tosee2know
New member
Hey there!
I've written a blogpost on how to find your first hundred beta users when you don't have money to spend on marketing. Hope it can help a few here!
When you're finally launching your beta and have an MVP, your next step is finding users to try out your beta product, play around with it, criticize it, give you feedback: they're your beta testers. And they're an essential part of your startup journey.
But you're new at this. You have no money to spend on marketing. So how do you "manually" find you first hundred beta users?
Below is a compiled list of tools, tips and platforms we used with our startup (focused on privacy) that helped us find our first users and build an awesome community of beta users. Hope this can help you out!
-REDDIT: Reddit is a great platform with a gigantic amount of people, divided into lots of different subreddits. You can find everything on Reddit. A good way to start is to join a few subreddits that correspond to your first targeted niche markets for your product. This obviously depends on your sector/industry (although you can join these subreddits regardless for a start: r/betatestsr/alphaandbetausers, r/testmyapp). Think about which groups your audience would go to, or where your competitors are.
Bear in mind though, that promoting your product may be against the rules or frowned upon in some subreddits, and in that case if you do so you may get some hostility. Read the rules, you can also message the moderators if you're unsure. At the very least, be honest about promoting your product, ask for genuine feedback. I'd also recommend giving some value to the community, by sharing useful content, or helping out.
Reddit is a great informative platform with a lot of smart redditors: you can really get a lot of value from it.
-HACKER NEWS: Another big platform with a tech savyy audience. If you get on the landing page it's thousand of views. Check it out and see how it works before posting anything. There's a specific section called "Show HN" where you can "share something that you've made". Would highly recommend it, you may not only get a lot of traffic, but also very useful feedback. Bear in mind that, similar to Reddit, the feedback is usually brutally honest. Learning to differentiate useful and constructive feedback from "haters" takes some practice. Additionally, if you have a blog you can post your blogposts there.
-PRODUCT HUNT: Product Hunt is a website that lets users share and discover new products. It allows early stage startups to promote their products. Posting your product there is a great way to get traction (the more upvotes you get, the bigger the chance to feature on the landing page, and that's a lot of views), potential beta users, and feedback. The community is full of enthusiastic tech people. Apparently the best time to post is around 10am CET on a Tuesday or Wednesday (based on the particular cycle product hunt has in place), but that's up for debate. We posted on a Wednesday morning and it worked out very well for us.
-CONTENT MARKETING: Start a blog. Write. Make videos. If you've developed your product you must have good knowledge of your industry. Share that knowledge with your audience. Write stuff that gives value to your relevant community, that can be useful and informative. Show you're an expert in your industry. For example, we recently started a blog where the idea is to regularly publish content on privacy, tips on how to increase your online privacy, what a hacker is, etc. We are planning on releasing interactive videos as well. People will appreciate your informative (and fun) content, it gives you legitimacy, and that way you may start building a solid base of loyal followers.
Post that content on social media (your personal and company Twitter profile, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook with relevant groups,...): post relevant content to attract audience. Sharable content can go viral.
-BETA WEBSITES: There are a few websites that allow you to post your app/product in beta (e.g. Betalist, which is free).
-FORUMS: Look for online forums and discussions that may be relevant for you.
-QUORA: Very big platform. Help out the community by answering questions that people may have in your sector. That can also get you a lot of views.
-SHAPR: A "professional tinder" app, that allows you to interact with people based on your selected key words. May be worth giving it a try. We've definitely managed to meet a few of our beta testers there. It can take a while though, as you're not posting to a large audience, instead it's more of a chat app. This can be a good thing when you're looking for your very first beta users.
-INFLUENCERS: As for most things, network is everything. There are most probably influencers/bloggers in your industry with a large community of followers. Connect with them. See how you can help each other out.
-EVENTS: Go to as many events as you can (events related to your industry, startup events, pitch events,..). Obviously the quantity and quality of events available to you largely depend on where you live. If you live in a capital, e.g. London, you're in a great place to connect with important people and prospective users. You may find these events on the Meetup app, or with a simple Google search. Don't understestimate how useful these events can be! Important connections can be made, and a lot of people will get even more excited to use your product when they meet you in person. Also, I'd recommed you pitch as much as you can, especially when you reach this stage. Pitching can be very beneficial, it allows you to 1)grow in confidence about your product and yourself in public, which is super important, 2)understand the recurrent questions people have about your business, which helps you with perfecting your message, how you communicate your product with the world, marketing, and feedback, 3) make yourself known. We've been to a few pitching events and it has considerably helped us find users, influencers, potential investors, and meet some amazing people.
Finally, you can also give users an incentive to join your beta program (e.g. discounts, gifts,..). Show your appreciation for their time and valuable feedback.
Voila! These are some of the tools/platforms/methods we've used so far, that have allowed us to grow an awesome community of beta users! No money has been spent on marketing so far. It is, of course, still early stage for us, since we're still in beta. And bear in mind, even with all these tips, it is a big challenge and far from easy! But it’s part of the game.
We hope this can help you somehow!
What about you? Which platforms or tools have worked out for you?
I'll be regularly posting on our startup experiences here if interested.
I've written a blogpost on how to find your first hundred beta users when you don't have money to spend on marketing. Hope it can help a few here!
When you're finally launching your beta and have an MVP, your next step is finding users to try out your beta product, play around with it, criticize it, give you feedback: they're your beta testers. And they're an essential part of your startup journey.
But you're new at this. You have no money to spend on marketing. So how do you "manually" find you first hundred beta users?
Below is a compiled list of tools, tips and platforms we used with our startup (focused on privacy) that helped us find our first users and build an awesome community of beta users. Hope this can help you out!
-REDDIT: Reddit is a great platform with a gigantic amount of people, divided into lots of different subreddits. You can find everything on Reddit. A good way to start is to join a few subreddits that correspond to your first targeted niche markets for your product. This obviously depends on your sector/industry (although you can join these subreddits regardless for a start: r/betatestsr/alphaandbetausers, r/testmyapp). Think about which groups your audience would go to, or where your competitors are.
Bear in mind though, that promoting your product may be against the rules or frowned upon in some subreddits, and in that case if you do so you may get some hostility. Read the rules, you can also message the moderators if you're unsure. At the very least, be honest about promoting your product, ask for genuine feedback. I'd also recommend giving some value to the community, by sharing useful content, or helping out.
Reddit is a great informative platform with a lot of smart redditors: you can really get a lot of value from it.
-HACKER NEWS: Another big platform with a tech savyy audience. If you get on the landing page it's thousand of views. Check it out and see how it works before posting anything. There's a specific section called "Show HN" where you can "share something that you've made". Would highly recommend it, you may not only get a lot of traffic, but also very useful feedback. Bear in mind that, similar to Reddit, the feedback is usually brutally honest. Learning to differentiate useful and constructive feedback from "haters" takes some practice. Additionally, if you have a blog you can post your blogposts there.
-PRODUCT HUNT: Product Hunt is a website that lets users share and discover new products. It allows early stage startups to promote their products. Posting your product there is a great way to get traction (the more upvotes you get, the bigger the chance to feature on the landing page, and that's a lot of views), potential beta users, and feedback. The community is full of enthusiastic tech people. Apparently the best time to post is around 10am CET on a Tuesday or Wednesday (based on the particular cycle product hunt has in place), but that's up for debate. We posted on a Wednesday morning and it worked out very well for us.
-CONTENT MARKETING: Start a blog. Write. Make videos. If you've developed your product you must have good knowledge of your industry. Share that knowledge with your audience. Write stuff that gives value to your relevant community, that can be useful and informative. Show you're an expert in your industry. For example, we recently started a blog where the idea is to regularly publish content on privacy, tips on how to increase your online privacy, what a hacker is, etc. We are planning on releasing interactive videos as well. People will appreciate your informative (and fun) content, it gives you legitimacy, and that way you may start building a solid base of loyal followers.
Post that content on social media (your personal and company Twitter profile, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook with relevant groups,...): post relevant content to attract audience. Sharable content can go viral.
-BETA WEBSITES: There are a few websites that allow you to post your app/product in beta (e.g. Betalist, which is free).
-FORUMS: Look for online forums and discussions that may be relevant for you.
-QUORA: Very big platform. Help out the community by answering questions that people may have in your sector. That can also get you a lot of views.
-SHAPR: A "professional tinder" app, that allows you to interact with people based on your selected key words. May be worth giving it a try. We've definitely managed to meet a few of our beta testers there. It can take a while though, as you're not posting to a large audience, instead it's more of a chat app. This can be a good thing when you're looking for your very first beta users.
-INFLUENCERS: As for most things, network is everything. There are most probably influencers/bloggers in your industry with a large community of followers. Connect with them. See how you can help each other out.
-EVENTS: Go to as many events as you can (events related to your industry, startup events, pitch events,..). Obviously the quantity and quality of events available to you largely depend on where you live. If you live in a capital, e.g. London, you're in a great place to connect with important people and prospective users. You may find these events on the Meetup app, or with a simple Google search. Don't understestimate how useful these events can be! Important connections can be made, and a lot of people will get even more excited to use your product when they meet you in person. Also, I'd recommed you pitch as much as you can, especially when you reach this stage. Pitching can be very beneficial, it allows you to 1)grow in confidence about your product and yourself in public, which is super important, 2)understand the recurrent questions people have about your business, which helps you with perfecting your message, how you communicate your product with the world, marketing, and feedback, 3) make yourself known. We've been to a few pitching events and it has considerably helped us find users, influencers, potential investors, and meet some amazing people.
Finally, you can also give users an incentive to join your beta program (e.g. discounts, gifts,..). Show your appreciation for their time and valuable feedback.
Voila! These are some of the tools/platforms/methods we've used so far, that have allowed us to grow an awesome community of beta users! No money has been spent on marketing so far. It is, of course, still early stage for us, since we're still in beta. And bear in mind, even with all these tips, it is a big challenge and far from easy! But it’s part of the game.
We hope this can help you somehow!
What about you? Which platforms or tools have worked out for you?
I'll be regularly posting on our startup experiences here if interested.