A lot of startups fail because they can’t get early traction. In the early stages of a company’s development, the focus is usually on creating a product to address a need rather than getting the word out and making sales. It makes sense to develop a product, but that isn’t enough to bring in revenue. Given the stakes, knowing where to look for your first 5,000 customers would be invaluable.
You don’t have access to volumes of data in spreadsheet form, you don’t have pre-existing market segments, and you don’t know who will buy your product.
Simply put, you are experimenting with many approaches to see the most promising ones.
Attracting your first 5,000 customers requires a blend of marketing and customer development strategies. Each strategy should have its ultimate goal, not just acquiring a new client but also learning more about that consumer and what they care about. Knowing your most loyal customers is essential for increasing your return on investment.
Most startups immediately resort to paid promotion when striving to attract a steady clientele. However, there are several strategies to get initial traction, such as piggybacking on the popularity of others, participating in online communities, focusing on the appropriate social networks, and so on.
1. Contact People You Know
Customer development may be accomplished quickly by reaching out to your current network and asking targeted questions about your offering and the market. If you’re making a product for a specific niche, you will likely already know people in that niche.
One of the main causes of startup failure is that the founders don’t engage with the target market. It’s easy to fool yourself into thinking you have a firm grasp on your market and that your product is essential. However, the most effective marketers recognize that their assumptions may not be entirely accurate. However, they are still willing to confirm them through conversation with their target audience.
Even though you shouldn’t try to make a sale during interviews, you may ask those you speak with if they would be interested in being included in a private email list where you periodically share updates on the status of your company.
As an additional tactic, you should branch out into the personal networks of your prospects. Don’t forget to inquire about potential introductions from anyone you contact. If a potential customer isn’t a suitable fit for your product, they will likely work with someone who is.
2. Start a Blog
There are several advantages to having a blog. You should have begun this process much earlier when looking for strategies to expand your startup. Still, I guess it’s better late than never.
Many people view advertisements as intrusive and annoying.
People are constantly bombarded with advertisements. They are more likely to offend and reject than to attract. Blogs, however, still create a feeling of trust and sincerity. You can effectively convey the value of your product in this way.
Blogs produce need. Need produces demand.
Blogging is not a short-term plan by any stretch of the imagination. It will require a lot of effort, and you probably won’t notice any substantial benefits immediately. But the effort is well worth it since blogs have an unrivaled capacity to subtly implant a concept into the consciousness of the people who read them.
Blogs are a fantastic tool for boosting traffic to your website.
Businesses that maintain a blog receive 97% more links from other sites than those that don’t. That is a big deal.
How? SEO magic of some sort.
Nothing beats well-crafted content to improve your search engine rankings for your chosen keywords. When you have your blog, you may select the topics and keywords that readers will connect you with. To get your foot in the door and your work out there for the world to see, you may select one of the finest free blogging sites from the list provided below. It would be best to encourage others to connect to you to increase your internet presence and reach. Opportunities will arise as a result of this. Once everything is in place, your blog will bring in visitors on its own.
This process may be expedited by establishing connections with social influencers in your field through guest blogging.
You’ve just discovered the fast track to thought leadership.
Get published in authoritative trade magazines by honing your writing skills. That way, you may use the influence and resources of such groups.
People who have never heard of you have no reason to take you seriously. Good reputations are built on a foundation of excellent content that is widely read and shared. Neil Patel is the man to turn to if you need a spark of motivation to get things rolling.
Consider the following suggestions for blog post topics:
A Guide to
Blogs of this sort frequently address readers’ questions and offer solutions to common issues. Choose and discuss specific points of interest to your product and industry and write them for your ideal customers.
Interviews Users
Interviews with early adopters of your product are a great way to gather information about how it is being used and the outcomes it is producing. In addition, these blogs can assist in establishing credibility for your product’s value proposition by demonstrating its validity across a wide audience.
Analyzing and Comparing Products
Writing articles that compare your product to others in the market might assist your readers in better understanding the value they’re getting from each option. In addition, these blogs should mirror the decision-making process of actual customers by including information that isn’t included in product descriptions or price sites.
Make sure you’re developing and optimizing your blog articles around keywords that get a fair amount of search engine traffic yet have relatively low levels of competition.
Include them in the design phase
Customers interested in utilizing your product should be engaged and brought into the product development process as soon as possible. Get the details on the why and the how right here.
