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43 Comments

We hit 200 paying customers (3 biggest traffic sources)

Big build in public milestone for us today.

We hit 200 paying customers at Senja.io.

It took about 1 year to hit 100 paying customers and 3.5 months to hit 200 customers. What's been working for us?

  1. #buildinpublic on Twitter. We've been sharing our wins and losses on our Twitter accounts, and this has been our biggest source of new sign ups and new customers
  2. Content marketing. This is exhausting but we regularly share content on our blog and slowly we're seeing more traffic from Google search
  3. Word of mouth / powered by. We have a powered by link on our testimonial widgets on free accounts. People click this, visit our landing page and sign up. We're also seeing stronger word of mouth as our customer base grows

Please take a look at my announcement here:

on April 24, 2023
  1. 3

    Could you quantify 1,2, and 3? If you can't could you provide your gut % on how helpful each is?

    1. 2

      Sure. 50, 30, 20. I share the specific graphs and exact details on @helloitsolly on Twitter

  2. 1

    NYC will these sources be helpful for al tool ?

  3. 1

    Congratulations Olly!! I have one question: twitter is a place where getting engagement on posts is not easy but on your posts you really have good engagement, can you please share how to achieve that?

  4. 1

    Hi Olly, it's nice to watch Senja grow!

    How did you grow your twitter following, any tips for someone with 0?

    How many different twitter accounts do you operate and why multiple?

    Thanks!

  5. 1

    I think content marketing is really under-valued because AI stuff popped up.

    Probably people think "why bother writing anything, when AI is going to write all the stuff 100 times faster" - but I think you still win more traffic with original content / good research.

    I guess a hybrid approach will be the winner in the end. Because I believe in that, I'm even currently planning a blogging platform that automates most of the research and supports you writing (but without giving a whole AI written article back).

  6. 1

    Congratulations on hitting 200 customers! I wanted to ask what growth hacks/strategies you have used in the past that did not end up working so great for you?

  7. 1

    I'm one of the new ones! Just signed up last month after switching from one of your competitors. I found out about you here on indiehackers :)

  8. 1

    You've a really nice product that companies need, so 200 clients is just the beginning. Wishing you greater numbers and achievements ahead!

    And as per the shared channels, they do seem to be the most working one. Clients come from the community and recognition, and you are covering these points nicely. What type of socials have you found the most effective, apart from Twitter, if I may ask?

  9. 1

    Congrats, Oliver on getting Senja off the ground and building it publicly. I didn't know that Twitter could be a great lever in this journey. Any hints on how to make it work?
    As for Senja itself, have you thought of adding more than one language to your website? This could help boost your traffic and sales even more.

  10. 1

    Congrats on hitting 200 customer! I saw that you have a free plan, would like to know what is your feedback with a freemium plan, you see better conversitons from them? It's difficult to convert a free plan user to premium? What aprroach you have to make them convert to a premium plan?

    1. 2

      We're doing between 4% -> 8% free to paid. But free accounts also drive awareness with 'powered by' branding.

  11. 1

    Your landing page is incredible. What did you use to build it?

    1. 1

      @tunacat We're running a test right now, can you send me a grab of the page you're looking at?

      1. 1

        I also would love to know what you built your landing page with! Mine says "Collecting testimonials doesn't get easier than this" at the top

  12. 1

    Nice work Oliver, we at supercreator also having an impressive growth if you want to exchange thoughts.

  13. 1

    That's awesome, congrats.

  14. 1

    Congratulations on hitting the milestone of 200 paying customers at Senja.io! It's impressive to see the growth you've achieved in such a short time. Thank you for sharing your strategic approach!

    1. 2

      Thank you - let me know if you want me to share anymore.

      1. 1

        oh yes, you can share more!

  15. 1

    Senja is one of the products, I was following closely. You and Wilson doing a great job. congratulations!!

  16. 1

    Congrats on the milestone! Thanks for sharing your traffic sources!

    Regarding BIP on TW, did you engage with influencers on Twitter who has followers that are your target audience? Or engage in some Twitter Communities where your audience are active? Or are you just sharing your ups and downs?

    1. 1

      All of them! Consistency helps - two tweets a day for several months.

      1. 1

        Got it! Thanks!

  17. 1

    Sounds like it's just a matter of time. Congrats!

    1. 1

      Thank you! Working hard...

  18. 1

    Great use of testimonials to fuel your word of mouth growth. It certainly illustrates the tools' value. Congrats!

    I'd like to see a little bit more of a description about what the "free social proof swipe file" is and maybe an explicit opt-in along with the download CTA.

    1. 1

      @Parker_Content Our tool IS a testimonial tool. Our users can collect video and text testimonials and embed on their sites for free.

      So the powered by link goes next to their own testimonials.

  19. 1

    Valuable post thank you. When it comes to Twitter, did you pay for promotions or just grew organically from the followers you already had? Did you build in public from day 0, or from MVP onwards?

    1. 1

      I did have an existing audience (2,000 now 8,500) on Twitter but I worked hard to grow it by sharing ups and downs consistently for over a year.

      1. 1

        Awesome, thanks and well done.

  20. 1

    Thanks for the insight. #buildinpublic seems to be a way to see the humans behind a project, creating an emotional connection. At the end, selling something is about having a kind of bond with this person, so quite a good idea to embrace the buildinpublic approach 🙃

    1. 1

      Yes, plus it helps keep me and co-founder accountable and connected to a community.

  21. 1

    Do you thinking SEO has contributed a lot to your success?

    1. 1

      Yes, as you can see it's our second biggest channel. It's been a lot of hard work.

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      What's your insight on why they should charge more? Or do you think everyone should just charge more?

        1. 2

          We've run multiple pricing experiments.

            1. 3

              Maybe in another post