If you are running an early stage b2b startup and don’t want to invest more in paid ads then you are reading the right blog at the right time
I have curated some actionable ideas for generating demand for your product which will to get your first 100 users. Start implementing it right away!
Start Here:
1. Create a Landing Page
Create a landing page: ensure you can its measure performance, iterate and optimize - Contact Shiyam Sunder
2. Validate ideas
Experiment with each concept, start lean, validate, and focus on what drives users. Grow effective channels, contract those that are not.Be consistent. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
3. Tracking and website traffic analysis
Use UTM tracking from google to track and assess the performance of sources of traffic.
Explore strategies that don’t scale. Treat your first users like queens. Listen, learn, refine the product, and marketing.
4. Know your CPA – cost per acquisition.
Whether $1 or $1000, the CPA allows you to compare acquisition sources. Remember your time is also money.
5. Paid advertisement
Implement a free trial during the validation stage. Explore the implementation of this to generate more customers.
6. Pre-Launch Registration
Start generating users before you launch with email pre-registration
Know your Audience:
1. Find your first customer
Forget 100 users, first find one user. Often this person is obvious. Maybe you know them already. Perhaps you had them in mind when you created your product, or they fed back on your ideas or concepts early on. If you don’t know who your first customer is I want you to send me an email right now to shiyamsunderj@gmail.com and pitch me your startup. If it’s not me, I’ll help you find your first user.
2. Define your audience.
Who are you trying to reach? Where are they online? How do they spend their time? What brands do they like? What is the ecosystem they’re part of?
3. Refine your messaging.
Interview your customers. Speak their language
4. Demonstrate don’t tell.
Use vivid and specific language in your marketing messaging.
Be authentic about where you are in your journey.
5. Maintain a relationship with your customers
Call, meet or email every new customer.
6. Buyer Persona
Create a buyer persona using the HubSpot tool
Organic Traffic & Lead gen:
1. Understand your current traffic
2. Plan articles to grow your visibility in search months or years in advance
3. Build community tools and platforms that help you generate a large search footprint quickly.
4. Organic Search is a long play.
5. Research words and topics your audience are searching for. Try and bring something new
Organic Social:
1. Create a business profile in Linkedin, twitter, reddit and quora
2. Build your profile on LinkedIn through regular status updates and comments
3. Connect to 50 relevant new people on LinkedIn each day.
4. Write / curate and share relevant content with your LinkedIn network
5. Automate LinkedIn outreach using various online tools. ( Use Duxsoup or Phantom booster)
6. Post video content to Facebook
7. Just ask! ask people with influence for your audience to share what you’re doing.
8. Search social posts for people complaining about competitors and engage them.
9. Monitor all social channels actively
Paid Social:
1. 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.
2. Get $75 free ad credit with LinkedIn. Target by job role. Expect high cost per click but high conversions.
3. Remember Facebook – high volume, low intent, average quality. Reddit – very high volume, low competition, low intent. LinkedIn – low volume, high cost, very qualified.
4. Try video ads on Facebook for reach.
5. Use tools like Canva and X to create visual ads containing images and videos.
6. Use tools like AdEspresso to test different ad variations. Remove ads that don’t work.
