhaps I still need to keep making new products, until something sticks (without needing much marketing). That’s actually the kind of products I like to make. Something that’s a real painkiller (instead of a vitamin) that people get excited about when they see it, because it really solves a problem they have, and are willing to open their wallets for it. I know I said before at the start of Juicy January that I will stop development in favour of experimenting with marketing and monetization, but even now, I’m re-evaluating that stance. 

We’ll see.