How to get your first customers in 6 chapters.
Starting a new brand? The hardest part isn’t building the product—it’s getting people to actually try it. You’ll be ignored, and feel as if you're begging. Does it have to be so difficult?
👋 Hola! Welcome to Out of Singapore. This is Shan and I am building Xandro Lab, a longevity science brand. I test, learn, and share business and marketing insights in this weekly newsletter.
My first 3 months of building Xandro Lab went into solving one single problem - how to acquire consumers? Do we run ads? Do we organise events? Do we have pop ups? Do we get a celebrity? I would beat my head in every direction to figure this out. I did quite badly.
Over the first 8 months, I learnt customer acquisition bit by bit (still learning). What I realised is that your first consumers won’t come from ads or some viral post—they’ll come from you. Your network, your hustle, and your ability to make people care.
Today’s post breaks down how to find your first customers, get them to try your product, and turn them into your biggest advocates. The goal is to generate early traction, build trust, and create a flywheel effect brings in more every revenue every single day.
Let’s get into it. 🚀
#Chapter 1: Finding Your First Users
1. Leverage Different Sale Channels
Start with: TikTok and personal outreach (direct messaging, calls, emails). Pick up your phone and tell people about your product. Call the people you know. Invite them for lunch or coffee and pitch you product. Email your friend circle and college alumni list.
Add: Make social media videos about your brand and product. Don’t expect to get sales unless you have a TikTok shop connected. This will softly warm your user base. This is not an optional channel. You have to make videos about your products (and brand).
Don’t Forget: Paid ads on Facebook and Tiktok. It is expensive but can work when paired with good content and storytelling. Few good TikTok videos, along with a TikTok shop product link and ad boost, can start generating sales for you.
Did you get the message out of this? Be on TikTok, register your TikTok shop and start running TikTok ads - one at a time.
Apart from TikTok, create your Shopee and Lazada store if you in Singapore. If you are in US, create your store on local big marketplaces. Don’t worry about the fees they will charge. Right now you are building your presence and building credibility.
2. Personal Network First
The people closest to you are most difficult to convert. So instead convince strangers on social media and events. They are generally more open.
Friends, family, and acquaintances can be your first users.Reach out to people (even unknown) personally and ask them to try your product.
Offer a big incentive - 50% off, 50% off for first year, Buy 1 Get 5. Initial offer has to be disproportionate. It must outweigh all reservations a user may have.
When we started Xandro - everyone around me refused to try the product unless it was free. So I focused on strangers - they would test me with 20 questions and if I answered them right, they would spend the money. One customer would call me every time after placing an order just to be sure the order went through. These users were in real need of the product (not my 25-30 year old friends).
3. Create Content Daily
Learn storytelling on social media. Make product and problems the centre stage.
Post daily. Share behind-the-scenes processes, struggles, and small wins.
Make TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and LinkedIn posts. Yes, all three of them. TikTok will give you hate (and sales), Instagram and LinkedIn will give you credibility.
Content and storytelling is non-negotiable. When you show your face, first people will distrust you (and write you off), then get used to you and finally start respecting you.
Chapter 2: Launch Deals & First-User Offers
1. Prioritize Getting People to Try the Product
Don’t focus on profits. It will come with time.
Offer discounts, bundles, or limited-time deals.
Always give out free products. Don’t be stingy with either full sized free products or small samples.
2. Generate Testimonials & Social Proof
Encourage early users to leave reviews and share their experience. Encouragement is not enough. Hound them. Get behind their back and get that testimonial. Don’t stop until they give you the testimonial.Get testimonials on text, audio or video and convert it into every other form. A WhatsApp text should become a video testimonial and a video should also become a text review on website.
Shove these testimonials on every platform you have. Add it to product listings, social content, conversations with people. Every possible place - distribute your testimonials like they are your main product.
3. Make it easy for people to share
Ask satisfied customers to post about their experience in WHATEVER WAY THEY CAN.
Provide big incentives for testimonial - 2 months free product, 3 months free product. Be generous. This is your investment.
Chapter 3: Follow-up with first-time consumers
1. Make your users feel special
Send personalized thank-you emails or messages. NON-NEGOTIABLE. Talk to them please on WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, or email.
Reply to them within minutes when they reach out. No lazy ass has ever made a successful brand.
Feature them in your content. ASK THEM. 90% of them will open to it.
2. Ask for feedback & improve (really improve)
Proactively check in on their experience.
Implement feedback into your product or service. INFORM THEM WHEN YOU MAKE THESE CHANGES. They will feel validated and confident with you.
3. Offer refunds to unsatisfied customers
Prioritize trust over short-term money.
Build a reputation for being customer-first.
Offer refund first, ask question later on.
Chapter 4: Share your brand’s future & vision
1. People will support because they believe in you
Talk about why your brand exists and what change can this brand bring?
Share your long-term vision and product roadmap.
Be authentic and be honest. No fluff needed. Very easy to sense fluff on social media.
2. Build a community, not just a customer base
Create a WhatsApp group, Discord server, or private Facebook group.
Offer exclusive updates, early access, or VIP perks.
I did not do community building part early on, and that’s my biggest mistake. I am still learning how to build the community.
Chapter 5: Leverage HATERS
1. Engage, don’t ignore
Respond professionally to criticism.
Address concerns publicly to build trust.
2. Use Negative Comments for Social Proof
Controversy and discussion can help gain visibility.
Show that you care about customer concerns and improve based on feedback.
Chapter 6: Share your product publicly
1. Attend & participate in events
Pop-up markets, startup fairs, and industry expos can be quite helpful. Go there and talk about your brand and vision.
Offer products, samples or demonstrations every time you time you get a chance. Also, don’t wait for chance, do it every time you can.
2. Share your product with friends & family
Let them try it and ask for their honest feedback.
Encourage them to spread the word.
3. Document your daily struggles & wins
People love authenticity and behind-the-scenes content.
Share REAL MOMENTS of building a business.
Show your excitement - The more excited you are about your product, the more others will want to try it.
Epilogue: The compounding effect
The entire point of putting so much effort and suffering is to build the compounding effect. Once compounding starts, everything will become easier and you will move to new stages of business building. Note these 3 points -
Initially, sales will be slow, and feedback may be sparse.
Early customers create a snowball effect—one user leads to another.
The key is consistency: showing up daily, iterating on feedback, and staying patient.
Using ads wisely
Facebook and TikTok ads can work but are expensive.
Ads must be paired with organic content and authentic storytelling to be effective.
Run (A LOT OF) small test campaigns to see what resonates with your audience.
This framework applies not just to Singapore but to most markets worldwide. The key is persistence, genuine storytelling, and community building. Keep pushing, and your first consumers will become your biggest advocates.
Thanks for reading again! I have tried a new approach today. If this gave value, please like and share the post. It would be deeply appreciated.
Recently, every day is turning out be busier with too many activities. I am not getting time to sit down and relax. I am sleeping late. So simple to say, I am not happy with current lifestyle and how days are panning out. I don’t know if things will improve anytime soon, too many things to do. I have not been able to shoot even a single video this week. I used to have some key times free during the day
Weekday, Morning - 730 to 930 am - this is getting shorter every week.
Weekday, Evening - 630 to 8 pm - This time slot has disappeared completely. 😩
I will need to fight to get my own free relaxing time, otherwise I won’t be able to function well (that’s not true, I can function well but I won’t recharge well).
Tired Jisoo, Sad Jisoo
Jisoo shows how I feel every night nowadays 😩
I will now close this post, and head to rest a few hours before Monday begins. Cheers to the new week! Hope you have a good, productive and restful week ahead.