Developer trying to market apps, need advise
Hey folks! Thanks for stopping by this thread. I'm a software developer who's trying to become an entrepreneur, mostly out of necessity because it's been a while since I got laid off. The problem is I'm a developer. I know how to build stuff, but I have…
Hey folks! Thanks for stopping by this thread. I'm a software developer who's trying to become an entrepreneur, mostly out of necessity because it's been a while since I got laid off. The problem is I'm a developer. I know how to build stuff, but I have almost no idea how to sell it. I made the classic mistake of building first and validating later. Looking back, I probably should've talked to potential customers before writing a single line of code. But here we are. I genuinely believe the app is useful though. Just for context, It's a micro SaaS aimed at small local businesses. The goal is to help businesses deal with overcrowding and reduce the number of customers who walk away because the place is too busy. In theory, if it works the way I intended, the extra revenue it brings should easily cover the subscription cost. The problem is I can't even get that first customer. It's been almost a month since I started marketing, and I still don't have a single paying customer. Things I've tried: Posting consistently on Facebook Posting on LinkedIn Running a very small Facebook ad campaign (can't really afford to keep doing this) Printing pamphlets and handing them out to local businesses I even went to register an actual business, sorting out the permits, taxes, and paperwork because I thought appearing more "legit" would help build trust. So far nothing has converted. I'm not giving up, and honestly I can't. Bills don't stop just because youre unemployed, so I have to figure this out somehow. And being a remote developer for years. I'm basically a shut-in. Talking to random business owners, introducing myself, and trying to sell something feels awkward. So I'm here asking people who've actually been through this. - how did you get your first paying customer? - what actually convinced them to buy? - am I focusing on the wrong marketing channels? - is there something obvious I'm missing? Hope someone here has been in the same boat and can share some advice. Feel free to be brutally honest. I'd rather hear the truth than keep doing the wrong things. Other than telling me to "give up" I'm open to any advice. :)
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do you have a website???
Hey. Yes I have. https://bearlog.app
directly DMing, e mailing, repliying to potential leads 1-1
Thanks for your input. I am trying to do cold outreach on FB. Is there any other platform you would recommend?
i think reddit is very solid for cold outreach because its a platfrom where people discuss, ask, and search for their problems so its more easiertha other platform for finding people complaigin about a specific problem. I'd say X is nice as well. are you manually looking for people who might be interested in your product or are you using some kind of automation or a tool that finds leads for you on FB?
Thanks for the warning. Do you have any experience doing B2B marketing for local business?
i believe cold outreach is the best for early stage products. Every one of us have the same problem distribution, even most of us arent devs like you we can somehow slop out a vibe coded website, the boundary is at selling what you built. cold outreach beats trying yo go viral though posts that algorithm doesn't care about. People treat launch posts like jsut ads and scroll away. So when you find people who are alredy looking for your tool, complaining about the problem you are solving, your Dm or e mail stops getting seeing as just another spam ad, instead people feel heard
What's cold outreach?
One warning from inside the tools world: you're about to meet a wall of lead-gen products promising to find customers for you. For local B2B they're selling a shortcut that doesn't exist. Your buyers are behind their own counter, not posting in subreddits. Reddit is where you get peer advice, like this thread. It's not where your customers are. Spend nothing there until the 20 conversations are done.
Is there any competition (competition = validation) if not you have to figure out why Off the top of my head, food places are the only ones I can think of that might even have this problem, and most of those are (to my limited understanding) cooperations where even if you could convince the manager the person who would have finally say is many rungs up the ladder
Saw a developer saying keyword optimization worked for him for smaller market apps. Still, it took around 1 year for his apps to get traction.
Hey man I'm not shitting on you but as a fellow shut in I must tell you that you can't be a shut in forever. Even if your SaaS takes off, there will be sales calls, people who would want to meet you, and people you would have to meet to keep your SaaS running. You gotta work this through. It's a bitch to fix but fix you must. Also, before you think about marketing, think about who you're marketing to. Local Business is a very broad term. Think through who really have a excess footfall problem. And also figure out who is the buyer and what their take is on the problem statement. You'd be surprised at the kind of statements you hear and that's what's going to influence your narrative and positioning. Does not look like you have a channel problem. Not just yet.