How to Market Before Building

It’s a tale as old as time, you’re an indie hacker, entrepreneur, whatever you want to call it… you enjoy building your product, you take weeks to months building out your first prototype, but now what? You have no one to use it, you thought that users would come flocking through, but no one is there to use your product.

The issue most people run into is that they build their product without marketing it, they build something that either nobody wants, or nobody will know about because they don’t focus on marketing early.

Instead of spending time on building something no one will pay for, test out the market, see if someone is interested in what you have in the first place. If you realize no one is interested, move on, but if you realize that someone wants it, build out the MVP (Minimum viable product).

Market before building

When you market before building, you’re essentially trying to see if your product is worth building in the first place… but how does that work? How can you market something that you don’t have?

To market without having anything to show, you would just need two things, a landing page, and a waitlist (A form that lets people submit their information to show interest in your product).

1. What does the landing page do? Get the user to your site.

2. What does the waitlist on the landing page do? Lets the user show interest in your product.

You want to get users to be interested in the concept that you have, you don’t have a product to show them, but you have a vision or idea, and that’s the reason they would join your waitlist.

Another added benefit is initial feedback, when you’re building out your MVP, you don’t get an idea for what the user really needs. When you gain interest through a waitlist, you can talk directly to the user through their email and get an idea of why they waitlisted and what they want to see out of your product so that they will hand over their credit card details.

Where do I find users in the first place?

You have a landing page with a waitlist, great! but now how do you find your potential users? It’s going to vary from product to product based on your target audience, but here is a general guide of platforms you can use and what to do to reach your target audience.

1. Twitter/X — Cold DM individuals that fit your target persona (Good for B2C)

2. LinkedIn — Cold DM businesses that fit your target persona (Good for B2B)

3. Reddit — Make posts on subreddits (Be careful of subreddit advertising rules, it varies) of your target persona (Ex: If I’m making an interview platform, I would want to check out r/interviews)

4. YouTube/TikTok — Create short, engaging videos about your niche, showing how your product solves problems

5. Hacker News ("Show HN") — If your product is technical or developer-focused, launch it under "Show HN" for early adopters

6. ProductHunt — Launch your product here, your target persona could find you through your launch

These are a few to get started, but remember that this is a marathon not a sprint, if your first DM or post or launch receives zero traction, keep going!

When can I start building?

When do you stop “marketing”? What you’re trying to do in this phase is receive waitlists, that’s really it. You want to receive waitlists because that’s how you know people are going to want what you have to offer and then build it from there, so the question is really “How many waitlists do I need to start building”?

20-50 waitlists is a good number to have to at least start your MVP, this means you have an initial amount of people that are interested in your product, and so you can build what you have and go on from there.

When you’re done building out your MVP, you want to inform your list of users from your waitlist that you’re finished and that it’s available for purchase or testing or however you want to provide it. If done right, you’ll have your initial users using your MVP instead of building out your MVP and having no hint of users at all, see the difference?

Closing remarks

That’s it! Just a little refresher, this is what it looks like to market before building:

1. Build a small landing page

2. Add a waitlist to your landing page

3. Contact your target audience through platforms they are likely to be hanging out on

4. Do this until you get 20-50 waitlists or until you realize your idea may be a dud

5. Now… you can start building 😄 

I hope you enjoyed my post about marketing before building, if you want to know how to start from rock bottom, check out this article → How to start from rock bottom

Otherwise, make sure to subscribe for more content, and keep marketing 😃 

— Michael