How did you attract your first customers?

Question

Hey folks, let's share some stories about attracting first clients. Do you use the beaten path of cold emails and ads or maybe you know some growth hacking tools?

Accepted Answer

@eulerr I use cold emails, a lot. In B2B the are effective and have a crazy ROI. In the beginning, it's hard because you have to find out what works then you can start automating.

I prefer to use ads when I have found product-market fit. If you don't have clients, you don't know what they find valuable in your product and so what advertise.

Ryan Hoover · Answer

Good question. I wrote about our tactics in the early days of Product Hunt in Fast Company (which ironically, press was part of our strategy in the early days).

Answer

@fmerian My favorite tool is snov.io by far, the most complete and cheapest I've tried.

I don't give too much credit to articles for a simple reason. I ran cold email campaigns completely different one from the other and I saw that all kind of strategies can work. Start with your product and think about what kind of character can be attracted.

If you sell a creative and fun product, like t-shirt, use a bold approach like this one: https://marketingexamples.com/coldemail/best-sales-email-ever

If you sell a service or a tool make a short video where you point out how you can help that specific business. Let's say that you offer web dev services, make a video with their site and point out the problems (slow, outdated, and so on), The personalized video takes time but works a lot better.

Other approaches: Facebook niche groups (be open about the fact that you are selling when you are) AngelList and Facebook outreach (be careful or you can get suspended) and outreach on freelancing platforms.

This is what I did on freelancing platform (I don't know if it is still possible, it was a couple years ago). I found out people who offered the same service or something I could substitute with a tool. Then I went to the reviews, saw their clients and contacted them with a better offer (usually a free trial, something like a month of my tool plus onboard or a 500 words blog post).

Tangerine · Answer

@eulerr I'm in B2B.

My very first costumers were coming from my engagement at a nonprofit. Here I got to know the founders of the nonprofit who also have there own separate companies - they hired me as a in IT / cloud consultant.

But my first big (read 30.000 employees) customer came from me being active on a forum where I got to know someone who connected and recommended me (now us) to a decision maker at his sister company.

If I think about it. It's always been being helpful (by being or getting good at my craft) to everyone who asked.  This lead to recommendations and customers.

Vamshi Vangapally · Answer

@eulerr Reddit and Blind app got me few initial customers as our product was related to cryptocurrency trading and those were places where people could pseudo-anonymously post their problems about tax implications. That's where I could pitch BearTax.

Vikas Jha · Answer

@eulerr FB Group and Cold Emails.

Enrico · Answer

@eulerr I'll try seriously in the next weeks and I'll use a win-win partnerships with 10 locals ... the local show Intrigue in its flyers and events and we show the ads in app with 10 rotating slot every week.

Dhruv Patel · Answer

At SalesHandy, we got our first customer (i don't remember exact first now, but we got first 10-20) by content marketing techniques i.e writing a piece of content delivering value and guiding solution for the problem-based search queries. hint: If you are doing something which is already done by someone else and working well (if you have competitors) create alternative blogs/pages. Users making a search on google with this intent will surely love to explore your tool as well. Bit old hack but works well all time.

Mittal Patel · Answer

@eulerr I attracted first client (and many subsequent clients) by offering help in form of Blogs on our company website - www.pragnakalp.com/blog. 
I prefer this method and it has paid off pretty well till now! No need to go looking for clients, let clients find you 🙂.

Jorge Araluce · Answer

@eulerr is not a simple question , depending on your target, products etc..but the essence is 1st be laser focused with the value you communicate 2nd look for people signalling a need for that , comments related etc.. LinkedIn, quota or PH are good sources 3rd. Don't cold email them ,that will leave out +90%,. Engage with them on what they share, connect and do share something of value like a content about the pain ( you can track that) and those who do engage are good to do a proper validation of your products..
I am doing a webinar with HubSpot in a week of so , is free , will go in detail about it 
https://www.getsalesdone.coach/Webinar

Steven Leon · Answer

@eulerr definitely cold emails for b2b, but timing is key for roi/responses depending on your industry. I love the Hunter chrome extension for emails Really easy to use and reliable.

flo merian · Answer

@luqa what are your best resources, tools and/or articles on cold emailing?

Chris Bolman · Answer

@eulerr

1. my network (friends of friends, referrals)
2. cold outreach (mostly email)
3. SEO

Vinay W · Answer

@eulerr I have used LinkedIn to see if my existing contacts can provide me with a connection at a new client. It has been somewhat successful.

How did you attract your first customers?

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