Leveraging Guerilla Marketing for Growth

After pitching Fast Rhymes for the first time, I got the feedback that I probably should invest more time in marketing. The organic growth was great, but there was a lot of room for optimization and improvement.

I went for a coffee with someone from the pitch who was interested in the project and we started brainstorming marketing strategies. The most obvious one is to just buy paid ads, however that wasn’t viable at the time. She mentioned guerilla marketing, which was new for me.

Guerilla marketing, is unconventional marketing. Something out of the norm. For startups this can be vital to be able to do a lot with little resources. So thinking outside the box could pay off big.

One of her guerrilla marketing ideas was to enable users to export images of their lyrics directly from the app, ready for sharing on social media. These images would be watermarked with the app's logo and website, making it easier for users to share their lyrics. This approach not only simplifies the sharing process, but also boosts word-of-mouth installations, allowing the app to gain visibility without requiring direct conversations about it.

Implementation

At first I wanted to over engineer the hell out of this feature by generating the image server side, adding a bunch of options for fonts, handling character limits etc. After going down this rabbithole I just wanted to close my laptop and scrap the idea. The app is mostly client side, which is great for both UX and cost. Generating images on the server could get expensive. Especially since it isn’t behind a paywall, and would get traffic from free users.

Then I shifted to a local approach. My idea was to create the layout in React Native and then create an image from that somehow. So I told ChatGPT my idea and asked how I could execute it. It recommended the use of “react-native-view-shot”, which is a library that can convert a React Native component to an image, which is exactly what I needed.

So when I user selects a part of their lyric a share button fades in, when they press share they get a preview of the image and can change the font size and press share to share the final image. This also handles max character limits in a way, since the height of the square is fixed, so if it’s too long it just includes the part that fits, and you can adjust the font size if you want to fit more content in the image. There is also a button to give feedback on the feature, so if users want different fonts, background or text colors, they can let me know.

Demo

Conclusion

Guerilla marketing can be a valuable strategy for Fast Rhymes. Creative solutions can make a significant impact without requiring a massive budget. The lyric-sharing feature is a perfect example of how unconventional thinking can drive organic growth. By empowering users to share their creations in a visually appealing and effortless way, Fast Rhymes turns its community into ambassadors, spreading awareness naturally and effectively.

Implementing the feature also highlighted the importance of balancing ambition with practicality. Focusing on a simple, user-friendly solution allowed the idea to come to life in less than 2 hours. Guerilla marketing isn’t just about thinking outside the box; it’s about finding resourceful ways to maximize your efforts. For Fast Rhymes, this approach is not only driving growth but also fostering deeper user engagement.