How to Get Your First Customers

If you’re launching a new startup or small business, one of the biggest challenges is getting your first few customers. You might have a great product or service, but if no one knows about it, you won’t make any sales. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through a 5-step journey to get from 0 to your first 10 customers, using the example of my previous startup Siera.

How to Get Your First Customers: Research Market Trends and Understand Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Start by researching the market trends that affect your potential customers. Use tools like trends.google.com to understand what questions your ideal customer profile is asking about the problem that you solve.

For example, in the case of my startup Siera (SIERA.AI), we sold an IoT device to improve forklift safety in warehouses and factories. By researching the market trends around forklift safety, Siera learned that 1 in 6 workplace deaths involves a forklift, 95 people are seriously injured in a forklift accident every day, and most forklift safety queries come from the mid-west, west coast, and Texas.

By understanding these challenges and where to find potential customers using real data, Siera can use this information to craft a narrative that attracts customer attention and engagement.

How to Get Your First Customers: Craft Your Messaging and a Lead Magnet

Using the hero’s journey technique, craft a narrative (this will turn into your lead magnet) that shows that you understand your customer’s ultimate goals and desires. Demonstrate that you are the right guide to help them on the journey to their goal, and lay out the challenges that are ahead of the customer to show that you understand their pain.

Show customers the 2 paths that lie ahead (the old well-trodden path and the new path that leads to change) and lay out the strategy you recommend to undergo transformation. By using this technique, you will grab your customer’s attention and interest.

Get Your First Customers by Creating a Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet

Write a simple but powerful landing page to deliver one message of transformation to your customers. Have one call to action for your customer to give you their name, email, and phone and download your lead magnet.

Examples of lead magnets:

5-Step Guide to Generate $1000 with 5 Emails
The ultimate guide to double sales in 90 days

You get the idea. Show your potential customers an interesting way to solve the target problem. Use tools like Convertkit to set up your landing pages.

Engage Your First Customers With High-Quality Educational Content and Push People to Your Landing Page

Post to LinkedIn and Twitter 3-5 times weekly.

Use the 4P writing method by Justin Welsh to attract attention and get people to download your lead magnet. Additionally, start a YouTube channel for your topic and post videos weekly. Use the macro trends data from google trends to create video titles and subjects. Drive video viewers to download your lead magnet.

Finally, publish the week’s highest-performing social post or a summary of your posts as a weekly newsletter to all your subscribers (people who downloaded your lead magnet) to keep them engaged.

Take 1on1 Calls with Interested Customers

Invite people who download your lead magnet to take a free 1on1 strategy/consultation call with you. In this call, walk them through your magnet pitch and pitch your product/service toward the end.

TL;DR

Getting your first 10 customers might not be easy, but it is simple.