What is the underrated marketing trick you would advise other makers to do?
From experience, I see that product makers most often rely primarily on just 2 things:
1. Social media (and ads on them)
2. Influencers and UGC
As if nothing else existed.
For me personally, though, things like these are often overlooked:
– Reddit marketing
– Getting featured in Medium articles
– A mention on Wikipedia (which is fairly often cited by LLMs)
Which marketing hack would you recommend your fellow makers try?
170 views
Replies
@michal_giernatowski I genuinely think that meaningful conversations among humans would have more value than AI-generated content creation or even content creation at all.
@michal_giernatowski love love LOVE this take! We're in an era where the barrier to entry for content creation is so low. You can flood your socials with AI-produced content and honestly, in the short term, it could work. Not all AI content is slop and if your content engine helps you get in front of the right people, more power to you.
But at the end of the day, people buy from people. Being in those conversations (or even just listening to them) and then turning them into meaningful content seems far more sustainable, even if it doesn't make for a "we got 100,000K clicks in 3 months" case study.
Depending on the target audience likely to use the product, communicating on specialized forums or those dedicated to the communities for whom the product is intended can be an effective communication channel.
For a Web-to-Print solution I developed a few years ago, I targeted websites frequented by graphic designers and promoted them there. This brought me some contacts.
Another good communication channel I regularly use, again for this Web-to-Print solution, is LinkedIn connection requests.
With the AI agent I use, I have it search for companies that create product catalogs, which it stores in an Excel file. Then, for each company found, it searches LinkedIn for the marketing and/or communications director and sends a connection request, adding a short note (300 characters max) to quickly highlight the advantages of using Web-to-Print and provide a link to a YouTube video that shows the solution in action (not marketing content).
In this case, it allowed me to sign several clients.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@franckolv_dev I am neglecting YT, and that's a mistake. Will try to invest in it more :) Thank you for the reminder! :)
It's all about connecting with your target audience, so work out who your audience is and where they hang out.
Many of us go to industry specific exhibitions and conferences and this is a mistake, go to audience specific ones instead.
We used to do a lot of Telecom related ones, even the biggest, but this rarely resulted in actual business, and was more peer posturing - of course if you sell to the industry you are in, then fine, but if your clients are Plumbers then you need to go to plumbing exhibitions and conferences.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mark_trowbridge trust me, as an introverted person, I would rather stay online :D I mean, I am okay with conferences, but it is energy draining.
@busmark_w_nika - I hear you, I am introverted too, so the trick is to turn it into a game, like "talk to anyone with yellow in their clothing" - tie, dress, shirt, skirt, socks.... in terms of energy, you'll actually find the reverse, once you connect, the energy levels soar.
Like everything, the more you do, the easier it gets and always remember there is business in the room and you only need one decent contact for it to have been a worthwhile event.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mark_trowbridge Next time, I will use that trick :D
Two that almost nobody does.
Put a source tag on every link you share, everywhere. After my launch the channels that felt important converted nobody, and two quiet ones did all the work. Without the tags I would have spent another month doubling down on the wrong place. The data picks your channel, not your gut.
And go narrower, not louder. The visitors who stuck were the ones who recognised their exact problem in the first line. Specificity is free distribution, because the right person shares it for you. Your Reddit point ties straight into this. It only works if you show up in the one niche sub where people already have the problem.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@oshylabs Honestly, I was trying Reddit very few times, because that platform is crused
@busmark_w_nika The failure mode is almost always the wrong sub. The niche subs where people already have the exact problem are small and very unwelcoming to promotion, which is exactly what makes them valuable when you get it right. If the community does not know you before you post, it shows.
I agree with Reddit marketing as well as content creation; however, I do think that seeing real engagement among real humans in a public setting has more value than any other marketing-related content generation. I think the human experience has gained more value because of excessive AI-accelerated marketing.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@ajinsunny but in what to invest when everything feels to be so AI-generated?
@busmark_w_nika The feeling will go away eventually when it becomes the norm. We lived in world where no one had internet, and look at us now. It's a paradigm shift.
NINA
The most underrated one for me is talking to customers and turning those conversations into content.
The exact words people use to describe their problems become:
• landing page copy
• social posts
• SEO topics
• sales material
• onboarding improvements
One good customer conversation can fuel weeks of marketing while making the product better at the same time.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@varun1jan How do you approach that? Do you ask for their permission too?
NINA
@busmark_w_nika Most of the time, yes.
If I'm taking notes during a customer interview, I'll usually ask upfront whether they're okay with me recording the conversation or using anonymized quotes internally.
For public content, I either ask for permission directly or remove anything that could identify them.
What I've found is that customers are often happy for their feedback to be shared if it helps solve the problem better. The bigger challenge isn't getting permission, it's capturing the exact language they use instead of translating it into marketing jargon.
reddit is the one I'd double down on. not the "post a link and hope for upvotes" kind but actually joining communities, answering questions, and being useful for weeks before ever mentioning your product. the people who do it right get more trust than any ad campaign could buy. also forum threads like this one... most makers ignore PH discussions and only show up on launch day. but the relationships you build here in the comments are the ones that actually show up when you need support
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@tina_chhabra what is better? To publish a post or rather to answer in comments? Because some comments are getting more traction than the post itself.
Receiptor AI
The LLM citation angle you mentioned is something I've been paying closer attention to lately, and it's not just Wikipedia, it's also every detailed review, every comparison article, every mention in a niche newsletter or technical blog. They're real-time citation sources for AI answers. I haven't cracked the playbook yet but it's changed which content investments feel worth making. Comparison articles and mention of Receiptor AI next to bigger player in the market seems to bring some traction from those LLMs
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@luigi_receiptorai we just need to figure out how to get those citations.
Mine's not a trick exactly, it's patience, which nobody wants to hear. Most makers try a channel for 2 weeks, see nothing, and bail. The ones who win usually just stuck with one thing long enough for it to compound.
But for an actual tactic: read your own ad comments and your competitors'. Not the likes, the comments. People tell you in their own words why they won't buy, what they're confused about, what they actually want. That language goes straight into your copy and it converts because it's theirs, not yours.
I've pulled entire winning hooks straight out of a comment section. Free research, sitting right there, and almost nobody mines it.
The other one: talk to users who churned. Everyone chases new leads and ignores the people who already left. A 10-minute call with someone who quit tells you more about your marketing gap than any tool will.