Marketing My Product With Fiverr
Marketing 101
Author Note: I do not work for Fiverr and might only receive compensation from them if you register through that first link — if you do so, I think I get $5 — thank you. I am writing this to explain my experience with Fiverr, as an alternative method of promoting, marketing, and advertising.
In advance, I apologize: I can’t hire you full-time. I can’t even hire you part-time. I don’t have that kind of business yet where I am making enough money to quit my day job. I’m trying to get there! I’m just not there yet! However, because you are on Fiverr, you can actually work for me for a few minutes or a few hours! I’ve got a job for you and I’m forever grateful for you helping me out, just as you are grateful for the little compensation I can afford to give you! So… for the rest of the readers, lets understand why Fiverr is actually an awesome tool to use for promoting, advertising, and marketing your products.
Fiverr.com is one of those success stories that started off with a simple idea: Why not pay people to do a job, as a freelancer, for cheap? $5 was cheap enough that anyone could pay it, and it was a nice deal for the freelancer too, who might perform the task of writing a short essay to proofreading a paper to even helping someone setup their website.
While I do not know the whole story, Fiverr quickly realized that $5 was nothing anyone could live off of, but with enough gigs, people were finding success. Fiverr then began to revamp its entire system to realize that they not only could they help themselves because they collect a nice fee from the buyer, but that they could encourage their sellers to upgrade their services for more money. Freelancers can now charge anywhere from $5 to over $1000 for a single job, depending on what they are offering.
The Daily Routine
Fiverr has continued to stick to its traditional $5 to reel people in, but as you look at the services that people have, they are actually quite useful. As I wrote in another article about Why I Built My Own Affiliate System, I am far from rich, and I still hustle every hour of everyday to pull in some extra money so I can afford my rent, my bills, and have some extra for food. I am willing to bet that many of you reading this are not very different than me, and many of you are actually hustling everyday!
Before I get into my experience with Fiverr, let me just tell you this: I’m not smart at marketing at all. My best efforts of marketing go something like this, “Hey there, use my product! Here’s the link to my website, my product does X and Z, and it can help you with A, B, and C. You will love it!” I posted once on Hacker News, once on Product Hunt, I’ve answered questions on Quora relevant to my product, I’ve written an article on LinkedIn and shared it with my network, I’ve posted on my own popular website, Confessions of the Professions, all containing at least one link back to my product, and a few times on Twitter.
I also joined many Facebook groups for entrepreneurs and posted my product link on them, but like everyone else in those entrepreneur groups: everyone and their mother is (an “entrepreneur”) trying to promote their affiliate link, so you get lost in the jungle of comments. Not to mention that the best groups — don’t actually allow you to post your link — though there are a few that have a single day out of the week dedicated to sharing your link. I’m not familiar or very active with any other social media networks. This has been my best efforts at marketing.
Accurate representation of me trying to figure out a marketing strategy
Sad is what you’re thinking. I know. Absolutely correct. I am actually a psychology major, so I should understand how the human brain and marketing work — and I do to an extent, but not enough where I could quit my job and actually do it. I could go hire a company from one of those scammer emails I keep getting that tell me how great they are at SEO and marketing, and hope for the best, but I feel that is a bit shady. I, myself, don’t email random strangers to tell them about what my products can do for them. Might’ve worked in the 90s — not so much today.
I could go searching the Internet for a company that does it for me — once I click on that pricing page — my eyes also see that X for the tab as well, and that feels more comfortable to me. I do not want to tell you that I’m a cheapo, because if a company could guarantee me the results I need and want to see, I’d probably be more than willing to spend the little budget I have to get there. Unfortunately in marketing — nothing is usually ever guaranteed.
Flying Banners
Without a huge budget, what can I do, really? I looked into Google Adwords and Facebook Ads, and apparently, despite the billions of dollars in ad revenue these giants pull in every year; for the average person, they are freaking complicated. Or maybe I’m just too dumb to figure it out, though I don’t think I’m that dumb for being a web app developer. I am just weak in the areas of marketing and using products that do marketing. I also feel, from what I’ve read on IndieHackers, that my money would probably be better spent paying myself to write articles for myself.
Really, I don’t have time to read a book on using Facebook ads or Google ads. Okay, maybe I do have the time — I just don’t have the patience nor do I want to learn it. I would prefer the “shut up and take my money” route and just make it happen. Do this, this, and that, and guarantee me some kind of results — here’s some money for it. Thanks. Like many people trying to promote their product: I want to get it out there. I want people to recognize it. I want people to like it. I want people to use it! I want…RIGHT NOW. I did the work of building a solid product that actually works, but now I have to market it? My…... favorite part! *sarcasm for those who couldn’t read into it* If you’re reading this, I can only bet you LOVE marketing too! *that was sarcasm too... for those readers who were thinking, “Oh yes, I do it for a living, I love it so much I dream about it!”* So I turned to Fiverr for marketing and promoting.
Fiverr.com
When it comes to Fiverr, you cannot just hire anyone who claims to be good at social media. What you really need to do is look at their past reviews to see if they have generally good responses, and you also need to seek out the “top influencers.” Influencers are the ones who have a big following whose followers often trust them and like what they have to say. They have the most influence and have actually already put in the work for you to get to that point. They have spent the time building an email marketing list, a following on all social media networks, a website with daily visitors, etc. If you don’t already have your own fans and following, these types of influencers are going to be the best resource you have.
My product is one that can be used by most people around the world, but in order to use my product, a credit card is needed, which eliminates quite a few countries. Yes I could go with Paypal, but I prefer Stripe, as it just makes things easier for me for what I need to do. Maybe I’ll be the one to build an integration system that can make the two work together someday, but for now... marketing my products. My target audience was mostly for the United States and Canada, though there are many countries that do support VISA or MasterCard and can use the product. I offer Virtual Numbers As A Service, so now that we got that out of the way — this is how I used Fiverr to promote it.
Freelancing Job
Over the weekend (in the wee hours of the AM), I went on Fiverr, hoping I could find some type of gig that could help me do something, anything, for my product. I searched for “product promotion”, “product advertising”, “product marketing”, “product exposure” and a bunch of other keywords. My criteria was a bit strict, but not that strict. I was looking for any gigs that promoted, marketed, or advertised mainly to the United States. Canada, UK, and a few other countries in my range were a bonus.
They also had to speak proper English, especially throughout their gig. They had to explain exactly what they did. I also messaged each and everyone of them before I bought a gig asking about three basic questions:
- Which platform do you promote on?
- Where is your audience located?
- What is their average age range?
I also told them about my service and asked: Do you really genuinely believe that my product would be something your audience is interested in? Of course — with this question, you would expect everyone to say yes, but one person said no, as she offered only FREE and FREE TRIAL services to her audience, and I don’t offer a FREE TRIAL per se without a credit card. She offered me an alternative route to get a post on her Twitter, just not her blog.
I messaged several others who blasted on their Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. I also reached out to a young lady who is somewhat known and famous from her stint on MTV as a singer, but is doing some hustling on Fiverr, who might have had some influence. While I cannot tell you exact specifics, as I forgot to include a tracker for each link shared, I can narrow my campaign down to about 4 gigs I used. Here are the results:
Traffic to CallMePrivate.com after Fiverr purchase of 3–4 Fiverr gigs
Before traffic was around 100-200 visitors a day and after increased to almost 7,000 visitors over the past day. Of course, this is just influence from the gig promotions and will likely drop back down, but it has led to over a hundred new registrations and 3–4 new paying customers. This might not sound like a lot, but reflect back on the first time you got your first paying customer: it was awesome!
Total amount spent so far on Fiverr: $23.00
Now it does not stop here.
Marketing Around The World
I asked myself, why keep it to just online social media platforms? I figured, why not track down all the Fiverr gigs who are running podcasts, radio stations, online talk shows, YouTube channels, Twitch channels, and any others I might be missing. These people have a ton of fans and followers! And to mention my product during a broadcast live on the air of their show? Even if it might bring back nothing — the fact that it was mentioned could help with brand/product recognition!
For this, at this current time, however, I do not have the results of how it went, as I just purchased a few gigs for those people to say, “Sponsored by Call Me Private…” and then give 30 seconds to a minute dedication on the air talking about what my product actually does. I wrote the script for them, which is around a minute. I sent a message asking beforehand if my product and what I wrote was acceptable—and ALL were met with positive feedback.
Those three questions I asked above were still a part of the same criteria, with one question being different:
- What topics do you cover on your podcast/tv show/online radio show/etc.?
- Where is the majority of your audience from?
- What is their age range?
These questions I felt were most important to me, but you can certainly come up with your own. You are basically interviewing your potential freelancer to ensure you both are going to work for each other. The thing is, you can hire them once, for $5, and that’s that. But if you actually match each other —and they bring you a ton of traffic and customers, you both now have come to the understanding that you can help each other out — they have the audience, you have a great product and money to “sponsor” them or help them continue what they are doing — to get more gigs on Fiverr or, actually, continue to make their living, or at least helping with it.
I even offered their listeners a discount just for listening! The discount ranges from getting a dollar off to paying just a dollar only for their first purchase for the first month. This not only helps me out to get new customers, but it also helps them out, because they can say they have a special offer just for their listeners only, possibly making their listeners feel a bit more special for being a loyal listener.
Photo Courtesy of Burson-Marsteller
When you have almost no budget, you have to get creative. You need to stand out and do things differently. Get other people to be your voice! You have to utilize your resources — which in all of our cases — is the entire Internet! At our fingertips! And Fiverr is filled with a freelancing workforce you can hire for 10 minutes and get the results of someone who might have otherwise spent a month working for you trying to get those same results. Not only can you get one expert in their field, but you get access to dozens! I am not discouraging anyone from hiring full-time or part-time employees, but for those of you just starting out — why not turn to one of the ultimate freelancing websites for help? There’s nothing wrong with it. It worked for me and I’m sure it will work for you. Good luck with your marketing!