
Avoiding Startup Tarpits - rpkoven
https://hackernoon.com/its-not-a-feature-problem-avoiding-startup-tarpits-7d5ec4b8c81b?11-17-17
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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.

~~~
rpkoven
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.

~~~
oglowo3
The product is adequate, because people are paying for it. It could be better,
hence the feature requests.

The most important thing I always want to know is how they found me —
unfortunately, for all of them it was via a search for a specific phrase. That
doesn't help me at all: I am prominently featured for that search phrase.

No viral potential, this is a niche B2B product.

------
DrScump
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Avoiding%20Startup%20Tarpits%2...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Avoiding%20Startup%20Tarpits%20-inertia&sort=byDate&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

Original posting, 180+ points:

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

