If you were starting from scratch today, what's the number one thing you'd do to build your audience?
I think one of the hardest things as a founder (aside from your first sale) is building your audience. So, if you had to start over today, what's the number one thing you'd do to build your audience?
So many platforms out there Justine... I'm going through the same struggle now.
My framework is to try to focus on a couple at a time and just try to streamline as much as possible the posts, style and frequency for each one of them. Then once there's so positive feedback I then start to focus on a few other ones.
So still very much trial and error but I found it manageable so far.
On the bright side, the platforms are keen on getting their users to be successful so they have been pretty active on sharing playbooks and frameworks of how/when/what to post.
This was recently launched by Twitter: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-launches-updated-agency-playbook-to-guide-marketers-on-tweet-ads/604557/
Thanks for the article, just skimmed it and saw some good ideas. I like the idea of putting feelers out into different communities and finding out which ones get responses and feedback and going from there.
Yes that could be a good framework. I was discussing with my husband @derekgallimore (who has built a B2B platform bootstrapped that is doing quite well now) and he shared his opinion on this.
In his words:
‘Also.... I have often thought about comparing the options (i) building a big Social media following, vs (ii) buying paid traffic on social media (FB, Insta, etc), and I think that you can save a ton of time and just buy ads whenever you need exposure. Sure, people don't 'respond' to advertising as well as a personal recommendation. But as a 'influencer', you can only recommend so many things and then your audience is burned. With advertising, you can literally buy 1,000,000 impressions for about $1,000.’
Some valid points here.
I still don’t have a strong position. Still trying out different platforms and strategies…
Absolutely agreed with the below Justine - have a look at this blog post for a few tips on how to get started from scratch :)
An article directed at the solo-founder, great work! I think my biggest issue is figuring out where my audience is when you have a niche product but also something everyone could use lol.
Ahhh yes this is such a common concern - remember that although everyone 'could' use it, you want to focus on building an audience of super loyal fans. And, choosing one audience to start with doesn't mean you can't expand out to more later, it just gives you an initial pinpoint target. Think Facebook (originally for a single University Campus), Nike (originally for track athletes), or even Apple (originally built for design) :)
Thank you! I think this is exactly what I needed to hear. I went from B2B to B2C. I know exactly who my B2B customers are but identifying who and where my B2C users are has been a challenge. I think I fell in to the trap of “if everyone is your customer then nobody is”.
Yeah that's also what I'm trying to do - Be active in relevant online communities. I'm not the biggest fan of social media, but I am always up for being active in a forum that I like such as this one.
I also think participating in relevant slack channels can be useful.
Also, I'm thinking you guys should check out communitable made by an indiehacker from this community. Its an airtable containing hundreds of online communities from different platforms e.g Facebook, reddit, slack & discord amongst others.
Lastly, I think some of the bullets listed under 'Build an audience/Build in public' from the below page will also be useful for those of us looking to 'Have more of a presence' in the online World.
https://www.notion.so/Product-Hunt-Launch-Checklist-f0dc18530b6f47938f6d3c49ff5d8b31
Will definitely check out communitable, thanks for the suggestion! I’d love to check out your launch checklist but I need access to the link.
Sorry I copied the link to my notion page rather than the author's. Here ya go: https://www.notion.so/tallyso/Product-Hunt-Launch-Checklist-166a46fbe162412e9545b39ec18353e4
Perfect, thanks!
I am in the same boat. I am intensely private. One on one, I have no problems at all. But being public, well that is a whole different ball game. But I am in the process of launching a new SAAS. So I am trying to be more proactive this time around.
I have found that interacting with people on here can be helpful. Everyone understands the pain of starting and is very friendly. I signed up a while back, but I have been mostly lurking.
Also, as others mentioned, the smaller slack and discord channels are great.
I realized when starting, you need to interact with the smaller communities. Going after the prominent influencers or large communities is just way too complicated. You have to fight a ton of noise to be heard.
Congrats on starting your new SAAS! I’m a huge fan of IH. I’ve been reading for a while but only recently decided to put myself out there and ask and learn from others. What are you using to find the discord channels?
I ended up buying
https://communitable.xyz/
Made by an IndieHacker. That along with a few targeted channels I found through reddit. I am on 10-20 channels, but I have found that it is a little too much to manage, so I am cutting down and trying to focus on the best ones.
BTW really interesting product you are building. I am following you on Twitter to see how it progresses. I buy virtually everything online, except shoes. Never could get the right fit online. I have a weird arch(the center part of the foot). If your app can suggest the best shoes based on that it would be amazing.
I’m definitely going to have to take a good look at communitable.
Thanks for the kind words! There are soooo many different pain points when it comes to footwear so hopefully people will enjoy what I’ve created so I can add additional features like arch support/height.
Just a word of caution about communitable. More than a few of the groups they have on their list have gone quiet. I mainly focus on digital marketing Discord groups, YMMV
I would start the marketing process from the start, and reach out through as many platforms as I could to find potential clients!
This is something I left for a long time with my Startup Pallyy, and am only starting to do it properly after 1 year.
....oops!
Oops here too! I’ve heard being active in communities where your potential users are is one of the best ways to start.