Most marketing advice for indie products is a list of tactics with no order. Post on X, build an audience, start a newsletter, run ads, do SEO, launch on Product Hunt. All at once, apparently.

A playbook is different: it answers “what should I do this week, and what should I ignore?” Here is the version we would give a friend who just shipped.

The three buckets

Every distribution activity fits into one of three buckets:

  • Owned — your site, your email list, your blog. Slow to build, compounding, and yours.
  • Borrowed — communities, newsletters, podcasts, other people’s audiences. Fast, but you do not control the terms.
  • Paid — ads, sponsorships, directory placements. Fastest feedback, but only works when the funnel already converts.

The order matters: owned foundations make borrowed attention useful, and borrowed attention tells you whether paid is worth trying.

Weeks 1–2: foundations

Before you ask for attention, make sure the attention has somewhere to land.

  • One clear sentence. What it is, who it is for, what changes. Put it above the fold.
  • A landing page with one action. Sign up, join the list, start a trial. Not four.
  • An email capture. Even if the product is not ready. Especially then.
  • Analytics that answer one question. Where did this signup come from?

Do not redesign the logo. Do not write ten blog posts. Two weeks, four assets, done.

Weeks 3–4: distribute where you already are

Pick two places where your audience already gathers. Not ten. For each, do the unglamorous work:

  • Read the rules and follow them.
  • Answer five questions before mentioning your product.
  • Share the process, not just the launch link.
  • Reply to every comment for the first week.

Measure replies and signups, not likes. A post with twelve comments from the right people is worth more than a thousand impressions from the wrong ones.

Weeks 5–8: publish something durable

Pick one question your users ask repeatedly and write the definitive answer. Not a 300-word SEO post. A real guide with screenshots, tradeoffs and a clear recommendation.

Then:

  • Link it from your product and your email signature.
  • Share it in the communities where the question comes up.
  • Update it monthly instead of writing five new mediocre posts.

This is the asset that keeps working when you stop posting. Our own guide to advertising a side project without a marketing team is the shape we aim for.

Month 3: one paid experiment

If — and only if — the free channels produce signups you can trace, add a small paid test. One channel. One offer. Four weeks. A budget you can lose.

Define success before you start:

  • Cost per signup below the value of a customer, or
  • A click-through rate that proves the message resonates, or
  • A clear reason the channel is wrong for you.

All three are useful outcomes. “We spent €200 and feel weird about it” is not.

The monthly review

Once a month, answer five questions in a document:

  1. Which channel produced the most signups?
  2. Which channel produced the users who stayed?
  3. What did we learn about the offer?
  4. What are we stopping?
  5. What is the one experiment for next month?

That document becomes your marketing memory. Without it, you will repeat the same experiments every quarter and call it progress.

The one metric per stage

  • Pre-launch: replies and email signups.
  • Early launch: activation — did people do the thing the product is for?
  • After activation: retention and cost per retained user.

Impressions, followers and launch-day spikes are not stages. They are weather.

A playbook is not a guarantee. It is a way to stop guessing about what to do next. Run the sequence, write down what happens, and let the next month be smarter than the last.

If you want to add a relevant audience to the mix when you get there, join the RoketAd waitlist.