APP promotion: Where do users come from for new products with no money to promote?

How to cold start a product with no people, no money, no resources and no data? The product is immature, the channel is immature, the team is immature, and the users have no stickiness. How can we find seed users? It is not a good operation if you have not experienced the operation from 0 to 1. Seed users are not about attracting new users, but about stickiness.

Where will users come from for a new product with no money to promote?

A product with no people, no money, no resources and no data. In the initial stage of the entrepreneurial team, the product is immature, the channel is immature, the team is immature, and the users have no stickiness. How to operate it?

A new product or a new team may have nothing, but one thing needs to be clear: what problem your product is going to solve.

The product can be crude and its functions can be simple, but it must be effective.

For example, the initial version of TikTok can actually be seen as a tool that allows ordinary people to create innovative short videos through some cool effects, quickly capturing users' desire to show off.

Take effective functions as the main interest point, promote through free channels, such as electronic markets, Toutiao and other self-media, target user communities, and other channels that can find users with needs, and do everything that needs to be done:

1. List on the electronic market, apply for the first release, and write a description based on the product's features;

2. Establish a self-media account and create content based on the preferences of the crowd. Compared with WeChat public accounts, Toutiao accounts and other platforms that rely on recommendation and distribution mechanisms, it is easier to gain exposure;

3. Open a blog to introduce your products instead of the official website. Use the high authority of the blog to quickly be included in Baidu and gain exposure;

4. Join one hundred related communities, design a promotional poster, throw it out and leave.

In short, use all free traffic distribution channels to allow users to access your product, and rely on the core functions of the product to guide users to download.

Where to find seed users? Don’t rely on finding, rely on cultivating

It is difficult for a small team with no people, no money and no resources to attract high-quality users on a large platform. However, when the number of users is small in the initial stage, the advantage is that more operating time can be given to existing users, thus building closer relationships with users and cultivating seed users.

No channel can bring you seed users. Seed users are user connections established during frequent interactions. The role of seed users is to help you improve product experience and find the real needs of users.

I once worked as a part-time APP operator for college students. In the initial period, there were less than 1,000 daily active users, and less than 500 users who found part-time jobs through the platform. How do I cultivate seed users at this stage? The dissemination of campus users can be achieved through grouping to achieve rapid growth. How can you make users willing to help you spread the word?

First, we communicated with users in the dumbest way possible, calling registered users to ask about their registration intentions, part-time experience, and product optimization feedback. At that time, the operations team became the customer service team.

Secondly, we designed part-time positions that users are interested in. Part-time jobs for college students are generally flyer distributers, waiters, and security guards, but we designed a series of positions that users are interested in, such as skydiving experiencer, coffee apprentice, part-time job in scenic spots and hotels during holidays, and part-time job in convenience stores at night. In order to design the positions, we specifically approached relevant businesses to discuss cooperation and even spent some money on this.

The effect is that these interesting positions are recommended to users during telephone conversations. The novel and interesting positions allow the product to spread quickly, and the operating data has grown exponentially.

During the ongoing operation, we identified some users who frequently signed up for part-time jobs as seed users, developed them into part-time team leaders, gave them priority in recommending good positions, and granted them some privileges to cultivate user stickiness.

Therefore, seed users are not an attribute that users inherently possess, but rather a sense of honor that is brought to users through operational behavior, allowing users to establish a connection with the product. For users, having an official operator's WeChat (real person WeChat) will make them feel more advanced than other users.

Is it really impossible to pay for promotion if you have no money and no resources?

No, although the entrepreneurial team has little capital, it is impossible to start a business at zero cost. After all, the team cost is also very high. It’s just that effective spending is required in paid promotion.

Mature teams can attract traffic through paid exposure in channels and eventually achieve retention after user churn. In the process of cultivating seed users, initial teams can attract users from external channels through prize stimulation, event conversion, etc.

The download and installation threshold of the APP is higher, but users can be guided to WeChat communities, official accounts, and mini-programs to achieve a quick product experience at a lower cost.

Community fission is one of the effective ways to acquire seed users at low cost. For example, how does a newly launched e-commerce app perform fission?

First, determine your target audience, including city, gender, age, preferences, spending power and other attributes, and join the group where these users are.

Secondly, design a fission activity, design a product based on the preferences of the set group of people, for example, buy ** product for 1 yuan, and design a poster to promote it to the group.

Third, set up a low-threshold user entrance. Users need to download and install the APP. Users can be guided to communities, public accounts, and other destinations through wap pages, public accounts, and even direct purchases from the community.

Such activities reduce channel promotion costs, but activity costs still have to be paid.

Summary: Cold start of four-no products highlights one core product value

During the cold start process of a product with "four no's", do not be too ambitious. For example, if the product reaches 100,000 users within one month after launch, such a goal itself is unreasonable. Instead, you should focus on one core function and one type of core user. Develop 1,000 users during the cold start phase, gradually cultivate core users, optimize the product and iterate it, and then start to vigorously promote it to achieve rapid growth after the functions are mature.

Source: Zhuge io Data Coach