How do you get your first customers

Currently launching this storytelling newsletter and we're getting so much initial traction through some of the ideas below 🔥

• Word of mouth & referral: on the best ways to start is to put together a list of people you personally know and contact them, ask them if they're interested or know someone who's interested. Ideally, put together a referral program with incentives for every referral.

• Google: search for keywords around your product and pick the top 5 articles. Contact the authors and offer them a free trial of your product. Ask if they'd be interested in featuring your product in their articles. A lot of the times they're happy to do it.

• Targeted communities: IH, HN, PH, MicroConf, etc. are a great source of quality traffic. Make sure you're offering value though in your posts as opposed to directly pitching your product!

• Later on, focus on SEO using content clusters. This is one of the best (and free!) ways to generate constant quality traffic. The only issue is that it takes time, so it's not ideal to get the initial customers.

I think every App should also have a basic webpage to have download links to the App from either google or apple playstore. Every one knows to search in google for whatever they are looking for. Add some youtube videos to point to your app and then have relevant titles so they match your keywords. google instantly shows the videos if they match.

Now for paid way, it is generally good to start with google adwords as i see they are economically and are instant way to drive traffic to your website and if your lucky enough then your would even have signup's.

Mostly, promote in BLOGS as people do search and read a lot.

When you put your App in Appstore then asks your friends to add some reviews to your App (if it is B2C).

And I think initially start with some free features and keep adding paid features. Otherwise there might be zero downloads as it is only paid version.

You mentioned "for app developers", which indicates to me that you think the fact you have a mobile app makes your acquisition channels different vs. having a newsletter or an e-commerce store.

It does not.

Where your audience hangs out is the #1 factor that determines WHERE you'll get awareness of your app.

If your audience are college students, the probably use TikTok. I wrote about few examples of apps and SaaS that got their initial users from TikTok.

But even "where your audience hangs out" is an incomplete definition. For example, if you're a lawyer, your audience could be everyone. But targeting them at once is expensive because only a very small % of them have a need of your product RIGHT NOW. That's why many attorneys find Google SEO/Ads to be an effective channel for them. When people have a legal need, they simply go to Google and type their problem.

So it really depends on your app. If you provide an app that solves a need that people have on ongoing basis (staying more productive, etc.) then this whole principle of "find where your audience hangs out and target those channel" can apply for you.

If you provide an app that solves a need people have infrequently, then going with more intent-based channels (targeting keywords on search) can be a better option.

Look for IH posts like this recent one and add your project in a comment

I've been building in public in IH and Twitter for the last 15 weeks and launched the alpha version in March 2022. at vadelabs. Building in Public has helped us inculcate a discipline that recently helped us land our first customer. It also motivates us in our journey to maintain consistency and has helped us get feedback.

It's a no-code platform for API integrations. We have started with some of the most popular integrations like Github, Twitter etc. and would add more custom integrations going forth.

LinkedIn is a good avenue to send messages as there are so many business people on there. It is also a way to do it without spending much promoting.

It depends a lot on the kind of app you are building and on your strength. Could u tell us a bit more about it ?

For building Meetme (http://meetme.io), I know my strength is PR and 1-to-1 discussion. So I am visiting prospects door to door and pitching my app. Then I do a small interview and demo session and get the business to buy. This is the best way to learn tons of stuff about your customer, how they work and how they use your product.

It’s great to do things that don’t scale in the early stages 😁

Word of mouth, family and friends & industry colleagues are your best bet

I'm currently driving awareness for my SaaS product: testimonial.guru. The key is to actually call people who might be your first users. Yes, it's hard; but there's no other way.

The goal is to check if the MVP you've built actually solves a problem for them. Have them try the product and get their feedback.

I think it has differences between services. What kind of app? And where does the app (web, store, or some platform)?