Have you ever struggled to find your first few customers? If yes, this post is for you. Learning how to get customers for your business is crucial for any entrepreneur.
I conducted deep research about how to find customers and increase sales. Here are the top 9 proven frameworks to help you find your first customers and grow your business.
Leverage your network
The first method is to leverage your network. It's one of the easiest and most effective ways to find more customers. Just keep in mind that your network should fit with your ideal customer profile (ICP). This is the mistake I made with my first startups.
Here are 4 ways you can try to attract more customers:
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Your personal network
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Your professional network
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Your friends of your friends
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Referral from your existing customers: This is one of the best ways to get your next customers. Why? It creates trust. People trust their friends or the people who know them. Just imagine, would you buy from the people you know or from strangers?
Cold outreach
You can argue that what if you don't have a large network or you can't find people who fit with your ICP. If that's the case, you can try cold outreach, which can include cold calls, cold emails, or social direct messages. This method is excellent for finding potential customers and identifying new prospects.
To find their contact information like phone numbers or email addresses, you need to define your ICP first. Then find out how to identify potential customers that match your criteria.
There are three main ways to find contact information for a company:
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Company Websites: Many websites include contact information on their "About Us" or "Contact Us" pages. Be sure to check these sections.
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Social Media: Utilize social media platforms like LinkedIn to find contact information for companies and potential clients.
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Lead Generation Tools: Leverage lead generation tools to obtain contact information and find potential customers more efficiently.
Remember to explore these options when searching for contact information and looking for customers.
Engaging in social media
Social media is a great source for finding customers. Many startups get their first customers on social media such as Instagram, Reddit, X, etc.
There are many social platforms, but you should experiment and put much effort into the best one for your target audience. For each social platform, here are three ways you can obtain customers:
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Create content: Each platform prefers different types of content. You should research your ideal customers, their behaviors, interests, problems, etc. Then create helpful content tailored to them. You can use our Reddit pain point discovery tool to find out the problems of your ideal customers and create content to solve those issues.
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Comments: You can directly comment on your solutions or products in the relevant posts. Or you can simply comment to bring value to the discussion. It helps you to build trust and credibility. Then people can check your profile. So you just need to put your startup into your profile for people to discover. The key to getting the most from this method is timely comments. You can use our Reddit keyword monitoring tool to get instant notifications when a suitable Reddit submission is posted.
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DM: The last one is to do direct messages. Find the relevant posts and comments. At 1bnsolomate, we built a Reddit customer finder tool to help you find the relevant posts faster and more efficiently. You're free to check it out.
Launching your startup
The next approach is to launch your startup. Many startups get their first paying customers by launching. This is an excellent strategy to find customers for your business and attract potential clients. Here are several ways to do it:
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Launch on Social media: Find where your ideal customers often hang out and launch there.
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Launch on directories
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Create video demo of your product (product-led growth)
Competitor's customers
While unconventional, this approach can be remarkably effective. You can target individuals who are dissatisfied with your competitors and promote your products. This method can be particularly useful for B2B client acquisition.
The most common places to find these individuals are on social media and review sites. For example, you can search on X for "alternative for [your competitor's name]". On review sites, you can filter to find negative reviews. One important thing to note is to avoid hard customers.
SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is a long-term game but is worthy to do. It often takes weeks to months to get effect, so you should start it soon. SEO boosts the visibility of your brand on search engine result pages (SERPs), therefore helping to build trust for your brand and attract customers to your sites.
In addition, unlike paid ads which stop promoting when you exhaust your budget, SEO continuously promotes your site forever, as long as your site provides helpful content. This makes it an excellent strategy to attract more customers over time.
Partnership
In this method, you partner with trustworthy, influential, and reputable individuals and leverage their reputation and network to reach a larger audience. It's a great way to build connections and work your network to find new customers. It is important to ensure that your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) aligns with their network to avoid targeting the wrong audience. Here are some types of people you can reach out to:
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Influencers
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Content publishers
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Press coverage
Run Ads
Basically, you pay to promote your products or services on search engine platforms such as Google, YouTube, etc., or social platforms such as Facebook ads, Instagram ads, etc.
You should do A/B testing for your ads campaign to discover the best one and get the most from ads. You can test between different platforms, marketing messages, and calls-to-action. The core thing is to understand your target audience and create messages tailored to them and encourage them to take action.
Events and Meetups
The last way to promote your business is through events and meetups. By hosting or participating in industry-specific events, trade shows, or attending an industry conference, you can connect with potential customers and establish your brand as a thought leader.
Additionally, attending meetups allows you to network with like-minded individuals and build valuable relationships that can lead to future collaborations or referrals. Remember to bring business cards and be prepared to share your expertise and insights during these events. This approach is excellent for building connections and finding the right customers for your business.
By implementing these smart strategies and consistently working to identify customers and attract more clients, you'll be well on your way to growing your customer base and achieving business success.