The document provides guidance on user acquisition strategies for startups. It discusses manually recruiting users through in-person and online outreach. It recommends targeting influencers and communities where the target audience spends time. Automation tools can be used to scale outreach on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and search engines while maintaining a personal touch. Building an engaged community through a Facebook group or forum allows for direct user feedback and marketing. The goal is to experiment with different channels to validate product-market fit and grow an audience ready to purchase.

1. ZERO-BUDGET
USER ACQUISTION

2. MARKET FITPROBLEM FIT
SOLUTION FIT GROWTH & SCALEDISCOVERY
LAUNCHING STARTUPS

3. GET YOUR
STORY STRAIGHT
‣ no tactic will work if your messaging doesn’t resonate
‣ great messaging helps people tell other people about your product
SIMPLE.
It’s easy to understand
by prospective customers.
COMPELLING.
It describes something that is
interesting or desirable to them.
SPECIFIC.
It captures what your product
does, not an overly abstract
statement of it.
DIFFERENTIATED.
It highlights what makes your
product unique.

4. A quality of your product matched with a customer benefit.
“HERE’S WHAT OUR PRODUCT CAN DO.”
“HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH OUR PRODUCT.”
VS.
VALUE PROPOSITION

5. A quality of your product matched with a customer benefit.
IMAGINE YOUR PRODUCT IS FAST
Benefit: Speed — Get work done faster.
Benefit: Higher output — Get more work done.
Benefit: Higher efficiency — Save yourself time.
VALUE PROPOSITION

6. A quality of your product matched with a customer benefit.
IMAGINE YOUR PRODUCT IS SECURE
Benefit: Privacy — Only friends can see your messages.
Benefit: Protection — If your phone gets stolen, your data is safe.
VALUE PROPOSITION

7. VALUE PROPOSITION GENERATION example: livechat app
FIRST, DESCRIBE HOW LIFE IS BAD WHEN
PEOPLE DON’T HAVE YOUR PRODUCT
THEN, DESCRIBE HOW LIFE GETS BETTER
WHEN THEY DO HAVE YOUR PRODUCT
NOW, ALIGN CUSTOMER BENEFITS TO
EACH OF YOUR TARGET PERSONAS
Visitors leave the site
— Lost sales opportunities
Visitors read FAQs
— No one reads them
Visitors email support
— Most don't bother
Help more visitors get more questions
answered by immediately handling
objections via live chat.
Address objections proactively so you
can better satisfy visitors and close
more deals.
Head of marketing
— Conversion rates
— Traffic volume
Chief revenue officer
— Reduce churn
— Increase ARPU/LTV
Head of sales
— Increase qualified leads
— Qualify leads accurately

8. VALUE PROPOSITION GENERATION
GOOD EXAMPLES
Tired of switching between accounts?
Get Shift.
Visually design and develop websites
from scratch. No coding.
Groceries delivered in 1 hour. Say
goodbye to traffic, parking, and long
lines.
Start accepting payments on your
website in one click. No coding
knowledge required.
“When I write an advertisement, I don't want you to tell me that you find
it 'creative.' I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”
DAVID OGILVY, GODFATHER OF ADVERTISING
WHERE TO USE VALUE PROPS
— Landing pages
— Ads
— Emails/Outreach DMs
— Sales calls/meetings
(You get the idea)
Anywhere you talk about your product.
WRITING OUT VALUE PROPS
— Iterate to get to the best version
— Ask insiders and outsiders for feedback
— Remove unnecessary words
— Avoid abstract clichés
(powerful, incredible, revolutionary etc.)
Say a lot with few words.

9. USER ACQUISITION
GET AS MANY POTENTIAL USERS AS
POSSIBLE TO LEARN AND TALK
ABOUT YOUR STARTUP
STAGE 1 STAGE 2
CLAIM THOUGHT LEADERSHIP BY
BUILDING AN AUDIENCE YOU CAN
MARKET AND SELL TO
STAGE 3
EXPERIMENT YOUR WAY TO
SCALABLE PRODUCT-CHANNEL FIT
(GET TO PRODUCT-MARKET FIT FIRST)
“DO THE RIGHT THINGS RIGHT”

10. USER ACQUISITION — STAGE 1
GET AS MANY POTENTIAL USERS
AS POSSIBLE TO LEARN AND TALK
ABOUT YOUR STARTUP

11. RECRUIT USERS MANUALLY — OFFLINE EDITION
events, coffee bars, the street — wherever your audience is
WIN THEM OVER ONE-BY-ONE BE RUTHLESS
Stripe is one of accelerator Y Combinator most successful
startups. YC co-founder Paul Graham remembers:
Most founders ask "Will you try our beta?" and if the answer is
yes, they say "Great, we'll send you a link." But the Collison
brothers weren't going to wait. When anyone agreed to try Stripe
they'd say "Right then, give me your laptop" and set them up on
the spot.
Today, Airbnb is valued at $31 billion.
8 years ago, the picture was different.
Founders Brian Chesky & Joe Gebbia would commute from
California to as far as New York to recruit new hosts and improve
the listings of existing ones. “Knock knock. Hello. Hey, this is
Brian, Joe, we’re the founders of Airbnb and we just want to meet
you.”

12. RECRUIT USERS MANUALLY — ONLINE EDITION
use email and direct messages to start conversations and build relations
“In the early days, I used to literally email people
and ask them to use Intercom. If you look at the first
200 emails I sent from my Intercom email, almost all
of them were along the lines of, “Would you like to
try Intercom?” For a customer we really wanted, I’d
mock up a screenshot showing how we’d nail a
reasonable use case for their product. That helped
people understand both what we could do for them
and what it would look like in their product.”
DES TRAYNOR, CO-FOUNDER INTERCOM

13. RECRUIT USERS MANUALLY — HOW TO NAIL OUTREACH
what to write
KNOW WHO YOU’RE TALKING TO
if you’re an online design testing platform, don’t pitch a designer the same value
proposition as you’d pitch a marketer. Align your pitch to specific customer profiles.
BE CONTEXTUAL — GIVE THEM A REASON TO CARE
• remind them where you know each other from (event, school, LinkedIn, intro)
• describe a relevant bad situation and show or offer help
• invite them as early users - make them feel ‘special’
• invite them to an exclusive event you’re organising (or as speaker)
• invite them an online community like a Facebook Group (more on this later) Resource: Mailshake Cold Email Playbook

14. RECRUIT USERS MANUALLY — HOW TO NAIL OUTREACH
what to write: example 1
Hey [first name],
I noticed you're in the Growth Hacking LinkedIn Group that has little engagement. I wanted to personally invite you to a growth
hacking Facebook Group I organize that's very active, Marketers & Founders.
I happen to run one of the largest marketing communities in Silicon Valley (2000+ members) and the Facebook Group (6000+
members). The Marketers & Founders Facebook Group is moderated by a few of the best, so it’s invite only.
Our moderators:
Aj Cartas; 1.2 million social media fans and is an influencer lead @TopBuzz
Taylor Pipes; content strategist @Evernote
Me :) Past head of growth for @22Social, @UpOut, and @GrowthX. I'm now a growth evangelist @Autopilot
You can join the Marketers and Founders Facebook Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growthmarketers/
If you want to know more info, feel free to reply.
Cheers,
Josh Fechter
Growth Evangelist @Autopilot | Adviser @Praxis
calling out a bad situation to make your value obvious
creating fear of missing out
social proof
showing the value
make taking action easy and straigtforward

15. RECRUIT USERS MANUALLY — HOW TO NAIL OUTREACH
what to write: example 2
Hi Andrew,
I just noticed a few months ago you were looking for a solution to auto-import Paypal addresses into Highrise.
http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/13007/how-can-i-auto-import-contacts-from-paypal-into-highrise
Have you found a solution for this yet?
If you have, what did you do?
If you haven't, would you be interested in a service that let's you do exactly this for you without having to hire a developer
or write a single line of code?
Keep kicking butt with Mixergy. I listen to at least one new interview every week.
Thanks!
Wade
shows genuine interest
straight to the point
killer value proposition

16. RECRUIT USERS MANUALLY — HOW TO NAIL OUTREACH
more important stuff
SUBJECT LINES: TO GET OPENED OR TO NOT GET OPENED
• make it stand out in their inbox
• entice, create curiosity, make them want to open the email
• avoid looking spammy
FOLLOW UP: PERSISTENCE WINS
• 2-3 times
• intervals of 3-5-7 days
• avoid looking spammy
NAIL IT BEFORE YOU SCALE IT: TRACK METRICS
• open rate — emails sent / emails opened
• response rate — replies / emails opened
• clickthrough rate — links clicked / emails opened
• Tool: Streak — in-Gmail CRM that tracks data (free)

17. SOURCING PROSPECTS
where to find potential users to reach out to
WARM INTROS
Ask mentors, co-students, friends, and family for intros to anyone your product may be relevant to
EVENTS, CONFERENCES THAT ARE WORTHWHILE
• worthwhile means events that allow you to get personal with quality prospects in your space
• try to get your hands on the guest list beforehand to determine whether the event is worthwhile
• you can reach out to people you want to meet beforehand
• you can also reach out to them without going to the event
THE INTERNET
see next few slides
YOUR ALREADY EXISTING NETWORK
Address book, Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections and alike

18. SOURCING PROSPECTS ON THE INTERNET
everyone is on the internet, you just need to find them
1. People on the internet are grouped around commonalities.
They are in the same communities, read the same articles, follow the same influencers and
brands and search for the same terms.
2. You can find anyone’s email address from first name, last name and domain.
3. From names, it’s fairly easy to find everything else. Most notably social media profiles.
4. You can use tools to automate both prospect sourcing and data enrichment

19. SOURCING PROSPECTS — FINDING EMAIL ADDRESSES
FIND EMAIL ADDRESSES BY NAME FIND EMAIL ADDRESSES BY DOMAIN
• first name, last name
• domain or company
• domain or company
if a tool only accepts domains and you only have companies, follow these instructions to convert
EMAIL FINDING TOOLS
hunter.io contactout.com voilanorbert.com anyleads.com
Resource — The Growth Hacker’s Playbook To Find Anyone’s Email Address

20. SOURCING PROSPECTS — FACEBOOK
EVENTS GROUPSPAGES
profile URL, name, current location, current employer
phantombuster.com
YOU GET
click the column headers to access Phantombuster links

21. SOURCING PROSPECTS — LINKEDIN
PROFILE SEARCH
phantombuster.com
Search users by
• location
• industry
• current/past company
• connections of
• school
• job role (Pro)
• company headcount (Pro)
• seniority in position (Pro)
• … and more
GROUPS COMPANIES POSTS ENGAGERS
YOU GET profile URL, name, location, company, job role, industry
linkedhelper.com
click the column headers to access Phantombuster links

22. SOURCING PROSPECTS — LINKEDIN
LINKEDHELPERPHANTOMBUSTER
* both tools are able to directly source email addresses from LinkedIn profiles

23. phantombuster.com
SOURCING PROSPECTS — MORE PHANTOMBUSTER EXAMPLES

24. AUTOMATE TO SCALE REACH
Hi {{prospect firstname}},
I noticed you guys at {{prospect company}} help brands to generate qualified leads by
building tools their audience can use for free. It’s a great new space, but I know it’s
hard for agencies to scale their offering because development takes up a lot of time.
Because these apps tend to have the same building blocks, we’ve built {{your startup
name}} software that gives you those building blocks so you can develop and deliver
much faster.
Agencies like {{similar company to prospect company}} tried our first version and
were impressed. Here’s what their {{decision-maker}} said: {{testimonial}}. I’m
confident {{prospect company}} would have similar results.
Do you have time next week for a chat? You can book a slot with me here.
{{your firstname}} , Co-Founder {{your startup name}}
{{landing page URL}}
SPREADSHEET
WITH PROSPECTS
EMAIL
AUTOMATION
mailshake.com
mixmax.com
Don’t use tools that send
emails from their own server
— your emails will end up in
spam. Only use tools that
connect to your personal
email account.
BE HUMAN TO BUILD RELATIONS
personalize with
variables like
• first name, last name
• company
• industry
• similar company
• testimonial
• landing page url
• {{anything}}

25. useorca.comdux-soup.comlinkedhelper.com
LINKEDIN DOESN’T LIKE AUTOMATION.
MOST TOOLS ALLOW TO SET LIMITS ON AUTOMATED ACTIVITY.
THEY USUALLY ALSO OFFER ADVICE ON WHAT LIMITS TO SET.
AUTOMATE MESSAGES TO
1ST DEGREE CONNECTIONS
AUTOMATE INMAILS TO 2ND
& 3RD DEGREE CONNECTIONS
AUTOMATE CONNECTION REQUESTS
TO 2ND & 3RD DEGREE CONNECTIONS
Automatically reach out to
prospects you already
are connected to.
The same principles introduced earlier for
email outreach apply. Do not mindlessly
and blatantly pitch your product. Focus
on giving them a reason to care.
Automated cold outreach to prospects you
source from Profile Search, Groups,
Companies or Post Engagement via InMail.
Only available if you have LinkedIn Pro and
the (low) number of InMails you can send
per day is limited.
Automatically send invites to prospects you
source from Profile Search, Groups,
Companies or Post Engagement.
You can turn this into outreach by attaching
a personalized message (limited to 300
characters). If you do this, avoid pitching
your startup right away. Focus on starting a
conversation instead.
phantombuster.com
AUTOMATING LINKEDIN
TO SCALE REACH & BUILD RELATIONS

26. IDENTIFY INFLUENCERS
IN YOUR NICHE
Find Instagram accounts your
target audience follows and
engages with.
You can use a tool like Heepsy for a
first exploration of your niche, then
dive into Suggested Accounts and
optimize from there based on your
results.
AUTOMATING INSTAGRAM
TO SCALE REACH, BUILD AWARENESS & DRIVE TRAFFIC
READ THIS FOR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTOMATE INSTAGRAM GROWTH
POST THE SAME TYPE OF
CONTENT 5-7x A WEEK
AUTOMATE ENGAGEMENT
WITH INFLUENCERS’ AUDIENCES
INCLUDE LINK TO LANDING
PAGE IN BIO WITH CLEAR CTA
You’ll need to have relevant
content on your Instagram profile
to get prospects to engage with it
and click through.
To nail value-audience fit, draw
(steal) inspiration from the best
performing posts of the influencers
in your niche.
Get on your audience’s radar by
automatically engaging with them:
follow, like posts, comment on
posts.
TARGETING POSSIBILITIES
• by engagement on posts of
target accounts (this tends to
work well)
• by followers of target accounts
• by engagement on posts with
specific hashtags
• by location
Drive traffic to your landing page
by including the URL on your bio
— combine with a killer Call-To-
Action.
Add a retargeting pixel to
your URL so you can target
link clickers with ads on
Facebook, LinkedIn or
Twitter.
• ClickMeter
• PixelMe
BONUS
instazood.com jarvee.comsocialcaptain.com
(PRO-LEVEL)

27. BE EVERYWHERE THEY LOOK
FULL NAME
COMPANY NAME
and/or
you and everyone else on the internet have 1 friend in common: Google
PB automates Google Search & scraping first result — example: “Steve Jobs Apple site:linkedin.com"
PHANTOMBUSTER.COM

28. THE BEST WAY TO TALK TO AND LEARN FROM USERS
BUILD A COMMUNITY
RESOURCE — “HOW I GROWTH HACKED ONE FACEBOOK GROUP POST TO MAKE S200,000’ BY JOSH FECHTER
STAGE 1 DIRECT LINE WITH USERS FOR LEAN PRODUCT FEEDBACK
STAGE 2 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND ENGAGED AUDIENCE READY TO BUY

29. LAUNCH YOUR PRODUCT ON
EARLY ADOPTER HEAVEN
THE DAILY HUNT
Every day again, products compete to end up on
top of the site.
UPVOTES
You rise in the ranking by getting upvotes from
community members. But that’s not the only
thing that counts (there’s a secret algorithm).
HUNTERS & MAKERS
Only community members with Hunter
permissions can post new products. Members that
creaed the product are called ‘Makers’.
WHAT YOU’LL GET OUT OF IT
GETTING ON THE RADAR OF EARLY ADOPTERS
These are the type of people who’ll try your
product when it’s still a baby. They’re okay with it
having growing pains from time to time.
THE BASICS
TRAFFIC & SIGNUPS
People will come flocking to your landing page
and sign up for your trial, demo or early access.
INVALUABLE PRODUCT FEEDBACK
While the traction is awesome, early stage this is
still mostly about getting as many peopple as
possible to talk about your product.
RESOURCE #2 TO NAIL YOUR LAUNCH
RESOURCE #1 TO NAIL YOUR LAUNCH

30. USERS WAITING FOR YOU TO SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS
Quora means to give the world the best possible answer to
any question humans could possibly have.
Users can ask questions, write answers and upvote answers
of others. Answers with the best upvotes end up on top.
People from your target audience have likely posted
questions you can answer. You just have to show up and
gently point them to the solution: your startup.
WHAT YOU CAN GET OUT OF QUORA
HIGH-QUALITY TRAFFIC — Because of the 1-1
relationship between what the user is looking for and
your value, on-site conversion rates for traffic incoming
from Quora tends to be signficantly higher than other
channels (10% -15%).
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP — As you help your target audience to
advance in what they care about, answering questions relevant to
them, you’ll become an influential voice in your space. Go
beyond questions that directly invoke your product and also
answer other questions relevant to your specific target audience.
HOW TO WRITE GOOD ANSWERS
Don’t be spammy and mindlessly pitch. Instead, focus
on providing real help. Align your answer to the
question and gradually build a convcincing narrative
towards your product.
Think of your answers as landing pages: be mindful of
who you’re writing to and make the value obvious and
relevant. Make it very clear how your product makes
their lives better. Make it impossible for them not to
click through when they arrive at the call-to-action.

31. HUSTLE FOR UPVOTES
To get your answer on top, you’ll have to get upvotes. While
the algorithm is about more than just upvotes, upvotes are
the one thing you can immediately influence.
Use your network. You can create a group with other people
looking for upvotes or some other kind of social media proof
and help each other out.
BEST KEPT SECRET: ANSWER WIKIS
WHAT MAKES A GOOD QUESTION?
Good questions typically have more followers than
answers. The higher this ratio, the better. This means a
lot of people are interested while not a lot of people
have provided answers. The optimal ratio is said to be 7
followers for every 1 answer.
HOW TO FIND GOOD QUESTIONS
RELATEDQUESTIONSMOSTVIEWEDWRITERSANSWERWIKI
Answer Wikis are supposed to combine the best answers on
a question in a convenient overview.
You can create and even edit Answer Wikis - blatantly adding
your startup with a link to your website. Changes typically
have to be approved by moderators, but in reality they rarely
get dismissed.
ON-SITE — Check out related questions, check out
topics and study the questions influencers in your space
answer. To find influencers, check out Most Viewed
Writers for a topic, then click to their profile.
SEO TOOL — Quora questions tend to rank highly in
Google. This allows for easy SEO wins. To find questions
with high SEO value, use a tool like Moz, Ahrefs or
SEMRush.
SEARCH VIA QUORA ADS — Within Quora Ads
Targeting, you can view the average weekly views for
every question out there. Creating an Ads account is
free and you don’t have to run actual ads to get these
insights.
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE ON FINDING GOOD QUORA QUESTIONS

32. YOUR BEST SHOT AT BIG TIME BUZZ
Reddit is the world’s 17th website for traffic (5th in
the US). As users don’t use their real names, it’s
not a place you can source potential users for. You
can however use it to get people talking about
your startup. Because of its huge user base, high
levels of engagement and wide variety of
subreddits, it’s a place where a lot of stories go
viral before they reach other social platforms and
mainstream media.
BBC WORLD
REDDIT LIKES LAWS (& LAW ENFORCEMENT)
To maintan order in the chaos, Reddit has a lot of
posting rules - specific ones per subreddit. Moderators
are ruthless and will take every opportunity to take your
post down. For every subreddit you try to post in, read
the rules, study the posts that stay up and get traction,
plus make sure you post with a high-karma account.
REDDIT DOESN’T LIKE OUTSIDERS (LOW KARMA)
As a Reddit user you can accumulate karma through
the amount of upvotes and comments your posts get.
A user’s karma indicates the seniority of a Reddit user
and determines how severely moderators judge their
actions. In short: don’t create a new Reddit account
and immediately post a story about yourself. Instead,
accumulate karma first in easy subreddits (see list) or
get your hands on an account that already has a good
amount of karma.
TELL A CAPTIVATING STORY + WRITE KILLER HOOK
To go viral, a piece of content need To tell a story that
audience feel something — this can be happiness,
motivation, inspiration, sadness etc — in a way that
makes them want to share it with other people. Rather
than the startup itself, focus on the story — even if that
story wouldn’t directly involve your product. To get
people to read the story in the first place, you’ll need to
write a hook (subject) that stands out in the list of posts
in the subreddit. Think of the type of headlines that
make you want to click them, but avoid clickbait where
you the story doesn’t deliver on the promise of the
hook: users will feel cheated and vote your post down.
Mind that it doesn’t need to have a text post: images
and (especially) videos can work too, if done well.
HOW TO GET YOUR STARTUP ON THE FRONT PAGE OF REDDIT
REDDIT HATES BLATANT MARKETING: HERE’S HOW YOU STILL CAN GET THOUSANDS OF VISITORS
FACEBOOK GROUP TO GET UPVOTES

33. MAKE PEOPLE SHARE
INHERENT VIRALITY
ARTIFICAL VIRALITY
Your product has inherent virality if the experience
of the user improves as more users use it.
• Users use your app
to transact or collaborate with others.
• Users use your app to create content that is
intended to be shared.
If your product doesn’t have inherent virality, you can
incentivize users to share with rewards. This can be
money, but what tends to work better is to give
greater access to the product itself.
THE STARTUP PRE-LAUNCH BY VIRAL LOOPS
VALUABLE LESSONS FROM DROPBOX
UNDERSTANDING THE ENGINE OF ADOPTION

34. USER ACQUISITION — STAGE 2
CLAIM THOUGHT LEADERSHIP BY
BUILDING AN AUDIENCE YOU
CAN MARKET AND SELL TO

35. content marketing is the long-term
capital investment of growth strategy
IT PAYS DIVIDENDS INDEFINITELY
CONTENT, THEN MARKETING
For content marketing to work, the ‘content’ needs to
come first. Rather than to sell, aim to educate, inspire,
delight and/or entertain. Your goal is to build an audience
that trusts you to advance in the area you create value in,
with both your content and startup.
This kind of thought leadership takes consistent creation of
quality value. And time. Nothing burns a relationship
quicker than trying to close the deal on the first date.
GROWTH NEEDS QUALITY
Content only helps you grow if it stands out for quality.
(1) The better the post, the more users will opt-in to your
newsletter, sign up for your product and share with others.
(2) The better the post, the more people will read it to the
end (and not bounce), and the more other blogs will link to
it. Metrics like these make Google rank you higher in
searches.
When people need something, they turn to Google. The
better your posts, the more likely they’ll find you.

36. BEING MAGNETIC ONLINE
value/audience fit * reach
THE MAJORITY OF THE VALUE SHOULD BE RELEVANT TO THE MAJORITY OF THE AUDIENCE

37. topics keywords resources angles principles distribution
A FRAMEWOK FOR EASY, ROI-DRIVEN CONTENT MARKETING
Identify areas where you can
provide unique value to your
audience. From those areas,
go deeper down into specific
topics you can create create
posts on.
Example
If I’m selling matcha, I can
write about ‘healthy lifestyle’
and ‘productivity’. Within
healthy lifestyle I can write
about nutrition and workouts.
Within productivity I can write
about habits that help to get
done more in less time.
Identify related keywords
your target audience uses to
find find value like yours. To
nail SEO, speak the language
of your target audience from
the start. Keyword volume
indicates audience relevant.
Keyword difficulty indicates
degree of competition.
Connect search trends with
real-world trends: Google
Trends and Google
Correlate.
Look at questions people
have on topics: Quora and
AnswerThePublic.
Make a list with possible
angles you can use to
address content subjects.
This post will show you how
much possibilities you have
to address one and the
same topic.
Consider possible formats,
ranging from high-level
(video, podcast, post) to
low-level (text post can be
blog post, LinkedIn post,
Facebook Group post
Quora answer etc.
Define editorial principles to
ensure consistency and
quality throughout your
content in a way that is
aligned to your audience’s
needs and preferences.
Examples
• tone of voice:
authoritative,
conversational, rebellious
• no passive voice
• avoid adverbs, adjectives
• use personal pronouns
• be specific and give
examples
involve influencers in content creation for quick & warm access to target audiencesBONUS
RESOURCE — NO-NONENSE GUIDE TO NAILING KEYWORD RESEARCH
For every subject you want to
create content around,
collect high-quality resources:
other articles, YouTube
videos, Quora answers etc.
Seek content that has already
proven to have great fit with
your audience. Here’s how:
• study best performining
social posts from brands
(personal and company)
• use Buzzsumo to identify
best performing content
per website
• use Moz or alike to
identify best performing
content per domain (by
backlinks or traffic).
Make a checklist you follow
to ensure proper
distribution of every new
piece of content. Constantly
dapt this checklist based on
results.
Examples
• distill into LinkedIn post
• repurpose as article onf
Medium
• post as Google Doc in
Facebook Group with
reference to original URL
• transcribe podcast into
post on your blog
• include in newsletter
• share to Messenger bot
subscribers

38. PEOPLE BUY FROM PEOPLE
THEY KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST
REPURPOSE WHAT
ALREADY WORKS
BUILD A PERSONAL BRAND
TELL INSPIRING STORIES
HAVE AN OPINION
TELL EDUCATING STORIES
RESOURCE —LINKEDFLUENCER: EBOOK BY JOSH FECHTER
RESOURCE — COPYWRITING BIBLE: EBOOK BY JOSH FECHTER

39. USER ACQUISITION — STAGE 3
EXPERIMENT YOUR WAY TO
SCALABLE PRODUCT-CHANNEL FIT
(GET TO PRODUCT-MARKET FIT FIRST)

40. HOW TO THINK ABOUT ACQUISITION
1. NAIL YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION
(see earlier slides on value proposition generation)
Clearly define how your product makes the lives of
your target customers better than it is right now. If you have
multiple target audiences, do this for each one.
EXAMPLE
Our artificial Intelligence shovel helps onion farmers
dig holes faster, so they can plant more and sell
more with less back pain than traditional shovels.
What is the product?
An artificially intelligent shovel
Who is the customer?
Onion farmers
What value is generated for them?
Time saved through faster planting
How is it better than the old way?
Less back pain than traditional shovels

41. 2. UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMER
The better you’re able to grasp the mindset and behavior of
your target customers, the better you’ll be at reaching them
with the right message, in the right place, at the right time.
HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU THINK ABOUT THIS
• How do your target customers buy products like yours today?
• Where do your target customers connect with people like them?
• Where do your target customers get their information personally?
• Where do your target customers get their information professionally?
• Who do your target customers look up to?
• Who do your target customers trust?
• What time of the year is most important/relevant to your target customers?
• Which apps do your target customers use?
• Where do your target customers hang out online?
HOW TO THINK ABOUT ACQUISITION

42. 3. IDEATE ON WAYS TO REACH YOUR CUSTOMERS
Dream up all the ways you could reach your audience and write each
idea on a giant list. Don’t worry about thinking big and crazy. We’ll
address feasibility for each later.
EXAMPLE SOME WAYS WE COULD REACH OUR ONION FARMERS
• Buying sponsor slots on the annual OnionCon conference
• Getting an interview on the OnionPod podcast
• Start a YouTube channel for onion farmers
• Facebook advertising based on interest in onions and shovels
• Google Ads targeteted to the word “shovel”
• Content creation on onion farming & shoveling
• Sending sample shovels to all the speakers at OnionCon
• Referral program to incentivize word-of-mouth among onion farmers
• Make distribution deal with retailers where onion farmers shop for gear
HOW TO THINK ABOUT ACQUISITION

43. 4. WIN ON PAPER
For every idea, imagine the funnel you need customers to go through to make
money. Make reasonable assumptions for conversion rates from one stage to
the next one, based on data you already have (preferably) or external references.
EXAMPLE SPONSOR EPISODE OF ONIONPOD, FOR WHICH THEY CHARGE $1,000
• 25,000 listeners on OnionPod
• 2% of listeners (500 people) visit your website because of the ad
• 2% of those visitors (10 people) buy a shovel
• $100 per shovel sold amounts to $1,000 in sales
FROM THERE, SUBTRACT ALL COSTS YOU MIGHT INCUR FOR CREATING THE SHOVEL
AND YOU SHOULD HAVE A ROUGH IDEA OF WHETHER THE IDEA IS WORTH PURSUING
From here, you can also start to think optimization. Theorize how the outcome could change if you
improve a part of your tactic. Maybe you can create a better ad and get 5% of OnionPod’s listeners to
click through. Or maybe you should charge more per shovel. While your assumptions don’t need to be
perfect to get valuable takeaways, rather be conservative than optimistic.
HOW TO THINK ABOUT ACQUISITION

44. 1. GENERATE IDEAS
Use data to ideate
traction tactics.
2. PRIORITISE
Rate and compare potential
impact, confidence and
resources needed.
4. ANALYSE DATA
Study hard and soft data to
learn if and why experiments
(didn’t) work.
3. RUN EXPERIMENTS
Design experiments to test
hypotheses underlying
the chosen ideas.
FINDING
TRACTION
19 TRACTION CHANNELS
BULLSEYE FRAMEWORK
CHEAP TRACTION TESTS

45. SCALE
SCALABILITY
EASE & COST
AVAILABILITY
PRODUCT/CHANNEL FIT
RELEVANCE
GUT FEELING
BLINK
PRIORITISING ACQUISITION IDEAS
1-5 1-5 1-5 1-5X X X
MORE FRAMEWORKS TO HELP YOU FIND THE RIGHT TRACTION CHANNELS

46. TRY TO BE LESS WRONG
at all times, in whatever you do