Case study: How I'd do marketing for a bootstrapped CRM
CRM is one of the biggest software categories in the world, and one of the most competitive. Yes, CRM is kinda the Himalaya of all SaaS. Let’s plan a nice hike there.
You may need a CRM to keep your business organized, log contacts, ongoing discussions, potential deals, or manage tasks. But CRMs have a bad rap – even among salespeople.
A trip to "increased productivity land" can soon turn into a vacation from hell. CRM is often complicated to use and time-consuming, as they're bloated with sales and marketing features.
What if I'm not a salesperson?
Building the anti-CRM
Hubspot, Salesforce, Close, Mixmax, or Streak are CRMs designed for sales and marketing professionals. What if I’m not sending drip campaigns or making cold calls? What if I "only" want to organize my business a bit better?
There are alternatives like Notion and Airtable which are databases. But you’ll need to update them manually — that’s clunky.
If I was to launch a CRM for small business owners, I’d build the anti-CRM. A CRM that’s not for salespeople, that doesn’t integrate with enrichment tools or marketing platforms. A CRM that doesn't track email opens and clicks. A CRM that does less, but right. I'd build A CRM that’s damn simple to use.
You could keep track of your contacts, answer emails, manage your work pipeline, share files (proposals?), and get paid for your good work. You’d be able to back the lifelines of your business. Nothing more.
There'd be one pricing option, no per-user billing, no commitment, no migration cost, and full proprietary data. What about even offering self-hosting for free?
Teasing the market
A few months/weeks ahead of opening to the public, I’d launch a fun project to build up buzz and anticipation. The goal is to validate my product idea and get some early traffic and followers.
Social media has made people big on sharing about them. So I’d launch a small website for visitors to submit their funniest / worst / most absurd entrepreneur stories. I'd try to make it entertaining. There'd be a contest with prizes to win.
After that, I’d announce my new project on “helping small business owners deal with managing their chaos”. I’d show the main features and explain how they work. I hope this would get me the first 100 signups at least.
The launch
I’d launch on ProductHunt. If you've read this post about how I start projects, you'd say it's surprising. But the setup here is different: I have a small audience, a few hundreds of followers, and an e-mail list. This can get me early traction. And if I offer a free self-hosted version, sharing it on Hacker News could help me climb the ProductHunt ladder.
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