Let's accept, Not everyone is a sales person. I am not a sales person. I am a developer and here is an Actionable Guide to how I got my first 200+ users under a week. Over the years, I have worked with a lot of SAAS companies. So I compiled a curated list of things that worked for me and for others. So, let's get started.

PS - Some of these things are a little shady, but they work.

PPS - Grab a cup of coffee and use this guide as a checklist. This page saves your progress in the browser. So, you can come back to it anytime.

Prerequisites

Before we get started with acquiring users, we need to have a few things in place. Now to some of you, this might be a no-brainer, but I have seen a lot of people skip some of these steps and then wonder why they are not getting any users. So, spend some time and go through them

A Landing Page For Your Product

This is the first thing that you need to have. A landing page is where you want all your traffic to be redirected. Your webpage should have the following things:

If you don't have a landing page, Here is something that will help you get started.

What is your technical level?

Active Social Media Presence

Social media is a great way to get your initial users. Trust me, I am not a social media person, but that's not an excuse. A mentor of mine told me If you don't like social media, then just use it to generate content not consume it. Here is my checklist for social media presence.

A Product That People Can uUse

Now, this my look obvious but pay attention 🎈. Having a product and having a product people can use are 2 different things. I have worked with over 50+ SAAS companies and here are the major take aways.. Don't worry,I will skip the obvious ones.

If the above seems overwhelming, checkout the list of my favorite SAAS tools that I use.

A feedback loop

This is the most important part of the whole process. You need to have a feedback loop in place. It can be as simple as a simple email sequence with your calendar link. Or it can be a complex feedback loop with a chatbot and a live chat widget.

I personally used Whatsapp, Facebook messenger and LinkedIn to get feedback from my users.

Getting Your First 200 Users

Now that we have all the prerequisites in place, let's get started with getting our first 200 users. This part is broken down into 3 parts.

For this guide, I will be using a Hiring Management SAAS as an example. This hypothetical SAAS helps startups hire better.

Before Launch

Ideally, You should start this process 2-3 weeks before you launch. This will give you enough time to get aquainted with your Ideal Customer Profile and get your landing page ready.

Launch

The big day has arrived. You have a landing page, a product and a feedback loop. Now, it's time to get your first 200 users. Remember, you are not launching your product, you are launching your feedback loop.And you can launch multiple times. So don't worry if you don't get 200 users in the first time.

That's it. If it looks very simple because it is.

After Launch

After you have launched your product, you need to keep the feedback loop going. This is the most important part of the whole process. You need to keep your users engaged. Here is a checklist for after launch.

Conclusion

I hope this guide was helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Don't wait for the perfect time or the perfect product. If you aren't embarrassed by your first version. You launched too late.. So, go out there, launch your product and have fun.