The document discusses marketing strategies for software products based on lessons from the auto industry. It recommends continually teasing upcoming products during development through blog posts, landing pages, and social media to generate interest and feedback. Like concept cars, works-in-progress can be shared on GitHub to gauge interest and hype future releases. Execution is more important than ideas, so developers should start marketing activities now rather than waiting until products are complete.

1. Learning from the
auto industry
Concept Car
Marketing
BridgetWillard.com • (949) 370-4059 • gidgey@gmail.com

2. Who here has
ever built a
plugin or theme
for sale?

3. What is your
product timeline?

4. MVP
Product
Timeline
Most likely you use the
Minimum Viable
Product/Agile approach.
Build a thing. Hey, it’s cool.
Let’s upload and sell it.
● Idea. Iteration. Launch.
● Iteration. Launch.
● Iteration. Launch.

5. What is your
marketing timeline?

6. BridgetWillard.com • (949) 370-4059 • gidgey@gmail.com
Typical Marketing Timeline
First Quarter of Launch
● Put it on GitHub.
● Put it on WordPress.org
● Maybe a Tweet.
● Talk about it in a Slack Group.
● Email four friends.
● Talk about it at a Meetup.
Quarters 2-4 Post-Launch
● Nothing.

7. Wait.No one is buying my plugin!

8. The
Concept
Car
A Major Branding Statement

9. “First of all, people don't realize that concept cars, yes, we would
show them at auto shows typically, and they're there for the media to
enjoy. But long after the media is gone, the auto show's around for a
couple weeks, and the public comes around, and they may not know
much about the brand sometimes, and they go, "Whoa," and they
come across this concept car that makes an unmistakable
statement about where the brand wants to go with technology.”
RALPH GILES
Head of Global Design, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

10. Concept cars are used to
gauge interest, create interest,
and/or hype up a model
that is in production.

11. “If we have a new launch of a new version
in our portfolio, we would tease that with a
specific type of concept that would be a
slight exaggeration of the production car.”
DAVID WOODHOUSE
Design Director, Lincoln Motor Company

12. www.motortrend.com/news/4-volkswagen-microbus-concepts-from-the-past-and-present/
2001, 2011,
2016, 2017
VW
Bus

13. Why don’t
we market
ahead of
time?

14. No one is going
to steal your
ideas.

15. Execution MATTERS!
Ideas mean
NOTHING;

16. It’s meant to be forked!
Your product is
Open Source.

17. Fear.We don’t market because of fear.

18. Fear.What do we fear?

19. When
should we
market?

20. 1
Continually tease
about products as
they are being
developed.

21. A. Pitch the concept to insiders.
B. Make a landing page.
C. Ask for beta testers.
D. Ask for feature feedback.
E. Write blog posts - even about the
process
F. Tweet.
2

22. Make a GitHub
branch, if it helps,
that parallels
development time.
3

23. It’s okay if the
features or UI
change.
4
It really is.

24. Start
today.
You’re worth it.

25. Thank you.
BridgetWillard.com
@youtoocanbeaguru • (949) 370-4059 • gidgey@gmail.com