Integrations With Mandatory Mutual Promotion

Integrations With Mandatory Mutual Promotion is a partnerships & affiliates tactic for getting your first users: Build product integrations with the tools your customers already use, but only commit engineering time when the partner agrees in writing to promote the integration alongside you. The distribution, not the feature, is the point.

It's a strong fit for B2B SaaS and Dev tools / technical teams, and works especially well for B2B SaaS, dev tools, platforms. As a partnerships & affiliates play, plan for medium effort and expect results to build gradually over time, all grounded in 2 linked primary sources.

Partnerships & affiliatesMedium effortSlow

Why does partnerships & affiliates work for this?

Each promoted integration puts you in front of an audience already qualified to need you, and ecosystem players amplify the reach for free to showcase what plugs into them.

The exact steps (4)

The full step-by-step this founder ran, what they posted, where, and in what order, plus the watch-outs, is part of the library.

Unlock the steps · $29 oncePlus all 3,000+ tactics and the new ones we add weekly.

Sources

Frequently asked

What kind of products does the "Integrations With Mandatory Mutual Promotion" tactic work for?
It is a good fit for B2B SaaS and Dev tools / technical — pick it when your product looks like one of those, since the play is shaped around how those users find new tools.
How is the "Integrations With Mandatory Mutual Promotion" tactic verified?
It is drawn from 2 primary sources — real founder write-ups and interviews, not generic advice. They are linked in the Sources section above so you can read the original accounts yourself.
How much effort is it and how fast are results?
It is medium effort, and results tend to be slow.
Where can I see the exact step-by-step?
The full step-by-step a founder ran, documented via Not Sure How to Market Your SaaS and DatoCMS at $6.5M ARR, is in the paid library.

Related tactics

Partnerships & affiliatesMedium effort· Slow

Find and Vet Creators Who Actually Convert

A disciplined sourcing-and-screening process that picks creators on proven performance and audience fit rather than raw follower count.

Read the steps →
Partnerships & affiliatesMedium effort· Slow

Turn Influential Customers Into Champions

Identify the people who already carry weight with your target community, partner with them deeply, and amplify the credibility they generate. This includes power users, marquee customers, and aligned brands.

Read the steps →
Partnerships & affiliatesMedium effort· Slow

Get Listed in Integration Marketplaces

You publish your product as an app or connector inside platforms people already use daily (Zapier, Make, app marketplaces) so new users discover you while searching for ways to automate or extend their existing stack.

Read the steps →
Partnerships & affiliatesLow effort· Slow

Sponsor Niche Podcasts and Newsletters

Place paid reads and sponsorships in tightly-targeted shows and newsletters to plant your brand with high-intent audiences, even when clicks don't track cleanly.

Read the steps →
Partnerships & affiliatesLow effort· Medium

Recruit a Growth Partner With a Rev-Share Offer

A technical founder too busy to market his Chrome extension (1,500+ weekly users, most gained by actively promoting in the first weeks after launch) posted in IndieHackers' 'Looking to Partner Up' offering either pay or revenue share to a growth specialist, drawing multiple candidates.

Read the steps →
Partnerships & affiliatesHigh effort· Slow

Seed Micro-Creators and Run a UGC Engine

Recruiting a stable of small, niche creators, sometimes paid only in free access, training them, and systematizing their output into a repeatable user-generated-content machine.

Read the steps →

Get all 3,000+ tactics in one place

Filter by your product and channel, follow the exact steps, and get the new tactics we add every week. One payment, yours for good.