Reaching critical mass with new B2B App
My partner and I have been working on our app BizSwipe for almost 2 years now. It is finally at a place now that we feel comfortable showing it to the public. The problem is, like with most "social/b2b" apps, is that it can only add value if there are enough people on it. On top of that our app is only for business owners, marketers, SEOs, and social media influencers so we can't just reach out to the general public.
The concept of BizSwipe is a b2b swiping app where you can add businesses that include its website traffic, web ranking keywords, facebook, instagram, youtube, twitter, and a short description of what you are looking for or offering. Users can get a snapshot of your business and the influence or authority it has or is looking for. You can filter social media and website analytics to find the perfect businesses or influencers to collaborate or network with. These filters include by category, website traffic volume, social influence, followers, location, radius, and so much more. The goal is to eliminate outreach rejection and spam since both people have to swipe right on each other in order to start chatting. Oh, and it's free... for now at least while we work on hitting critical mass.
So now comes the hard part... We have been reaching out to local marketing and SEO companies and signing them up one by one. We have been receiving great feedback so far but they get bored with the app quick obviously since there are only about 80 businesses in it so far. One feedback we received was "my clients are busy and I cannot get the email verified since you require an email with the domain name of the website I am trying to add" however, we believe this feature is necessary so users can't add websites that they are not affiliated with.
That being said...What would you recommend for us to reach a critical mass?
If you go to the sales subreddit you would see all the salespeople talking about SAAS. I think the reason why that is a thing is because SAAS is a hard thing to organically grow. Most companies that I have read about achieved massive growth by emailing and contacting potential users. They ask them to use their service and if they say no they ask why. They usually started with the smaller guys and as they developed their customer pool they can name drop them to the next level of potential customers. Like if you added a small-time blogger to your customer list you can use his/her name to get the next level of influencers. It helps if you start in one niche and proceed to the next. Like if you started with food bloggers who all know each other, it will be much more effective to name drop with them. From what I've read the initial customers you get will cost a lot of your time per customer. The more time you put in more customers you will get.
Another thing that you can try to do is contact the managers of media influencers first. A lot of influencers are part of a group where they share resources and monetization opportunities. You would just have to create a way to incentivize the managers. Maybe the managers can get paid for any match generated by their influencers. Also, IDK what your monetization strategy is but make sure that the businesses using your services pay a relatively large amount per match. Don't do an unlimited plan, make them buy the number of matches they want. The reason for this is that a good match will create a long term relationship between the marketer and the influencer. Giving the marketer little incentive to continue using your app.
Thank you for info. Currently the app is set up to charge for matches once we start monetizing. The freemium version gets 1 match per week. The subscription lets you add multiple businesses under 1 account and gives you a big discount on batches of matches.
I like your idea of giving incentives to "managers" and whatnot. That's a great idea.
How about cold calling? I feel like a lot of companies will be on board with this. Also, once you have a lot of businesses, it will be a no brainer for social influencers to join. The filters are awesome.
Interesting concept. Have you tried Facebook or Instagram advertising?
Yes. Lots of money wasted for minimal installs. Out of the big social sites we have had the most success with reddit. We are hoping to learn about some great organic ways to grow.