A lot of products fail, not because they're bad, but because no effort went into marketing them. This isn't a hot take or some profound wisdom. It's just reality that many of us struggle to accept.
Build it and they will come doesn't work
This might be the most persistent myth in tech. The idea that if you just build something good enough, users will magically find it.
It only works for maybe the top 1% of products. The ones that hit some perfect combination of timing, luck, and virality. Most of us aren't in that category, and that's completely fine. Even the products that seem to grow effortlessly are usually backed by serious marketing efforts you don't see.
You've probably seen it yourself. Someone's first app somehow gets into that lucky 1%. Their second app? Not so much. That's the reality for most of us.
Why marketing feels so hard for developers
There's an uncomfortable truth here: many developers think marketing is a little beneath them. A little embarrassing even.
We have no real concept of the scale required to actually try at marketing. We'll spend weeks perfecting a feature but give up on marketing after a few tweets don't land.
The success rate of marketing hurts too. You might try ten different things before something works. For people used to deterministic outcomes in code, this feels broken. You can do everything right, make some sales, keep pushing, and still hit a roadblock. Progress isn't linear.
What actually works
Here's what developers who've had success are doing:
Programmatic SEO: Building pages at scale to capture search traffic. It's technical enough that developers don't hate it.
Paid ads: Google Ads can be a way to speedrun things if you take time to learn it. The learning curve is steep but the results can be immediate.
Content marketing: Writing blog posts, tutorials, documentation. This feels more natural for developers since it's educational.
ProductHunt launches: Can give you that initial boost and community support. Not a long-term strategy but good for validation.
Community building: Engaging on Twitter, Discord, Reddit. Being helpful without being pushy.
Nobody knows which channel will work for their specific product. You have to try multiple approaches and see what sticks.
The feedback loop problem
Here's something most developers miss: marketing isn't just about shouting into the void. It's about understanding what resonates with your audience. You need a way to track what's working and what isn't.
This is where having a proper feedback system helps. When users do find your product, you need to understand why they stayed or why they left. What features do they actually want? What problems are they really trying to solve?
We built UserJot partly because we saw teams struggling with this. They'd launch features nobody asked for while ignoring the feedback sitting in their email. A simple feedback board can tell you more about your market than any amount of guessing. Plus, when potential users see an active feedback board with real responses, it builds trust. They know you're actually listening.
The uncomfortable truth about effort
Half of marketing is just being louder and more persistent than the competition. It's not elegant. It's not clever. It's just persistent effort.
Marketing is a hustle. You have to keep trying different things until something clicks. There's no magic formula or secret hack. Just consistent experimentation and learning from what doesn't work.
The amount of effort you put into marketing is inversely proportional to how much ego you have as a founder. The more precious you are about "just focusing on the product," the less likely you are to do the unglamorous work of getting people to actually use it.
Moving forward
If your product has three users and you're still tweaking features, stop. Go talk to people. Write about what you're building. Share your progress. Try paid ads. Build in public. Answer questions in communities where your users hang out.
Yes, it feels uncomfortable. Yes, the success rate is low at first. Yes, you'll feel like you're bothering people.
But the alternative is a great product that nobody knows exists.
Even the best product in the world can't sell itself. Neither can you. Marketing isn't optional anymore. It's just part of building something people will actually use.
The good news? You don't have to be perfect at it. You just have to start. Pick one channel, give it an honest try for a few weeks, measure the results, and adjust. That's it. No revolutionary strategies required.
Your code might be flawless, but if nobody knows about it, what's the point?
Top comments (2)
very true, thanks for sharing.
Sure thing!