Ask HN: Gaining traction when AdWords and viral won't work? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Gaining traction when AdWords and viral won't work?

10 pointscodex10 comments

Our startup makes a product that's ahead of its time. It solves a customer problem, but we're having a hard time getting past our initial crop of customers. AdWords campaigns are too expensive: we've just invented the Model-T but everyone is Googling for "faster horse." We can't afford to buy "faster horse" clicks because the horse market is so much bigger than we are. Our product is so new that expensive, "high touch" customer education is required to make a sale. We're in the enterprisey software development space, not in the consumer space, so viral and word of mouth are too slow for our burn rate, and customers "really like it" but don't "love it to death." The early-adopter market is small for now, but what little market there is we'd like to reach in the most effective way possible. How can we capture attention when it is at such a premium?

View on HN

Have you tried calling them on the phone? Google searches then phone calls can work wonders if you're in "enterprise" software. If your margins are too low to support that, you've found a flaw in your business model. You'll either need to adjust your channels for user acquisition, or charge more per customer.

Have you tried partnering with other people in your space? Does your product work well as a component in a stack? If so, partnering could be great for you.

If you're sure you have a good product/market fit (are you sure enough to bet your company? Because you will be...), then I'd look at some partnering options to drive growth.

Another comment mentioned Steve Blank's The Four Steps to the Epiphany. I will elaborate a bit on why the ideas in this book may be relevant to your situation.

Steve Blank argues (and many more agree) that a startup is a temporary organization designed to accomplish a small set of goals:

  1) Learn and understand exactly who your customers are
  2) Learn and understand exactly what your customers will pay for
  3) Achieve product/market fit (though Blank does not use this term specifically)

Only after you've met this criteria to you begin marketing. What you have described is reminiscent of the "build it and they will come," where the focus was on building your product instead of understanding your customers. I may be mischaracterizing your situation, but history has taught this method to be fatal for a startup.

To better understand this, it's best to fall back onto Paul Buchheit's notion that a small base of customers who love you is always better than a large base of customers who like you. The reasoning behind this is thus: A small, passionate base of visionary customers can be exuberant about a Minimal Viable Product, whereas the mainstream market cannot. From those visionary customers willing to purchase an MVP as opposed to a whole product, you can learn an incredible amount.

Back to you: Currently, you have a small number of customers who like you. If the base of visionary early customers you've attracted just like you, how can you expect the mainstream market (which you seem to be aiming for) to even like you that much? The important factor here is that the mainstream market has even more needs than the customers you're currently serving.

You're worried about cash, and I'm afraid that marketing may be money down the drain. I recommend analyzing your spending and drastically lowering your burn rate. Turn away from the mainstream market and back to your visionary customers. Ask them questions. Find out how you can build a product that they love. Achieve product/market fit (for more information on that, I recommend searching out Sean Ellis' blog).

It seems that there is much to learn about your customers, and that the best course of action here may be moving backward instead of moving forward.

One thing that we have done with bandsonabudget.com is to get involved in our target community on both a local and national level.

Specifically, nationally, we trade/discount services in exchange for festival sponsorship (which usually comes with ad/print/website link). We also write useful blogs/articles/reviews/interview for bands, primarily to drive traffic and serve as link bait.

Locally, we book shows/art opening at our store/office space and cut deals with promoters, venue owners, and tastemakers to help build the brand.

While we might be different from a traditional SaaS service - we are a web based business with a brick and mortar storefront - it all boils down to engaging your target market/community, often times in a non-salesy/gimmicky way - building trust, respect, and brand awareness is the best way to build a loyal customer base.

Pick up phone; call people. It sounds like you need to do more customer development and work out your sales processes, but in the mean time there is no reason why you aren't devoting serious time to calling people.

We have no problem with calling people; the problem is finding people to call--that is, lead generation.

A friend's startup does precisely this (given a target vertical or, ideally, a list of target companies, comes back with a scrubbed target contact list.)

They generally work on referral, but I'd be happy to make an introduction if that's what you're looking for; my email address is in my profile.

> given a target vertical or, ideally, a list of target companies

Well, sure, "ideally" it's easy to find people to call, "given" a list of companies!

Much more interesting if someone produces the list from a vertical.

I just read 4 Step to Epiphany by Steve Blank and it seems that the book is geared towards situations exactly like yours. I'd highly recommend it.

I hope that you are using the word customer in the old fashioned sense of "someone who pays you for your product or service." If so then ask your current customers:

   For referrals
   For testimonials
   What websites, tradeshows, websites, on-line forums they read. 
      Take part in these as they are likely to be target rich environments

Did you try advertising directly? You might try getting write-ups from relevant blogs. Sponsoring events might be another avenue.

Did you try cold calling? How about one of the founders taking a sales person role and start knocking doors?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com