
Avoiding Startup Tarpits - oglowo3
https://hackernoon.com/its-not-a-feature-problem-avoiding-startup-tarpits-7d5ec4b8c81b?11-16
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dtawfik1
If talking to your clients mostly gets you new feature requests, it either
means your product isn't adequate yet or you're not asking the right
questions. In a nutshell you want to get of feel of: \- What was going on in
your clients' heads before they found you. What precise problem were they
trying to solve. This'll give you insights on whether or not your product is
adequate, and on how to phrase your landing page. \- How they went about to
look for you. What google search they did, whether they checked out reviews
and how, etc. this is to better focus your SEO and adwords campaigns. \- What
their decision process looked like. Was it a single person making the call, or
were several people involved? What objections got raised? What were their key
decision criteria? Raise them in your sales copy or in drip emails. \- Are
they talking about your product? Would they? This is to help you spot segments
with viral potential. Don't forget to politely ask for referrals if
applicable. \- And, of course, feedback on the product itself. But don't spend
too much time on this, and don't promise anything or build expectations.

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oglowo3
It seems I am one of those in the tarpit. I think the problem for us
engineering types is that there is so much bullshit around marketing, that
it's offputting to us. That's the case for me at least. If I spend time/money
on a feature, I know how long it will take, how much it will cost and when it
will be ready. Compared to this, marketing seems like burning money with
voodoo rituals. It doesn't help that marketing efforts are only meaningfully
measurable on a larger scale. If you're bootstrapping something yourself, you
don't have 12k to spend on marketing this month. You have $300. It's easy to
burn that $300 on adwords or facebook ads and get zero signups, with no
meaningful data whatsoever. The usual advice goes: hire a marketing expert.
But how do I hire a marketing expert that a) isn't full of it, b) will even
listen to me if my current budgets are in the hundreds of dollars? I think the
article is right on point, but I wish it pointed me to a way to deal with the
marketing problem.

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DrScump
Original submittal, 180+ points:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15519190](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15519190)

