I want to hear your thoughts on how to engage the most amount of people. And then make them try out your product.

Understand exactly what the market demands. Then – if you can possibly manage it – let market demand pull the product out of the startup with as little interference as you feel capable of.

The Only Thing That Matters is one hell of an important thing to leave out.

Build It And They Will Come isn’t that best way. It’s an act of belief: You Build It … They Come. There is no marketing step. And it is exactly ass-backwards from any kind of best way – including what you think is in any book. (Yeah. That’s the one.)

wrong thinking Here.

1. marketing a product includes promotion but is not only promotion. Also think product, price, place.
2. if ads, salesmen, etc didn’t work people wouldn’t use them.
3. what people rail at the person promoting the product? Have you experienced this or is it just a meme? Are these people your target market?
4. Properly positioning your product means understanding the customer, thinking where they will be, and communicating in a way that addresses their issues in a language they understand. It might include ads and sales people. It might not.
5. I don’t get annoyed at sales in general, I get annoyed at cold calls specifically. They’re usually for highly competitive products and services that I’m not in the market for. They call me, don’t immediately say why they’re calling, which is a dead giveaway, and ask questions about me to get me talking and waste my time. Does it work? It must. But my annoyance is because I get like 15 calls a week about software development, recruiting, SEO, etc. it’s a crowded market and I’m being interrupted. So if you’re afraid of annoying people, avoid products with crowded markets That rely on cold outreach.
6. I get annoyed with ads that block me fro m what I want to read or see. Not ads in general. It’s 2023, content has a price, and free content means the price is ads. It’s fine so long as they don’t spam my email, prevent me from closing a window or tab in my browser, etc.
7. with that in mind, what’s the product, who’s the audience, where do they spend time and attention, and what type of language do they use? Fit those criteria and you’ll probably be fine.

The best products are “easy” to market because they only add value to the client and never “take” anything from them. An example is a service that is free to use and that solves the user’s pain points, and, you’ve monetized it in a way that only shares in the user’s payoff (e.g., you keep a percent of their revenue boost).

These products are as close to ones that “sell themselves”, in which case you’re merely orchestrating the delivery or sale. Your only “pitch” is to put your client’s imagination in touch with the idea, and hand the product to them when the dots have connected so to speak.

I realize this is a bit of a cop out answer since some products require a “hard sale”, or, you’re unable to forgo a fee for its use or purchase. However, if you’re early enough, these “marketing” questions should absolutely factor into whether you think you have a good idea worth pursuing or not.

Bottom line harsh truth: If your product is great but too difficult to sell, then it wasn’t as great as you thought it was.

Redeeming point: Even with hard sells, you can make it work as long as the cost of marketing is less than the energy you’re spending selling people on the idea.