12 Proven Strategies to Acquire Your First Users
I spent three months getting my first 50 users. Should've taken two weeks. Here's the playbook I wish I'd had, including a few tricks that work surprisingly well in Australia.
Getting your first users is brutal. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. You're basically standing in the middle of a crowded marketplace screaming into the void.
The good news? There are ways to shorten the pain. Here are 12 things that actually worked for me and other Australian founders I've talked to.
1. Submit to online directories (yes, still)
I know. Directories sound like 2008 advice. But they work, especially for local businesses in Australia.
Hotfrog, True Local, StartLocal. Get on all of them. Tools like SEO Mode can automate submissions if you're doing a bunch at once. Took me maybe 2 hours to get listed on like 15 directories. Showed up in local search results within a week.
2. Mine free B2B databases
If you're selling to businesses, you need to know who's out there. Platforms like Koala let you browse company lists for free.
I spent a weekend building a spreadsheet of 200 potential clients. Didn't email them all at once (please don't do that). Just picked 10 that seemed like a perfect fit and wrote them real messages. Three replied. One became a customer.
3. Find someone with an audience and team up
Cold outreach to influencers rarely works. What does work: offering them something valuable first.
Guest on their podcast. Co-host a webinar. Let them be first to try your product. The key is making it easy for them to say yes. Don't pitch a massive partnership out of nowhere. Start small.
4. Automate the boring parts of lead gen
Tools like PhantomBuster can scrape LinkedIn profiles, Twitter followers, company lists. Sounds sketchy but it's just data extraction.
Fair warning: you can go too hard with this stuff and get your accounts banned. I learned that the hard way with LinkedIn. Be gentle.
5. Pinterest group boards (seriously)
Pinterest drives more traffic than most people realize. Find group boards in your niche, join them, start pinning stuff that links back to your site.
Works especially well for visual products, food, travel, anything design-related. Probably won't work if you sell B2B software. But worth testing.
6. Hang out in Facebook groups
Not to spam. To actually be helpful.
Pick 3-5 groups where your target customers hang out. Answer questions. Share insights. Build a reputation. After a few weeks, people will start checking out your profile. Then your site.
The mistake everyone makes: posting about their product on day one. Don't do that. You'll get banned.
7. Launch on Product Hunt
Product Hunt can drive a ton of traffic in a single day. I've seen launches get 500+ upvotes and thousands of signups.
