I used these exact 4 strategies after learning how to get first customers for a content marketing company, and I still use all of these today. (at InspireBeats)
Check this 4 Steps to get your first customers:
Here we go..
4 Steps to get your first customers
1. Decide on what business you’re going to start and know who you’re targeting
There are plenty of resources online about how to come up with business ideas. First, services are generally the easiest. Web design, development, writing, whatever you have skills in.
And you want a specific industry in mind
Job title and company size
For instance, I want to sell blog content to startups that have raised between 1 and 10 million dollars and are hiring content managers.
Once you know who you’re selling to you want to…
2. Start with your friends/bosses
First of all, make a list of people you know that own a company and might benefit from your service. Then reach out to them with a quick email.
My first few customers were all friends. They want to give you a shot, especially people that have hired you full-time.
Hence, what you’re going to do is:
- Make a list of people you know that own a company and might benefit from your service.
Then you are going to send a quick email to them, like this one:
Cold email example:
Subject: Need blog content?
Hey Mark, want to start by saying how big of an inspiration you’ve been. Partially thanks to you I’m starting a content company 🙂
I saw that your company blog could use some stronger content – most of the big names are able to drive massive leads with content marketing. Would you be open to having me write a couple posts as a trial? Would love to catch up either way.
Thanks!
-Alex
Once you’ve talked to everyone that’s ever paid you…
3. Ask those people for referrals
Especially professional colleagues or coworkers you have. Ask them if they know how to get clients that match your criteria. Take into account that the more specific you are, the better.
So ask at least 15 people, give them your criteria, ask them how to get clients, and see what they say
Finally and most important…
4. Reach out cold and scale
- Go on LinkedIn or AngelList and make a list of companies that match your criteria.
- Identify who the founders of these companies are.
- Find the email addresses using a tool like Hunter.io
- Reach out with a cold email.
I go more in depth on how to do that in my Udemy course “Intro to Sales for SaaS Developers”.
Let’s recap what you have to do to get your first customers:
1. Know who you’re targeting.
2. Start with friends/bosses and ask where & how to get clients.
3. Ask coworkers for referrals.
4. Reach out cold and scale.
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