Subscribe
Sign in
General
p/generalShare and discuss tech, products, business, startups, or product recommendations
Start new thread
Aaron O'Leary

What are your top tips for getting to 1,000 users?

by•

The first 1,000 is always the hardest as they say. I've seen a million and one articles all giving different advice but since makers have the first hand experience I decided to ask what are your tips?

Add a comment

Replies

Best
Karthik Kamalakannan
Here's what worked for Hellonext.co: 1. Posting on Betalist → https://betalist.com or ProductHunt 2. Interacting on Twitter from your product's account (like, comment and such) with relevant accounts. 3. As we get the first few customers from Betalist or PH, asking them what they are expecting from a platform they signed up for. Most importantly, constantly keeping them informed about the updates. What did not work: 1. Cold emails; 2. Lost customers to competition due to not keeping beta customers in loop. While there could be many ways, this is what worked for us. All the best man. Keep pushing 💪
Solomon Bush
@imkarthikk That's sad that 'Cold emails' didn't work. I always hear people pushing that... Idk, I am horrible at writing emails, so I guess that good news for me. As far as your #3 goes, how often after onboarding a new customer should you solicit feedback?
Evgeny Medvednikov
@imkarthikk My recent experience with BetaList says that paid $199 submission does not worth that money. Free submission may be yes, but do not know how long to wait to be listed. PH and LTD (AppSumo or SaasMantra) yes, very recommended
Abderisak
@imkarthikk Thanks for candidly sharing your experience. Never tried beta list, how did it help you exactly?
Lalit Tyagi
@imkarthikk @medik appsumo take a lot of time to just approve the list. can you suggest me any more platform to list where we can have some traffic for SaaS product some marketplace even
Lalit Tyagi
@imkarthikk @medik can you recommend more platform as per your experience which fits better to market and get initial b2b user .LTD is what?
Nova N.
Maybe paid ads, but are they worth the money?
Abderisak
@nova_n This is the answer if you want to get users really fast. But of course it needs to be scalable in the long run so you're note bleeding money.
@nova_n @avidnote also if your acquisition method is just paid you're going to have as super hard time raising from VCs
Sharath Kuruganty
Finding 1000 true fans is always hard. With the right mindset and authenticity, you can do it. Here are some tips: 1. Build a waitlist when you soft launch - this creates a FOMO effect 2. Build a viral loop - Let people in who shared your product with their friends/community. 3. Build in public - The best way to narrate your story. 4. Onboard influencers - This way, you are building social proof. 5. Create valuable content - People love to consume, and creating value instantly hooks them to what you are doing. Last one, you know this better :) Launch on Product Hunt with a solid story and why!
Abderisak
@5harath Great stuff! The wait list advice is really important for new products, it allows you to get users immediately when you launch.
Sam C
Start building in public on platforms like PH, Twitter, Indiehacker.
Nicolas Moreno de Palma
Hi @aaronoleary - at Volograms we have very much enjoyed reading https://www.first1000.co/ They have so many tips for different products, industries, etc., based on real references. I would really recommend checking their past articles for tips from the companies that you think might be most connected with yours!
Ankur Singh
Here's what worked for Vadootv 1. Engaging on Facebook groups and posting on sub-reddits(0-150) 2. Creating a community-Referral and WOM (150-400) 3. Multiple launches on PH, Hackernews and other beta user platforms(400-1000)
Abderisak
@singh_ankur Thanks for sharing! How many Facebook Groups do you post in? Engagement tends to vary a lot depending on the group.
Ankur Singh
@avidnote I started by posting in 25 odd groups then send a dm to all the relevant users in these groups.
Ankur Singh
@lalit_mrt You can start by listing in the marketplace to test the waters. I think the approval is quick for that one.
Lalit Tyagi
@singh_ankur Can you suggest me few good marketplace ?
Aleks Bochkov
Lifetime deals, beta users platforms jus to get first users and feedback and then facebook ads.
Abderisak
@bochkovaleks Life time deals, have you tried that? Sounds like an interesting idea to get your first users.
Aleks Bochkov
@avidnote Yes, launched 2 products and used Lifetime deals to promote them. A good tactic to start, but it may be tricky and takes experience to turn that to MRR later on.
Bharat Pasam
I think it's a combination of paid advertising, blogging and some creative IG and FB content. Thoughts?
Solomon Bush
@bharatpasam how do you do your blogging? Do you do it on your landing site or through a service like Medium or LinkedIn?
Bharat Pasam
@solomon_bush On our own blogging site for now (https://neighborverse.com/produc...). Plans for Medium and Blogger in the future.
Solomon Bush
@bharatpasam That's awesome! Medium is great, but from what I have heard, having a blog hosted under your domain helps with SEO.
Aaron O'Leary
@bharatpasam I genuinely think paid advertising can be seriously impactful of course but it takes quite a bit of experimentation to get it right and see the results you are looking for in my experience of course.
Bharat Pasam
@aaronoleary Absolutely agree. Paid advertising needs experimentation around content and audience targeting but could be extremely effective when done right. Looping @chansen0219 for comment.
Abderisak
1) Find relevant communities on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook. 2) Provide high-quality content, to these communities to build report and an audience. 3) Once ready to launch, write compelling content about your service to those RELEVANT communities. 4) rinse, repeat Yes, paid advertising will obviously be a quicker solution, but it's not really necessary if you can find relevant acquisition channels that don't require money.
Bingshan Song
1 Tip: Make a YouTube channel. Talk about the solutions a product like yours solves, the issues your industry faces, anything relative to what you do, and actually answer core issues that people search for or research about. We started YouTube in Jan 2021, with $0 in marketing budget. We're ending Q3 with almost 6,700 subscribers. We average 40-50 comments on each video. We've collaborated with 3 other YouTube creators. We've driven over 140 active users from our channel. It seems too simple to act on, but it really works. You'll never get anywhere without trying first! Hope this helps - let me know if you have any questions 🤝
Alina Ihnatiuk
Target online publications Get bloggers on your side Create high-quality content Offer a free product option Online advertising
Goutham
Building in public is a great way to reduce initial friction with customers and find the first 1000 users. Personally used Indie Hackers & Twitter a lot for that :)
Personally the first 1000 wasn't the hardest it was relatively easy. Its the climb to 100,000 that it becomes difficult. Acquisition methods for Free? Really utilize tik tok, instagram reels, snapchat stories and newer apps that are similar but aren't mega monoliths. The trick here is don't do a brand account - do a personal account and promote your brand. With newer platforms you get good views and can blatantly promote like an ad since these earlier apps don't have sophisticated filters. Obviously create real content in a specific vertical (we focused on Star Wars and meme accounts which did really well).
Jesús Zorrilla
Without money involveld, i can only think on what not to do. * provide a sub optimal experience.... That will make your clients flee * communicate badly your features and strong points * make a bad combination of cost and benefit.... People need to think their money or time is valued For android apps create experiments were you change a color, a logo, a foto, some description. You must have always an experiment running
Amin Mossadek
Always diversify your sales and marketing approach as much as possible. Never just rely on social media channels
shirt collection
Wow, this is an excellent post. Thank you very much for giving such a helpful article. Keep update like these posts. We Have A Wide Range Of Men's Collection In Different Types. Your Visited Once's Our Website. https://italiancrown.com/collect...
Tolulade Ademisoye
Still learning myself, but partnering with another startup with great users in a different market might help.
julie martines
Consistence, Consistence and belive in yourself!
Alina Ihnatiuk
In fact, this is a long way, which includes - high-quality content, useful and interesting information, advertising
Vibemap - Find Your Vibe
In addition to using Product Hunt, which helped, we did some giveaways to other products on our platform and found this really helped us to grow our audience.