Questions

Building the product is not the hardest part. The hardest part is generating the sales. What strategy does a startup need to follow to get their first 100 customers?

Hello I am Priyanka.

1) Reach Out to Your Network
A quick way to do some customer development is to reach out to your existing network and ask them specific questions about your product and market. If you’re creating a product for a specific niche, then chances are you know people who are in that niche already.

You can also run through your existing LinkedIn contacts, find people who are in your industry, and send them an e-mail like this one:

Ways to Acquire Your First 100 Customers
Source

You’d be surprised how many people are willing to help.

One of the biggest reasons new businesses fail is that founders don’t talk to customers. It’s easy to believe that you already know everything about your target market and convince yourself that they definitely need your product. But the best marketers are humble enough to talk to their market and validate their hypotheses, even if they know they’re correct.

For example, Hiten Shah did many hours of customer interviews for a project he was working on around helping startups raise money. As a prominent entrepreneur in Silicon Valley who has raised money from some of the biggest venture capitalists, he’s already talked to hundreds of people who have asked him for advice on the topic.

But he still did customer interviews.

Though you don’t want to sell anything during your interviews, you can ask the people you talk to whether they would like to be added to a private e-mail list where you send out updates every now and then on the progress of your venture.

Down the road, they could turn into your first customers.

Additionally, take one step outside of your network, and step into the individual networks of your prospects. Make sure to ask the people you reach out to for introductions to others who might have an interest in what you are offering. Even if someone might not be a good fit for your product, there’s a good chance they will have a colleague who is.

4) Customer Development Tools
Most marketers know that tools like Qualaroo and SurveyMonkey can help you understand your audience better. But did you know that they can also help you generate more leads and customers?

If you already know what your ideal customer profile looks like, then all you need to generate more leads is to create a survey that qualifies your prospects. For example, GoodBlogs used Qualaroo to boost registrations by 300% for one of their clients.

. Start Blogging to Increase Visibility, Traffic, and Demand for Your Product

A. Driving traffic to your website
Companies with active blogs tend to have 97% more inbound links than those that don’t publish content.
By optimizing your content for a few relevant keywords, you can improve your website’s SEO and rank higher in search results – which means more visibility, more website visits, and more potential customers discovering your brand.
B. Generating interest, need, and demand
Blogging creates awareness for your brand and product or service.
Awareness feeds interest, which can fuel need and demand.
Created branded content allows you to tell the story of your product.
C. Building relationships with potential customers.
Unlike traditional ads, which can scare off potential customers who aren’t ready to buy, blog content provides customers with information about the industry, brand, and product before they make a purchase.
Blogging creates an opportunity to create cater your information to people at different stages of the sales funnel.
D. Strengthening your brand and online presence
Build a stronger brand reputation by publishing informative content that demonstrates thought leadership in your industry.
Boosting credibility is not only important for improving search results, it fosters trust among customers – which can lead to more conversions and sales.
Blogging tips when you’re just getting started:

Aim for quality over quantity. Google prefers blogs that publish consistently high-value content over sporadic content dumps of mediocre articles.
Optimize for long-tail keywords. Trying to rank for general keywords like “SaaS tools” is a lot harder than ranking for something specific like “affordable SaaS tools for startups.”
Track the metrics that matter most. Measure how well your content is performing with metrics like time on page, shares, views, and conversions.
Set reasonable expectations. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to publish new content every single day. Start with once a week and increase to two or three if you have the resources to do so.

https://www.propellercrm.com/blog/first-100-customers

For further queries you can consult me.


Answered 6 years ago

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