I’m Lachlan Kirkwood, Digital Marketing Specialist & Founder of ClickThrough, AMA

@abadesi Great question! Although my background is in paid performance marketing, I try and avoid paying for early-user acquisition. I'm interested in trying to organically source the users who find the most value in my platform. The engagement rates from these users always exceeds those from paid channels. Content marketing is a big area for me. Valuable content will always be at the heart of any digital strategy or channel you choose. As a community platform that relies on user-generated content, I've been collaborating with those in my network to help them get more creative. Once I help these users create content, they organically share it with their own audience. I've also taken a bit of inspiration from platforms like Dribbble and have made my product an invite-only community. Although this serves as a way to help me moderate the quality of people who join the community, it also works as a growth strategy.

@lachlankirkwood wow that's interesting insight into invite-only. I would imagine that it could limit growth... but do you find exclusivity increases demand?

@abadesi The way I've built it has been effective so far. Users unlock the ability to invite 3 friends once they publish their first post, so it's also a great way to drive initial engagement across the platform. One of the biggest benefits is that users will often reach out to me and ask for an invite. While I can afford to do things that don't scale, this is a great way to build a meaningful relationship with those users.

@sergio_villasenor I'm always big on preparing tasks before the start of each day, then understanding how to break my time into blocks. Between 2 hour working blocks, I normally take 30 minutes away from work to engage with relevant communities (Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, Growth Hackers, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc). This use of time gives me a break and is also a productive distraction that helps me add value to my audience. I'm also big on excising. At the end of each day I'll go for a run or a ride on my bike to get moving. This one's always non-negotiable. Lately I've been finding it a little lonely working from home, so I've been trying to attend more local meetups, or even jumping on Zoom calls with other founders to share stories. Is there anything that works best for yourself?

@lachlankirkwood It appears great minds think alike, I employ many of the same tactics on assembling my day as you. The one thing I do is a mindless, total disconnect activity. Mines is grabbing my headsets, listening to music & taking walks around the city. I turn off all notifications & just vibe out. One thing that I didn't do earlier on was share stories with other founders. I feel like that is a key ingredient for removing mental blockers & avoiding imposter syndrome. Having a founder community, & supporting communities is essential!

@unrealartemg Hey Artem, that's a great question. As early-stage founders, free acquisition channels are often the only solution we have. As I've mentioned in the comments above, online communities are a valuable channel for acquiring initial users at no cost. Being active in relevant communities is not only a great way to speak to users, but also understand how you can solve their unique problems. The best strategy I've used is to just be yourself and authentically engage with others. Some of the communities I personally use are; Product Hunt, Reddit, Indie Hackers, Growth Hackers, LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, and Quora. I've also found that building a personal brand is a great, long-term strategy for acquiring users. The first 50 users for my product were sourced through my own network. By consistently publishing content and adding value to the industry, it's possible to build thought leadership and amass and engaged following. Hope this can help!

@lachlankirkwood yes, sure it will! could you share best practices concerning this topic? which paid communities could you recommend and could share best communitites from linkedin and facebook. lets say your top-10

@unrealartemg Each day I'll spend roughly 30 mins within every community to just answer queries and respond to relevant posts. If I'm sharing content that redirects to my product, I try and be as transparent as possible and share some actionable value within the post before including a CTA. As for the communities I use, they'll vary based on the product you're building and the audience you're targeting. As I'm building a product for digital marketers, these are a few of my favourites: 1. Digital marketing subreddit 3. Social media marketing subreddit 4. LinkedIn - my network 5. Growth hackers 6. Facebook group - social media geek out 7. Product Hunt 8. Indie Hackers 9. Quora - questions about sourcing digital marketing jobs 10. My own email list