4 scrappy ideas to get early customers for your tech startup

Hi there 👋

First, welcome to the 102 new subscribers who joined us!

In the last issue I shared the 4 stages of 0 to 1 marketing.

In this issue: I am sharing 4 ideas to get early customers e.g. waitlist signups, Beta users, or first paying customers.

Since we are focused on actionable insights in this newsletter, I am also adding one challenge you can expect if you implement this idea, and how to tackle it:

• Idea 1: TikTok. Challenge: Breaking past 250 views

• Idea 2: Facebook Groups. Challenge: no-promotion

• Idea 3: Nail your value. Challenge: insufficient data

• Idea 4: Reddit. Challenge: opinionated community

Also included are first-hand experiences from founders running marketing at their tech startups. These are pulled from the Founder-Led Marketing Club (FLMC), the destination for founders to make real progress on marketing.

The issue closes with:

• 📚️ Popular reads

• 🛠️ Resource: Founder-Led Marketing Club

Have a question? A topic you want me to cover? This newsletter not meeting your expectations? Hit reply to share how I can make this newsletter more useful for you!

Best,
Sweta

P.S. The issue I promised on product-market fit is coming. I am doing more research including reading a couple of books (so you don’t have to!). A must-read blog is how Superhuman built an engine to find product-market fit. On a personal note, I am also traveling this summer. I am in Vancouver / Victoria, BC this weekend. If you have questions about PMF, reply to share.

Idea 1: TikTok

Why pick it: (1) if you know your target users are on TikTok, (2) to rapidly test content concepts, (3) build your brand / following to eventually convert to paying users.

Challenge: It is incredibly competitive to get views especially for organic (not paid) posts. People are on TikTok first and foremost to be entertained so you need at least 10s or 100s of 1000s of views to drive a small number to take your desired action e.g. visit your site.

A B2C SaaS founder in FLMC asked: “Is anyone using TikTok? I consistently tap out at ~250 views per video.”

2 of 8 responses on how to address this challenge:

Idea 2: Facebook Groups

Why pick it: (1) you can join countless niche groups that your target audience is active in, (2) sometimes they are even searching for solutions like yours, (3) just observing conversations can be a high quality information source for raw, deep customer insights

Challenge: You’ll need to engage in many groups and develop a plan for how you will drive your audience to your site without breaking ‘no solicitation’ rules (standard in most groups).

I asked a B2C SaaS founder in FLMC*: “{Member}, what worked for you in getting to 350 waitlist signups in 2 weeks?”

1 of 14 responses in FLMC*:

* FLMC stands for Founder-Led Marketing Club, the destination for founders running marketing at their tech startups. More on it below.

Idea 3: Nail your value prop

Why pick it: (1) it is a foundational aspect of marketing affecting everything else, (2) you will acquire more, and better fit, customers, more quickly.

Challenge: There is no easy formula for this. It takes constant and thoughtful iteration to ‘nail’. One of the most common issues is that your value proposition isn’t clear to your target audience.

Here’s 1 way you can test the clarity of your value prop:

Idea 4: Reddit

Why pick it: (1) you can be anonymous if you’d like, (2) it can be useful for learning about the type of questions people are asking in your market and discovering new user segments, (3) you can deliver real value by answering their questions with content you might be creating for other channels.

Challenge: It is notorious for strict moderators and highly opinionated members. Many founders on the receiving end of these rules and opinions were traumatized by it. To avoid this, you need to allocate significant time to delivering value before subtly (if at all) driving people to your site.

Despite this challenge, here is 1 FLMC member’s results 10 days after she started experimenting with Reddit:

A week into her experiment she is getting deep learning:

Want to give Reddit a try? Here are the resources I shared with the founders in FLMC:

I like this post by Casey Hill after hitting 100k views and, this Q&A with the founder of StarterStory who has said that Reddit was the 1 of 13 channels he tested early on that performed the best. Key takeaways from both:

1. Reddit is very strict about avoiding promotional posts. Be genuinely and authentically helpful and non-promotional. Be helpful in original posts and responses, and only share your product if asked.

2. Use it as a distribution channel for key content you are creating on other channels like LinkedIn or blogs. But, make sure you are clear on: how is this useful for readers?

3. Have a strategy for how you'll connect people back to your product, without being promotional. Casey says, "They reach out and find out through conversations or I will let people know my name on LinkedIn in comments". And, add links in your profile.

4. You must have thick skin because you will face unpleasant comments and could get banned by moderators.

5. Reddit will/may work but has a limit. E.g. for StarterStory it was the biggest turning point in the early days but now only accounts for 3% of their website traffic. Their biggest traffic source is now organic search. Do what you must to get early traction, and explore new channels consistently.

Have you experimented with Reddit? Reply to share what worked!

📚️ Popular reads:

• Thread on learning from Reddit tests (FLMC member-only link)

• Case study: Going from $1K to $100K by niching down as step 1 to accelerate growth (public link)

• Book: The Mom Test (affiliate link) - a must-read for how to run actually useful conversations for customer research and sales

  • Summary deck of the book (member-only)

• Identify your marketing advantages (public)

• How Superhuman built an engine for product-market fit (public)

Resource: Founder-Led Marketing Club (FLMC)

FLMC is the destination for founders running marketing at their tech startups. It is an invite-only club for founders who are serious about prioritizing and making progress on marketing their tech startup, and supporting others in doing the same. We just launched last month and have:

• 80 applications in 1 month (100% via word-of-mouth)

• 25+ vetted via 1:1 calls

• 15 invited to join —> 14 have been weekly active

  • 1 was removed due to inactivity (we’re serious about making real progress on 0 to 1 marketing, and supporting others)

• 1,100+ messages sent in ~1 month

• And, founders are already making progress on their marketing:

If you / founder in your network is running marketing at their tech startup and wants the accountability, motivation, and answers to make real progress in taking your startup from 0 to 1 (product-market fit), apply for the Founder-Led Marketing Club.

If you applied, you should have heard from me. If not, hit reply and let me know. If a fit is confirmed on a call, I am inviting members to join on a rolling basis slowly so I can continue to improve the club!

What was interesting / helpful for you from this issue?

Hit reply and share your reactions or follow-up questions. I’m committed to curating a useful newsletter for founders running marketing at tech startups on the 0 to 1 journey. Your feedback will help me make it most useful for you!