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How long did it take for you to find and efficient acquisition channel?

Hello, fellow indie-hackers. I and my co-founder are currently hitting a wall with our new project.

Classic story, we made a landing page, had a few signups. Then made a beta/ProducHunt launch and managed to have our first paying customers after a lot of product improvements. To give you a time frame, the PH launch was in early December.

Thing is, for the last month we only were able to close one deal with one client.
We have other warm leads but deals are very slow to close and we really need to fight a lot for each client. We also don't really have an efficient acquisition channel. We tried a lot of different strategies and none of them seemed to really work.

We currently are wondering if:

  1. Maybe our idea or execution is bad
  2. We just need more time.

We currently experiencing FUD phase and I was just wondering if you went through the same and how you eventually went out of it?

Thanks in advance.

  1. 3

    I have no advice for the channel or product, but I often come back to this saying during FUD:

    “Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year.”

    1. 2

      Wow! Love that quote!

  2. 2

    The truth is a warm audience buys. If you don't warm the audience it usually will not work. It is less about the channel and more about online human nature.
    https://blog.popcornmetrics.com/how-to-warm-and-convert-your-cold-traffic/ Just one example, as there is no one size fits all.

    The Aha moment is about value. Study yours.

    1. 1

      Thank you very much, will look into this!

  3. 2

    The fact that you've atleast signed up a few customers is a start.

    My advice is to study the crap out of the customers you have signed up, understand who they are, why they've signed up, and hyper focus on that segment - try to get more customers like them, go to where those customers are. Reduce signup friction and optimize onboarding as much as possible for that customer type.

    Secondarily, you have to build some sort of inbound marketing strategy / fly-wheel - normally a content strategy works best.

    But yes, there's always the risk that simply there is not enough appetite for your product - it's not a big enough problem, or the product doesn't solve it well enough.

    If you're able to share the specific product we may be able to provide more feedback.

    1. 2

      Definitely study your market.

      What's worked for me is knowing where my target market hangs out then contacting them directly via that medium.

      I also have a "freemium" product, so it makes it easier to demonstrate value before making the big ask for money.

    2. 1

      Thank you very much for your comment.

      We made a competitor price monitoring tool for e-commerce owner. There is a lot of other solution on the market, this fact alone makes me feel like there is a market.

      However what you say resonate with me "But yes, there's always the risk that simply there is not enough appetite for your product - it's not a big enough problem, or the product doesn't solve it well enough.".

      What are some red flags that would make you feel like there is not enough appetite for your products? Some indicators that are too often overseen but yet very important?

      1. 1

        The biggest red flag is creating something that's never been done before / there is no proven market for. This can work sometimes (in big ways), but obviously is the highest risk.

        A price tracking tool - yes definitely there is a broad market, which is great, but you will need to figure out how to compete with the big existing guys - target a niche, have some aspect of the product which is superior.

        1. 1

          Thank you again for your time.

          I think we have strong advantages against our competitors. But as everyone here knows, making the product is the easiest part of running a business.

          I guess we will still need to focus on our niche, and knows where they hang out and figureout how to contact them.

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