Iko Africa

A case study demonstrating how I grew a social app through organic marketing 

Major Milestone
Reached 30,000 Users

Industry
Social App

Year
June 2023 - Present

Client
Personal Project

Problem

A childhood friend and I set out to build a social app for independent African writers, a space where they could grow, get seen, and build community.
But we didn’t have a marketing team or a big budget. If this was going to work, we had to be intentional… and very scrappy.

My Approach

From day one, we knew our challenge wasn’t just acquiring users, it was acquiring two very different segments: writers and readers.

To make this happen, we leaned into four growth channels that didn’t require deep pockets, just creativity, consistency, and community building:

  • Organic social media

  • Community events & initiatives

  • Organic email marketing (Koko from Iko)

  • Direct outreach: book clubs, Facebook groups, LinkedIn spotlights, and more.

Organic Social Media

I started with research into where African writers already hang out online. The clear targets were Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and TikTok each platform had active reading and writing micro-communities.

Our content strategy leaned on three pillars:

  • Educational content to position us as the platform that helps writers grow

  • Relatable content that reflects their daily challenges and creative journeys

  • Pain-point content showing why our app actually solves real problems

This interactive style of posting sparked conversations, drove shares, and accelerated our growth far faster than expected..

Community Events & Initiatives

We realised early that writers don’t just want a platform they want a place to belong.

So we doubled down on community-building:

  • Writing competitions

  • Twitter Spaces where writers read stories out loud

  • Free writing classes

  • Collaborative challenges

These weren’t just events. They helped us build a loyal core community and strengthened the emotional connection to our mission.

Organic Email Marketing

Our emails were never “broadcasts.” They were personal notes to our community.

We shared:

  • actionable writing tips

  • funding opportunities

  • community spotlights

  • updates from the founders (Koko from Iko)

This approach didn’t just boost sign-ups, it kept people engaged, excited, and coming back.

Direct Outreach

Before launch, we took the old-school route: talking to people one-on-one.

Every day, we reached out to at least 30 writers, book clubs, Facebook groups, and reading communities with real conversations about what we were building and why it mattered.

This scrappy, human-first outreach helped us pull in over 2,000 sign-ups before launch, purely from direct conversations.