How to Get Your First Customers Online With No Audience

Starting your online business from scratch usually means that you don’t have any followers or even an email list. With no visibility and a million new small businesses opening each year, it can feel impossible to find customers. Unfortunately, a lot of advice assumes that you already have an audience. If not that, it gives tactics that only work after spending money on ads and spending several months of posting content.

Our guide takes you right to the beginning: when you start at zero and need real people who will be interested in and buy your service. The purpose of our step-by-step guide is to get validation and traction instead of hacking growth or going viral. Implementing this process will prove that your offer solves a real problem and that strangers are willing to part with their money for your solution.

We’ll discuss how to get first customers online, low-cost outreach strategies, and simple ways to package your offer so people are prompted to act.

Understanding Your Offer and Ideal Customer

A large audience isn’t worth much if they don’t think your service can solve their problem. If your offer sounds vague or doesn’t have an objective outcome, the process to acquire initial online customers becomes a lot harder.

The strongest early offers are specific about who they’re helping, clear about the kind of problem they solve, and say all of this in a few sentences.  

Defining a Clear, Simple Offer For Prospects

Ask these questions when defining your business’s offer:

• Who is this product for? The person should be in a specific role or situation, and your digital product can’t be for everyone.
• What problem do they want to solve? The problem should be urgent enough to demand a solution and complex enough to require expert assistance.
• What outcome can your business help them achieve? Be realistic in defining how your service can make a positive change.

So, instead of saying ‘I help freelancers,’ you can say ‘I help freelance designers get their first 3 clients without cold emailing.’ Even if it’s not perfect, your offer should be clear enough for the reader to recognize ‘hey, this is for me.’

Tactics to Find First Customers Without an Audience

Sure, you don’t have thousands of followers, but you can use direct access to your advantage. At this point, you’re only starting conversations with people to see if they fall into your target audience.

1. Leverage Personal and Professional Networks

For decades, small businesses’ first customers came from people they already knew or were connected to.

We don’t mean hard-selling to friends and family, but building visibility and clarity through your network. You can do this by telling them about your service and who it’s for, and instead of pitching, you can ask them to refer people who might benefit. Lastly, you should invite feedback to refine your offer better.

2. Join Online Communities

Online communities, whether they’re forums, Slack spaces, Facebook groups, Reddit threads, or Discord servers, have plenty of people talking about problems they want to solve. Unfortunately, a lot of beginners start spamming these communities by sharing links too soon.

Instead, you should:

• See the most common questions and frustrations among members
• Reply to these questions with helpful answers
• Share your personal experience with the problem
• Offer to continue the conversation via direct messages (if relevant)  

Gradually, people will start asking if you offer the solution you’re referring to, which gives you an opening to your first customer.

3. Approach Prospects With Personalized Messages

During the early phase, customer outreach strategies are most effective when they’re human and personalized. The best outreach messages are targeted, focused on the person’s situation, and centered on offering value. Here’s a structure you can follow:

• Acknowledge something about them, like their role
• Name a problem they face because of their role
• Offer a next step towards a solution or a conversation if they have more questions

You can say something like ‘Hello [name], I came across your profile and noticed you’re [specific situation]. I’m working on [related problem] and thought this might be useful, but I’m happy to share more if you have questions.’

Right now, you don’t need hundreds of people to respond. Just a handful of conversations can help you get first customers online.

4. Use Freelancing Platforms

Even if your long-term plan isn’t to freelance, freelancing platforms and service marketplaces are great places to find your initial customers. That’s because the people there are looking to buy services, you don’t need a big audience, and you receive immediate feedback.

Once you join a freelancing platform, you can use it to:

• Test demand for your offer
• Learn what buyers ask for
• Refine your positioning and pricing

Treat this as a learning environment instead of a permanent setup for finding customers because you’ll build confidence with experience.  

5. Offer Discounted Sessions (But Be Strategic)

Discounted or free offers can work, but you have to use them intentionally. The best uses for discounted rates or free sessions include getting testimonials, generating referrals, and building early case studies.

It’s important to keep your discount limited, like setting a limited number of spots or keeping it active for a specific timeframe. You should also be clear about what’s included so customers know exactly what they’re receiving.

Setting Up Simple Conversion Points

You need a clear place where interested people can say ‘yes’ to your offer, and we’re not talking about a complex website or funnel. A landing page will tell visitors what you offer and what they can do next to get started. You page should have a:

• Clear headline mentioning the problem you want to solve
• Short explanation of who your offer is for and how it can help
• Simple call to action like ‘sign up,’ or ‘book a call’

There’s no need to use premium themes, layouts, or animations for the page, since too many elements can confuse visitors and reduce possible conversions.

If you don’t have technical skills, AI-powered no-code tools make this process a lot easier. Platforms like nas.io allow solopreneurs to create landing pages and package offers quickly without having to learn code. These tools come in handy once you’ve clarified your offer and want a professional space to send interested prospects.

Packaging and Pricing Your First Offer

Your offer’s package and price matter more in getting your first customers than how polished your brand is. In the early stage, offers should be easy to understand, useful, and low-risk. To create a strong beginner offer, you have to present a specific result for a target audience facing a specific problem.

Don’t list down everything you can do in a bid to get customers because broad offers make it hard for people to decide. The best early-stage offers are packaged to have a:

• Clearly-defined service, like an hour-long consultation or software
• Specific outcome for the customer instead of different features
• Simple format that’s easy to deliver

‘Business coaching’ is an example of a poorly packaged offer because it’s too broad and abstract. But if you say ‘60-minute strategy session to help you define your first offer,’ it sounds much more concrete.

No matter how basic a service you’re offering, keeping it simple reduces uncertainty. And when people know what they’re getting, they’re likely to say yes.

Pricing Your First Offer Without Undervaluing Yourself

Pricing your initial offer is about building confidence and validating demand for your product rather than increasing profit. Here are a few strategies for beginner-friendly pricing:

• Setting entry-level prices that are accessible while being respectful of your time
• Introductory rates that are accessible through testimonials
• Fixed prices instead of complex tiers and custom quotes

You need to avoid pricing the offer too high or too low. If the price is too high, it slows down early momentum and feedback. And if it’s too low, it undervalues your skills and undermines confidence.

Following Up and Building Trust

Following up with the people you reach out to is an important step in starting online sales without followers. By continuing the conversation in a helpful (not pushy) way, you show that you’re present, which turns people’s interest into action. This can look like:

• Sending a check-in message after an initial conversation
• Giving them additional context or information
• Telling them the next steps and how it involves a purchase

Initially, it’s enough to send one or two follow-ups, and if you don’t get a response, move on to the next lead.

Building Trust Without an Audience

When you don’t have social proof, building trust starts with clarity, consistency, and small signs of credibility. You can build trust by:

• Being clear about the things you can and can’t help with
• Delivering what you promise
• Communicating reliably

And if you’ve worked with clients in the past, even informally, you can reference that experience without exaggerating.

Use Small Wins To Attract More Customers

As you build trust and get experience selling, you build social proof. This doesn’t have to be flashy, and even small wins can build momentum. You can share things like:

• A short testimonial from a first client
• Positive message or email you received
• Case-style brief showing how you helped a client

As you accumulate small wins, future outreach becomes easier. With each successful interaction, you can prove that your offer works.

When and How to Use AI Tools Like Nas.io

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: AI tools are helpful after you’ve proven how your offer resonates with real people. At the start, manual outreach and conversations give important feedback that automation can’t replace. After you’ve done the following, you can start using AI platforms to save time and be consistent:

• Confirm that prospects understand your offer,
• See genuine interest or early purchases, and
• Repeat the outreach enough times to feel confident about it,

That’s when automation reduces the amount of manual tasks without disconnecting you from customers.

Using AI to Support Early Customer Acquisition

AI-powered platforms can assist with repetitive tasks like:

• Following up with prospects after an initial outreach. It automates simple check-in messages so you don’t miss leads.
• Capturing leads by creating forms or basic funnels to get people’s contact information.
• Setting up your landing pages. AI tools can generate simple pages that explain your offer without requiring tech skills.

Platforms like nas.io have features to help non-technical side hustlers and solopreneurs handle tasks without any coding, so they can focus on conversations and delivery.

Avoid Using AI-Powered Tools Too Soon

Using automation before validating your offer stops you from learning and makes you build false confidence. Advanced AI tools won’t fix:

• Weak messaging
• Poorly designed offer
• Unclear value proposition

As a beginner business owner, your growth will come from understanding people, while AI supports what’s already working.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

When you’re tasked to acquire initial online customers without a pre-existing audience, you might feel a sense of urgency. This can make you develop habits that slow down progress instead of building it. Knowing what mistakes you’re likely to make and how to avoid them can help you stay focused:

Using Generic Mass Messaging

A lot of beginners make the mistake of sending the same message to dozens of people and hoping something sticks. But this backfires because it feels auto-generated to readers, which makes them ignore it.

You can avoid it by focusing on delivering fewer, but high-quality messages during outreach. Referencing a specific detail about the person you’re emailing or messaging can make it seem personal, while improving the rate of conversions to 30 percent.

Premature Multitasking

Reading about other businesses’ success with different tactics and platforms can tempt you to try everything at the same time. But dividing your attention among so many things can lead to burnout before you even see results.

Instead, focus on one or two methods initially and set small goals to achieve per week. For example, aiming for five conversations and one offer test. Before adding anything new, like a tool or platform, review what’s already working.

Expecting Immediate Results

A lot of first-time solopreneurs underestimate how long it takes to hear a ‘yes.’ The average rate of cold email conversions is between 1 and 5 percent, which means that about 95 percent of your attempts might go unanswered. Just because some of your messages go unanswered doesn’t mean you’re failing.

To keep yourself from feeling discouraged, treat early outreach as research instead of rejection. More importantly, track your progress based on people’s feedback and conversations, not just sales. At this stage, progress will seem quiet and incremental, so being realistic about timelines can help you stay focused.

Starting Online Sales Without Followers Isn’t Impossible

Learning how to sell without an audience is about being clear and consistent instead of getting more visibility. Focusing on a clear offer, reaching out thoughtfully, and making it easier for people to take the next step keeps progress achievable.

Start small, pay attention to what resonates with people, and refine your approach based on their feedback. Every conversation, response, or small win can provide information that improves your process. And when you’ve mastered the basics of making your audience feel heard, you can use AI tools like nas.io to be consistent when selling online.

FAQs