Show HN: Marketing software for solopreneurs who don't like marketing

Show HN: Marketing software for solopreneurs who don't like marketing(2quiet2market.com)

74 points by bohlenlabs 3 years ago | 34 comments

Hey folks, I made 2Quiet2Market for busy solopreneurs who are "too quiet to market" what they build.

I've been building this since September 2022 because I am a software dev who likes to talk factually but doesn't enjoy to "pound the drum" and "toot the horn" to market my stuff.

On the other hand, if I don't market my stuff, people won't know about it and won't buy it. Bummer.

So what did I do to make life better for quiet or factual people like me who like to build stuff and want to make money with it?

I made a web-based app that helps you create your own habit for marketing. When people have a habit, they are more likely to do what needs to be done (marketing in this case).

The free plan of my SaaS contains these tools:

* Positioning blackboard

* Story Composer

* Experiment Designer

Positioning blackboards provide you with Lego-like building blocks to make your product look awesome and desirable. They clarify your marketing until you reach a story you want to tell that will make your customer buy.

Story Composer helps you create those stories step-by-step, and Experiment Designer lets you plan which stories to tell on which marketing channels, with a recipe on how to execute each marketing experiment.

Already with the Free plan, you can create your specific marketing playbook and turn it into a habit.

The Free plan allows you to have 1 project with 2 blackboards, and an "invite" feature to have a friend look at your stuff.

There are two paid plans as well:

- the Pro plan offers unlimited projects and blackboards, as well as an integration with the Todoist.com task management system. It automatically turns experiments into to-dos to get them done. And: The Pro plan also allows you to edit other people's stuff if they invite you to do so.

- the Advanced plan adds GPT to spice up the factual marketing copy from Story Composer, in order to make it more engaging for your audience.

Have fun, please try it out, and tell me whether you can use it to market your own stuff to the world.

It comes with interactive demos on its dashboard, and with comprehensive docs at https://2quiet2market.com/docs/

Cheers, Matthias

Sai_ 3 years ago |

I don’t think what is stopping someone from marketing is the lack of tools or templates or guides to follow.

Unless the root cause is addressed - which is my case was that there seemed to be no direct connection between marketing effort and outcomes - every such tool will find a handful of converts and that’ll be that.

The inability to market is a mindset problem, not a tools problem.

bohlenlabs 3 years ago | |

So true. I can totally relate because I had the same problem.

Whenever I write code, it either runs, or does not. It’s my fault, or I could say: it is my responsibility.

This is different with marketing. It depends not only on me but on other people’s behavior. And most of the time, I couldn’t see any relationship between effort and results.

Therefore, I have on my product roadmap a gamified loop with feedback, so that reluctant marketers have fun and keep being engaged to use the platform and stick to their habit.

esafak 3 years ago | | |

You could seek permission from users to let you use their data to build a model to provide guidance.

anbeliever 3 years ago | |

There is Mar5000, a list of 5000 marketing related tools. Now this number if approaching to 8000, so I'd agree, lack of tools is not an issue.

bohlenlabs 3 years ago | | |

By the way, I couldn't find that site. Mind sharing a link?

bohlenlabs 3 years ago | | |

Should I add my tool to the site? ;-)

gumby 3 years ago |

I love the idea of "marketing for introverted nerds" (though your title is better). I am meeting a friend this afternoon who could use this tool so of course I will mention it!

bohlenlabs 3 years ago | |

Cool, thanks for your encouraging words, gumby! I hope your friend will have much success with it. Should any assistance be needed, make sure you join the online community for 2quiet2market.

esafak 3 years ago | |

I like it too; it seems to be an untapped niche. And it opens the path to solopreneurs, founders, and startups without a marketer.

bohlenlabs 3 years ago | | |

Exactly. Busy, solo introverts deserve to have as much success as extroverts with a team.

pharaohgeek 3 years ago |

Great looking tool. To me, though, the big roadblock to marketing is... how??? I'd love some tutorials or blog posts on marketing strategies, copywriting, and some of the other aspects of marketing that introverts or solo developers may not be experienced in. This tool looks perfect once you know what content goes into effective marketing.

bohlenlabs 3 years ago | |

You're right. My tool (in its current form) is for people who know what they should do but simply don't do it.

However, if it's more like "how???", then you might like this popular blog post: https://2quiet2market.com/blog/spme-marketing-habit-for-solo...

Tell me what you think about it.

pedalpete 3 years ago |

This is great. Is the audience you are targetting start-ups? Or more lifestyle businesses?

I've got 2 marketing projects right now.

1) to our users and people on the waitlist 2) to investors we've met with - more of a "what's new with us" thing.

I think the 2nd is something that isn't given enough attention by start-ups that are in fundraising mode, though I'm not sure if that's a target you've considered.

bohlenlabs 3 years ago | |

I'm targeting people who don't love marketing and are totally busy with something else. At the moment, that's mostly solopreneurs and small startups. It's up to them whether they wanna go down the lifestyle business or the hypergrowth route, however I think a startup going for growth would have a full-time marketer on their team anyway, right?

pedalpete 3 years ago | | |

Depends on the stage and the type of company.

Early stage pre-seed likely don't have a marketing person, and at seed stage may have a marketing person or part-time. But not always.

RileyJames 3 years ago |

Looks like a great tool. And the video demo really sold it well.

The video demo did downscale / blur at times, which made it unreadable.

https://imgur.com/a/91Sgvgt

Everything else on the site was extremely clean. Love it.

jaggs 3 years ago |

Nice idea. But desperately needs AI to do the heavy lifting. What is a message? What is its purpose? What about crucial differentiators, USPs, positioning, 4 Ps, ADA, funnel stages, inbound vs outbound, tactics, KPIs and a host of other really important stuff?