Category: Social Media

How founders can stop guessing personas and start listening to real conversations.

TL;DR: Twitter Lists aren’t just organization tools — they’re powerful market research signals. Instead of guessing buyer personas, learn how to listen to real conversations, spot patterns, and inform your SaaS/B2B strategy.

Coding Versus Marketing

If you’ve ever written a piece of code that magically worked and didn’t fully understand why it worked, you’re probably a SaaS founder.

Meaning, you’ve built something that works, but you’re not going to stop until you understand the full process and mechanisms of why it works. This is the edge you have as a programmer and a founder.

Software you get. Code you understand. ProductHunt is your jam. You’ve got so many shades of green in your GitHub profile it could be your holiday card this year (hey! that’s an idea!).

But marketing. This is where you need a bit of guidance.

Why? Not to be rude or offensive, of course. But it’s just not your wheelhouse. Marketing isn’t quite as agile as the MVP ship and iterate process. We don’t have a changelog the size of Santa’s Gift list.

In marketing, we need curiosity — this is how we’re alike. But we also need patience. We need a strategic plan (quarter by quarter). And that mental discipline of patience is the differentiator.

We have to trust our decisions and let them work. Yes, sometimes it feels like watching a pot of water boil. More on that from The SDM Show episode I recorded today with Rob Cairns (coming out Monday).

The Fallacy of the Persona

If you’ve been to a marketing conference, you’ve been to them all. Everyone talks about personas the way Founders talk about perplexity. It’s like being in a room full of people describing their ideal spouse.

“I’m looking for a man in finance Trust fund 6′ 5 Blue eyes Finance Trust fund 6′ 5 Blue eyes”

I’d love to show you the WHY behind Lists on X.

So let’s focus on the problem Twitter Lists solves for SaaS Founders: listening (huge). You don’t have to create a fictitious persona. Heck, most of us dont always know our real ideal customer.

Instead of guessing, follow and list your ideal customers on X (Twitter), read their tweets (the list filters your feed), and understand the problems they’re actually having. Take notes, etc.

You should do the same for your Fans and Customers. You want to read how they’re experiencing not just your software but what problems they’re having. This gives you ideas into iterations and add-ons.

Let’s pick on Google Workspace for a minute.

My good friend Rob Cairns loves Gemini. I’m more of a ChatGPT girl, myself, but we would both argue that you should choose one and stick with it. After all, you’re training the LLM.

So I was writing a 3,300-word article for a SaaS client the other day, and I was curious if Gemini could tell me how long I’d been working in that doc. Like, that’s a legitimate business question. Did I make money on this deliverable?

When I asked Gemini, I was told she could not read the Revision History in Google Docs. Wait. What? Isn’t that a reasonable request? Probably now it is. But originally Gemini was just a writing helper. LLMs are the English Majors of AI. They don’t really do math.

Of course I tweeted about this. (See? We all share random information.)

You'd think that Gemini would be able to answer a time-based question in a Google Doc, especially given the revision history.

I really feel like AI should be able to do math. pic.twitter.com/0yvS6Mnx0J

— Bridget Willard (@BridgetMWillard) January 23, 2026

Did I get a response? No. But I do hope they’re listening.

If your prospects are already talking in public, why are you guessing what to say to them?

Watch The Video — It’s Worth Every Dollar You Paid to Read This Post

This short, 19-minute video gives you my secret sauce as a SaaS Marketer on how I use lists to inform blog topics, better understand our ideal customer, and use my time online wisely.

In this video, I explain why Twitter Lists matter and walk through how I actually use them to focus on specific market verticals without the noise.

Stick around until the end — there are some solid nuggets for founders and marketers who feel stuck guessing what their audience wants.

Full walkthrough + resources: https://bridgetwillard.com/twitterlists/

Timestamped Highlights

Next Steps / Resources

• Learn more about my SaaS Marketing Package
• Check out my Twitter Marketing book
• If you want a practical walkthrough of how to create, name, and use Twitter Lists for SaaS and B2B audiences, check out my step-by-step guide here.
• Thumbnail generated by ThumbnailCreator

Full Transcript

(00:04):
Hey everybody, it is your friend, Bridget Willard here from BridgetWillard.com. I wanna talk to you a little bit about Twitter lists or Lists on X.

(00:15):
So I had a recent conversation with somebody in the SaaS field, and it always fascinates me how people have different perceptions of what Twitter can do for B2B. Twitter — I am a huge proponent of Twitter for business-to-business. It allows you to listen to your audience, do customer service, It informs the content that you produce on your website, It helps you with prospecting, and BizDev.

(00:49):
And it’s so great because it’s indexed. Tweets, individual tweets, are indexed by Google. It’s great, but, but also Twitter lists allow you to focus your attention on one certain demographic. And I have a real sinking feeling, a real actual theory that when you use keyword-like list descriptions for your public lists, it helps suggest those same kind of followers.

(01:29):
People can subscribe to those lists and just see the feed of those people. The only time you won’t see the feed of those people is if you have somebody pressing their Retweet or Repost button. Those people, you just go to their profiles and, and say, turn off retweets or reposts, which a lot of people don’t know you can do on Twitter. And that does help turn off the noise, uh, especially when it’s not really them talking.

(02:01):
But it gives you a real good sentiment analysis so that you don’t have to worry about what creating this persona of Bob, The Website Builder, who is 20 years old, lives in his mom’s basement, drinks IPAs, and plays Dungeons and Dragons. Because it’s not even accurate. Bob is 40 now. He has kids. He’s married. He’s got a mortgage. He’s, he likes fine wine. Like he started collecting wine. You know? He’s helping his kids with their Raspberry Pie applications. They’re doing geocaching games. They’re camping. You know? It’s a totally different vibe.

(02:45):
So like, instead of making a hypothetical audience based upon your assumptions and biases, ’cause let’s, let’s just admit it, it’s a bias. Listen to what your people are saying.

(03:03):
People write on Twitter all day long, all kinds of stuff. Stuff you like, stuff you don’t like. But you’re learning, you’re learning about them. How they think. What software they like.

(03:16):
You should definitely have a Google Alert set up for your brand name, your website domain name — as it happens, all results. Check out Alertmouse. I’ve done a tutorial on Alertmouse for you to check that out.

(03:32):
Yes. But Twitter list isn’t about you broadcasting to, to those people. It’s about you listening to a certain demographic.

(03:42):
So let’s do some screen sharing and we’re gonna go to Google Chrome and we’re gonna go to my Twitter account. So on my Twitter account, you have the Helping SaaS brands, all this stuff, right?

(04:00):
I’d like to mention right now that there is a book that I wrote in and published in 2021, “The Definitive Guide to Twitter Marketing. I Double Dog Dare You To Try It.” It’s $5.99. I’m not retiring on this income, but if you purchase it, I’d love a review. Um, it’s also a blog post on my website, and if you want to read it, instead of buying it on as a paperback or a Kindle or or whatnot, then go ahead and do that.

(04:39):
Instead, I’d also like to refer you to my blog post called Be Efficient on Twitter with Twitter list. Last updated in 2021. It’s X. So I mean, but you, you know what, you know what I’m talking about. The, the strategy is the same. You don’t have to read every tweet. You like, use your time well, right? So I will let you go to that link.

(05:08):
So let’s just talk about, so when I go to somebody’s profile, you’re gonna see different options. But I’m going to my profile ’cause I’m gonna show you how I make my lists. So I do, I help SaaS brands, right? So my lists, more, lists. My lists are focused on certain NI niches or niches, however you say it. I have #MarketingTwitter, it’s a hashtag everybody used to use for a while. Automotive people from Arizona. So there’s G Geolocation, too. Bay area, if you can drive to San Francisco, you’re on this list. C-Suite. People on Corpus Christi, Texas. Conferences. Construction, blah, blah, blah, blah.

(06:00):
But this is why it’s good for prospecting. Oops. You can go to, you see how mine has the logo and theirs doesn’t. So when you go to your Twitter List and you, you’re setting them up on desktop, right? You’re going to edit your list and that’s when you can put a graphic here. It’s gonna be 1500 by 500 and you’re gonna want your circle graphic right in the middle so that when they see the list, your brand is there, too. So if I go to marketing, I see all this. So let’s go to back down, ’cause it shows me the list that I’m on, too.

(06:52):
Let’s go to SaaS, SaaS products. So far, I only have 197 people there. So I have a couple of options. I can either just look at the members or I can read the tweets. So if I look at the members, I could also say, I’m over it. I don’t, this is a bad lead or whatever. You don’t have to unfollow them, but you can decide maybe I just don’t want them on my list anymore. I kind of don’t wanna pick on anybody. But let’s see. I wonder if there’s some people on here that, that are irrelevant. Well, Dymtro, he’s not really a, a SaaS, so I’m gonna remove him. He’s cool. He is in my Construction List.

(07:45):
Alright, so, and you see I have SaaS, uh, Alertmouse. So if I’m in prospecting mode, I can go ahead and look at this list and only focus on these tweets. Anthropic.

(08:04):
David Phillips, this guy is the CEO of Fondo.com, which looks like such a great company and such a great account. That would be so great. So, “Collision, installed this selfie with @PatrickC and our Y Combinator aluminum friends, uh, alumni, friends.” Aluminum . So I could reply to that and say, “what was your biggest takeaway, right? What was your biggest takeaway? Do websites still matter or eCommerce?”

(08:50):
Okay? So you can do that, or you can use my free Chrome extension “Sidekick for SaaS” where you could toggle it on. Now my little face is in the way. And I can pick a, I can pick up any kind of post. Let’s see, go back. Oops. Let’s go back to SaaS products.

(09:23):
So Fondo reposted, “Congrats on this launch, @TheChowedhary,” oh, I probably wanna follow this guy, but I also wanna put him on a list. So I’m not gonna follow him here. I’m gonna open it in a new tab. Okay, bear with me here. He’s a CEO. So he’s also in San Francisco. So those are three lists, right? So what I’m gonna do before I follow, I always do this before I follow, is I’ll go more the three dots, right? Shish kabob menu. Add/Remove to to lists. He’s gonna go on my C-suite.

(10:54):
Now, see, it’s not this, this way, it’s not in alphabetic order. This is an order of creation. So I know that my Bay Area list is way, way down. Bay Area. And I’m also going to put him in the C-suite. Boom, save, follow.

(11:30):
So let’s see if there’s something I wanna talk. They are launching the most accurate and fastest web search APIs for AI agents. Um, that’s pretty amazing. So the infrastructure for agentic AI. So, uh, if I wanna use my Sidekick for SaaS, I’ll say, I’ll press the Chrome extension, toggle sidebar on this tab, click off, highlight the text. I’m going to say “use selected post,” and now I’m gonna generate comments. I could rewrite it like me or just generate comments.

(12:33):
So it says, “exciting launch, the ability to transform guessing into doing can really elevate the effectiveness of AI agents across industries. Love to see innovation.”

(12:46):
Like you could just copy it and then insert it. Or you can do rewrite, rewrite as Bridget. This didn’t mean to be like a pitch. I mean it’s a free Chrome extension.

(12:58):
“Congratulations. It’s exciting to see that. Love the focus on speed and accuracy. Two things every SaaS founder knows are critical.”

(13:06):
Now, that sounds like me, right? So I’m gonna copy it , and I’m gonna go right here and I’m gonna paste it and I’m gonna reply, right?

(13:25):
So if we go back to the list, so @FounderJournal, what is done by Fondo. Fondo’s, right here, you can reply to that, right? @LemonSqueezy, they’re retweeting themselves. You can reply to that.

(13:46):
But also, some of these are big SaaS companies and some of them are small SaaS companies, right? ’cause Fondo’s Big, I don’t know what Buddy Punch is. Oh, I think it’s a time card. Yeah. “Time tracking software to manage your workforce.” Yeah. “Remote job sites expose the limits of most time tracking software.” Yeah. Like, so you see what I mean? Right? So let’s stop sharing.

(14:16):
So the point is that it, no matter what you’re working on, whether you’re trying to learn about, you know, different verticals, right? Construction people, SaaS people, WordPress people, WordPress Products, whatever it is that you’re focusing on, using lists and always doing that list management, which is part of all of my Twitter plans, by the way, even the lowest one, including the graphic. That is key.

(14:47):
And I’m gonna tell you something, I had a little bit of a demo today of, of a really cool product. Well, it’s a SaaS. And it’s called FlowChat.com. And they have the ability to import contacts that you put on your Twitter lists and put them into your sales funnel, follow and your automation rules for whether or not they are a qualified lead. And then, you know, away you go. In this Kanban style thing,

(15:32):
I’m, I am blown away at what people are building right now. It’s really fascinating. So you should go check it out, FlowChat.com. There’s some very lovely people that work there and they’re doing great things that I think could really change how omnichannel works, right? So Omnichannel being everywhere, but we’re on, we’re omnichannel, but we’re not omniscient. You need kind of a command center for all of this. And then how do you even track all those leads?

(16:05):
They, of course it works with a, a bunch of CRMs and stuff like that. I’m not an affiliate yet. Or you know, you never know. But I did just see it just as a like, intro call. We were just talking to each other and I’m like, I don’t know about my clients. Some of my clients would probably like this, but I’m kind of thinking that it’s gonna be my next big purchase. Because it is a very cool tool that will allow you to be more serious about your prospecting on Twitter.

(16:37):
Twitter lists are huge. They are an untapped resource of people talking. Everything that they’re thinking about online based upon your ideal customer profile, right? Or your persona or what, or Bob, The Web Builder, whoever, whoever it is that you’re trying to, to prospect, right?

(17:04):
Who, who is it? Where is your biz dev happening? Maybe it’s just local, right? Maybe it’s just roofing websites.

(17:11):
Either way. Um, Twitter lists are huge, humongous, very huge for SaaS because who uses SaaS? Other companies. It’s B2B. Twitter and LinkedIn are the best for, for B2B, hands down. But I’ve already talked a lot about LinkedIn, so it’s time for that video. Another day we’ll talk about that with the 3, 2, 1 method. Just look it up, you’ll find it. I’ll probably put a link.

(17:40):
Thank you for reaching to the end of this video.

(17:43):
Hey, if you want some help with your SaaS, I have three levels of pricing. I have different ways you can engage with me. Of course, I have the SaaS platform package, which is four blog posts a month and Twitter Pro. But if you haven’t been writing blog posts, there’s no way I would let you buy that from me. So just if you need help, you’re tired of being the founder who’s floundering in “build-in public” community on Twitter on X, and you need some help, let’s do it. Let’s do it. Let’s figure it out. Let’s, let’s get it done.

(18:21):
My name is Bridget Willard and you can find me at bridgetwillard.com. Bye.

This article was written by Warren Laine-Naida and Bridget Willard. Although in the first-person, you’ll probably see both of our personalities. Bridget has a successful marketing agency that focuses on SaaS Products and also has a retail job while Warren defines himself as a web generalist who is also a teacher. Basically Bridget works with products and Warren builds websites. We both have a passion for understanding the WHY before doing the WHAT.

We’d also like to note that we’ve written four books together three of which are a series and none of which were written by AI of any kind and the same goes with this article. 

We’ve used our personal experiences as well as data from the original source for our arguments.

TL;DR: Retail apps need to shift from transactional “one-night stands” to building a long-term customer relationship.

• Problem: Apps focused only on single discounts (e.g., “$5 off first purchase”) result in high churn and low long-term engagement.
• The Shift: Focus must move from install + redeem KPIs to sustained engagement (store visits, interactions) over weeks and months.
• Value: Apps must provide daily micro-value (tips, small rewards, helpful reminders) and emotional hooks (streaks, anticipation) to justify retention.
• Personalization: Leverage first-party data to deliver hyper-personalized content tailored to individual behaviors, ensuring the app is part of a cohesive omnichannel strategy that connects all touchpoints.
• Strategy: Redesign onboarding to show value after the initial coupon. Integrate AI to augment staff, don’t replace them.

Keep it Simple: 5 EZ Customer Service Reminders

1. Be Proactive. Think like your customer – what motivates you?
2. Do not see this as a cost. Customer service is a feature, even today.
3. Interactions are opportunities to sell. Questions, answers, freebies, sales, loyalty.
4. Don’t leave it all to AI – integrate AI, don’t replace your people with it. It’s just software.
5. No one style fits all — tailor your offers to customer expectations. Easily done with digital.

What Do Customers Want from In-Store Apps?

In a word: convenience. And it’s not just Gen Z and Millennials – who adopt in-store apps above 84% (according to Chain Store Age). Consumers overwhelmingly also want scan-and-go. We know what you’re thinking (thanks a lot Walmart). Big Box Retailers often change the expectations of consumers.

One of the things I love about being in retail as well as B2B marketing is I get data – every day – in real time. Even at discount retailers, customers want scan and go. They don’t know what kind of datacenter would be needed to track that kind of real time inventory. But I couldn’t even imagine self-checkout. With the price checks? Holy Toledo. There would be riots. And we’re not even talking about shrink that comes from self-checkout. 

“According to the latest LendingTree survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers, 15% of self-checkout users have purposely stolen an item — and 44% of self-checkout thieves plan to do it again.” LendingTree

Amazon ruined delivery. I’ll never forget doing customer service for a skincare line out of Austin, Texas. Customers were irate if the delivery was longer than 5 days – to Germany. (“I’m sorry, we don’t have a distribution center in the EU,” I would copy/paste in the emails.) Comedian Ronny Chieng famously has the “Amazon Now” bit in his 2020 Netflix special. 

“To be hand delivered into your home like an Emperor… any fleeting thought.. When you’re drunk… I want just one pen.” Ronny Chieng

But I Have an Online Shop. Why Do I Need an App?

It’s true that an app often feels like a waste of digital storage and keeping inventory for physical shops isn’t necessarily for the mom and pop gift shop. An online store should be remarkably different than the instore app. Meaning, being online is an opportunity to have exclusive deals only found online while the in-store app can feature a map (like Walmart) or a way to manage your credit card (like TJ Maxx).

A shop and a mobile app can compete with one another. A South Korean study done in 2022 by Boram Lim, Ying Xie, and Ernan Haruvy saw a “cannibalization” of the online store by the app. 

“The mobile channel is a complement for offline customers but a substitute for online customers.” Science Direct

“Respondents’ top frustrations with in-store shopping were out-of-stock products (43.9%) and long checkout lines (29.7%). These concerns are reflected in their preferences for must-have retail app features. For instance, 52.7% of respondents want to see real-time product availability. Consumers also value exclusive offers (52.3%), coupon scanning (52.2%), and loyalty programs (50.0%).” Chain Store Age

Why Give One-Time Customers Free Stuff?

• Quick scene: shopper downloads an app for “5 bucks off,” uses the coupon once, and deletes the app on the way to the car
  
• Rhetorical question: If that’s your app strategy, what does that say about your relationship with customers?
  

Stop treating that initial discount like the digital equivalent of ghosting. The “$5 off” is the opener, not the relationship. 

If a shopper deletes your app on the way to the car, you didn’t fail the launch; you failed the follow-up. 

Redesign your app onboarding to immediately showcase the daily micro-value — the personalized tips, anticipated weekly rewards, and content streams that earn the long-term rental space on their phone, proving you’re serious about more than a single transaction.

Reminder: Micro-moments are the critical, intention-rich instances when people turn to a device, usually a smartphone, to satisfy an immediate need to know, go, do, or buy, demanding that businesses “be there, be useful, and be quick” with relevant information.

If your app strategy is built solely on one-time transactions, you’re publicly broadcasting that your brand is only interested in a one-night stand. This is a fundamental hygiene failure in modern retail. Don’t talk to me about your sustainable marketing initiatives.

Shift your KPIs away from mere installs and commit to turning the app into a true relational platform: use first-party data to inject emotional hooks and hyper-personalization that signal patience and commitment. 

Your app is a persistent conversation, not just a temporary megaphone for generic coupons.

“Personalized marketing is more than a nice-to-have – it’s a must-have. We’re not talking glorified AI from the far future either. The basis for any successful marketing is establishing a personal connection. Empathy. A relationship.

Today, personalization means more than just addressing customers by name in an email. Personalization delivers individual content that corresponds to a customer’s product preferences and behaviors. It connects all channels – from email to shop to a mobile app.” Andrews Wharton

What Companies Get this Right?

TJ Maxx / TK Maxx in the EU gets this. Their app allows you to shop, manage your credit card, and use, track, and spend your rewards points. Plus, mobile users get their rewards points in 48 hours instead of monthly. The app is a must-have. 

Walmart gets this. You can build lists, check out prices, compare products, and track Walmart Cash. Walmart Plus Members can view their gas discount codes at Murphy Gas Stations, get free shipping and delivery, and also get other rewards like 25% off Burger King Orders, save on auto care, get free online pet care with Pawp, and choose a free streaming app: Paramount+ or Peacock.

Total Wine & More allows you to gain points as well as special coupons that you can apply for either in-store or delivery as well as mixing and matching from certain distributors. 

The app can’t just be your one-way ticket to data for modeling. You have to give something in return. And if you want to keep your customers in their apps (active customer base with a higher lifetime value), then keep giving. 

So many companies offer a one-time discount for email or SMS signups. We take the 10% and immediately unsubscribe and say “stop.”

And by the way, slow down on the emails, will ya? I finally had to unsubscribe from Old Navy because they emailed every single day. This is too much. It’s badgering and harassment just one step away from a Temporary Restraining Order. Seriously. Once a week is enough. 

Your App Isn’t a One-Night Stand. Or is it?

• Most retail apps are built around a single discount or launch campaign, not an ongoing relationship. The result is cluttered phones, low usage, and marketing teams wondering why “the app isn’t working.”
• I have a bakery app and a pet store app. They gave me 5 and 10 bucks off my first purchase. But since then, nothing else. WHY should I keep your app? This is just a digital extension of “subscribe to our newsletter for 5 bucks off your first order.” How many of those do people subscribe to and then never read another email from the company?
• I still receive paper coupons in the mail identical to the coupons in the app. This makes as much sense as sharing the same thing on social media as you do in your email newsletters.
  

Your $25,000 app isn’t bringing you results? It isn’t working because it’s a digital clone of your disposable paper coupons – an expensive one at that. There is nothing special for the people who give up memory on their phones and pay for usage. Stop treating the app as a launch campaign; it’s an ongoing ecosystem. 

If your value proposition ends after the first transaction, expect the digital equivalent of a high-churn, low-usage landfill on your customers’ phones. 

So, in effect, you aren’t asking why customers should keep your app; you’re silently proving they shouldn’t. And then you wonder about churn. 

And in-store app churn is a huge problem. According to Business of Apps, shopping has a 30-day churn rate of 95.8% (2023) – up from 94.3% (2020). Ninety-Five Percent. That’s crazy. In the US, 30-day churn is 97.2% and in Germany it is 97%.

So, people say they like apps, but do they really? And, are they just downloading your app to get the one-time discount? How do you keep your app on your customers’ phones? How do you justify the cost of the app with a 95% churn rate?

Again, you have to go beyond the first date. Don’t just digitize your existing inefficiency; amplify your strategy. Sending the same offer across physical mail, email, and the app is digital laziness — it tells the customer the app provides zero incremental value. 

So stop the redundant broadcast. Every one of your channels, especially your app, must deliver unique, personalized, and context-aware utility.

“Apps aren’t a nice-to-have —  they are part of your sustainable marketing. Smarter personalization, less noise, better results.” Warren Laine-Naida

Treat Customers Like You Would Like to Be Treated

• Contrast: a one-night stand versus a steady relationship built on small, repeated moments of value. Do you give away the farm on the first date? No. You keep the relationship interesting as long as possible.
  
• Question: If you wouldn’t treat a partner this way, why treat your customers like this?
  

Everyone knows, the biggest mistake is giving away the farm on the first date. 

A sustainable relationship is built on small, repeated moments of value, not one massive giveaway. 

Inject daily micro-value (like tips, streaks, or tiny surprise rewards) and emotional hooks (like anticipating “next week’s coupons”). This continuous drip of utility, proven effective by thousands of point cards, is how you earn daily attention and retention.

The customer relationship is a direct mirror of your marketing commitment. If you’re unwilling to put in the consistent effort and personalization required for a real-life commitment, why do you expect customer loyalty? 

Ask your partner how long they would stick around if your relationship were simply your push notifications.

Your business deserves relationship standards. If you aren’t passive or boring in your love life, stop being passive and boring in your marketing. As David Ogilvy famously said, “the customer is your spouse.”

“First-party data is like a direct conversation with your customers, allowing you to gain a deep understanding of their preferences and behaviors.” Slixta

What a Customer Relationship Looks Like: a Reminder

• Daily micro-value: timely tips, tiny rewards, helpful reminders, not just “20% off, today only.” This is why point cards work! You collect points each time you use the app. I look forward to these apps and the new coupons each Sunday.
  
• Emotional hooks: anticipation of “next week’s coupon,” streaks, recognition, and small surprises.
  

The biggest strategic failure is mistaking a discount for a relationship. Stop relying on the massive, unsustainable “20% off, today only” blasts. You need to understand the psychology of daily micro-value.

Point cards work because they create a collect-and-anticipate loop, not a spend-and-forget one. 

Use your app to inject that low-friction, high-frequency utility — timely tips, tiny rewards, or helpful reminders. 

Crucially, deploy emotional hooks: build streaks, offer genuine recognition, and cultivate the anticipation of “next week’s coupon” like a favorite Sunday ritual. This repeatable, addictive engagement is how you earn daily real estate on your customer’s screen.

“Consumers want personalization, and they are more likely to buy more and spend more with brands that tailor the experience.” Forbes

Upgrade from Ad Campaign Thinking to Relationship Thinking

• Shift from “install + redeem” KPIs to engagement over weeks and months (opens, interactions, store visits).
  
• Treat the app as part of a broader customer journey: in-store, email, social, and website, reinforcing each other.
  

The “Install & Redeem” metric only tracks the first date. Shift your focus entirely to sustained engagement metrics – opens, interactions, store visits – over long time horizons. 

Your app must be architected as an essential component of a complete customer journey, constantly reinforcing value found across email, social, and in-store touchpoints.

“Smart omnichannel isn’t ‘post everywhere.’ It’s about every touchpoint working together – like a well-run shop. Social draws people in, email keeps them curious, ads help them decide, your app acts like a personal assistant in their pocket, and support makes sure they keep coming back.” Rocket.net

Here are Some Practical Steps for Retailer’s Apps

• Redesign onboarding: show what happens after the first coupon, not just how to claim it.
  
• Build a simple content calendar: weekly offers, seasonal tips, local news, and customer stories that keep the app alive.
  

Your current onboarding is a tactical failure. Redesign it to be a strategic promise. Focus not on claiming the first coupon, but on revealing the long-term weekly content calendar of value (tips, local news, stories).

This structure is what signals an ongoing relationship and gives the user a concrete reason to let the app survive past the first swipe.

“Rather than sending every user a generic 10% discount, a clothing brand can detect that a particular customer browses winter jackets every night between 9-10 PM on a mobile device and send a time-sensitive offer accordingly.” Artizone 

Implement What You Know: Caring is Sharing

• Brief example of two fictional stores: one “one-night stand app,” one “relationship app,” and how their metrics diverge over three months.
  
• Highlight compounding effects: repeat visits, word of mouth, and data for better personalization.
  

Run a three-month internal metric comparison: “One-Night Stand App” vs. “Relationship App.” You will see that the divergence in key metrics is exponential. Talk, hug, kiss vs. jump into bed.

The relationship approach generates better data, fueling superior personalization, which drives repeat visits and priceless word-of-mouth — the true engine of sustainable growth. It’s all about happy, loyal, sharing, and caring customers. 

Remember: UGC is generated by either really happy or really angry customers, not bored customers. Which customers are you nurturing?

“Don’t have the App thing happening yet in your business? No worries – old school is no fool. SMS boasts a 98% open rate!” Rocket.net

Wrapping Up: Isn’t Your Business Worth the Time?

• Circle back to the love-life question: your business deserves the same patience, care, and commitment you’d give to a real relationship.
  
• Call to action: before planning your next app or coupon, decide whether you want a one-time date or a long-term customer.
  

The critical strategic decision isn’t the coupon amount; it’s the commitment level. 

Before you budget your next app or discount campaign, look in the mirror and decide: Are you building a system for a single, fleeting transaction, or are you ready to invest the patience, care, and personalization required for a long-term, profitable customer relationship?

Say, “I do.” 

Loved This Article? Hire the Writers!

If you loved this article and it gave you some things to think about and change in your business, then why not hire either Warren Laine-Naida or Bridget Willard to write for your brand or product, too! 

Here are some of the main reasons someone might want to buy How To Market Your Plugin: A Framework for the Sleep-Deprived Developer by Bridget Willard, along with what makes it useful — particularly for people building plugins in WordPress or similar ecosystems.

What the book offers / Why it might be useful

1. Targeted to plugin developers
   This isn’t a generic marketing book. It’s written for developers who are creating plugins, especially in the WordPress environment. The author understands the specific challenges of that scene: distribution, directories, pricing models, community, things like that. Bridget Willard+2Amazon+2
2. Actionable framework rather than abstract theory
   The book gives step-by-step guidance and a framework: from setting up a marketing plan, doing beta signups, landing pages, documentation, all the way to attending WordCamps / meetups and how to budget etc. So if you want something concrete to follow, it seems well suited. Bridget Willard+1
3. Focus on both short-term and long-term work
   It doesn’t just talk about what to do right now (launch, promotion), but also how to build marketing into your plugin development process, how to set pricing, what business model works, how to represent your product, how to budget. That helps avoid the mistake of treating marketing as an afterthought. Bridget Willard+1
4. Written with the constraints of “sleep-deprived” / solo / small teams in mind
   The subtitle “for the Sleep-Deprived Developer” signals that this is meant for people who are already overloaded: writing code, debugging, support, possibly without big marketing teams or big budgets. So the suggestions are presumably realistic for folks who don’t have huge spare time or marketing departments. Amazon+1
5. Good mix of community / ecosystem awareness
   Because WordPress (and plugin markets in general) have special dynamics — plugin directories, reviews, user expectations, supporting documentation, community involvement (WordCamps and such) — the book’s value is higher than something more generic. It’s designed with those realities in mind. Bridget Willard+1
6. Relatively short/readable
   It’s not a huge tome. At ~136 pages, so manageable. If you want something that you can read through without it being overwhelming while still getting usable ideas, that could be a plus. Amazon+1

Who might especially benefit

• Someone building a plugin who struggles with or hasn’t yet done much marketing.
• Solo developers or small teams who need to handle many roles (development + marketing + support) and want to adopt a plan that’s feasible under those constraints.
• Developers who want to build for sustainable growth (not just hack something out, launch, hope for sales) — who want a path forward for increasing visibility, downloads, and possibly revenue.
• People new to the WordPress ecosystem who need guidance on how to do product positioning, pricing, licensing, etc. in that particular space.

Here are a bunch of actual user-reviews, comments, and impressions of How To Market Your Plugin, along with what people liked / found useful, and some things to watch out for. Hopefully this gives you a clearer picture.

What people like / positive feedback

From the author’s site, Goodreads, and community commentary: Bridget Willard+2Goodreads+2

• “Relatively short, but very info-dense. Lots of practical tips we’ll be putting in place on our own projects soon.” — from Keanan Koppenhaver, CTO Alpha Particle. Bridget Willard
• “Good read. Wish something like this would have existed when I started with plugins, 3 1/2 years ago.” — Cristian Raiber. Bridget Willard
• “This is an excellent book. Why? Because most of the men and women developing plugins are technicians. They build a tool to fit a need. … Here is a book for them, by an author who uses the tools, understands the tools, and most importantly, knows how to sell the tools.” — Warren Laine-Naida. Bridget Willard
• From the plugin author community: “Awesome idea, our industry needs this book! You’re def the person to write this and make sure it’s full of goodies.” — Vito Peleg. Bridget Willard
• “This Book really helped me with new plans and idea, which I can execute for better growth of my plugins.” — Aditya Sharma. Bridget Willard

From the Press This podcast interview summary / discussion: Torque

• People appreciated that the book helps clarify monetization models (free, premium, support-only, freemium) and what trade-offs each bring. Bridget is said to explain these clearly. Torque
• The book is praised for being written by someone who has real experience in the WordPress plugin ecosystem, who’s “done the work,” not just theorized. Torque+1
• It’s seen as especially helpful for indie/smaller plugin authors, solo devs, or people without big marketing teams. The strategies are considered practical rather than purely aspirational. Torque+1

Criticisms / things people mention (or potential drawbacks)

While the reviews are generally positive, there are a few caveats or limitations that show up (or that are implicit):

• Because the book tries to be actionable and compressed, some people feel it’s dense; you may need to take time to implement the tips rather than skim. “Info-dense” is a compliment but means you might need to invest time to digest. Bridget Willard
• It may not cover every plugin scenario or every edge case. If your plugin/market model is unusual, you might need to adapt the advice.
• Some of the marketing suggestions assume you have at least some bandwidth (even if limited) to do things like content marketing, attending WordCamps or meetups, promotional work, etc. If you are really strapped (time, money, or both), some of the advice may be harder to implement.
• Given the ecosystem (WordPress, etc.), some of the book’s advice may assume familiarity with certain platforms, norms, or community practices; if you’re working in a different environment, parts may be less directly applicable.

A Major Reason to Buy How to Market Your Plugin

One of the strongest reasons to pick up Bridget Willard’s How to Market Your Plugin is the author’s proven track record. Bridget isn’t just writing theory — she’s done the work.

• GiveWP Brand Growth: Bridget played a major role in building the GiveWP brand, which grew into one of the most recognized donation plugins in the WordPress ecosystem. Her hands-on marketing strategies contributed directly to its adoption and visibility across the WordPress community.
• Experience With Other Plugins: Beyond GiveWP, Bridget has worked with and advised other plugin developers, consistently showing how grassroots marketing, community building, and consistent messaging can make a plugin stand out in a crowded marketplace.
• High-Value Expertise at a Fraction of the Cost: Bridget’s current consulting rate is $125/hour. This book distills her knowledge and frameworks into a format that costs less than a single lunch — effectively giving you access to thousands of dollars’ worth of expertise at book-price.

When you combine her insider knowledge of the WordPress plugin ecosystem with her clear, actionable framework, the book becomes more than a marketing guide — it’s a way to tap into professional-level strategy without the agency-level invoice.

Overall takeaway / how people rate it

Readers seem to accomplish something real from reading it — getting new ideas, setting up/adjusting marketing plans, deciding on licensing/pricing, etc. Many say they’ll be using parts of it soon. Bridget Willard+1

On Goodreads, it has very high average ratings (5.00 at last count for a few ratings) among those who have rated it. Goodreads+1

The community seems to view it as filling a gap — there aren’t many books dedicated specifically to plugin marketing (especially for WordPress), so many felt that this book meets a needed niche. Bridget Willard+1

References

• Bridget Willard, How to Market Your Plugin — Author site and reviews. Available at: bridgetwillard.com
• Goodreads: Bridget Willard author page. Available at: Goodreads
• TorqueMag. Press This Podcast: Market Your WordPress Plugin. June 2021. Available at: torquemag.io
• Amazon listing and reviews: Amazon

Research and summary assistance provided by ChatGPT (OpenAI).

If you’re serious about your business, you should own a custom domain name and use that for business email. But keep reading.

I’ve worked in tech for the the last ten years and sometimes I forget that the general population doesn’t think like me. Namely, what does your email address say about you?

So, I’m building this FAQ here on my website to help small businesses and freelancers see the value in:

1. buying a domain name
2. setting up Google Workspace
3. having a basic website

Custom Emails Show Professionalism

Custom emails are professional. Look, I’ll be the first to say that I loved AOL and I had it for years until I switched to Gmail back in 2001(2)?. My AIM handle and Gmail username has always been my childhood nickname: Gidgey. (Bridget, Gidget, Gidgey).

So, my email name is historic and easy and all of my life is run through that Google Calendar, etc. But on my business cards? It’s hello@bridgetwillard.com.

When I first started out, my domain name was taken. So I went by “You, Too, Can Be a Guru.” When I found out that BridgetWillard.com was available, I bought it and transferred my site. (My first host was SiteGround.)

Like, you can’t be a marketer and not have a website. But what about other professions?

Quick FAQ Recap

Do I really need my own domain if I’m just starting out?
Yes — it’s one of the simplest ways to look professional right away and show people you’re serious.

What’s the big deal about a custom email?
Think of it like a business card. you@yourdomain.com builds way more trust than randombiz@yahoo.com.

Why bother keeping DNS and hosting separate?
Because if one breaks, you don’t want everything else to go down with it. It’s just smart insurance.

Do I have to use Google Workspace?
Nope. But if you do, you’ll unlock helpful tools like Google Analytics, Search Console, and even Google Business Profile.

Can’t I just forward my domain email to Gmail or Yahoo?
Technically, yes. But it kind of defeats the point of looking polished and professional.

Why does email marketing care about this?
Because tools like Mailchimp or ConvertKit need domain authentication (DKIM, DMARC, SPF) so your emails don’t land in spam.

Need help setting up your domain or figuring out email?

Contact me here — I’ll make sure you get started the right way.