Inbound Marketing and Shipping - July Month in Review

As we turn the page on another month and I'm looking forward to a RookieOven Meetup (tonight as I write this), it's time to reflect on the exciting developments and learnings I've experienced through the month of July 2024. As a TLDR: I've been hitting YouTube hard trying to upskill in inbound marketing techniques, overhauling websites, and launching new mobile apps. I feel July has been a period of personal growth. Let's break down the highlights and share some insights that might benefit fellow developers and startup enthusiasts in the Scottish tech ecosystem.

Embracing inbound marketing

For a long time, terms like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and ASO (App Store Optimization) seemed to carry a stigma in the development world. Many of us viewed them as 'dirty' words or even snake oil tactics. I've always tried to do the basics well, but it was only ever really at a basic level. This month marked a significant shift in my perspective as I focused on upskilling in these areas of inbound marketing.

Specifically, I've:

• Set up a simple tracker in Notion, where each week I update my weekly figures religiously to track progress on 'key metrics'. For each project I'm tracking, I pick three figures to monitor weekly. Three, no more, no less. It gives focus to improve what matters and means I don't get lost in the weeds of everything else I could be tracking.
• Made use of the various tools available on Ahrefs to improve content, site structure, and hopefully search performance.
• Started using PostHog for analytics both at the product level and on the web. I really like their setup and the default dashboards/reporting they provide.

I feel like I'm just a beginner in these fields, but by applying foundational advice and best practices, I've started to see positive results that can't be ignored. When done right, SEO and ASO are powerful tools for startups and crucial to increasing visibility and attracting the right audience to our digital products.

Unfortunately, both industries do have a bit of a reputation. There are snake oil salespeople and 'black hat' approaches to gaming the systems. My advice to founders would be to stay clear of consultants, at least in the first instance. Take the time to learn the basics, become better informed in these disciplines, and try to do as much as you can yourself. Tools these days (and AI services) make it much easier to take your marketing efforts further on your own.

Key learnings in SEO and ASO:

1. Content is still king: Creating valuable, relevant content remains the cornerstone of good search performance. An example of what I've been doing is creating content for Come Back Soon Tracker, which monitors Center Parcs booking pricing so customers can leverage the price promise. I've been writing as much useful content as possible on Center Parcs over the last month and am already seeing a definite increase in site visits. We've also scored our first organic customer.
2. Technical optimization matters: Site speed, mobile-friendliness, and proper metadata are crucial for both user experience and search rankings. The Ahrefs site audit is free to use and gives great feedback in this area.
3. Keyword research is essential: Understanding what your target audience is searching for helps in optimizing both websites and app store listings. Keyword tools can get expensive, but there are a lot of free alternatives which can get you by if your budget is limited.

I still have a long way to go but am hoping the community can step in and help me a bit. In fact, at the upcoming August RookieOven Meetup, I'm hoping to discuss my experiences and connect with others who are exploring or have expertise in these areas. If you're in Glasgow and interested in the intersection of technology and marketing, I would love to see you there!

RookieOven site redevelopment - simplicity wins

Another significant project this month was the redevelopment of the RookieOven website. The old site was, to be blunt, terrible. It was a Rails app using Prismic as a headless CMS, which, while powerful (we had a self-serve jobs board and some admin features that helped when we had a coworking space), was overkill for our needs now.

In the spirit of simplification and optimization, I made some bold changes:

1. Switched to a static site: We moved away from a dynamic Rails app to a static site, significantly improving performance and reducing complexity.
2. Hosting on Netlify: This change not only improved site speed but also drastically lowered our running costs.
3. Markdown-based blog: We ditched the WYSIWYG editor in favour of Markdown files for blog posts. While it might seem like a step backwards, we've found it to be just as easy, if not easier, to manage through Git compared to a traditional CMS.

The results? A faster, more maintainable site that's easier to update and costs less to run. It's a win-win situation that reinforces the idea that sometimes, simpler really is better in web development.

React Native app launch

Exciting news on the mobile front! I've been hard at work on a React Native app that just this morning received approval for distribution on the app stores. I'm planning to toggle it live later this week, so keep your eyes peeled on the Add Jam blog for the official announcement and details.

This project is really a bit of fun I've been working on mostly evenings and weekends. I want to apply some of my ASO learnings, and I'm going to focus on monetisation using RevenueCat (there's a post about using RevenueCat on the Add Jam blog too).

Looking ahead - Plans for August

My plans for August are to continue on this path of upskilling myself in marketing techniques. At Add Jam, we've previously focused on 'big' projects, putting a lot of development effort into them because that is what we're comfortable with. My aim for the month is to be shipping some smaller, almost 'utility' apps and trying to get them visible on the App Stores. I'll be focusing on keywords, screenshots, app icons, etc. I basically want to create a suite of small (but useful) apps that I can experiment with across the board.

What will you be working on? Come along to the RookieOven Meetup this evening and we can catch up.