10 Tips for Getting Your First 100 Customers
5 min read
We know marketing can feel confusing 😫 Should you be building your Instagram followers, writing blogs, buying google ads, knocking on doors...? What if you're bootstrapped and don't have a marketing budget?
Here are 10 tips from our Go-To-Market Workshop Series on how to think about the market you’re entering, which customer segment to focus on initially, and how to acquire your first 100 startups!
Go-To-Market is the strategy for how a company plans to reach customers. So don't wait until you've finished your product to figure out your go-to-market, find ways to reach your customers from Day 1.
Knowing what type of market you're in can be pivotal to your strategy. For example, if you think you're in an existing market (where the competitors are known) - your goal is to convert customers to your product by offering them something that is 10x better.
Do you think you're in a new market? Your solution needs to enable a large number of people to do something they've been unable to do before. Try to conserve your marketing spend and focus on educating and evangelizing.
One of the most common mistakes first-time founders make is not being narrow enough in defining their target customers. Segment your customers based on common characteristics or how they experience the problem that you're trying to solve. Then compare them across the following criteria to determine which one to focus on first: personal interest in working with them, access to them, how often and severely they experience the need, the existence of alternate sufficient solutions, and their willingness to pay.
Customer acquisition is a waste of money if you can't retain your customers. Your ability to retain customers reflects whether you've built something people actually want or need. Create success metrics around retention to track whether you're doing this well.
Figure out effective acquisition channels by creating tests or experiments that allow you to measure traffic and customer conversion quickly and cheaply. Then focus on your most productive channel.
When thinking about your acquiring your first 100 customers, do things that DON'T SCALE! This may include sending handwritten personalized thank you notes with cute drawings of their favorite animal to each customer (thanks for the tip Tim).
Partnerships can be a very powerful acquisition strategy when you're bootstrapped, "...think about how to create win-wins that can help another company save time, reduce, costs, or access more customers." -another tip from Tim
Don't worry if you don't have a marketing budget, "constraints breed creativity "and frequently drive the discovery of more effective marketing channels." -Tim Sae Koo
Ask for payment as early as possible. The sooner you ask for payment, the more golden information you get. If they say yes, you're onto something. If they say no, ask them what it'll take for them to get to a yes. -Tim Sae Koo
