Where to find your first customers online
·4 min read
Your first customers already gather somewhere online. Find those places by checking where your competitors get mentioned, which sites AI answers cite for your topic, and who your competitors target with ads. Then list 20 places, pick 3, and show up there every week for a month.
Marketers call these places watering holes. The steps below help you map yours before you spend time posting.
Start with where your competitors get mentioned
The sites that link to your competitors are a ready-made list of places your buyers read. A blog that reviewed a competitor will often look at a similar product. A directory that lists them can list you.
Run Backlink Finder on your closest competitor. It shows the top 100 sites linking to them, how strong each one is and whether it looks spammy. Sort the results into four groups:
- Blogs and media that wrote about them.
- Newsletters and roundups.
- Directories and "best of" lists.
- Forums and communities.
Skip anything that looks spammy. The tool does not give contact details, so find the author or editor on each site yourself. For more on this, see competitor backlinks. If you are not sure who your competitors are, start with how to find competitors.
Check which sites AI answers cite for your topic
Many buyers now research with ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews before they visit any website. The pages those answers cite are a good hint at where research happens in your market.
AI Citation Finder shows which pages Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT cite for a topic, with the sites cited most and the searches behind the answers. Look for forums, review sites, niche blogs and comparison articles in that list. Those are places to join, get reviewed on or pitch.
Find the questions your buyers ask
Questions show you the words buyers use and the problems they want solved. They also show where those people go for answers.
- Question Finder lists the questions Google shows for a topic.
- AI Question Finder lists the questions people ask Google AI Overviews or ChatGPT, with the start of each answer and the sources it lists.
Add every source that keeps coming up to your list. Save the questions too. They make good opening lines when you post in a community.
See who your competitors target with ads
Ads show who a competitor is trying to reach and what they promise. You can read that without spending anything on ads yourself.
Meta Ad Finder shows the Facebook and Instagram ads a competitor runs right now, with the wording, call to action, landing page and placements. Open the landing pages. A page titled "for agencies" or "for clinics" tells you which group they think buys.
LinkedIn Ad Finder shows a company's LinkedIn ads with headlines, descriptions and start and stop dates. If a competitor runs LinkedIn ads, they likely sell to people with job titles, so LinkedIn groups and industry communities belong on your list.
Look in LinkedIn and industry groups
Many B2B buyers spend time in LinkedIn groups, Slack and Discord communities, and the forums of industry associations. Search LinkedIn for your buyer's job title plus "group", and ask a few customers where they ask peers for advice.
Reddit is worth checking too, but it has strict rules. See how to get users from Reddit before you post.
Check review sites in your category
Software buyers read G2 and Capterra. Consumer buyers read app store reviews and sites like Trustpilot. Find the review sites that list your competitors, then:
- Read the negative reviews of competitors. The complaints tell you what to say in your pitch.
- Create a listing for your own product where it is allowed.
- Note the reviewers who describe your buyer's exact problem. They often post in the same communities.
Make a list of 20 places, then pick 3
Put every place in one table so you can compare them.
| Place | Type | Found through | Are buyers there? | Promotion rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example forum | Community | AI citations | Yes, asking questions | Weekly thread only |
| Example newsletter | Newsletter | Competitor links | Yes | Sponsor or guest post |
Pick the 3 places where your buyers are active every week, ask questions you can answer and allow you to take part. Leave the rest on the list for later.
Show up every week for a month
Pick a weekly routine for each place and keep it for 4 weeks.
- Answer questions or comment where you can help.
- Share one useful thing a week, like a guide or a lesson learned.
- Add UTM tags to every link, with
utm_sourceset to the place. - At the end of the month, compare signups by source.
Keep the place that brought the most signups. Replace the weakest with the next one on your list. If you sell to businesses, how to get your first B2B customers covers what to do once you start conversations.
Find your competitors' watering holes with our tools
Backlink Finder (70 credits) shows the strongest sites linking to a competitor, so you can see the blogs, newsletters and directories that already cover your market. AI Citation Finder (160 credits) shows the sites AI answers cite for your topic. Meta Ad Finder and LinkedIn Ad Finder (5 credits each) show who your competitors target and how. Start with Backlink Finder on one competitor and build your list of 20 from there.