MMarketing Against The Grain
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26 July 2022

Turn Your Solid Business into Big Business (Half-Baked Marketing Ideas)

9Frameworks
10Insights

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Frameworks in this episode

Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 4

Hot Take09:30

Fund One Startup Build Each Month to Generate Demand

Kit proposes a recurring contest in which Lemon.io funds several months of development for one winning startup. The campaign could attract applicants, feed paid work into the marketplace, create case studies, and convert unsuccessful entrants into customers.

  • Run a monthly startup pitch contest
  • Award free development to one winner
  • Treat marketplace spending as a marketing expense
  • Convert non-winning applicants into paying customers
  • Document the build as proof of developer quality

And I would consider doing a monthly pitch contest for all the startups out there.

Kit Bodner · 10:00

And I pick one winner every month and I give them three to six months of free development on their product.

Kit Bodner · 10:00
#campaigns#startups#marketplaces#case-studies
Hot Take13:30

Build and Sell an App to Prove Developer Quality

A second Lemon.io campaign would have developers build an application and then partner with MicroAcquire to sell it. The full build-to-acquisition story would demonstrate practical capability while aligning Lemon.io with aspiring app founders.

  • Fund a developer app-building competition
  • Build a real product rather than a demo
  • Partner with an acquisition marketplace
  • Publish the technical and commercial story
  • Use the sale as evidence of developer quality

fund the competition to have developers build an app and do a partnership with microacquire to get that app acquired

Kieran Flanagan · 13:30

Build a business around it, yeah.

Kit Bodner · 14:00
#partnerships#developers#acquisitions#product-building
Hot Take19:30

Use Personalized Celebrity Videos to Create a Shareable Wow Moment

For Bonjoro, the hosts propose integrating with Cameo so customers can trigger celebrity thank-you messages. Matching each recipient with someone relevant to their interests would preserve personalization, demonstrate the workflow product, and encourage social sharing.

  • Trigger celebrity videos from customer workflows
  • Collect interests during onboarding
  • Match recipients with personally relevant celebrities
  • Demonstrate both automation and personalization
  • Prompt recipients to share the surprise socially

My original half-baked marketing idea was actually going to be an integration with Cameo to do automated workflows through Cameo where you could actually have…

Kieran Flanagan · 19:30

It's not just that person's famous, it's like to them they're like 10 times more famous because they care about that person.

Kit Bodner · 22:00
#video-marketing#personalization#cameo#virality
Hot Take25:00

Replace Static Link Pages with Dynamic Video Bios

The hosts propose a short-form video bio product for Bonjoro that could include introductions, endorsements from other people, and embedded links. Unlike a static biography, the video could be refreshed frequently to represent who someone is at that moment.

  • Create a short video for use in social profiles
  • Include brief endorsements from colleagues or friends
  • Combine personal storytelling with actionable links
  • Encourage frequent updates instead of static bios
  • Use a consumer-facing product to attract business accounts

If you could convince people that the future you should have a short form video that's your bio.

Kieran Flanagan · 25:00

We think you should do one every week, every month.

Kit Bodner · 26:30
#video-bios#short-form-video#social-profiles#bonjoro

Explainer· 2

Explainer07:00

Find Which Side of Your Marketplace Constrains Growth

Lemon.io serves both developers and companies, so its growth strategy depends on identifying which side lacks sufficient participation. The hosts argue that this constraint should be diagnosed before investing in acquisition or positioning.

  • Determine whether supply or demand is constrained
  • Treat developers and hiring companies as distinct audiences
  • Let the binding constraint determine the growth strategy
  • Build differentiation around more than matching speed

So I think first of all, you need to know if you are supplier demand constrained.

Kieran Flanagan · 07:30

There are a lot of companies who match you with developers.

Kieran Flanagan · 07:30
#marketplaces#growth#positioning#developers
Explainer23:00

Why Social-Native Products Can Generate Their Own Distribution

Kieran highlights Carrd and Linktree as products that receive substantial social traffic because users place their pages directly in social profiles. Their products are designed to be shared within the channel, turning customer usage into recurring distribution.

  • Build product usage directly into social profiles
  • Let customers expose the product to their audiences
  • Use personal pages as distributed acquisition surfaces
  • Design around the mechanics of a specific channel

They get over half of their traffic, which is a millions of visits each and every month from Twitter.

Kieran Flanagan · 23:00
#distribution#social-media#product-led-growth#profiles

Tool· 2

Tool11:30

Give Developers Rich Portfolios Called Lemonade Stands

Kieran suggests giving each Lemon.io developer a branded profile that explains what they built, why it mattered, and how it worked. These profiles would help companies assess talent while giving developers educational content and a stronger asset for promoting their skills.

  • Showcase completed work through narrative profiles
  • Connect technical execution to business impact
  • Share permitted code snippets and implementation details
  • Use content specialists to improve profile quality
  • Make profiles useful to both buyers and developers

Give every developer their own lemon aid stand.

Kieran Flanagan · 12:00

The lemonade stand is for developers what DJN score profile is for DeFi people within Web3.

Kieran Flanagan · 12:00
#developer-marketing#portfolios#content#marketplaces
Tool29:00

Add Interactive Video Layers to Linktree Profiles

The closing idea is a Bonjoro and Linktree partnership that combines existing profile links and analytics with personalized video. Different moments in the video could display corresponding links, making a familiar link page more expressive and interactive.

  • Partner instead of rebuilding Linktree's distribution
  • Add personalized video to existing profile pages
  • Synchronize links with individual video moments
  • Preserve Linktree's analytics and linking technology
  • Give users a richer social-profile experience

You could actually do this and partner and integrate with Link3.

Kieran Flanagan · 29:00

You could just have a ton of distribution already.

Kieran Flanagan · 29:30
#linktree#integrations#video#partnerships

Takeaway· 2

Takeaway08:00

Reposition Around Flexibility When Buyers Become Cost-Conscious

The hosts predict that an economic slowdown will change how companies evaluate developer marketplaces. Lemon.io should elevate contract flexibility and cost control rather than emphasizing only matching speed and quality.

  • Adapt messaging to changing economic conditions
  • Lead with flexible contractual commitments
  • Emphasize cost control during a downturn
  • Reassess which benefits matter most to buyers

I think price in this coming economic slowdown is going to be way more important and flexibility of how you commit money.

Kit Bodner · 08:00

It's like understand the conditions of the world and how those conditions of the world change how your buyers evaluate what you're doing.

Kit Bodner · 08:30
#positioning#recession#pricing#messaging
Takeaway27:00

Bonjoro Should Own Short-Form Video for B2B

Because video is central to Bonjoro's product, the hosts argue that it should claim the emerging short-form-video category in business markets. TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts offer a durable distribution opportunity that fits the company's native capabilities.

  • Align distribution with the product's core medium
  • Plant a clear flag in B2B short-form video
  • Use TikTok and YouTube Shorts aggressively
  • Build around a trend expected to persist for years
  • Create consumer reach that feeds business adoption

Nobody in the business space really owns short form video in the kind of the B2B space.

Kit Bodner · 27:30

Why don't we plant our flag on that island and maybe we start with bio, maybe we some start with somewhere else, but we run…

Kit Bodner · 27:30
#b2b#short-form-video#distribution#category-design