Hello!! What are your recommendations on top acquisition channels at an early stage? Curious to learn from other Makers what other acquisition channels worked for you at an early stage were investment is scarce.
Differs from product/brand. For my personal brand, it has always been social media (LinkedIn, X, Product Hunt, and in reality, it brought me paying people/organisations who sponsored my newsletter).
When it comes to the app I am working with, it has ads on Google, YouTube and via Meta.
And when I used to sell cosmetics (yes, there were those times), the best was direct IRL contact (face-to-face), door selling. :)
Maybe the better questions are "What is your product?", "How/Where do you find your audience?" :)
I wrote a blogpost about this, sorry for being lazy but here's a copy past, hope its value exceeds and covers my laziness 😊:
""" Hey everyone!
Getting those first customers was really hard for me.
Everyone talks about "build a community", "get backlinks for SEO", and "create content,"—and they're right, that's the long-term play. But while you're doing that, here are some methods I've actually tested that can get you results right now:
1. Google Search Operator Hacks
This one's simple but powerful. You can find emails for your target audience using specific search queries. For example, if you're looking for YouTubers in a youtube creators in the youtube growth niche:
You can even use an AI chatbot to help you craft custom queries for your specific case. After searching, copy everything, throw it into ChatGPT or Claude, and ask it to format the data into a clean table. For cold emailing, you can start with free Gmail and Sheets extensions like YAMM or use the free mail merge guide from Google.
2. Facebook Goldmine
Facebook is still massive, and its targeting is insane. Here's what I do:
Find Facebook groups or pages where your ideal customers hang out.
Look at recent posts to see who is liking or commenting.
Send friend requests to those people.
You can either reach out directly or start by providing value through organic content first and then DM them.
The key is being genuine—don't just spam. Actually engage and help.
3. AI Agents for Finding Contacts
This space is getting crazy good. You can use new AI agents like Perplexity Labs, Manus, Genspark, or one I've found really helpful, Exa Websets. It uses both semantic and keyword search to find lists of whatever you want—projects, companies, or people. It's great for finding prospects, and it has a free tier so you can sign up for a trial to get maximum value. Watch out for this agentic space; it's already really good and only getting better.
4. Subreddits
I haven't fully tested this one yet, but it looks promising, especially if you have a product for businesses. Communities like r/SideProject, r/SaaS, and r/microsaas encourage positive self-promotion and can get you thousands of views without a following.
These are some of the methods that have helped me. Of course, there are other techniques like creating content, offering free tools, SEO, open source, etc. But these are actionable right now with zero budget.
The common thread? Go where your customers already are and provide value first.
I'm still a noob in this whole world, but this is what worked for me initially. I hope this helps someone :)
What methods have worked for you when starting out? I'm curious to hear your experiences.
@@youssef_imly thanks for the detailed answer - even if it was pasted from one of your other threads. Im particularly interested in the first one: Google Search Operator Hacks. Did it work well for you to "cold" email potential customers? was it worth the effort? Did you use any tools to do so (were they free?)?
While "cold" emailing potential customers for YouTube growth services yielded a mixed bag of results, it proved valuable as a starting point for me. I didn't get a flood of responses, but the quality of leads was good because I was reaching people actively involved in the YouTube growth niche who understood my product.
Was it worth the effort?
Absolutely, as a bootstrap strategy with zero budget. It helped me land initial customers and validate the need for my product. However, it's not a scalable solution; you'll want to transition to more efficient methods as your business grows.
Tools Used (and mostly free!)
I kept my toolkit super basic:
* Gmail: My primary tool for sending emails.
* Google Sheets: Essential for organizing scraped data and tracking outreach.
* YAMM (Yet Another Mail Merge): A free, albeit clunky, Gmail add-on that allowed me to send personalized emails directly from a Google Sheet. Keep in mind its sending limits on the free plan.
* Mails.so: To improve the quality of my outreach, I started using mails.so to verify email deliverability before sending.
What I'd Do Differently
One major takeaway is the importance of crafting highly personalized email copy. The more specific and relevant you can make your email to each individual, the higher your chances of getting a response.
More recently, I've been working on automating the entire process to make it more efficient and scalable.
Hi, I found Facebook Groups and niche communities like Indie Hackers super helpful. I’d just join the convos and casually drop my link it it made sense.
Replies
Differs from product/brand. For my personal brand, it has always been social media (LinkedIn, X, Product Hunt, and in reality, it brought me paying people/organisations who sponsored my newsletter).
When it comes to the app I am working with, it has ads on Google, YouTube and via Meta.
And when I used to sell cosmetics (yes, there were those times), the best was direct IRL contact (face-to-face), door selling. :)
Maybe the better questions are "What is your product?", "How/Where do you find your audience?" :)
@busmark_w_nika You are right, where do I find my audience is the question to ask ourselves first
I wrote a blogpost about this, sorry for being lazy but here's a copy past, hope its value exceeds and covers my laziness 😊:
"""
Hey everyone!
Getting those first customers was really hard for me.
Everyone talks about "build a community", "get backlinks for SEO", and "create content,"—and they're right, that's the long-term play. But while you're doing that, here are some methods I've actually tested that can get you results right now:
1. Google Search Operator Hacks
This one's simple but powerful. You can find emails for your target audience using specific search queries. For example, if you're looking for YouTubers in a youtube creators in the youtube growth niche:
"Youtube growth" inurl:channel "@gmail.com"
You can even use an AI chatbot to help you craft custom queries for your specific case. After searching, copy everything, throw it into ChatGPT or Claude, and ask it to format the data into a clean table. For cold emailing, you can start with free Gmail and Sheets extensions like YAMM or use the free mail merge guide from Google.
2. Facebook Goldmine
Facebook is still massive, and its targeting is insane. Here's what I do:
Find Facebook groups or pages where your ideal customers hang out.
Look at recent posts to see who is liking or commenting.
Send friend requests to those people.
You can either reach out directly or start by providing value through organic content first and then DM them.
The key is being genuine—don't just spam. Actually engage and help.
3. AI Agents for Finding Contacts
This space is getting crazy good. You can use new AI agents like Perplexity Labs, Manus, Genspark, or one I've found really helpful, Exa Websets. It uses both semantic and keyword search to find lists of whatever you want—projects, companies, or people. It's great for finding prospects, and it has a free tier so you can sign up for a trial to get maximum value. Watch out for this agentic space; it's already really good and only getting better.
4. Subreddits
I haven't fully tested this one yet, but it looks promising, especially if you have a product for businesses. Communities like r/SideProject, r/SaaS, and r/microsaas encourage positive self-promotion and can get you thousands of views without a following.
These are some of the methods that have helped me. Of course, there are other techniques like creating content, offering free tools, SEO, open source, etc. But these are actionable right now with zero budget.
The common thread? Go where your customers already are and provide value first.
I'm still a noob in this whole world, but this is what worked for me initially. I hope this helps someone :)
What methods have worked for you when starting out? I'm curious to hear your experiences.
Thank you for reading! And have a nice day :)
"""
@ @youssef_imly thanks for the detailed answer - even if it was pasted from one of your other threads.
Im particularly interested in the first one: Google Search Operator Hacks. Did it work well for you to "cold" email potential customers? was it worth the effort? Did you use any tools to do so (were they free?)?
@ @borja_diazroig
While "cold" emailing potential customers for YouTube growth services yielded a mixed bag of results, it proved valuable as a starting point for me. I didn't get a flood of responses, but the quality of leads was good because I was reaching people actively involved in the YouTube growth niche who understood my product.
Was it worth the effort?
Absolutely, as a bootstrap strategy with zero budget. It helped me land initial customers and validate the need for my product. However, it's not a scalable solution; you'll want to transition to more efficient methods as your business grows.
Tools Used (and mostly free!)
I kept my toolkit super basic:
* Gmail: My primary tool for sending emails.
* Google Sheets: Essential for organizing scraped data and tracking outreach.
* YAMM (Yet Another Mail Merge): A free, albeit clunky, Gmail add-on that allowed me to send personalized emails directly from a Google Sheet. Keep in mind its sending limits on the free plan.
* Mail Merge from Google Developers: Another free mail merge option from Google's developers that I've since found useful. You can find it at (https://developers.google.com/apps-script/samples/automations/mail-merge).
* Mails.so: To improve the quality of my outreach, I started using mails.so to verify email deliverability before sending.
What I'd Do Differently
One major takeaway is the importance of crafting highly personalized email copy. The more specific and relevant you can make your email to each individual, the higher your chances of getting a response.
More recently, I've been working on automating the entire process to make it more efficient and scalable.
Hi, I found Facebook Groups and niche communities like Indie Hackers super helpful. I’d just join the convos and casually drop my link it it made sense.