GitHub Marketing
Purpose
Turn GitHub attention into real users, community, and revenue without eroding trust.
When to Use
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Open source as a distribution strategy or open-core planning
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Grow GitHub traction (stars, installs, contributors, sponsors)
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Convert README traffic into deploys or signups
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Design community-led funnels or plugin ecosystems
Core Principles
- Open Core Clarity
Make the boundary obvious:
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What is free forever
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What is paid and why
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No surprise lockouts
- 10-Second Time-to-Value
If it takes >10s to see value, you lose. Reduce steps, give defaults, add deploy buttons.
- Trust Before CTA
Open source is credibility marketing. Earn trust before asking for upgrade.
- Loops, Not One-Offs
Stars → users → contributors → referrals. Build loops, not launches.
- Community as Product Surface
Docs, examples, templates, and plugins are product. Treat them as such.
Workflow Summary
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Run discovery using initial assessment + questions. See references/assessment.md and references/questions.md .
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Pick distribution playbooks. See references/playbooks.md .
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Choose metrics to track. See references/metrics.md .
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Produce artifacts in the required format. See references/output-format.md .
Related Skills
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programmatic-seo: If you need scalable GitHub Pages content
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copywriting: For README and launch copy