Hitting $7k MRR in 2 years. Here are the only channels of customer acquisition that actually worked.

If you read my (interview) about making Unicorn Platform you already know which channels work for Unicorn Platform. Those are Product Hunt launches and word of mouth.

In this post, I would like to tell you how to make the channels work for you too.

Re-launch on Product Hunt

Nowadays, Product Hunt is a common place to launch a new product. There are hundreds of guides on how to launch on PH (I wrote one too 😄). You most possibly launched something in the past and already know how it works and what benefits it can give.

What you probably do not know is that you can keep launching your product again and again. And get the profits more than once.

According to the official PH FAQ, you can re-launch your product once 6 months.

So my advice is to think of your Product Hunt launch not as a one-time event, but as a recurring process.

To launch again, there must be significant updates in the product.

My experience shows that if you are actively working on your product, it will get a lot of new little features for the period of 6 months. And therefore you can wrap your updates under a new version: e.g. "My Product v2", "My Product v3" etc.

However, there is a better way to wrap updates: make a sub-product. A sub-product is a new significant feature of the product. Example: Blogs by Unicorn Platform.

Unicorn Platform is a landing page builder. We added a new module to the platform — blogs. It is kind of a product under the hood of the product.

A subproduct looks whole, playable, tangible, and therefore more exciting rather than just another version with a list of updates.

Word of mouth

There is a simple formula: give love to get love. Our users keep recommending Unicorn Platform to their friends, tweet about us, and write reviews. This only happens because of one reason: we truly care about each person who signs up.

The care must be presented both in the product and in the support.

Product:

a) Keep the product simple and effective. Make the frequently used buttons more accessible. Do research on how users behave and improve their experience. Create well-thought UI.
There a lot of products like yours. Stand out by spending more time thinking about the design, do not just blindly copy.
I know this is hard, but it will pay you back in the long term.

b) Listen to your users, but do not blindly follow their requests. Do what the majority asks you to do, but do not ignore single voices too.
We at Unicorn Platform continuously work on the major features. But each week we pick a few little requests from the "users feedback" list and implement them.

c) Bring some emotions and joy to the product. Yes, people want to have some joy even during work. Add a funny gif during the onboarding process, or a pleasant UI animation.

What matters is how your users feel after doing a job with your product. If they feel satisfied, they will remember this feeling and come back tomorrow. And even bring friends!
If they feel stressed — it is a fiasco 🙂

It doesn't mean your product must be perfect. None is perfect. But if you spend some time designing a really thought out experience, people will feel your care through the interface.

Support:

Provide chat support for your customers and be responsive. Never say 'no', even if an inquiry is not related to your project. Build long term relationships — it is the key to SaaS success. Try to provide a solution even if a feature is not presented in the product at the moment.

People will feel your sincere care and pay back.

Be there when users need you. We added "chat with us" buttons to the most confusing parts of Unicorn Platform: custom domains and Stripe integration:

Although these 2 channels will help you to continuously acquire new users, they have a huge disadvantage: they are not scalable.

You can not rely only on those if you want to grow faster than we do:

P.S.: Our newest tool — Blogs — is out of beta today. We believe creating blogs must be simple. Support us if you think the same: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/blogs-by-unicorn-platform

Thanks!