My co-founder Wilson and I launched our side product Confetti on January 1, 2020.

Before doing so, we had a list of everything to do before and after our launch to ensure our product had a growing audience.

We filled a Notion doc with dozens of marketing-related ideas that we could achieve for free.

Our ideas had to cost $0 because we are a bootstrapped company, and our product only costs $2.50/mo, so it wouldn’t be likely to have a good ROI if we used Facebook ads.

1. Telling our story

My co-founder and I met each other in a pretty interesting and serendipitous way.

He read my article, My 8 Side Projects That Never Saw The Light of Day, that I posted in r/sideproject, and reached out a week later with a React app that he built based on my mockups. I liked his prototype so much that we continued to work together and launch the product.

Our encounter turned partnership was intriguing enough to be a compelling story. By writing articles on Medium about our journey, I can share what I’ve learned and hopefully inspire people to create their own products.

By sharing in this way, it allows me to spread the word about my product naturally with people who may be interested.

2. Product Hunt

Posting our product on Product Hunt was quite the most nerve-racking experience.

Watching the launch day stats and seeing our ranking go from 4th place to 3rd, then up to 2nd place was exhilarating. It was like horse betting and watching your horse sprint towards the finish line, neck, and neck with the other opponents.

At the end of the day, we were the #2 product of the day. It’s not the first-place trophy, but it still got us hundreds of sign-ups. We had no idea the lasting impact that a top-three spot on PH could have, but the flow of visitors lasted well after our launch day.

We knew before posting that if we put the effort in up front to make our posting stand out, it would pay off. For that reason, I spent hours animating our one second GIF icon and putting together a post that represented the product well.

3. Reddit

Since Wilson and I met on Reddit, it was only right that we go back to our roots and do guerilla marketing to spread the word about the product we launched together.

We started with a list of relevant subreddits for our product. Our list was comprised of subreddits like r/zenhabits, r/theXeffect, r/UI_Design, r/getdisciplined, and everything in between.

Native posts were particularly effective because we knew what we were doing. We weren’t doing uncalculated posting in these subreddits. We posted because we understood the culture in these communities and believed they would benefit from using our product.

We found that screenshots of the product resonated best with Redditors because it grabbed their attention and immediately communicated how it could benefit them.

If you’re not a Reddit user, I’d recommend spending some time lurking and posting in different communities before sharing about your product. This will give you a sense of the type of culture that exists in the various subreddits.

If you don’t it’s certain to backfire. Redditors have a keen sense for sniffing out bullshit marketing tactics.

4. Slack

We both work for tech companies and are somewhat active in a few different niche Slack communities. For example, I’m a member of our local Denver UX Slack community.

Slack communities tend to be very encouraging and positive places, so they were a great place to spread the word about our product and get valuable feedback.

5. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the perfect social media for a product launch announcement. Connections are far-reaching and generally receptive to hearing about what people in their network are up to.

LinkedIn also has a very organic spread since every time someone likes my post, their entire network sees my post in their feed as well.

In addition, I sent direct messages to everyone that I’d done a favor for in the past. Whether it be a portfolio review or answering questions, I requested that they check out the product and share it with their friends if they knew anyone who could benefit from it.

6. Dribbble

Dribbble was a no-brainer. I had already designed the product and wanted to showcase what I was working on. Dribbble got the product noticed and drew a notable amount of interest in the design community.

Several of my Dribbble posts received thousands of views, which lead to a considerable number of sign-ups on our website. Whether these people are genuinely interested in the product or are just viewing it purely from a product perspective isn’t clear, but visitors are visitors!