How to Get Your First Users

其实 there’s no secret here: just relentlessly reach out to people who can recommend your product — bloggers with an existing audience, or anyone who already has influence in the space. Let’s call them KOLs.

First, go through the motions of a regular user. Search for the kinds of questions people might type when looking for a solution related to your product, and find the articles that pop up.

Then get in touch with the authors of those articles. In most foreign markets, bloggers run their own websites or blogs and always leave an email address behind. Send them a polite but persistent pitch: “Hey, our product also solves this problem. Give it a try. If you like it and find it useful, would you mind mentioning it in your article?”

About three out of every five replies came back. Some said they’d consider it once the product improved further; others actually went ahead and featured it. In the end, we picked up nearly 400 daily active users.

No tricks — just capturing search traffic. If you can’t rank on your own, find people who already have, and ask them to include your product. If they won’t do it for free, spend a little money to get them to.