First Customers: 300 Quora Answers and Zero Ad Spend

Rob Rawson built Time Doctor to over $1M ARR without a marketing budget, using first customers tactics that cost nothing but time. His playbook? Writing 300 Quora answers, creating competitor comparison articles, and a reverse image search trick for promoting infographics - all customer acquisition startup strategies that work with zero ad spend.

In this tactical deep-dive, Rob shares the exact grassroots strategies he used to get his first customers, including why the best content you create should genuinely be the best on the entire Internet for that topic. You will also learn how adjacent category content attracts early traction from SaaS-buying audiences.

This is Part 2 of the interview with Rob Rawson. He breaks down specific techniques for getting customers on a shoestring budget: Quora answers with images for visibility, honest comparison articles that capture competitor search traffic, and reverse image search to find sites already publishing similar infographics.

🔑 Key Lessons

• 🎯 Quora drives first customers growth with patience: Rob Rawson answered roughly 300 questions on Quora, spending 20 minutes each with images for visibility. It's not a high-volume strategy, but it's perfect for early-stage founders with zero budget.
• 🔄 Reverse image search unlocks infographic promotion for getting customers: Google's reverse image search reveals which sites published similar infographics. Contact those exact sites about publishing yours - they've already proven they're interested in the topic.
• 🚀 Competitor comparison articles capture larger rivals' search traffic: Creating honest comparison articles between your product and bigger competitors captures people searching for information about those brands, redirecting some to your first customers funnel.
• 🧠 Create content that's genuinely the best on the entire Internet: Rob Rawson says mediocre content produces zero customer acquisition. Invest in readability, comprehensive detail, and great graphics rather than volume. One exceptional article beats ten average ones.

Chapters

• Introduction
• Part 2 with Rob Rawson - getting tactical on marketing
• Rob's overall approach to marketing a SaaS business
• Content marketing, infographics, and competitor articles
• Using Quora for first customers - detailed tactics
• How much time Rob spends on a Quora answer
• How many Quora questions Rob has answered (approximately 300)
• Quora as an early-stage strategy
• Competitor comparison articles - how they work
• Making comparisons genuine and honest
• Posting comparison articles and SEO strategy
• Promoting content in Facebook and LinkedIn groups
• Building CRM comparison lists to attract adjacent audiences
• Understanding your customer beyond your product
• Do infographics still work?
• The reverse image search trick for promoting infographics
• Guest posting and content distribution
• Advice for founders with zero customers and zero traffic
• Provide genuine value before asking for anything
• Lightning round
• Best advice - never giving up
• Book recommendation - Getting Things Done by David Allen
• Characteristic of successful entrepreneurs - being a visionary
• Daily productivity - prioritized list, top to bottom
• Starting over - mobile apps with viral potential

Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/73
• Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email