You've built a product, it works, you're ready for people to try it. Then you look into marketing and suddenly have another job: write articles, post on X, learn SEO, join communities, build an email list, make videos, track everything. None of that is necessarily wrong, but when you're also building and running the product, a list of twenty things to do isn't much help.
Free marketing still costs something
An afternoon spent posting in the wrong places costs no advertising budget — it still costs an afternoon. So I wouldn't start by asking which channels are free. I'd ask: what could I do this week that would either reach a relevant person or help me understand why they aren't interested? That gives the work a much clearer purpose.
Find the customer before choosing the platform
It's tempting to market wherever you already spend time. But the fact that I enjoy a platform doesn't mean every product should acquire customers there. Start with the person and the situation — a specific workflow to investigate, not a generic audience.
Work on discovery while you talk to people
Search visibility is part of the picture, and so is whether your product appears accurately when someone researches the problem through an AI assistant. But neither is a reason to postpone customer conversations. Make important pages accessible, keep the explanation clear, and build useful content around what you're learning — while still showing the product to potential users. That's the part Chad is built to help with: connecting a visibility audit to priorities, fixes, and content.
Originally published on Medium.