How to Promote a Marketplace

Don't try to be 'Uber for everything' or 'Amazon for everyone.' The most successful marketplaces start hyper-focused: Airbnb launched in one city for one event. Uber started with black cars in San Francisco. Define your specific niche, target audience, and geography. Dominate one market segment completely before expanding. Narrow focus makes promotion significantly more effective and affordable.

The fastest, cheapest, and most effective way to start promoting your marketplace is through strategic directory submissions.

Launch directories are platforms where both potential buyers and sellers discover new marketplaces and products. Think Product Hunt (works great for consumer marketplaces), startup directories, marketplace aggregators, and tech platforms that attract your target audience.

Why directory submissions are essential for marketplaces:

Immediate two-sided visibility: Potential sellers discover your platform as a place to list their products or services, while buyers find you when browsing for new shopping destinations. A successful Product Hunt launch can bring thousands of visitors and dozens of initial sellers or buyers in a single day.

Platform-wide SEO boost: Marketplaces benefit enormously from SEO because each listing, category page, and seller profile can rank for specific searches. When you're listed on 100+ directories, your domain rating jumps from zero to 30+ within weeks. This higher domain authority means every single page on your marketplace ranks better on Google.

AI Assistant visibility: Directory backlinks make your marketplace visible to AI assistants. When users ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity for marketplace recommendations or where to find specific products, these AI systems crawl authoritative directories to provide answers.


Trust signals: New marketplaces face a credibility problem. Being listed on recognized directories builds legitimacy and makes both sides more comfortable transacting on your platform.

Permanent results: These listings stay live permanently. Unlike paid ads that constantly drain your marketplace budget, directory backlinks keep working 24/7, driving organic traffic to your marketplace for years without ongoing costs.

This is probably the single best way to start promoting your marketplace because it builds compound growth across your entire platform. LaunchDirectories maintains a comprehensive database of 100+ best platforms for launching your marketplace. We also offer a done-for-you submission service where we handle all the manual submissions, save you 70+ hours of tedious work, and get your marketplace listed across the most impactful directories in just 3-5 days.

Most marketplaces should focus on supply-side first. Manually recruit your initial sellers, providers, or hosts. Offer incentives like free listings, featured placement, or guaranteed minimum earnings. Once you have compelling inventory, attracting buyers becomes easier. This 'manual first' approach doesn't scale, but it solves the cold-start problem every marketplace faces.

Develop content that attracts both sides of your marketplace. For buyers: buying guides, product comparisons, and how-to articles. For sellers: success stories, selling tips, and marketplace updates. This content improves SEO, establishes authority, and keeps both sides engaged. Content like 'How to sell on [your marketplace]' can attract new sellers organically.

Partner with existing communities that align with your niche. If you're building a marketplace for freelance designers, partner with design schools, bootcamps, and communities. These partnerships bring immediate, targeted supply and demand. Many successful marketplaces attribute early growth to strategic community partnerships.

Create viral growth mechanics for both sides. Offer buyers discounts for referring friends. Give sellers benefits for inviting other sellers or driving sales. Marketplaces have natural viral potential - satisfied buyers and sellers become your best marketing channels when properly incentivized. Power users often create content showcasing successful transactions, write blog posts about their marketplace experience, and recommend your platform publicly - all generating valuable backlinks alongside new users. To manage multi-sided referral programs effectively, Affonso provides the infrastructure to track referrals and automate rewards at scale.

Marketplaces require high trust. Showcase reviews, ratings, verified profiles, and success stories prominently. Create case studies highlighting successful transactions. Consider guarantees or buyer protection policies. Trust signals reduce friction and increase conversion rates on both sides of your marketplace.

Once you've validated marketplace fit, paid advertising accelerates both sides. Google Ads capture search intent from buyers. LinkedIn and Facebook ads can target sellers by profession and interests. Start with small budgets, test different audiences and messaging for each side, and scale campaigns that show positive unit economics.