How to get beta users for your startup
Getting feedback as early as possible is super important when building a new startup.
Launching a beta-stage product is a great way to collect feedback from friendly users. You have less pressure to "be perfect," and you can start to build your community
Create a beta landing page
Building a landing page is the first step of launching a beta. You will use it to:
Explain your value proposition
Show your product
Capture emails of the visitors
Even get pre-sales if you can.
Getting emails in the early days is super important. That's how you'll build a community interested in the problem you're trying to solve
To build your landing page, I recommend you use Carrd. It's a no-code tool, you can build a lovely page in less than 30 minutes. Don't code it yourself!
> If you want more tips about landing page, you can check this newsletter issue I made or ping me on Twitter
Use online communities
The easiest way to get traffic when you have an audience is to go where your potential users already are.
That's why I love Reddit, there are thousands of communities there with millions of users!
You can also go on Discord communities, Facebook groups, IndieHackers, forums, etc.…
But please don’t spam them with your startup pitch. Start by participating genuinely in the community and helping people.
Use Social media
Social media should be in your strategy from day 1. As soon as you have an idea and start working on your product, start sharing your journey on social media (it can be Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn…)
You will create your audience there, and it's an incredible shortcut when you're launching a product!
> If you want to build an audience on Twitter, you can download this FREE playbook
Try Ads!
I know that can be counter-intuitive, but ads can be a powerful acquisition channel, even when you're just starting!
Try different formats and different platforms - Reddit and Quora and underestimate
If you find the right channel, it's a MAJOR advantage! You'll be able to drive traffic without any effort.
Reach out to influencers
Start by looking for "micro-influencers" in your niche - people with less than 50k followers. Reach out to them and offer them a significant discount or even give them your product for free.
If they like it, they will talk about it, and you can gain traffic and a lot of users at a glance!
Pitch to startup media sites
Send you beta to specialized websites like:
BetaList
Beta Bound
Beta Page
Betafy
You can also try to get media coverage by selecting very targeted media/blogs and cold emailing them. It’s hard to get, but not impossible. Just pitch your startup and try a super personalized cold outreach.
To sum up, getting beta users for your startup isn't super hard, but you'll need to spend some time doing it.
My advice would be to spend 50% of your time building the product and 50% of your time marketing it.
If you're consistent and follow the steps above, you can get 100 beta users in a few weeks!
I hope this helps, forward that email to someone you might find this useful.
If you need help with marketing, here is how I can help:
Gain clarity. Book a 1:1 coaching call with me → Click here.
Want to get your first users? → Get UserBooster
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Xavier (@angezanetti)