How to generate leads for your startup (Budget Edition)
One of the hardest parts of building a startup is gaining initial traction.
If you’re like most people, you don’t have a marketing team or a large budget to launch campaigns.
With little money and resources at your disposable, you have to focus most of your time on organic growth.
Organic growth can be difficult and time consuming, but once you learn the methods you can turn any business into a printing press.
Here are some solid ideas for generating leads without nearly any up-front cost:
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BLOG BLOG BLOG: Writing can be time-consuming but will pay dividends if you stick with it. Share content or tips related to your startup for free and you’ll open up a lot of doors for audience/customer growth. It can also provide you with another income stream if you start releasing premium content behind pay walls.
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Go on podcasts: I suggest doing this once you’ve done a bit of blogging first. Once you show even a small audience you’re knowledgeable on a particular topic, reach out to people hosting related podcasts and ask if you can be on an episode. Provide them up-front value and let them know you’d like to take a few minutes at the end to discuss what your startup is solving.
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Post in forums: Answer questions people are posting in different forums. Whether it’s Indiehackers or Reddit, when you provide value, people want more of that value. Every now and then, feel free to plug your product in at the end of your answer. Be careful not to spam. Reddit has a trigger-finger when it comes to banning people who market their products.
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Do an “Email Drop”: This one works best if you have a bit of a following on social media, although it’s not required. The method requires you to post a value proposition on Twitter or Facebook and instead of providing a link, ask people to “drop their email below.” I’ve found people prefer not to leave apps they’re scrolling through so asking them to respond/comment to the thread is much easier for them.
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Offer Free Trials: As a founder with not much credibility, you should always be finding ways to provide value up front. Whether it’s webinars, blogging, podcasting, or free trials, you should push content out into the world with your own unique spin. Offering a free trial helps you build trust with your audience because it shows you genuinely care about solving their problems.
Building an audience can be daunting, but providing up-front value by using some of these tips consistently have helped thousands of entrepreneurs turn their side gig into a full-time business.
If you have any other tips for generating leads on a budget, feel free to email or tweet me.
Every week, I share tips on how to help build your startup. Some of those tips include marketing strategies that help you grow from a zero audience.
If you’re interested, you can subscribe here: https://www.founderschoice.co/newsletter/
Do you have any other ideas for generating leads on a budget?
Comment below 👇🙂
If you're looking for an affordable way to generate leads for your startup, I recommend using Snov.io. Snov is a powerful lead generation tool that helps you find and verify email addresses, build targeted lists, and track the performance of your campaigns. With Snov, you can easily create targeted lists of leads based on criteria such as job title, industry, location, and more. You can also use Snov's email verifier to ensure that your emails are reaching the right people. Additionally, Snov's tracking feature allows you to monitor the performance of your campaigns and make adjustments as needed. With Snov, you can generate leads for your startup quickly and affordably.