22
39 Comments

Do you use Twitter to acquire customers?

Hi, I've noticed here people using Twitter more and more as a way to get more users. Expand organic exposure.

What are working/non-working strategies you've been using on Twitter?

  1. 12

    Yes I do.

    I can't put an exact figure on how much money I've made from Twitter exactly, but it is a very reasonable amount. Per year, I make an amount from Twitter that is perhaps comparable to a mid-level job at a tech company. (I've worked at/with a few pretty well-known tech companies.)

    You can follow me here: https://twitter.com/ys

    Anyway, if you're trying to sell anything that improves people's quality/efficiency of life (it could be info products, software, courses, etc,) here are the main things that I find work well on Twitter:

    • Stay on topic. People follow you for a specific kind of content. Find out what resonates and stick with that. That's why they follow you.

    • Tweet often.

    • Keep your content positive. There's enough snarky negativity on the platform, people really enjoy positive content. But, the positivity has to be realistic too.

    • Be helpful. Give people concentrated wisdom. You can only really do this if you actually know what you're talking about. A lot of people just speak in platitudes. They don't really help. You want your insights to be genuine, useful and refreshing. Not a repeat of whatever everyone else is saying. Twitter is all about the personality of the individual. But if you can't think of wise content, don't fake it, just aim to be helpful. Try tweeting out awesome & useful on-topic stuff you find online.

    • Work on getting your offer dialled in. Nobody wants to buy something vague. It needs to speak to something they genuinely care about and value. (The Jobs To Be Done research method is your friend, look it up, study it, that's the best advice I can give you)

    • Don't be afraid to sell. This will depend on the kind of offer you have. Either way, you need to Tweet your offer often. At least a few times a week. Don't be afraid to do flash sales with coupons. Even for saas products. People like being rewarded for their attention.

    • Keep your DMs open and let people know they can DM you any questions. But feel free to close your DMs from time to time if you're getting lots of spam.

    • Make your bio clear and understandable. Use a real, well-lit distinctive and friendly photo of yourself.

    There are many other things you can do, and I'm still figuring it out, but these things have worked for me and I hope that helps you get started.

    1. 2

      Thanks Youssef for all your suggestions!

      How long have you been growing your Twitter account for?

      1. 1

        I've had Twitter since 2009, but I've never really tried to grow it. It just grew organically. Plus, my audience has changed a lot over the years. I'll get 50 new followers who are designers and developers, but I'll loose 30 followers who are into my older content, which was more general.

        I don't really care about my number of followers, as much as I care about the engagement. That's the key.

    2. 2

      Woah woah thank you!!

    3. 1

      Hey Youssef, what tools do you use?

  2. 7

    I haven’t launched my product yet but have been focusing on growing my Twitter presence and have seen a lot of excitement around my product (and other things I’m working on.) It’s amazing!

    I started growing Twitter 3 months ago and have almost 500 early sign ups in 2 months just from there. That might not seem much to you but this is my first money-making product so it’s pretty exciting!

    Growing on Twitter is easy. I don’t have much yet - 5k followers - but I started at 0 three months ago and have only been growing organically. I haven’t tried all those engagement strategies like people recommend.

    The best thing is to figure out who your users are, and tweet advice or very niche jokes. The things that work for me are lists of resources / things to learn, threads with lots of information, step-by-step guides to doing things. Basically things that are easy for people to read and think that they’re useful without actually trying out your advice lol. Also engage with your following - ask questions, start polls, etc. And when you have fewer then 2k followers the best way to start is to reply to other people in your field.

    Good luck :)

    1. 5

      You got 5k subscribers for three months?! Not bad..

    2. 2

      Amazing results! 👏👏

      I bet everyone wants to know your daily routine on Twitter.

    3. 2

      5k followers in 3 months is an amazing result. What do you think works for you?

      1. 1

        Thank you! Being a real person and engaging with people has definitely helped. Tech Twitter is full of tweets with the same things, so I purposely go against that and I think people find it refreshing. I also fell out with a big guy on there and he ended up blocking me - people loved that story haha!

        1. 2

          Oh, who did you fall out with? I gotta know that story, lol.

          1. 1

            It's becoming even more interesting now :)

    4. 1

      Amazing numbers! You've won half the battle, already! Keep growing your audience 🎊 The product will come easy.

    5. 1

      I have been on twitter for years and have 40 something followers!😅

  3. 4

    Hey Leo, I've been working on customerfind.net for doing exactly what you describe. "Use Twitter to acquire customers" is very nearly the by-line of the product! If you get a chance to check out the MVP I'd love get your feedback. Thanks so much!

      1. 2

        If you get a chance to try it out with Renters Feedback I would love to know what you think.

    1. 1

      That's really cool, you could also add other social medias to your plataform

    2. 1

      Outstanding idea Chris! I'll be looking at this more.

      1. 1

        Thanks! Let me know if you have any feedback.

    3. 1

      Hi Chris, interesting idea.

      I see your idea evolving: find the customers and they join a community inside your platform. Just my two cents

      1. 1

        Interesting. I would like to unpack this idea a bit more. Do you mind if I email you?

        1. 1

          No, waiting for your email

  4. 2

    I'm the founder of a Twitter growth hacking tool and also author of a Twitter growth hacking blog, so clearly I'm biased, but I feel the need to disclaim those things first.

    Can you make money on Twitter? Absolutely. The bulk of the customers for Zlappo comes from Twitter (but not all), but naturally of course that's the case for a Twitter growth tool.

    Twitter growth hacking is a very broad topic, and you can use Twitter for various purposes, including getting sales, but the main value proposition of Twitter is networking.

    I wrote about this some weeks back:

    Twitter is HUGE for networking.

    (You even have specialized paid tools like mine to help you grow on Twitter, and people are paying for it to grow their audiences rapidly on Twitter and monetizing that audience like champs. That's how important Twitter is.)

    So what's the big deal about Twitter?

    THE COMMUNITY.

    The community is like no other on the internet. Facebook works to keep in touch with your family and friends (Facebook Groups try to mimic Twitter, but they don't even come close).

    Instagram works if your audience are mostly consumers, but since most indie hackers create SaaS apps targeting small businesses and beyond, it naturally wouldn't be a popular choice.

    Twitter? Twitter is driven by IDEAS. It's a marketplace of ideas. And if you can locate your niche within Twitter, and build an audience by becoming a respectable (micro-)influencer in that niche, you don't have to sell AT ALL. The sale will find its way to you. Not only that, your followers will promote your product for free on your behalf and gush endlessly over you as a person once you've won their trust.

    In short, build a tribe on Twitter, and I guarantee it'll be your main source of traffic and sales.

    It's really hard to put in words the value of Twitter to a nascent business... But think of Twitter as a giant mega-funnel that sucks in leads and turns them into customers. And all you have to do is tweet engaging content and engage with others within your niche and tribe. People will check out your profile and your offers if you're interesting -- very little active "selling" is needed.

    If you're interested, I have some "state-of-the-art" Twitter growth hacking resources here you might want to check out:

    If you want to chat further, drop me a line at [email protected], I'd be happy to tell you more!

  5. 2

    Hi Leo,

    Yes, I've been doing this for years. In fact the vast majority of people who purchased my eBooks this year came through Twitter.

    For my eBook, I did the following:

    • Launch announcement: I announced the book title, shared book cover images, created a landing page, and announced a pre-order. I also told people to subscribe to my email list for updates.
    • Teasers: I tweeted "teaser" content frequently. I was 1/3 of the way through writing my first draft when I announced the book, so I was able to post progress frequently. This also helped me get an invite to speak on a podcast.
    • I shared blog posts that were relevant to my audience as a way of nurturing potential buyers.

    Hope this helps!

    1. 1

      Mind sharing your Twitter handle?

      What’s your ebook about?

      1. 1

        Sure! It's @radiomorillo and my eBook teaches developers about the content creation process including how to generate new ideas, how to approach the writing and editing process, and how to promote their work.

  6. 1

    Hi Leo,

    I've been using Twitter to acquire customers since 2013 (for my first product) and it has been working amazingly well for me since then. Here're some relevant facts that you can use to build your strategy:

    • People on Twitter are talking about/asking questions around problem you solve
    • Or they are talking about/complaining about your competitors
    • Or they are talking about specific industry/segment your product/service belongs to

    Last year we built a product called Armada to help makers/startups acquire customers + do market research using Twitter.

    Some tips based on our customers' experiences:

    • Reaching out on Twitter can easily turn into spam. Be genuine, help people.
    • Reply from a personal account > product/brand account. Makes it more personal.
    • If you're selling, try to put a disclaimer that you're part of the product team.
    • Offer reward/discounts/free access for few days, if suitable for your product/service.
    • Find common themes/questions, and create content around it and post it as reply.
    • Never be ashamed of your hustle, never be afraid of selling.

    I hope this helps. In terms of growing your audience, @YoussefSarhan has already provided some great tips.

  7. 1

    I'm here precisely because I think Twitter has become a much harder place to operate. The algorithm rewards shouty, antagonistic behaviours. Interested in how others cut through that noise, if Twitter's working for them.

    1. 1

      Hi Phil, it’s hard but I noticed people following friendly people, engaging, giving value, being nice and kind. This is what is working, genuine and proper conversation.

      The good thing on Twitter is: we can reach people we wouldn’t imagine being possible

  8. 1

    I have received half of my waitlist users from Twitter. Currently, I have 110 users on my waitlist for jemsplash.com

    My reasoning for using Twitter was because Twitter is the perfect marketing channel for Jemsplash. Our target users are Content Creators. A lot of Content Creators promote their products and courses through Twitter so it was the perfect fit :)

    Aside from that, I have gained almost 1,000 followers in the last two months because of my startup I'm rolling out.

    1. 1

      Cool! 110 on the waiting list and half coming from Twitter.

      This is a powerful lead generation.

      Any suggestion how people can become master on Twitter?

      1. 1

        Hey! To be honest, I tweet at least 8-10/day daily valuable, positive, or bold content to get people to my page.

        My link is in my bio plus I tend to talk about Jemsplash as well and recently I recorded part of my meeting with the developer discussing the changes we are making to jemsplash.com before we roll out the MVP next month.

        1. 1

          So, being consistent is key

          1. 1

            Yes! I currently use Twittimer.com for scheduling tweets but when I roll out my MicroSaas jempost.com next month I'll use that to schedule my Twitter threads my thoroughly.

  9. 1

    For Mileo I have just launched a feature to pay for 6 months subscription with a specific Tweet as part of my Growth acquisition Strategy.
    Still don't have any results to show, since this Subscription "payment option" is on Air since last Saturday.

    1. 1

      Keep us posted when you have the results to show!

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 16 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments