How to Market your OSINT Tool the Right Way
Understand How to Market your OSINT Tool the Right Way with this Comprehensive Marketing Guide Specifically for Developers of OSINT Tools.
Too often, we see amazing Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools that fail to market themselves effectively enough to justify their continued development. Now, with developers in high demand, Google Search's high volatility, and creative professionals being far and few between, it's painfully common to see such unique OSINT tools fail to reach their potential.
SEO for Promoting OSINT Tools
Search Engine Optimisation is something that not many people actually understand. But, here's some good news - Google (and other search platforms) love OSINT tools, and really, tools in general. This is because they foster lots of user interaction.
Optimising your website can significantly improve your search engine visibility. The creator of OSINT Team wrote a great guide on website optimisation.
Optimise User Experience (UX)
Today, great user experience (UX) has almost become a requirement when it comes to marketing in OSINT. Ideally, build your website in a modern framework with fast animations, a consistent colour profile and perhaps consult a graphic designer or UX professional for advice. Framer is a website builder that makes UX relatively easy for modern websites and landing pages, and is used by many OSINT developers.
Simple Tools Drive Traffic
This company, (let's call them TechFind) created a simple and free OSINT tool related to their core operations. Interestingly, they lose thousands of dollars in API and hosting fees annually just keeping this tool online. However, over time people just started using it. It became number one on Google Search in the world for its use case, and is now approximately 90% of their website traffic.
As more people were visiting TechFind's tool, Google noticed, and search rankings were increased for other queries that TechFind were trying to rank for, leading to more sales of their primary service.
TechFind was then able to utilise the data obtained from this platform to gain media attention and were seen as a much more reputable company.
Blogs for Marketing OSINT Tools
If you don't have a blog on your OSINT tool website, you might be missing out on a significant amount of website traffic. Blogs allow for more keywords on your website, and the new content will also help Google understand that your website is lively and active.
OSINT Team has a great article on how to start a tech blog.
Petro Cherkasets
If your time doesn't allow for writing a blog, check out Cyber Detective's list of OSINT bloggers.
Here are some popular OSINT blog creation platforms:
Backlinks from OSINT-Related Blogs
Backlinks (links to your website from other websites) are often hard to obtain. However, if a backlink comes from a reputable, related and high-quality website, it can increase your "Website Authority" - an arbitrary measure of how important your website is, in the eyes of Google and other search engines. A higher number is better.
Knowing what your website authority is can be useful to see the strength of your domain. Ahrefs have a free tool to check website authority here:
Ahrefs Website Authority Checker
Websites & Communities to Promote New OSINT Tools
A few platforms exist where the OSINT community has congregated. So, it's important to spend time interacting with, and getting feedback from these communities.
The r/OSINT Reddit Community
Reddit has a large community with many and individuals dedicated to OSINT. Sharing news about your new tool can help to get your tool noticed amongst the noise. Here's the r/OSINT Subreddit to get you started.
OSINT Accounts on X (Formerly Twitter)
The OSINT community on X is a highly supportive group of individuals. Search for accounts with #OSINT in their bio, and focus on connecting with medium-sized X accounts. Build a good relationship with them, and maybe they'll help you out by sharing news about your product with their followers.
Here's a list of OSINT-related Twitter accounts.
Here are 10 OSINT-related hashtags on Twitter:
- #OSINT
- #osinttools
- #osintforgood
- #SOCMINT
- #GEOINT
- #privacy
- #cybersec
- #threatintel
- #intelligence
- #opsec
Start.me Pages
"OSINTers" (including myself) seem to have fallen in love with gigantic collections of potentially useful information-gathering tools on Start.me. Personally, while working in investigations I embarked on an ADHD-fuelled rampage looking through every single one i could find, with the goal of sharing the coolest tools with my colleagues.
As a developer of an OSINT tool, you should be trying to get your tool listed on relevant start page collections. Here's an OSINT start.me page to get you start-ed. Don't be afraid to reach out to the owners of these collection pages and request your tool to be listed. Alternatively, create your own collection and share it with the world.
YouTube & Other Video Platforms
Youtube for OSINT Tool Marketing
Just one year ago, OSINT had very little presence on YouTube. Now, top 10 videos, investigation case studies and how-to's are getting millions of views. Potentially, you could start making your own videos, such as podcasts, case studies or other engaging types of content.
While less popular for OSINT in particular, TikTok and other shorts platforms are under-utilised in terms of marketing for OSINT tools.
GitHub Repos
Lists on Github host an unfathomable number of OSINT tools. If you're a developer of an OSINT tool, having your tool on popular GitHub repositories can help to spread the word about your new release.
Here's a list of 5 OSINT-related Github repositories:
- Awesome OSINT
- Cyber Detectives OSINT Tools Collection
- Offensive OSINT Tools
- OSINT Cheat Sheet
- Social Media OSINT Tools Collection
Discord Servers
Connecting with communities within discord servers is a great way to spread the word about your OSINT tool. Make sure not to just drop a link to your tool and leave, try to build connections with server members first.
Here's 4 OSINT-related Discord servers:
Tools for Creating Product Demos & Promotional Trailers
Good marketing in regards to OSINT means knowing how to stimulate dopamine receptors, and create content that is worthy of interaction. Unfortunately, this can be challenging for developers. I've found a few nice tools that pair well for this.
Video Editing Tools
For creating the video itself, you can really use any video editor. I like to use Canva's video editor because it makes resizing content for different platforms very simple. However, if you're proficient in Adobe Premiere Pro, or even better, Adobe After Effects, I would use those instead.
Trailer Music, Sound Effects & Stock Content
For music, sound effects and stock content, I really enjoy Motion Array. While a little on the pricey side, I'd still recommend them especially for their trailer music.
Screen Recording
For screen-recording, I prefer Tella.tv. It has a generous free tier, and has some well thought out features to help you create quality product demos or trailers for your OSINT tool. If you're on a Mac and have $89 to spare, ScreenStudio is better.
Adam Pietrasiak
Voice Overs
ElevenLabs is arguably the best choice for voice overs, unless you have the voice of an angel or can afford paying for a voice artist.
Other Useful Resources
- Magic Pattern - A collection of design tools to make simple patterns such as blobs, gradients and blurs. This is great for simple social media posts.
- Coolors - A simple colour palette generator.
- Spline - A 3D design tool you can use for animations and 3D websites.
- Tally - A modern form builder.