Getting your first 100 customers is a crucial milestone for any start-up. It validates your product-market fit, generates revenue, and provides feedback for improvement. But how do you attract and convert those early adopters who are willing to try your solution? Here are some of the best strategies to acquire your first 100 customers.
Before you start marketing your product, you need to know who you are selling to. Who are your ideal customers? What are their pain points, goals, and preferences? How do they make buying decisions? You can use market research surveys, customer interviews, competitor analysis, and online tools to gather data and insights about your target audience. This will help you craft a compelling value proposition and tailor your messaging and channels to their needs.
Think of the first 2.5% instead of the first 100 customers. These personas are called the “innovators”, they make up 2.5% of your addressable market. They will stand by you if they believe in the idea of what your startup is creating. They don’t care much about the how finished your product is, they just care about your purpose. The only way to win them is to clearly articulate your purpose. Once they’re won, they will help you get the next 13% - the early adopters. That’s how your startup crosses the chasm.
Once you have 10 customers, do an analysis and identify what do these 10 companies have in common. Even if only 5 of them have a commonality, then you want to go after other companies that are in that situation. For example, if you run a QA testing software and realise 5 of your first 10 clients were hiring QA engineers when they came to you, then you know you want to sell to companies hiring QA engineers. So many companies try to go after completely new segments before making the most of the niche they have already been successful in.
Know that chances are you will get this wrong. Your target customer is likely to change. You will only find out by doing and testing. I’ve found that research can be informative and help gain an understanding of the landscape, but to find your true target audience, the devil’s in the details. You’ll need to test messaging, pricing, user journey, consumer experience. You may end up with multiple target audience and your product may fulfill multiple needs. The main thing is to not get stuck on what you want the target audience to be.
Pick up the phone and call the customers you think may buy what you are offering. They will tell you very quickly if you are on the right track or not!
Get one client. Absolutely wow them - beat all expectations, deliver excellent service. Then get a testimonial and write up a case study. Share those with your network. Get your next client based on those results. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
A landing page is a single web page that showcases your product and its benefits, captures leads, and drives action. It is one of the most effective ways to generate interest and awareness for your start-up. You can use a landing page builder like Unbounce or Leadpages to create a professional and engaging landing page without coding. Make sure your landing page has a clear and catchy headline, a strong call to action, social proof, and a simple form to collect email addresses or sign-ups.
Using tools like splash page, web flow, go daddy, and other no-code tools, it had never been easier to convey to others what it is you’re seeking to obtain with their feedback. A clear, concise, personal, and to the point landing page that explains “why” with transparency and lays out what you want, and why, and be compelling enough to get the user to provide their contact info precisely for your project’s purposes. Often with select but useful images, diagrams, explanations, will: allow you to share what you’re doing while also moving the visitor (ideal customer profile/buyer profile) to provide their info to you which you can use for reaching out and following up appropriately.
Lending pages are useful as long as you are able drive visitors. You can drive visitors via email marketing, digital ads (meta would be my starting point due to targeting abilities), or content marketing.
Voy a ir un poco màs allà : además de los habituales ganchos en landing pages o de contenidos de valor, yo apuesto cada vez màs por mostrar " aperitivos" con un costo muy bajo. Así puedes conseguir 100 clientes que prueban una parte del producto a un bajo costo y después un porcentaje de ellos podrà comprar màs porque ya conoce el valor del producto tras conocer " el aperitivo "
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to get your first 100 customers is to tap into your existing network. Reach out to your friends, family, colleagues, and contacts who might be interested in your product or know someone who is. Ask them for referrals, testimonials, or feedback. You can also join online communities, forums, and groups related to your industry, niche, or problem. Participate in discussions, offer value, and share your landing page or product link. Don't spam or be too salesy, but be genuine and helpful.
This is one of the best strategies to find a starting point for your business. No matter where you are in your journey you have a few customers ready in your network whom you can leverage for your product. These people already have a relationship with you, trust you and have known you for sometime now.
Leveraging your network can be a game changer. As simple as it sounds, reach out to family and friends and ask them to buy your product and spread the word. But don't stop there. Attend local networking events and connect with other potential customers. These events are a great opportunity to build relationships and get your name out there. Don't be afraid to strike up a conversation and share your story.
100% agreed. Network should help point you in the right direction. Thats why you should always build and nurture your network.
Content marketing is a powerful strategy to attract, educate, and persuade your potential customers. You can create blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, ebooks, or webinars that provide useful information, tips, or insights related to your product or problem. Content marketing can help you establish authority, credibility, and trust, as well as drive traffic to your landing page or website. You can also distribute your content on social media, email newsletters, or guest posts on other relevant platforms.
In the early stages, a critical element of Content Marketing is how it connects to your outbound efforts. Content Marketing is a long-term investment, whether you're talking about blogs generating traffic via SEO, newsletters, or organic social posts on LinkedIn. When you you need to get new customers in the door, it's imperative that you understand how to use content marketing (and the engagement that comes from it across all mediums) as a lead generation source that requires outbound, Sales-led efforts to convert. If you're an unknown brand or product, expecting content marketing to create top-of-funnel leads that convert on their own is a fool's errand. Instead, use it as a source of leads that you bring into the sales funnel.
Test your market and talk to a group of target customers before you finalize content and run ads etc. Old saying is 50% of your advertising spend is waste, just dont know which 50% (or words to that effect). Test Market and talk to prospective customers. It works!
If you have some budget to spare, you can also run ads to reach your target audience and drive them to your landing page or website. You can use platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or Instagram Ads to create and run targeted campaigns based on keywords, demographics, interests, or behaviors. Ads can help you increase your visibility, exposure, and conversions, as long as you optimize your ad copy, design, and landing page for your goals and audience.
Ads offer a quick and easy way to A/B test various target users, core user needs, and various marketing messages without building the associated product. Testing various ad messages with various landing pages can quickly help widdle down potential product ideas with real user data from real people, while increasing brand awareness. Ads aren't the best place to find early dedicated users, but they can help drive the learnings that get you to product market fit faster.
Ads for emerging businesses which don’t have any capital when it comes to brand awareness have very poor ROI and offer no way of interacting directly with your target customers. I always recommend founders to first focus on acquiring a small number of organic leads and work on converting them, A/B testing can be used in what is offered to those leads and how it is presented to them. Doing paid ads in the initial validation phase of your business is like shooting in the dark. You have a very small chance of hitting your target. Spend time connecting with and getting to know your target customers on a small scale before implementing processes to reach a larger audience.
Once you have generated some leads or sign-ups, you need to follow up with them and nurture them until they become customers. You can use email marketing, chatbots, or phone calls to communicate with your prospects, provide value, address objections, and persuade them to buy. You can also use incentives, discounts, or free trials to entice them to take action. Follow up frequently but not too aggressively, and track and measure your results and feedback.
No!!!! There are a lot of awesome ways to incorporate AI into your startup processes, but save the human touch for connecting with your potential customers. Building trust with words, a tone of voice, and a personality unique to you will win the day.
-Engage with startup and sales communities actively. Utilize networking tools like LinkedIn, Salehookup, Lunchclub, CoffeeMug, Intch, and participate in Slack startup groups, Telegram VC or startup groups, Hackernews, Reddit, Meetup, and Eventbrite. -Foster strategic partnerships as they can provide access to a diverse customer base. -Launch your product across various platforms, such as Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, or Uneed, multiple times for increased visibility.
Where is PR ie earned media? Plus,your list is good but without a proof of concept it's worthless. Why do it all alone? A great founder who speaks at a trade show can sign up 75 to 100 followers in 1 or 2 days. Dollar Shave Club picked up thousands of followers I'm days with their YouTube videos. Social media can attract partners who will intro you via their social and email lists. Third party endorsements from. Influencers and press are golden. Once signed up 200 followers for client in 20 minutes with National Public Radio interview. Fishbowl of business cards for a prize drawing gives you hundreds of believers in an afternoon. Social groups like Tech-cocktail will jumpstart your startup in one newsletter
#SEO is critical -- even from the beginning. Our first 25-50 customers came from direct interactions from our founder's personal network. However, from there, we knew we needed to scale. In order to do that, we needed either branded or unbranded searches to help us OR social or maybe even an email campaign. With that said, our founder had a background in SEO and was able to blog us from 24 daily users (1/1/21) to 3671 daily users (12/31/22). SEO grew to 96.08% of the traffic and increased session duration 28.47% along with decreasing bounce rate 24.77%