| Lots of people come up with a good idea for a product, launch, then wonder where to get users. "Start with the market, instead," evolves their consciousness. I offer a different approach: start with the customer acquisition strategy and then build your product. 1) Build a landing page describing the problem and your solution, in terms of emotional value benefits 2) Drive paid traffic to the landing page. Get at least 20 signups. Boom, you're now at 20 users. Paid traffic = Pay Per Click ads. Try Facebook, Reddit, Quora, Google AdWords. 3) Build the thing. Write an email to your list describing the process of how you built the thing and how you found their names. 4) Cross post that very same narrative to discussion forums: Facebook, HN, Reddits, Indie Hackers[forum], wherever. 5) Search on google for one of those "web app directories" or "new startup directories". Block off two hours and painstakingly submit your app to every one. 6) Look for podcasts in your niche. Email all of them and invite yourself on as a guest 7) Look for influencers in your niche. Email all of them and ask them if they'd like a complimentary copy of your product (access to your webapp, etc) in exchange for a testimonial. If the influencers are all pay-to-play, find people who are active but on the verge of influencer status. 8) Send to your friends and family. 9) Post an ad for a usability test on Craigslist. You'll learn a ton and maybe get some quality users. 10) Post a Delighted.com or similar Net Promoter Score survey to your user base. You'll find the "holes" in your bucket that are causing you to leak users rather than compound them. |
This seems more effective if your primary market is the startup crowd. It could also be distracting if they're not the target demographic and you overvalue their feedback.