Indie Marketing Plays Benjamin Boman

It's here! That's the end of season 4.
Many thanks to the guests of this season. Each of them provided very actionable direction on how to apply strategic theories in practice.
Based on this season, I need to narrow and define the vision for this podcast moving forward. I may restart the podcast sometime next year.
In the meantime, if you would like to support the show, please interact with the guests by leaving comments or likes on their episodes. This will help encourage the guests, and also give me some feedback on what people like to listen to.
Thank you again for listening.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiemarketingplays.com

Kevon Cheung is the founder of Public Lab and author of the book Find Joy in Chaos: How to Build Your Twitter Presence so Connections and Opportunities Come Find You. He is also the Creator and Head Teacher of Build in Public Mastery, a program that teaches others how to share their business journey authentically on social media.
In this episode, Kevon teaches you how to share your journey authentically on social media to naturally attract followers, clients, and opportunities.
Key takeaways:
* How Building in Public (BIP) typically works
* Two common mistakes in using the technique
* How to build in public for services vs digital products
* Kevon’s core framework for building in public
* What to post, other than simple updates
* How to consolidate your following and audience
* How BIP content is changing, and what to post now
Key links:
* Kevon’s Build in Public Essays
* The Build in Public Mastery Program
* Kevon’s book, Find Joy in Chaos: How to Build Your Twitter Presence so Connections and Opportunities Come Find You
Big news. This newsletter is now sponsored by… me!
Recently I’ve struck out on my own to help people generate more leads through paid ads on platforms like Facebook and Google.
If you’d like to learn more or make an inquiry, please check out my agency’s website Hungry Bear Digital.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiemarketingplays.com

Paul Xue is the founder of Spacestation Labs, a solo developer agency he grew to over $500k p/year since 2017, while working a regular 40-hour week.
Key takeaways
* Client quality vs quantity in scaling
* How to actually do value-based pricing
* How to position clients for value-based pricing
* Examples of price negotiation in practice
* Getting leads inbound via communities
Key links
* Paul on Twitter
* Guide to building a $500k solo dev agency
* Spacestation Labs
Looking for faster, scalable lead generation?
Once developed, paid ad channels can provide consistent, profitable lead flow without the rollercoaster results of organic methods like content marketing.
If you’d like help, contact me for a chat or learn more on my agency’s website Hungry Bear Digital.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiemarketingplays.com

Looking to encourage the maximum amount of signups from your product’s traffic, but unsure how to organize your efforts? I asked Chris McCarron how.
Chris has a depth of experience in CRO, having worked with names like Noah Kagan and Neil Patel, Chris has run the award-nominated CRO agency GoGoChimp since 2013.
In this podcast, he shares:
* How to A/B test with low traffic
* Tips on issue diagnosis
* The 5-step CRO process
* Chris’ thoughts on the role of design
* And more.
Visit GoGoChimp or find Chris on LinkedIn.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiemarketingplays.com

Copywriting product pages is super hard (for me). Trying to find the balance between something that hooks readers, without being cringy, while still being effective. 😔
Thankfully I could ask Indiehacker copywriting favorite, Lana Rafaela for advice on how ordinary folk can write better pages.
This interview turned into a mini master class, where she shared:
* The MVP and ideal landing page
* How to develop interest in your product, handle objections, and use social proof effectively
* Where to adapt your page to improve your conversion rates
* How to get user feedback using existing information
Here are the details:
Important note: The following is a summary written by me based on the interview, not quotes. Please listen to the audio version for the exact wording.
The ideal landing page
While each page differs by industry, a starting point to aim for could include these sections:
* Hero section. Focus on the main benefits in the hero section, above the fold. That's the initial thing that people are gonna land on and that has to be really convincing to make them keep scrolling. Then talk about different objections.
* Benefits. For the purpose of skimming, you should have it as a specific section. It doesn't have to be titled benefits, but they have to be clear out there. For example, using a bigger font to save time savings or ease of use or better than XYZ competitor. And then obviously infuse the rest of your landing page copy with them.
* Features or how it works. You can use a video to have this if it's very verbose.
* Social proof. Ideally, testimonials that give some value instead of just being trust signaling.
* [Optional] FAQ. I like to use this especially if the product is not quite intuitive or if it's a new product in the space.
* CTA. Try to make your CTAs unified. So don't try to sign up in one CTA and then learn more in another. If you want them to convert, then it's sign-up.
Tips:
* Differentiate to earn attention. People are exposed to so much content online that you really have to do something to earn that time that they're giving you.
* Develop interest via consequences. Unless people feel like they're in real pain they're probably not gonna take action. More on this below.
* Respond to objections on the page. You need to know what's making your leads start to think about and second guess whether they should be really in business with you. You have to respond to those objections whether through your copy or through an FAQ section, but you have to do that.
What are the essentials?
👉 Don't have all the material to create the page above? If you want to launch with just the essentials, include:
* Value proposition
* Explanation of what your product does
* CTA
Crafting differentiation
You need to understand the frustrations that are making people seek you out. There are a few ways to do this.
* Reddit. It is a great source of unfiltered feedback. You can do some brainstorming on there as well to work out why is this product necessary.
* Competitor feedback. Try to find competitors on G2 and see how negative reviewers think about their products, and what words they use, and try to narrow down on a specific situation that's causing a lot of frustration. You can then replicate that and respond to that on your landing page.
Example:
Say you are building a project management tool that combines the features of Trello and Asana. From Reddit research, you discover that users are frustrated with the limited visibility of team members' tasks and progress updates which leads to a lack of accountability and confusion over who is responsible for what tasks. Following this, you decide to prioritize collaboration features and real-time updates in the tool, highlighting the benefits of increased transparency and accountability on the landing page.
How to make readers care
There are two parts to this.
The first thing is to focus on frustrations and the second is to explain how are those frustrations affecting a

Recent data found that 79% of people say watching a video has convinced them to sign up for an app.
But too many of my favorite products don't even have one.
Hunting for best practices, I connected with , who explained:
* What exactly to put in the video
* How (bootstrappers) can put one together
* Annoying mistakes to avoid
* And how to give your video the X factor
Here are the details:
Important note: The following is a summary written by me based on the interview, not quotes. Please listen to the audio version for the exact wording.
What to put in your video?
👉 Here are some tips want to put in the video itself:
* Start with the main problem. There can be a temptation to add too many ideas to the same video. Stay focused on the main benefit or problem first.
* Talk about sub-benefits after. After covering the main point, you will be able to detail the sub-benefits related to this problem. for example, your main problem may be dealing with too many emails, and your product solves this. After covering how you solve that, you can show the extra features that add usability or value.
* Try to hook them in the first 15 seconds. More on how to do this below.
* Aim for 30 seconds to 1min, 30 seconds. This is the optimal length. If not possible, aim to keep the video under 2 minutes long. You may be able to extend the time that people will pay attention by including a human face, but this will increase production of quality and inconsequence the budget required.
Avoid these common mistakes:
* Giving product tours. This wastes valuable time from communicating your main benefit or how you solve the main problem. Skip the login screen. This is definitely TMI.
* Not showing the product. Motion graphics can be interesting, but you need to show the product being used.
* Burying the video. The video needs to be placed in a location where it can actually be seen by users and affect your conversion Rates, like your home page.
How to find your hook?
You will find your hook by talking to your customers and prospects.
You need to find the idea that really resonates with them. What big benefit do they get from solving a particular pain point? Focus on that.
👉 How you present that hook depends on your creativity.
* You could go full infomercial, such as “Are you struggling with X?” which is less cool, but it works. 🤷
* Framer has a good example of a creative hook. They present the idea as asking you to imagine a few different ideas combined. See below:
Video endings
Here are some tips on how to end your video:
* One sentence recap. Especially if you have a hero video that's a bit long a one-sentence recap at the end allows you to end on a high note that people will remember.
* Splash screens with a Try The Product Now button is a nice way to prompt people to engage more.
How to create your hero video
Here are the steps to creating your hero video:
* Create the ‘script’. Not the script probably like like you have in your mind right now but one based on high-level ideas written on post-its to prompt you through the recording. This will be flexible enough to re-arrange as you go based on what you learn from the process.
* Write down the problem that you're going to address, describe the main benefit, and then describe the sub-benefits that you'd like to like to like to touch on.
* Work out what you're going to show in your UI. In your video, you're going to click through different stages, etc. You will also need some assets to show this, like a demo or account with data in it already. Etc. Jot this down on a notepad.
* Practice. You can practice this first just by talking it through and looking at your notes. You want to check that it makes sense.
* Record and edit. Note that you want to record your audio separately from your video because that will remove a lot of the retakes.
Tips:
* Use the correct screen resolution. You want to record something that will also work on mobile when somebody is watching on mobile. So if yo