Any tips for getting people to take action?

For people that are just starting out, I always suggest dedicating a lot of time on manual customer acquisition and over the top customer service. It requires a lot of time but it works. For this reason, I believe the easiest and fastest way to build a sizable business is to have a medium to a high-priced product or a business model that guarantees a CLV in the thousands of dollars.

I will make a concrete example of how I apply this strategy. In my last business, I need 280 customers to make $ 1 m per year. I have to acquire and retain 5 customers per week to build a seven figures business in a year. Considered this fact, I can dedicate 4-5 hours per day networking on forums/websites/online communities where my target customers are, answers all their questions and doubts. make them risk-free to try ((I'm working on a video creation service, I give them a free video). I also use personalized cold emails, again answering doubts and offering a free video.

When they become customers, I overdeliver on the promises I made. For example, my website says that you can expect your video in 48 hours, we deliver it in 24. Or you can get a refund only if you haven't asked for source files, but I give them the refund anyway. Basically, I make for them impossible not to talk about my business to their friends.

It takes time but works really well. I believe that a lot of indie hackers fail because they try to sell low-priced products and that requires a large number of clients. You can't manually acquire customers for a $ 9 monthly subscription. It's not time-effective. And for low priced products it's ever a lot harder to do paid ads.

Another important aspect. I focus on B2B products and services. The reason is quite simple. First, businesses want to make more money and are willing to pay for everything that helps them reach that goal. Second, for a high six figures, low seven figures business $ 3-400 per month are nothing, for an individual is probably the largest expense after rent and groceries. Third, when you gain a business client and you deliver a good service, they will think 10 times before switching and you will be willing to pay a higher price.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that manually and slowly building relationships is the way to go. Very few people do it nowadays and so it's even more effective. So, before building a product, I would always ask my self: Is the CLV high enough to justify this kind of effort? Are the margins high enough to do paid ads? If the answer to both these questions is no, I would look elsewhere.

In one of my project, i have deliberately kept a late auto pop-up prompting user to give feedback on the reason for not signing up yet.
A chat prompt could also initiate action, asking any doubt.

Oh wow...

There's a massive gulf between awareness and action - and you have to overcome it to move people from the former to the latter.

Awareness is easy...

Here's shiny thing X. See? Now you know about it

But that's pretty useless.

The person will be aware of your product. But they probably won't be ready to take a meaningful action.

For that, you need to to dive a lot deeper...

• ... how will their life be better after using your product/taking the action you want them to take?
• ... do they believe and trust you?
• ... have you identified and overcome any significant objections they have to taking the action?
• ... have you used active language they identify with, understand and are motivated by?
• ... have you asked them to take the action at the right moment - when they're most likely to be receptive to taking that action?
• ... if they don't take the action, have you followed up and asked them again later?

Understanding the person you're talking to is the key to getting them to take action and use or buy your product.

Scarcity, discounts, incentivised referrals... these are nice-to-haves, but they won't save you if you don't get the points above right.

Discount or other reward for sharing with others. "Free" is a pretty magical term here. There's also a lot of psychology around how people make decisions that you can take advantage of. For example, if you present 3 pricing plans, people are always more likely to choose the middle option. You can add a higher tier plan and eliminate the lowest tier plan, and mysteriously the buyers shift to what was previously your high tier plan but is now your middle...

Scarcity. Limited time offers for example.

Encourage users to share a link to your landing page or homepage using social media channels such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc...