100 ways to get your startup's first 100 users

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Outbound: show don't tell

Setup a sales flow

Spend 80% of your time listening and 20% talking. Refine, refine, refine your messaging and your product

Connect to 100 potential customers daily

Build a list of sales targets

Outbound email: track open rate, click through rate and response rate

Plan articles to grow your visibility in search months or years in advance

Build community tools and platforms that help you generate a large search footprint quickly.

Search is a long play.

Research words and topics your audience are searching for. Try and bring something new.

Bing

Focus on phrases with intent

Just ask! Ask people with influence for your audience to share what you're doing. If they won't, look again at your product.

Create a company page on LinkedIn

Create a Twitter profile

Monitor people mentioning your competitors + reach out

Post video content to Facebook

Create an Instagram profile

Create a Reddit profile

Create a profile on Quora

Spend £15 on reddit ads. £5 per ad, three variations. Use a personal story to sell your product or service. Turn comments off. Target the most relevant subreddits.

Install ad platform tracking pixels from Facebook, Twitter and Reddit to generate CPA reporting.

Get $75 free ad credit with LinkedIn. Target by job role. Expect high cost per click but high conversions.

Rememer: Facebook - high volume, low intent, average quality. Reddit - very high volume, low competition, low intent. LinkedIn - low volume, high cost, very qualified.

Try video ads on Facebook for reach.

Use tools like Canva and X to create visual ads containing images and video.

Use tools like AdEspresso to test different ad variations. Remove ads that don't work.

Sponsor a relevant, niche industry mailer for your audience. Measure performance: open rate, clicks, landing page visits, sign ups and customers.

Sponsor a meetup or event.

Explore sponsorship opportunities on niche podcasts: https://sponsify.fm/

Create a list of your audiences digital communities and be visible at them.

Add a link to your landing page in your community profiles and signatures

SAAS business or product for tech people? Add value to communities like indiehackers, Hacker News.

Post your startup on Product Hunt

Answer relevant questions on Quora and gracefully mention your startup.

Find and become active in relevant Facebook groups. Share links to your product at appropriate times.

Post your startup in relevant Subreddits. Be upfront and graceful and expect honest feedback.

Post videos on YouTube with a link to your landing page.

Example communities: money saving sites, mummy message boards

Be mindful how you interact with communities. Understand the rules, norms and value. Play along.

Join relevant Slack channels and intorduce your product there.

If your product our service lives in a marketplace then optimise within that marketplace for visibility.

Create a relevant, niche, daily mailer with conent relevant to your core audience. Include mentions of your product.

Or create a relevant, niche, Messenger bot with content relevant to your core audience

Actively reach out to your existing network via email and ask them to feedback. Don't sell, listen.

Partner with other similar complimentary emails

Add social sharing CTAs in relevant places across your product.

Think about the *natural* moment for a user to share (after a happy interaction) and introduce sharing at that point.

Create shareable messaging for the user.

Partner with other companies that share your audience.

Set up an affiliate scheme and pay people who refer new users to you

Leave 5 comments on relevant blog posts each day. Gracefully promote your tool.

List your SAAS tool in startup directories.

During customer interviews and support ask each existing customer to recommend one other potential user.

Offer pre-registration on Betalist.

Business development

Each user refers more than one person - you'll go viral

TOOL

Reach out to bloggers

Guest blog on websites to build backlinks and refer traffic

Throw away the press release. Reach out to relevant journalists early on and build meaningful relationships. Don't be a creep.

One great write up can kick start your marketing efforts. Be mindful of the timing.

Reach out when the journalist writes about something else similar.

Give the journalist free access and actively listen to their feedback.

Identify press contacts by searching write ups of competitors.

PR also supports SEO as content includes links to your website

Refer people to your landing page with great content across multiple platforms

Host a webinar targeted to your audience and use it to collect leads

Create a post championing influencers in your ecosystem and share it with them

Create a survey to generate insights for your audience, share it with potentual users, collect emails and share the results.

Create incredible content and guest post and cross post it into relevant plublications and platforms

Content formats: video, quizzes, blog posts, listicals, inteviews, podcasts, round-ups, event listings

AB test headline performance

Use power words like 'you' in headlines. Measure performance.

Update and republish old content that performed well.

Use tools to discover content that's already popular with your audience.

Create a quiz that intrigues your audience. Quizzes tend to perform well and CTAs can be included in the results.

Run a give away. Collect email addresses of recipients and treat them as leads.

Case studies, actionable advice and powerful anecdotes will perform well on the social web.

Spend as long promoting your content as creating it

Talk to people. Whether on the tube, at a party or during a swim - listen and learn

Print flyers. Distribute them in relevant places. Track their performance with a code.

TV, radio, billboards and other mass media. Experiential marketing.

Connect with relevant professional bodies and organisations that support your audience.

Find potential speaking engagements on meetup.com eventbrite.com and through google

Attend conferences and trade shows that serve your audience, exhibit if the opportunity is great. Else, network

If speaking, ask the hosts to send a post-event email mentioning you and your product

Build a community

Example: Monzo

Build a tool, listing or micro-startup to engage your potential buyer