Create an app as side project marketing for your SaaS to grow signups

What is it:

We bring you some jaw-dropping, tongue in cheek and downright funny opinions and you decide which of them are popular and which are unpopular!

Maker Insight:

Sharath built a web app with Bubble that enables user log in, real time voting style selection and ability to submit suggestions in an embedable form. Sharath's feedback for Makers looking to build with Bubble that is key when using it: "Bringing functionality into life. Learning databases, workflows is key in bubble. Plugins play a huge role too." He goes on to say you must learn by doing, and with Bubble there are sufficient resources to make something if you are patient to learn all parts to put it together.

What did I learn:

1. No-code tool feature: workflows in Bubble - Bubble has a feature called workflows that is the powerful part of Bubble that allows you to have a functioning web application. When a user performs an action, submits information, etc they will be able to have an automated action within the app. This is done with a helpful process in Bubble called workflows. It is a visual builder that takes the logic you want to apply and goes step by step in a visual block manner so that you can build out what you want that function to do.

2. Product Strategy: Building experiments and launching iteratively - Hot Takes on the surface may not look like an app that does much. However, often creating something that looks like a toy is a great approach to disarm folks to try it because it is not a conventional marketing approach. People are spammed everyday with marketing. Doing something anti marketing is a great way to rise above the noise. What I like about this product is that even though it starts off as a fun thing to do, you can use that as a way to get validation that people will actually use it, by giving it away for free and using your network to get feedback from.

I recommend this approach to building as I think that it is a fantastic way to build a side project. It removes the expectation and pressure that it has to do anything which takes the pressure off of you and building something when you might not have a lot of experience yet. Even if you do, it removes the expectation that it has to do something and gives you freedom to discover the value of it. A lot of things that are new 0 to 1 start off this way. Because the novelty is discovered. And the only way to discover this is by making something and seeing what happens.

3. Product Strategy: Get validation turn it into a B2B play - At first glance this tool by Sharath might just look like a toy. However, I believe it is a great way to measure engagement. And engagement is something that you can monetize. Especially if you think towards is there a market for businesses that need engagement to grow their business?

Here is an example that you as a no-code builder could grow into a really nice bootstrapped SaaS using this product as an example:

I think this is an underutilized approach to creating tools especially with no-code.

1. At first you could create this as single bespoke application for fun to see if you could make something and measure does anyone actually care and use the thing? What do they like, how do they use it? Build, learn, iterate.

2. Now that you have some success you can try and see where does this type of engagement best align with? Do you have anyone in your audience who is a SaaS or company that might want to use this as a way to better engage their audience?

3. Traditionally it's always best to create an audience before you create a product. But sometimes you have to make the thing and sse if it works, then start building the audience. When you build an audience around this, I would continue to build in public, openly ask would this help engagement for use case x,y,z?

4. What you're looking for is to find one person or business who is willing to try it and see if it works. You don't have any validation yet, so if you just started reaching out to businesses, selling isn't the best way to get your first 1,5, or 10 customers. You'll need to do that organically by showing your work, showing how it works in the open and showing the results so that you can get trust and through word of mouth your solution will spread.

5. I'd love to tell you that there is an exact step by step process to take but there isn't. There is a little bit of serendipity when creating things, and that's why it's an experiment. You'll need to figure out, how can I validate that this actually produces some type of output that helps a business with engagement. An example would be like Buffer App helps solo makers and businesses schedule their engagement by sending timed messages through their social media channels.

This would be my recommendation on getting your first customers. You need proof before you can really start messaging and promoting and growing an audience around your solution helps with their problem. The acquisition stage happens last and if your product does product a result that is worth telling about, word of mouth will spread and you'll be able to blog about how it can help leading to your first 5 customers. From there you will have a nice beta sized group of customers that you can still give away your product for free while you continue to build your product around what they need to be successful.