I've launched 10 SaaS products. Zero marketing budget on any of them.
Some flopped. A few get consistent MRR. None of them were launched with paid ads, an influencer deal, or a PR agency.
Here's the exact sequence I run every time.
Why I Don't Spend on Launch Marketing
Before you tell me "paid ads work if you do them right" — yes, sometimes. But for a solo founder validating whether a product even has a market, ads are just a way to fail faster and more expensively.
The goal at launch is simple: get real humans in front of the product and see if they care. You need signal, not scale. Scale comes later, after you know what's working.
A $0 launch forces you to do things that don't scale — and those things teach you more in a week than 3 months of ad testing.
Phase 1: Content Foundation (Before Launch Day)
I build SEO content before the product goes live. Not after.
This sounds counterintuitive but it's one of the highest-leverage things I do. By the time the product launches, I've already got a couple of articles indexed and pulling organic traffic.
For finding what to write, I use Outrank. It shows me the exact search terms my target users are Googling, the keyword difficulty, and what the top-ranking articles look like. I'm not writing "thought leadership" fluff — I'm writing for specific search intent that my future customers already have.
Usually I'll write 2-3 articles in the 3-4 weeks before launch:
- One problem-awareness article ("why does X happen")
- One solution-comparison article ("best tools for Y")
- One specific how-to article related to the problem my product solves
These don't rank immediately, but they start accumulating authority. By month 2-3, they're often bringing in the first cold organic signups.
Phase 2: The Blog That Converts
All my content lives on my own domain — not Medium, not Substack, not some random platform I don't control.
I use Feather to run the blog. I write in Notion, it publishes to my domain automatically. Every article builds SEO equity on my site, not someone else's.
This matters for the long game. The canonical URL is mine. The domain authority is mine. Every backlink that comes in over the next two years points to a domain I own.
For early-stage products especially, this is the move. Don't give that equity away.
Phase 3: Launch Day Sequence
When launch day comes, I run this in order:
1. Product Hunt
I prep this for two weeks: DMs to people I know asking if they'll support the launch, writing the tagline and description obsessively, uploading assets. Hunt day is Tuesday–Thursday for best traffic.
Product Hunt is still worth it in 2026. Not because it drives a ton of lasting traffic, but because it creates a credibility snapshot. "#2 Product of the Day" in your niche is something you can reference forever.
I don't pay for promoted listings. Just organic hunting with genuine network support.
2. Hacker News (Show HN)
A Show HN post with an honest description of what you built, why you built it, and what you're looking for (feedback, early users) can be incredibly valuable.
Key: be genuinely interesting and don't market-speak. HN readers spot a salesperson immediately and downvote to oblivion. Talk like a builder to builders.
I've had Show HN posts that drove 200+ signups in a day. I've also had ones that went nowhere. The average is better than nothing, and the cost is zero.
3. Indie Hackers
Post in the "Share Your Projects" section. Be transparent — how long it took to build, what tech you used, how much MRR you have (even if it's $0). Vulnerability and authenticity work here.
Indie Hackers is a community that respects founders who share the real numbers.
4. Relevant Subreddits
Every niche has a subreddit. Find the ones where your customers hang out and post genuinely. Not spam — an actual introduction, what you built, why.
This takes 30 minutes and can drive 50–300 signups depending on how well you fit the community.
Phase 4: Social Drip Distribution
Once launch day is done, I don't stop. I run a week-long social drip around the launch.
The articles I wrote pre-launch become content for social posts. The launch itself becomes a thread. The early user feedback becomes a post.
I use PostSyncer to schedule this out in bulk. I'll write 8-10 posts at once and drip them across the week — different angles, different hooks, platforms cross-posted.
This keeps the launch alive without requiring me to be on social media all day. I set it up once, it runs itself.
Phase 5: First Users as Content
The most underrated launch strategy: talk to your first 10 users and write about what you learn.
For support and early conversations, I use Crisp (not affiliated — just genuinely the best free live chat for small SaaS). It lets me see who's on my site in real time and start conversations.
Those conversations become blog posts, social posts, product improvements, and testimonials. One good conversation with an early user is worth 10 blog articles.
I also set up basic transactional emails with Resend — simple welcome sequences, usage nudges. Not complex drip campaigns, just useful touchpoints. It's free up to 3,000 emails/day and the developer experience is the best I've used.
Phase 6: Track What Actually Gets Signups
For the first 30 days, I track every signup's source obsessively.
I add a simple ref param to every link I post and log it on signup. This tells me: did Product Hunt convert, or was it the HN post? Did the Reddit thread drive signups, or were they mostly from the blog?
I use SuperX for tracking social performance specifically — which posts drove clicks versus which ones just got likes. Likes are vanity. Clicks are signal.
After 30 days, I have real data on what's working. Then I double down on that one thing instead of spreading myself thin.
The Honest Results
Of my 10 launches, here's how it breaks down:
- 4 products: went nowhere, killed within 60 days
- 3 products: slow burn, modest MRR ($100–$800/month), still running
- 2 products: broke out, now primary revenue drivers
- 1 product: acquired by a larger company 18 months after launch
None of these used paid marketing at launch. The ones that worked did so because they hit a real problem for a real audience — the launch sequence just made sure the right people found out.
The ones that failed? No launch playbook would have saved them. The market didn't want what I built. That's the lesson paid ads can't teach you — only real users can.
What I'd Tell Someone Launching Their First SaaS
Don't wait until it's perfect. Launch when it works, not when it's polished.
Do the distribution manually first. DM people. Post in communities. Have real conversations. This teaches you what "marketing" will eventually automate.
Build your content foundation before launch. Use search data (Outrank) to write articles people are actually looking for. Publish on your own domain (Feather). Start that SEO clock ticking.
And accept that most launches will be quiet. That's normal. The ones that break out are the products where the market was genuinely waiting for what you built.
You don't need a marketing budget to find out which kind you have. You need distribution discipline and a tolerance for honest feedback.
The rest follows from there.
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