How to build your first 100 customers with zero marketing budget

Building a startup is no easy feat, especially when growing the numbers to ensure product market fit.?

This is one of the reasons I am writing this article to help people trying to build from scratch and grow quickly based on my experience with things that have worked and how they can leverage free resources and networks to get their first 100 customers without paying for anything.

First,

One of the best ways is through your Personal Network.

I personally know that if your close friends don’t believe in your product, who will? To push out your product as a founder you will need to sell your story to an audience, and one of the best ways to do so is to have an influence as a founder.

Now it could be among your peers, church family, or community. Either way, these people are the first ones you want to sell your mission to and encourage them to test your product.

From your friends you get about five people, in your community you can get another two, and in your family and two persons who can help try out your product especially if your products offer freemium models where after tasting your product and enjoying the actual value, they can upgrade it a paid subscription which validate your product,

This alone can give you about 15- 20 new product sign-ups but if you have no influence, then you will have to look inwards at other members of the team, if each person can bring another two persons in a group of three, by the end of a short period, you will have 30 new product trials…

The second best method is to look for Niche influencers:?

Look at your product and look at its niche and influencers who can help you share your story. For instance, if you launch a tech education product, your influencers will be tech bros whose audience are major people who are interested and are in the tech community.

In some cases, if you are friends with them, you can leverage this relationship and ask them to help you share their product with their audience. This method will get you early adopters and users who can really give you feedback.

This method can get you additional 15 - 20 users of your product.?

The third in this arsenal is PR:

Sometime during my career, I harnessed and kept a relationship with a couple of media organizations and PR staff. This allowed me to leverage an opportunity to pitch a start-up with them. Of the two I reached out to, they were super responsive and shared our story.

This saved us hundreds and was helpful in presenting to prospects outside our immediate network who wanted us to be validated and trusted. Media presence on blogs or News sites helps establish credibility which is crucial when your products are paid.

As a founder or in charge of growth, look through your network and contacts; who are in media or PR and leverage that relationship for credibility.

Once this method is successful, you can share the links on your WhatsApp status, and social media pages to establish credibility. This too will get you about 10-20 new sign-ups for your product.

The last on this method is Cold outreach:

So or later as you read this, you will realize that you, realize that your personal network will reach its limit and you have to move outside your comfort zone to meet people.

As a startup founder, if you have a social media account, It would be a helpful tool for cold outreach. This means you can reach out to your followers via Direct message on Instagram or LinkedIn and request they test out your product by signing them up as users.?

This also can get you about 5 - 10 users of your product.

In all of these, you can see how important is this build relationships and create a supportive community.

As a marketer one of the things that have helped me leverage growth is access; build your access, and see your story sell.

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