Startup Marketing: How to Get Your First 1000 Customers

Imagine creating the right product, getting a massive social media following, and willing users sign up for your new stroke of genius as your revenue skyrockets. Wonderful, right? Unfortunately, in the real world, gaining traction and getting the first users is one of the biggest challenge startups faces.

Starting your business from the ground up is no mean feat and getting your first 1000 customers is one of the toughest parts to master. To make sure that your awesome product isn’t collecting virtual dust on your landing page you need to have an effective strategy.

Here are a few tips on how to reach this goal:

1. Build a strong product

No amount of aggressive marketing can save a product that doesn’t solve a problem. So, work on your product, take feedback, and build its best version. Gain customers by providing them with a fantastic product that solves their problems and builds a loyal customer base.

2. Create a waitlist before the launch

Try to create a community of people engaged with your product and build a fan base before you officially start your business. A waiting list is an excellent way to achieve this and give you that much-needed head start in creating early buzz and getting quicker sales. It can also help validate your business model, encourage valuable customer feedback, and aid you in locking in funding or investment.

3. Set goals, allot a small marketing budget, and track your progress

As an early-stage startup, you may be bootstrapping. But your website or app isn’t going to pop up on your target customer’s radar on its own. You need to invest resources in marketing your product. Set specific objectives (like doubling your user base within 30 days) and readjust your goals month after month based on your performance. Create monthly KPI reports tracking your channels, expenditure, user acquisition, and CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) for those specific channels. This will help you answer important questions like whether you should spend money on retargeting or a new campaign altogether.

4. Ask your family, friends, and colleagues to promote your product

No amount of marketing beats word of mouth. To obtain this, you can start to build your customer base among your existing network. They can give valuable feedback and help promote your product. Also, as a new entrepreneur, you might not be proficient at making sales right away. Talking to people you already know might help you practice generating sales for your business.

5. Target online publications

Today, 8 out of 10 Americans get news from digital devices. Naturally, having an online presence is necessary for any business. To reach your target audience online, you can pick one or two publications that are relevant to your business. Offer the publication exclusive coverage of your product, create content that interests them, or think of anything unique and pertinent to your product to get featured.

6. Target bloggers and influencers

Make it a point to target credible bloggers and influencers whose followers make up your target audience. Get your product reviewed by them to drive prospective customers your way. Engage with influencers and bloggers in your industry by engaging with their social content and/or tagging them in your content to get on their radar. Creating these relationships can strengthen your brand awareness efforts.

7. Understand 100 early adopters

It’s important to pay attention to your first 100 buyers and learn about them as much as possible in the beginning. There is a reason that they bought your product. Thus, this could be your chance to create a personal relationship with them, ask questions, listen to them intently, and mull over the insights you get. This can help you create a blueprint of your ideal customer, and you’ll have a better understanding of how to reach the rest of your target customers.

8. Create engaging content

Creating insightful content can demonstrate your domain expertise and flock new customers to your website. If you don’t have a flair for writing, hire a writer. Create posts that appeal to your target audience and think of catchy headlines to gain their attention. Make sure your articles are longer (500 plus words) for better SEO. Research keywords in your industry and create content on keywords that are in demand. Optimize headlines and meta descriptions. You could also try writing guest posts on other people’s websites and include links to your site. Create a community on your website where people can ask relevant questions and get answers. Ultimately, you need to build a marketing engine that puts into motion a snowball effect.

9. Try the “Freemium” model

With the “freemium” model you can offer basic-level services for free, build a trustworthy relationship with customers and eventually upsell the service or cross-sell another service.

10. Encourage your customers to promote your brand

Your customers understand the value of your product since they have used it. If only they have a reason to get more people to try out your product, it could increase your sales considerably. Therefore, create referral plans, contests, and giveaways, for your customers to engage with your brand while generating more signups. For example, you can create a contest to incentivize your users to generate more signups within a given time frame, like 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, you could reward them with 2X or 3X commissions for the month. You can create a leaderboard for some competition and fun too! You can also create referral links that generate more traffic for your website.

11. Speak at conferences

The trick to getting customers by speaking at conferences is to not speak where everyone is already an expert in what you do. Instead, speak at a conference where you could meet your potential customer. For example, if you’re a digital marketing expert, do not go to a digital marketing conference where you are likely to meet mostly your peers and other experts in your field. Instead, go to an event where your target audience is participating and show them how digital marketing could help them get more customers.

12. Test out various pricing and website designs

Your conversion rate depends on factors ranging from your website design to your pricing. Therefore, track every step of your funnel and notice how users interact with your website design and content. You could also create different landing pages and compare traction.

13. Promote your products with affiliate marketing

With affiliate marketing, you can get other websites to promote your products in return for a commission on sales. This model is extremely successful with online courses because you can offer affiliates high commissions without any product cost. Sites like Rakuten Affiliate Network, CJ Affiliate, or ClickBank can help you with setting up your affiliate program.

14. Run simple email marketing campaigns

An email marketing campaign with a simple subject line and a short message can make a lot of difference. A/B test every email and make sure your call-to-action button is noticeable for increased engagement. You could also use emails to provide incentives such as promo codes and discount coupons. The overall web activity is at its peak midweek between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET, making it the best time to send promotional emails. If you don’t know where to start, we have created a variety of emails ready to be customized based on your requirements. Check it out to get everything you need in our Beginner’s Guide To Drip Email Campaign!