4 ways to get social proof without any customers
"How can I get social proof if I don't have any customers"?
Easy.
Here are 4 proven tactics from our MakerBox journey:
1) Give your product to tech-savvy users
Around 2.5% of your audience loves to try new things for free.
Even when they are terrible.
They enjoy new tech and want to share what they think of it.
Follow this roadmap:
- Go to Twitter
- Search your key keyword (e.g., web analytics, collect testimonials, to-do app)
- Find 50 users who tweeted about it recently
- Follow them
- Write them a good DM (you are an ideal user, we want to listen to your honest feedback)
- Offer your product for free in exchange for an honest feedback
- Get the review. If it's positive, ask for a testimonial too (80% will agree)
- Get that juicy testimonial from early users
2) Reach out to niche opinion leaders
Influencers are power users. Their endorsement is x10 more convincing than an average early user's.
That's why they need a more sophisticated approach.
- Go to Twitter
- Find 20 accounts with 5000-20000 followers in your niche (more followers = fewer chances of reply)
- Follow them and interact for 2-3 days with their content in a meaningful way
- Write a highly personalized DM praising their product and most recent content
- Offer them a product for free in exchange for a testimonial (don't overwhelm them with feedback)
- Enjoy your juicy endorsement
3) Feature your product in free directories & media
"Seen as" is a powerful social proof.
If I trust Media X and it features Product Y, then I trust Product Y.
Leverage this cognitive bias.
Launch your product for free here:
- Product Hunt
- BetaList
- PitchWall
- r/InternetIsBeautiful
- Startups Fyi
And here if it's AI-related:
- Ben's Bites
- There's an AI for That
- AI Tools Fyi
- AI Scout
And give an interview here about your startup journey:
- Starter Story
- IndieHackers
- FounderBeats
- Founder Club
- LaunchPedia
4) Tell about yourself
People buy from people. And you are a human (hopefully)
Write a short story about why you've built this product and what you are trying to achieve.
People connect with your mission → They want to buy more products from you.
FYI,
Social proof is only the first step to having a higher Conversion Rate.
Read this free CRO guide to master others.
Submit your ai tool at victrays(dot)com
hehe, nice marketing!
Nice post and great tip on getting early testimonials!
appreciate it, thanks!
Another way I've seen this executed well is to find a quote of someone with authority saying something that aligns with your mission.
Look up talks by industry leaders and then quote them. Something like:
"This kind of AI technology is gonna transform productivity in the world like never before.
-John B. - Head of Engineering @ Netflix"
Now John may not have said this about my individual startup but since he said this about my segment, this helps to sell.
I am actually not a big fan of this approach.
It works to some degree. But it usually looks cheap.
A bootstrap landing page and Steve Jobs quote. Not a good fit haha.
I mean of course you want to apply SOME wisdom. Not going for the number 1 most famous person on earth is certainly helpful. You're better off picking someone not famous but who's associated with a respectable company or organization saying something good.
These are solid tactics for gaining social proof without existing customers. I've covered similar ground in my "social proof marketing" guide, which might complement your approach. For those interested in diving deeper into strategies for improving your credibility and trust early on, check it out here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/social-proof-marketing-a-practical-guide-5b4bc1f7e1
Hi Dan thank you for your article. I posted my SaaS on Ben's bites yesterday and to my surprise they included it in today's newsletter. We got some nice traffic from the newsletter. We are in free Beta, so this is our first considerable traction. Thanks for the tip :)
Great tips as always Dan, that twitter idea is very very good
This remind me of a video on youtube titled Kathryn Minshew, Acquiring Your First Users Out of Thin Air, The Lean Startup Conference 2013
Kathryn Minshew the founder of The Muse, talked about how to get first few customer using low cost methods and the great thing about that video she go step by step and guide tru each of the tips she give.
It can be like a checklist if you are getting started.
You guys can also understand the fundamental of the talk by referring to this article What to think when Acquiring Users. This article give you understanding how to think when getting first few customer.