Getting your first 1,000 users as an African Startup

Do you know how long it took Piggyvest to hit 1000 users? 

I reached out to Piggyvest cofounder Odunayo Eweniyi who told me that they launched in April 2016, and by December 31, 2016, they got 800 signups. By noon the next day, they had reached 1,000 users. It took 9 months.

Remittance company, Swyftpay on the other hand hit 1,000 users in 3 months while  AltSchool Africa did it in one week. 

Startups like OpenAI are another category, hitting a record 1 million users on ChatGPT in just 5 days. 

Granted, nine out of 10 times, your product might not be like ChatGPT,  but this article will provide you with tested strategies that you can start implementing today, to get you your first 1000 users as a startup in Nigeria or Africa.

It is important to note that the strategies you use to get your first 1,000 users are going to be very different from the ones you would use to hit your first 10,000 users. 

How NOT to do it

Acquiring those first 1,000 users is a critical milestone for any startup. It's critical for validation, growth, and building a user base. And while the need is high, it's important not to go about it through just any means. 

You might be already thinking, “Getting my first 1k signups? Easy, I'll just run a lot of paid ad campaigns.” But in most instances, that’s just an easy way to blow up money, it’ll probably not get you anywhere. What you will get is a ton of people in your Facebook ads comments section with questions like “Has anyone tried this app”, and “Are these people legit?” or “Users” who can’t remember why they signed up in the first place.

This doesn’t mean that getting quality users through ads is impossible, most of AltSchool Africa’s initial 1,000 users came through ads, but it might not be the best (or cost-effective) strategy for getting your first 1,000 users, especially if you don't get your Ads right.

Here are some other things to keep in mind NOT to do 

• Spray and Pray Marketing: You could spend millions on Ads and still not reach your target users. Don't just blast out generic ads or promotions to everyone (I've said this before, it's just a good way to lose a lot of money). Do this instead; Identify your target audience and the platforms they frequent, and tailor your message to their specific platform, demographics and needs. This is the only way to get it right with advertising your product. 
• Neglecting User Feedback: Thepeer acknowledged encountering compliance issues that could have been identified with earlier user testing or feedback. Remember, you're building products for users, not yourself. Gather feedback early. Use surveys, user interviews, and A/B testing. Gathering feedback can be as basic as asking for suggestions on Twitter or sending samples to potential customers. Be prepared to implement changes based on user insights.
• Ignoring Pre-Launch Validation: This might seem like a piece of obvious advice but do NOT pour resources into a product nobody wants. From my experience, most times “untapped territory” is just another word for “nobody wants it”. Before full launch, set up waitlists, pre-orders, or landing pages to gauge interest and to find out if your USP is something people want and are willing to pay for, so you can refine your offering to fit. And as long as your product solves a problem for people, getting users becomes a little less demanding.

So now that we have gone over these mistakes, we can focus on the strategies you should use that attract real users interested in the problem your startup solves. 

To-Do’s to get your first 1000 users as an African startup 

Invest in storytelling Content Marketing

Say you have a startup that connects home and property sellers to homebuyers in Nigeria with everything from acquisition to licensing done from the comfort of your chair, you should be constantly putting out content that talks about challenges that people face when buying a home or lands in the country.

Some of the content you’ll create could have these titles:

• Reasons why you shouldn't buy land in x neighborhood in Lagos 
• These locations will 4.5x your land investment in 2 years if you buy land today 
• Here is what to look out for before buying a house in Aba 
• Pros and cons of owning land in Enugu

Maybe you also put out social media posts talking about common challenges, mythbusters, tips, and tricks in the space and also hop on forums talking about topics like real estate investments and housing. This type of valuable and educative content gets people to go “These guys know their stuff.”

By consistently delivering valuable, educational content, you'll establish yourself as the go-to resource for Nigerian real estate. Viewers will recognize your expertise, making them far more likely to consider your user-friendly platform when it's time to buy a home or land. In the real estate market, nobody is gonna fork over all that money to you unless they trust that you know what you're doing, here trust is king, and content marketing is your key to unlocking it. It is the same in every startup; build authority through content marketing, and it fast-tracks everything else. 

Referral Programs

Referrals are also a great way to grow your user base. But unless you have a couple hundred million dollars in funding like Chipper Cash or Opay you should avoid monetary-based incentives and shift to incentives that will help users to use your product more. 

Agreeably, monetary rewards will attract initial interest in a referral program, but then many users who sign up will just be there for the reward. So you will just have 10,000 users on paper, but in reality, 8,500 are not active users. 

Other incentive strategies might not be as attractive, but they will ensure that anyone who signs up remains an active user. 

Here are other alternative incentive structures that can create long-term value for both you and your users, and won't require you to spend a ton of money doing it:

Free Transactions for Referrals: Instead of cash, offer "refer and reward" incentives that improve users’ experience. For example, for every successful referral, unlock a set number of free transfers (for fintechs) or you could offer a limited-time discount on premium features like a “50% discount on acquiring a dollar card.” This encourages users to use more functionalities within the app, increasing their overall satisfaction and retention. 

Tiered Referral Programs: You can Implement a tiered gamified referral program where users unlock additional benefits based on the number of successful referrals. This could involve users earning more free transactions, early access to new features, or maybe exclusive badges with unique perks displayed on their profiles. Gamification incentivizes continued app promotion while driving healthy competition and user engagement. This has worked well for retail startups like Jumia, Chowdeck, Takealot, and Twiga Foods.

Charity Partnerships: This is not a very popular referral method in Africa, but you can partner with reputable charities and offer users the option to donate their earned referral rewards to a cause they care about. This goes both ways to help users contribute to a good cause while aligning your brand with positive social impact. 

When you focus on non-monetary incentives that promote engagement with your product and also create a sense of community, you build a more sustainable (not to mention cost-effective) user acquisition strategy. This method creates brand advocates who genuinely appreciate the value your product offers, leading to organic growth and long-term success. 

Talk to People

Go where your target users are, whether they’re offline or online. Email them, post it on social media, invite your friends and family, talk to them about your product, encourage them to sign up on your website, and share it with their relevant networks too. Get them to leave you reviews about your product on social media when they can, and share with them a post you made on your brand account on Instagram so they'll leave a comment. Talk to people and get them talking about you. These are the people that will build you a base of trust.

Make sure the “friends and family” you invite fall into your target user persona. You probably do not want to send a link to sign up to onboard wallet to your 75-year-old grandma. 

Here is how to do this:

• Identify the online and offline spaces where your ideal users hang out. Think of industry forums, relevant social media groups, meetups, or conferences. 
• Immerse yourself in these communities, don't just pitch your product and ghost, nobody is going to take you seriously that way – participate in discussions, answer questions, and provide value. People are more receptive to ideas from someone they see as part of the group. 
• Pay close attention to people's questions and responses. This will help you understand their needs and refine your product messaging.

Ask users a lot of questions

A key priority in the early stages is to know as learn as much as you can about what works for users concerning your products and doubling down on them 

You can easily build a form on Tally and ask people open-ended questions concerning similar tools or products they use and what they like or dislike about those tools/products. 

If you have the extra cash, build a survey into your website or app and ask questions directly from there. Note that when asking questions in the app, it is best to ask close-ended questions with simple “Yes” or “No” answers.

And finally… 

Do things that don't scale

The African startup ecosystem is relatively young, there are way more people who don't understand how the basic internet works than people who do, and so you need to do a lot of things that you normally might not do. "Things that don't scale" mean actions or strategies that might not be sustainable in the long run due to their demanding nature. 

Things that don't scale include manually responding to every customer email, personally onboarding every user as a founder, offering personalized discounts or deals, and spending time on social media interacting with followers.

The most important benefit of "things that don't scale" is that they allow you to gather valuable insights and build relationships with your early users, This feedback is important for refining your product and ensuring it solves a real problem. 

Imagine this; suppose you send a complaint to customer care and the founder personally reaches out apologizing and assuring you that the problem has been resolved, I'm pretty sure you’ll feel extra special. However, the goal is to eventually transition to more scalable solutions like partially or even fully automated support systems, self-serve onboarding processes, and standardised pricing structures. 

Implementing these strategies will get you your first 1000 users. Implement, analyse, and repeat until users begin to stick around.

Read Next: 20 Funding Terms Every Startup Founder Should Know