Alex launched the original version of the product, called Replyze, on Product Hunt.

“The launch on PH was unsuccessful and did not have any effect.”

He wrote about the new product on Twitter and posted replies (manually at first, then increasingly automated) from his own Twitter and Reddit accounts.

“The first couple of paid clients came from Twitter.”

Tried paid ads on Reddit and Facebook to promote Replyze.

“I tried posting ads on Reddit and Facebook but there was no result.”

Relaunched under the new ReplyGuy brand with a funded marketing push; placed 7th or 8th on Product Hunt that day.

“We launched on Product Hunt already as ReplyGuy, not Replyze.”

The Product Hunt relaunch produced immediate, concentrated new-customer growth that continued for months after.

“In 4 days after the launch on PH, we received about 30 new paid customers.”

Got a free listing in TAAFT's "Just launched" section, then paid for a "Featured" placement.

“First, we were added to the "Just launched" section for free, then we bought ad space in the "Featured" column.”

The featured placement brought in new clients, including some on higher-priced annual plans.

“This worked very well and attracted new clients, several of whom bought expensive annual plans.”

After the TAAFT boost faded, the marketing co-founder tried paid ads across several platforms.

“My partner tried many channels, including paid advertising on Reddit, Twitter, Google and Facebook.”

None of the paid channels tested reliably paid for themselves.

“It was hard to find a good channel that would pay off.”

A promotion method the marketing co-founder came up with, requiring daily manual work; Alex hired a VA partly to run it. He does not name the method in this post.

“This promotion method was invented by a partner and it was free and only required spending time and proved itself quite well.”