Acquiring first users with SEO - Part 1

Two months ago I shared the story of how I validated a new product idea for webinar organizers.

Since then, my main focus has been to acquire the first paying customers for Glow. I really want to start writing code, but I decided to put it aside for now and focus on getting first customers.

I wanted to share my journey trying to reach the first customers. I'm still far from cracking it, but I see early signs of optimism.

If you have any feedback, tips or advice for me, I would be forever grateful! 🙏

Why SEO?

I decided to build a product for webinar organizers after organizing webinars myself in my previous role.

Most of my network is either engineering or product focused. I don't have any direct connections to marketing or event managers.

I really wanted to get involved in a community of webinar organizers, but I searched and searched and couldn’t find a relevant community.

I thought about starting paid ads on Google, but decided to avoid it for now since I am going the bootstrap way.

I started researching relevant keywords for SEO and saw immediate potential. Keywords like Zoom Webinar Registration Page have decent volume and little competition.

Plus, I am a big fan of content as a growth strategy, so I decided to go for it.

How do I decide which content to write?

Glow’s problem space is webinar marketing. Zoom is the most common tool for hosting webinars, but its marketing capabilities are very basic.  I decided to start writing guides for Zoom Webinar users.

I looked for relevant Keywords using Ahrefs free tool, and found keywords with significant volume (at least 100 queries per month) and low keyword difficulty (maximum 10 in a 1-100 scale).

In addition, I often hear about challenges webinar organizers are experiencing in conversations with potential users. One example is the problem of attaching calendar invites to email reminders. After I am done researching a topic, I use the momentum to write a guide about it.

Where do I post my content?

If Glow solves the problem directly, for example Zoom Webinar Registration, I add a landing page focused on these keywords.

For other keywords related to webinar marketing I started another site called Webinar marketing academy.

How's it going so far?

Google has a tool called Search Console, which I use to add new pages and track their performance.

It's really addictive to look at it. The feedback is almost instant.

I noticed that after posting a new content, it will rank pretty high in the first few days, sometimes in the top 5 results. After a few days the ranking usually decreases quite significantly, but then over time starts going up again.

I started seeing first users arriving through Google. For these users I created an initial version of the product using No code tools like Webflow, Mailjet, Make, and more.

The numbers are still small but they give me a sense of optimism. I've heard that SEO takes 6 months to show results, so right now I'm happy to see initial results after a month or two.

What’s next?

The next thing I want to try is developing free little tools for popular Keywords. One example is a tool for creating banners for Zoom webinars. I am curious to see how they will perform in comparison to static content.

In addition, some Keywords were pretty successful even though I didn’t write specific content for them, for example Zoom webinar marketo integration. I plan to add dedicated pages for these keywords and see if I can bring in more traffic.

This is it for now. I promise to keep updating on my progress.

If you have any tips for me, feel free to start a conversation with me on Twitter @nirshub