If you build it, they will do absolutely nothing 🥲
So, you’ve had this amazing idea, fought through all the challenges, and finally launched your own product.
Now, you’re envisioning your bank account exploding with sales, customers eagerly signing up for your masterpiece, right?
Congratulations! You’ve just committed the classic mistake.
Hate to break it to you: there’s no such thing as a product that sells itself.
The reality of building something of your own is that you also have to actively recruit your first few customers.
This is tough but crucial work.
Also the reason why its important is because your initial customers will help refine your product, understand its market positioning, and provide valuable social proof as well.
Additionally, avoid the classic mistake of believing your product is useless because it’s available but people are not using it.
Acquiring users requires time and effort. If it were easy, there wouldn’t be entire industries dedicated to marketing and advertising.
The Foundations 🚧
Before you start shouting about your startup from every rooftop, make sure you’ve got your house in order. There’s nothing worse than generating buzz that dies out because people don’t know what you’re shouting about or how to get involved.
- Get a website:
- You need to have a destination for people to land on.
- Keep it simple, user-friendly, and clearly convey the value it brings so that even someone who is not your target user can understand it easily.
- Buy a domain name:
- Highly recommended practice. A professional domain is more likely to get users to sign up because it provides assurance of professionalism.
- Creating FOMO:
- Get active on socials, start targeting places where your target customers will be.
- Building in public: Talk about what you’re building, don’t shy away from sharing your learnings and failures.
- Plan our your release in a way people are hooked. Create waitlists, announce limited passes for the first version.
While it’s important to have certain elements in place, it’s also crucial not to go overboard.
Some Don’ts 🚫
- Don’t rush to register a company.
- Don’t invest in business cards.
- Don’t splurge on a professionally designed logo.
- Don’t quit your day job prematurely.
- Avoid rapid marketing and advertisements.
- Hold off on hiring a sales team for now.
Go after your target audience 🧑🤝🧑
The best advice for acquiring users for your product is simple:
Go after your Target Audience!
Find your target users wherever they may be, whether online, offline, or even in the depths of the Amazon forest.
Create your pitch
- Be prepared to explain what your product is, what problem it solves, and why it’s the best option available in simple terms.
Create an ideal customer profile (ICP)
- Develop a user persona or avatar. Who are your dream customers? Identify the perfect customer who can derive significant value from your product and genuinely needs it. Compile a list of such user personas.
- Decide how you will reach out to them, where, and with what frequency, and then execute your plan.
- Don’t hesitate to follow up if they don’t respond initially, but avoid spamming them.
Start with your own network
- Your easiest targets are the people in your network. Reach out to them and leverage their connections.
- Ask for referrals from your network, friends, and family.
- Conduct market research and pitch your product.
Create hype and launch
- Generate anticipation and excitement by announcing measures like that only the first 20 people will get access.
- Establish a waitlist to drive word-of-mouth marketing.
- Target and decide which platforms you want to launch on. This will depend on the type of your product and where your potential users might be
Places to launch 🚀
- Reddit Communities: For those unfamiliar, Reddit is a social media, web content rating, and discussion website composed of threads. Forums are comprised of “Sub Reddits” that delve deep into almost any topic imaginable. Some useful subreddits for discussing products are r/startups, r/sidehustle, and r/businessideas. Additionally, there are dedicated subreddits for specific niches; for instance, if you’re building a SAAS product, you can target communities like r/saas and r/saasmarketing.
- Discord servers: You can search for startup discord communities on Hive Index and explore them in your own time.
- Launch on mainstream platforms dedicated to product launches like Product Hunt, Peerlist, and Hacker News.
How did famous startups get their first customers? 😎
Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, strategically introduced the platform to his successful friends and connections. He intentionally seeded the product with successful friends and connections recognizing that cultivating an aspirational brand was crucial to drive mainstream adoption
Ben Silbermann, the co-founder of Pinterest, initially shared the app with his friends but faced limited success. However, a small group of users, including his acquaintances, found value in the platform for everyday activities like home décor and recipe ideas.
StackOverflow
Founders Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood of Stack Overflow leveraged their existing online communities from their previous ventures. They invited members to join a private beta, kickstarting the platform with valuable content from the beginning.
