Methods to Earn Your First 100k (Exciting) Users

Acquiring your first 100k active users is an art work, but a messy one—particularly for people who don’t have rather quite rather a lot of cash to spend on marketing and marketing and paid acquisition. Winnie crossed this well-known milestone earlier this one year, so I desired to share some insights about how we did it, with a queer center of attention on solutions that work for nearly any product and cost no (or shrimp or no) money.

What We Built

Simply attach, Winnie is an app that helps folks catch the records they’re going to also serene be a success. This recordsdata may maybe additionally be native (e.g. nearby daycares with open spaces) or it may maybe maybe presumably additionally be topical (e.g. assist with breastfeeding).

Simply about all of this recordsdata is crowdsourced, which makes Winnie a network-enact product — every user we invent increases the value of the product to other users, primarily thru the content material they contribute but additionally thru their engagement with other users. Products indulge in this have decided pure benefits when it comes to development, but they even have an advanced uphill climb in the early days after they’re going to also hold from empty room syndrome or lack the records that early adopters are attempting to catch. So how elevate out you originate while you happen to may maybe even have only about a users and kickstart the flywheel that delivers lengthy-term organic development?

What Worked

Develop even before you open

Pre-open startups on the total flee a non-public beta with friends & family. Right here’s a honorable convey, but it surely’s well-known to guarantee that you may maybe presumably even have some development mechanism for that beta, whether or no longer thru invitations or merely making the beta public. Judge it—your operate with a beta is to test the effectiveness of the product, but shouldn’t the skill of that product to grow be among the biggest issues to test?

Winnie’s non-public beta grew from 10 to over Four hundred folks in 3 months, pushed nearly fully by invitations and non-public referrals. No longer only used to be this core team of early adopters extremely well-behaved to us, to boot they gave us self assurance that this used to be a product folks wanted and would grow by itself.

Hump sizable or stir home

It used to be very tempting to place Winnie hyperlocal and proper kind center of attention on one or two markets to start, but that technique cuts you off from an substantial need of acquisition channels the prevent may maybe presumably also’t aim by locale (most particularly for us, the App Stores). It’s also problematic to restrict development when among the product theses is that it will get larger the extra folks use it.

So whereas we were ramping up for our v1 open, we made the complicated call to open Winnie all around the save, even in regions the save we had nearly no recordsdata. We gave these users a queer onboarding stir alongside with the circulation, the save we allowed them to free up the product by contributing reviews. And it’s a true thing we did, because Apple featured Winnie on the entrance internet page of the App Store right away after we launched. With out the Early Entry stir alongside with the circulation, we would had been turning those users away on the door; as a replace, we dilapidated the replacement to bootstrap treasured content material.

Form flee adverts — but use them to test cost propositions

It’s very laborious to grow for people who don’t know space your product effectively. Fortuitously, now we have the benefit of self-provider marketing platforms — in explicit Facebook and Google—to imply you may maybe presumably also very effectively test solutions and ingenious with diverse demographics. With even a extremely modest spend, you may maybe presumably also strive a ton of solutions and gape what performs the most bright. This would also give you true recordsdata about what folks strive and hunt down; in one test we stumbled on that folks spoke back particularly well to “catch places the save children use free” so we invested in the content material and it’s now one of our most well-most authorized parts.

Form the work to bag featured by Apple & Google

App store that includes is the closest thing we’ve needed to “act of God” development — it will give you an substantial influx of recent users, but you may maybe presumably even have shrimp abet watch over over when it happens. That said, Winnie has been featured quite rather a lot of instances in every stores, largely attributable to the actual fact that we’ve done the work to invent ourselves eligible and participating for that includes.

I’ll maybe presumably write a total blog put up about bag the blessings of the app store gods, but right here are the high level parts:

• Ignore the siren tune of “fabricate once, deploy any place” and fabricate native apps which will most most likely be responsive, fetch, and showcase the vitality of the platform.
• Each and every Apple & Google have extremely detailed invent and UI pointers — respect them.
• Make investments in a queer and scrumptious app icon, to boot to putting promotional art work sources.
• Incorporate platform integrations while you happen to can also, for instance building in Apple Pay enhance when Apple is heavily selling it on the store.

Undergo in solutions that sharing will most most likely be about verbal replace

Offering affordance for sharing your content material or product is well well-known, but it surely looks the means you physique that action can invent a huge distinction in adoption. Early on, we had a Fragment button on every put up, but noticed that it wasn’t getting rather quite rather a lot of utilization. In its save, our users were asking us for methods to save quite rather a lot of posts to revisit later—alongside with a straightforward means to share those bookmarks with their spouses and companions.

It occured to us that some users can also no longer gape themselves as “sharers”, but nearly every person uses a verbal replace made of some kind to coordinate with friends and family. So we removed the Fragment button and modified it with a Place button that then prompts you to share the put up. This advised is framed extra around verbal replace than around broadcasting the content material, and it labored astonishingly well—social shares shot up over 300%.

Repeatedly originate with quiz

From the very beginning we imagined Winnie as a space the save folks may maybe presumably not only connect with one one other but with the businesses, provider providers, educators and medical professionals that they depend upon to spice up their children and fancy their households. On the replacement hand, such a vision depends on the a success pattern of a two-sided ecosystem, an especially daunting assignment for any startup with diminutive sources.

We decided to technique this disaster by beginning with quiz — the consumptive viewers of americans wanting for recordsdata — and developing the provision ourselves. Change our early development initiatives were surely recordsdata acquisition initiatives, reminiscent of developing fully-researched listings for over 5000 daycares and preschools in the Bay Narrate. This modified into out to be a true switch, as this treasured recordsdata triggered a right viewers of americans that now organically attracts businesses to give that content material themselves. (For additional studying invent sure to test up on Ben Thompson’s Aggregation Theory.)

Quit optimizing the product for the viewers you already have

As a product sort designer, among the issues I can also serene be very disciplined about is no longer overly focusing on the present iteration of the product. Before every thing, Winnie used to be a extremely well-behaved app for folks of babies and children, because it may maybe maybe presumably imply yow will come throughout eating places with high chairs and parks with changing tables. On the replacement hand, it had shrimp or no to give folks of older children in those early days.

We knew that in explain for Winnie to work we wished it to be as sizable as that you may maybe presumably also take into consideration, so as a replace of doubling down on making our app a honorable changing table finder, we opted as a replace to fabricate parts that free up new cohorts of users. One example is daycare & preschool search, which triggered a rather older team of people with 3 to five one year olds. Every other is topic pages, which allowed us to fabricate connected content material around special pursuits including formative years & pre-formative years, blended households, single folks and further.

What Didn’t Work

In-particular person marketing and marketing events

While these are honorable for branding and in total is a true means to cultivate a strategy of community among your users, events are extremely time-nice looking. Especially for a crew of all engineers, the ROI used to be nearly below no instances value it for us when when put next with larger-scale development initiatives lets spend our time on.

Being cell-only

This used to be potentially the biggest mistake we made early on. While we wisely sized up our aim market (millennial folks) as heavy customers of apps, when it comes to development the win is serene hugely well-known. This repeat day the lion’s share of our organic development comes from internet traffic in the create of organic search, social shares and phrase of mouth. Mobile-first is honorable. Mobile-only is no longer.

Relying on push notifications on my own

Every other total cell-first error right here. It’s tempting to deem that for people who may maybe even have an app installed on someone’s cell phone, this is able to presumably be easy to reactivate them since you may maybe presumably also use push to bring them support into the app. On the replacement hand, correct kind because push is an choice doesn’t imply you may maybe presumably also serene neglect extra mature channels indulge in electronic mail. Electronic mail is serene a must-have — don’t neglect it!