Marketing Specialist

Marketing Content LeadsparQ is building the WordPress of business software - a free, self-hostable operations platform for small businesses that replaces Slack, QuickBooks, Jobber, and a dozen other SaaS tools with one system. We're pre-launch, our product is ready, and now we need to build the audience that will drive it.This is a rare opportunity for a sharp, creative, self-driven marketer to own the entire content presence of a product from day one. You won't be managing a content calendar that someone else built.

You'll be building it. You'll be writing, producing, publishing, and iterating - and working directly with the founder and dev team.We produce technical content for developers and self-hosters, and practical content for small business owners. You'll do both - with AI tools as your force multiplier.Writing & Publishing (your core output)Publish 3 blog posts per week - a mix of SEO-driven how-tos, opinion pieces, product updates, and thought leadership targeted at SMB owners and self-hostersHelp publish technical architecture posts and developer guides in collaboration with the dev team (they'll give you the knowledge, you give it narrative shape)Produce comparison pages, landing page copy, product release notes, and newsletter contentMaintain a consistent voice across all written properties: sparqone.com, developer.sparqone.com, help.sparqone.comVideo & AnimationProduce short-form explainer and tutorial videos using AI tools (Synthesia, HeyGen, Kling, or similar) for YouTube and socialCreate product walkthroughs, feature highlights, and "how sparQ replaced X" style videosBuild a YouTube channel presence from scratch - thumbnails, titles, descriptions, channel optimizationCommunity & DistributionDrive organic growth via Reddit (r/selfhosted, r/smallbusiness, r/HVAC, r/Python), Hacker News, Product Hunt, and niche forumsHelp manage the sparQ community forum (Flarum at community.sparqone.com) - seeding discussions, responding to users, surfacing feedbackSupport beta tester outreach for the Ignition program - writing DMs, forum posts, and cold emailsAnalytics & IterationTrack content performance in Google Analytics 4 across all sparqone.com subdomainsUse data to figure out what's working and write more of it; kill what isn'tReport weekly to the founder: what published, what performed, what's nextWhat We're Looking ForHard RequirementsStrong writer - clear, opinionated, and able to calibrate between "talk to a plumber" and "talk to a Python developer"Comfortable using AI tools productively (not just aware of them - actively using them in your workflow)Can read and understand technical documentation well enough to explain it to a non-technical audienceSelf-directed - this role has high autonomy and requires someone who creates their own structureStrong Signals (nice to have)Personal blog, newsletter, YouTube channel, or other content property you've builtExperience with video production or AI video generation toolsFamiliarity with developer communities (GitHub, HN, r/selfhosted, Product Hunt)Experience with SEO - keyword research, on-page optimization, link building basicsBackground in or genuine interest in small business / field service / trades industriesDegree in marketing, communications, journalism, or computer science - or no degree at all with great work to showTools & EnvironmentWe use AI extensively.

You should too. Expected stack for this role:Writing -Claude, ChatGPT, Notion or similar for drafting and editingVideo / Animation - HeyGen, Synthesia, Kling AI, CapCut, or equivalentSEO - Ahrefs or Semrush (we'll provide access)Analytics - Google Analytics 4 across sparqone.com subdomainsDesign - Canva, Figma basics, or whatever you useCommunity - Discourse forum, Reddit, Hacker News, Product HuntWhat Success Looks Like30 DaysYou know the product well enough to demo it to a strangerFirst 12 blog posts published across 3 content pillars you definedYouTube channel created and first 2 videos publishedActively posting in 5+ relevant communities90 DaysContent machine running at 3 posts/week without prompting10+ YouTube videos live with growing watch timeAt least one piece of content driving meaningful inbound traffic or signupsIgnition beta program has 50+ engaged testers partly from your outreach6 MonthssparQ has a recognizable voice and growing audience in self-hosted and SMB communitiesSEO footprint established - ranking for at least 20 target keywordsYouTube channel at 500+ subscribers with consistent upload cadenceContent directly attributable to trial signups and managed hosting conversionsHow to ApplyA short intro (3–5 sentences) about why this role and why nowLinks to writing samples, a portfolio, a YouTube channel, a blog - anything you've producedOne piece of content you'd pitch for sparQ's first week - just a title and 2-sentence angle is enoughWe do look at every link you send.