2024

TL;DR:

My goal this year was to focus and make sales on a hardware/software project. I silently launched, focused on marketing toward a niche via regular tiktok and IG videos and new sales channels.

I chose one goal this year:

You might already know the project, but I'm not ready to link it here. 🤫 If you want to know what it is, DM me on any channel.

Unlike previous years, I only chose one dollar goal to focus on.

The biggest reason was because I wouldn't soft launch the project until late in the year (October) and didn't want the product to stagnate in that time.

Ten months of patience, eyes on the prize.

Here's everything I've done to grow the project so far:

I'll discuss each of those points below, but if you want my other 2024 updates scroll deeper.

Audience building on Tiktok and IG

With my other projects, I've launched them by...

This new product is physical and has two niche buyer personas, so it merits a different strategy.

Buyer persona #1: fans of indie music and the artists they follow.

Buyer persona #2: event planners, exhibition vendors, swag vendors.

For persona #1, I went to where solo artists and bands are slinging their content and got into the mix. Remember, I wasn't ready to announce the product until October, so I started promoting an idea adjacent to my product while also promoting indie artists. People call this "side-product" marketing: promote something that promotes your main thing. NYT owning Wordle is a good example of this (albeit through acquisition).

Each post required lots of curation (sifting through songs rarely played, by indie and indie-ish artists) and physically making the product to promote them and my product. Time consuming but so long as I was enjoying the music, it was fun.

I'm going to continue posting in 2025 and keep refining the format. More instant demos in the video.

Made sales on TikTok shop

This was nowhere on my radar at the start of 2024. I thought integrating with TikTok was a non-starter based on their 2-day fulfillment policy. I was wrong.

"But what if I'm out of town for the weekend and can't fulfill an order?

Easy. Temporarily decrease inventory to 0. Product shop links still appear on videos but with zero inventory, if anything it creates some FOMO.

A brief digression: it's a blessing when this happens. Fixed in one mindset then for some reason, challenge that mindset and immediately disolve the previous position. I'm hopeful this works in all people.

Back to it...the biggest pain is the lack of customization on TikTok shop. My product is sort of "made-to-print", but the workarounds are fine. It hasn't stopped the TikTok banner guy from selling custom banner prints either.

I'm continuing TikTok shop next year if it's still around. I'll also explore IG shop links and possibly Amazon. Little by little, poco a poco.

Made sales on the main product website

Before opening the TikTok shop, I simply had a link in bio to the website. That yielded some sales but not suprisingly, TikTop prefers sales to go through their shop.

My site's purchase process is simple and smooth but could use some native gesture handling on mobile. That'll get updated when I add a subscription product in 2025.

Made sales in-person

This was fun. Part of my video hook is a costume I wear. It starts the conversation and sometimes leads to a follow, DM, or sale.

It works while busking in Venice, CA too.

I spent 4 hours standing, yelling a loopable phrase to draw people into a demo, answering questions and making sales. Cash or Stripe payment links that can be tapped with NFC wallet. The best.

While digital efforts compound, we're also at the mercy of algorithms or SEO hacking.

Good ol' yelling your product and price at strangers on the beach still works.

I'm doing this more in 2025. Shoutout to the breakdancers who are out there regularly who love my product and told me the best days/months to busk.

Sent promo units

I sent a dozen promo units to prospects. The most time intensive was to Qatar which required custom DHL tracking. A few hoops to jump through but overall worth it.

Next year I'll do this more, but only with big, qualified opportunities like Qatar.

Cold email

I'm still in the "highly tailored, individual cold emails" club, though I'm flirting with building more of an automated solution with manual lead curation via lead databases.

By "highly tailored", I mean I...made a custom product for the prospect's brand, recorded a video, made a gif of that video demo, attached the gif in an email, linked it to a video.

It's a great loop and I suspect doesn't have the penalties bulk-emailer products are getting with pixel/link tracking.

More on this in the new year...

Consignment sales

"Hold my product and if it sells, you get X%"

This might be a constraint for any idea I try to grow: "can I grow it with consigned sales?"

I dismissed this idea earlier in the year, but after the sale of pre-made (not "made-to-print") products while busking, it was an easy experiment to run.

Other great things of 2024:


Next year

I am...

Experiment, evaluate, adjust, repeat.

If you have a resolution, I'll give you a prize if you finish it in 2025. ✌️