Starting to build your first projects, here are ways we used to get the first 100 users for our projects, these are actionable tips that you can start applying right away 👇🏻
- Searching and Engaging in Relevant Conversations: Begin by searching Twitter and Reddit using advanced search features for keywords related to your brand. find recent discussions where users are discussing the problem your product solves. Engage with these conversations by adding value and subtly introducing your product. This approach was an effective acquisition channel for Deel.com, as mentioned by their Marketing lead on Lenny’s podcast.
- Adding Product to Directories: Make sure your product is listed in all relevant directories. This not only helps in driving traffic but also helps to improving the Domain Rating (DR) of your product over time. A higher DR enhances your product’s search engine ranking, benefiting your SEO efforts. We did it with Audionotes,till date we get consistent traffic from platforms like TAFT and TopAItools.
- Joining Facebook Groups and Reddit Communities: Actively participate in relevant Facebook groups and Reddit communities related to your product. Listen to the community, ask questions, and provide value. This engagement strategy, carried out consistently over a month, can attract a good number of users. JenniAI achieved a $3M ARR by floowing this approach as a major acquisition channel during its early stages.
- Soft Launch: Soft launch your product on Twitter, and Indie Hackers, take feedback on the new features you launch, copies you are confused with, share wins and failures. This transparent approach helps build credibility for both you and your product in the long term. Even if the current product iteration does not do well, this establishes you as a genuine and transparent person and will benefit while building products in future.
- Medium Articles: As you build your product, you will come across a lot of niche/specific problems people are facing and using your product to solve. Write blogs around these problems with free solutions and then subtly plug your product at the end. Medium is a great platform to get users consistently.
- Marketing in Specific Reddit Communities: Search for specific subreddits where discussions related to the specific problems your product is solving are happening. Publish your Medium articles as posts within these communities, providing valuable insights and solutions.
- PH Launch – Yes, all of us know about this. Once you have done all of the above for a month, you will get a lot of feedback, make improvements in your product and landing page too so that it talks to the specific target group you are addressing and launch on Product Hunt. The reason for launching on PH is, now you are ready with the improvements and have already made the copy changes which speak to your user, so that you make the best use of the quality traffic coming from Product Hunt.