How to get people to try your product

You built your product, people say it looks interesting, and almost nobody tries it. Here is how to get people to try your product: make the try small, take away every step before the first result, then offer it by name to 100 people a day and ask them straight out to start. A link that says "check it out" asks a stranger to do all the work, so most people never click, and the few who do stop at the first form.

Do these three things

About 4 hours a day, every day, for 4 weeks. Judge it after 2,800 offers, not after the first quiet week.

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1. 1Today: turn your product into one small try that gives a stranger one real result, such as a free trialsoon you set up with them, a sample, a short pilot or a free review. Then remove every step before that result.
2. 2Every day: offer the try by name in 100 personal messagessoon to people who fit, and ask everyone who replies to start it today. AI drafts each message; you add one true line about the person.
3. 3Every Sunday: count offers, yeses, tries started and tries finished. Fix the step where most people stopped, and judge the whole thing after 2,800 offers.

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1. Turn your product into one small try with one clear result#

Write your try as one sentence: the one result a person gets, how much of their time it takes, and what it costs them. People do not try a product. They try to get one thing done, so the sentence must name that thing.

Pick the first result your best customers got, in their words. If you have no customers yet, use the problem you heard most in your customer interviews. If your product is not launched yet, find beta users first; this guide is for a product people can use today. Keep the try to one result. A person who fits your ideal customer profile should read the sentence and know in 5 seconds whether they want it.

[Who it is for]: [the one result you get], in [how much of your time], for [what it costs you: free, a small price, or credit toward your first order]. [What happens next, if anything.]

The try changes by what you sell:

If you run a SaaS: offer to set up the trial with each person on a 15-minute call, so they see the first result before the call ends. Early founders on Indie Hackers and Hacker News in 2026 name these calls as what got their first users going, and ChartMogul's March 2026 report lists "1:1 onboarding calls" among the ways software companies raise conversion. Reaching that result is what your activation ratesoon counts.

If you run a B2B company: offer a free sample, or a pilot of 4 to 8 weeks on one narrow job. Write down before it starts the one measure, the date you will decide, and the price if it passes. Ask for a small fee if the buyer can pay one: it shows they are serious. One 2026 guide puts it plainly: "a paid PoC without success criteria is just paid ambiguity."

If you run a D2C store: sell a sample or trial size at a small price, and give that price back as a code toward the full size. A UK fragrance store, The Fragrance World, sells five 5ml bottles for £14.99 and emails a £15 credit code for a full bottle, one per customer, valid 90 days. Check the sample still leaves you money after postage using your product pricing.

If you run an agency: offer a free review of one thing, such as a 5-minute video with 3 changes to one page, and name a small paid test project as the next step. Keep it to one thing, because a full marketing audit given away as a lead magnet takes days and rarely turns into a client. It is also how you get your first results when you have no case studiessoon, and a finished test project becomes your first case studysoon.

• Tool: a Google Doc. No paid tool needed.
• Time: 1 hour.
• You will have: one sentence that names the result, the time and the cost to them.
• It worked if: you read it to 5 people who fit, and at least 4 can say back what they would get, in their own words.
• Common mistake: "Start your free 14-day trial" or "Get a free marketing audit". Neither says what the person gets. The other mistake is giving everything away: a try that is the whole product for free gives people no reason to pay latersoon.

2. Remove every step before the first result#

Go through your try yourself, as a stranger would, from the first click to the first result, and delete every step that the result does not need. Each extra step, such as a card, a call or a long form, loses people who were ready to try.

Open a private browser window, or ask a friend, and time it. Write down every step: every page, field, email, wait and question. Next to each, write whether the first result needs it. Then remove, move or skip everything that does not.

Then watch 3 people who have never seen your product do the try, on a video call, without help. Where they stop is what to fix next. If people visit and still do not start, work through a SaaS site with traffic but no signupssoon or a store with traffic but no salessoon. If the page they land on does not say what the try is, rewrite the landing pagesoon so its call to action is the try sentence from step 1.

If you run a SaaS: let people sign up with their Google account, and do not ask for a card from the first people you invite. In ChartMogul's February 2026 report on 200 software products, trials that asked for a card got 35 signups per 1,000 visitors, against 45 without a card, but far more of them paid. Until 20 people have used your product, more people trying matters more than a higher paying rate, so leave the card out and decide later between a card, no card and freemium. If you do take a card, US rules (ROSCA) require clear terms, consent before any charge, and a simple way to cancel. Add a demo people can use with no signup; Show HNsoon asks for exactly that.

If you run a B2B company: replace the contract with a one-page pilot note: the job, the one measure, the dates, who does what, and the price if it passes. Send samples within 3 days of the yes, with a note saying what to check. If your site brings no enquiries at all, get more leads from your B2B websitesoon later; for now, the messages bring the tries.

If you run a D2C store: add the sample as its own product with the postage shown on the page, and set up the credit code in your Shopify admin: Discounts › Create discount › Amount off products, with Method set to "Discount code", "Applies to" set to your full-size products, and "Limit to one use per customer" ticked under "Maximum discount uses". The US rule on "free" offers says every condition must sit next to the offer, so put the credit terms under the price, not in a footnote. A new store also needs to look trustworthysoon before a stranger will pay even a small price.

If you run an agency: ask for one thing only: the link to the page they want reviewed. No call, no form, no brief.

• Tool: your own product, store or booking page, a timer, and a video call with 3 people.
• Time: about 2 hours, plus the time to make the changes.
• You will have: a written list of the steps in your try, with every step the result does not need removed.
• It worked if: 3 of 3 new people reach the first result without your help, within the time your sentence promises.
• Common mistake: asking for a card, a sales call or a long form before the person has seen anything work. The other one is fixing the look of the page while the steps stay the same.

3. Offer the try by name in 100 personal messages a day#

Send 100 personal messages every day to people who fit, and offer the try from step 1 by name. Most people will never find your try on their own. The message brings the try to them.

100 a day is the point. If about 3 of every 100 people say yes, 10 messages a day brings one try every three days. 100 a day brings about 3 tries a day, and in one week you learn whether the try is right.

Build the list, 100 new names a day. Start with people you know, then add people who fit your step 1 sentence: people who have written about the problem, and companies like your best customer. The first-customer guides for SaaS and B2B show where to find them, and how to build a free lead listsoon. Add people who asked about the problem in the online places your buyers talksoon; the ways to be seen there are in getting customers online for free. 100 a day is 2,800 names in 4 weeks, so finding names is part of every day.

Let AI draft. Paste 10 names at a time into ChatGPT or Claudesoon, each with one thing you found about them, plus the template below. Ask for one message per person. Make the first line true and about them, then send it. That is about a minute a message.

Stay inside the rules. Send one at a time from your own email or to your LinkedIn connections, never as a bulk mail. Gmail requires SPF or DKIM, settings that prove your email comes from your domain, and wants spam reports below 0.3%. If you email more than about 50 strangers a day, set up a second domainsoon and warm it up first. LinkedIn limits connection invitations, and a block usually lasts a week, so on LinkedInsoon message people already connected to you and send the rest by email. In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act needs your postal address and a way to say no in every business email.

Follow up with everyone who has not replied, twice, 3 days apart, with one new line each time. A follow-upsoon counts toward your 100. Stop the moment someone says no.

Subject: [the result, in 3–5 words]Hi [first name],[One true line about them: something they built, wrote or said.][Your product] helps [kind of person or business] [the result]. Want me to [the try from step 1]? It takes [time], and it costs you [cost].[Your name]
[Your company, postal address]
Not for you? Reply "no" and I won't write again.

If you run a D2C store: people rarely welcome a message from a brand they have never heard of. Send your 100 a day to everyone you know first, asking them to try the sample or pass it on, then to small creatorssoon who post about products like yours, as in getting your first sales on Shopify. Do not message shoppers who never spoke to you.

If you run an agency: put no link and no video in the first message, as in getting your first agency client. Record the review only for a yes. Loom's free plan allows 5-minute recordings and keeps 25 videos, so delete old ones as you go.

• Tool: Gmail, LinkedIn, a Google Sheet to log every offer, reply and follow-up, and ChatGPT or Claude to draft.
• Time: about 45 minutes a day to find 100 names and about 2 hours to send 100 messages and the follow-ups.
• You will have: 700 offers sent and logged each week, and 2,800 after 4 weeks.
• It worked if: at least 3 of every 100 people say yes after follow-ups. If fewer than 2 in 100 say yes after 300 offers, rewrite the first linesoon so it is about them, or make the try smaller, before you send more.
• Common mistake: sending the product link with "would love your feedback". It names no result and asks them to do the work. The other mistake is stopping at 50 messages because nobody answered yet.

4. Ask everyone who shows interest to start the try today#

When someone replies with any interest, ask them straight out to start the try now, and make starting it one small step. Interest fades within days, so every "sounds good" needs an answer the same day.

Answer every reply within a few hours. Do not send a longer pitch or a deck. Ask for the one thing you need to start, and name when they will have the result. If they want to talk first, offer a 15-minute call and do the try on the call. For SaaS, that call is a short product demosoon that ends with their own account set up.

Great. Easiest is if I just do it: [the one thing you need from them: a time for 15 minutes, their address, their page link, the data for the pilot].You'll have [the result] by [day]. If it's not useful, tell me and that's the end of it.

Then go back through everyone who once showed interest and never tried: old signups who never used it, enquiries, people who said "maybe later", and people who answered your earlier cold emails but went quiet. Send each one the direct ask once. They already know you, so they are the easiest tries you will get. Keep this to one message each; people who never answered your step 3 offers get the follow-ups from step 3 instead.

If you run a B2B company: at the end of the yes call, book the decision meeting for the pilot's last day before you hang up. It is how a pilot ends in a yes or no, not in silence. If the buyer says they need to ask someone, ask who, and offer to run the callsoon with that person too.

• Tool: your inbox, your sheet, and a free booking link such as Cal.com.
• Time: 30 to 60 minutes a day for replies, plus 15 minutes for each set-up call.
• You will have: every interested person asked to start, and a date in the sheet for each try.
• It worked if: at least half of the people who say yes start the try within 48 hours.
• Common mistake: answering "tell me more" with more explaining. They asked because they are interested; the fastest way to show them is to start.

5. Check in on day 2 and at the end of every try#

Send each person a short message on day 2 of their try, and another at the end, asking one question. A try that nobody checks on is often never finished, and an unfinished try tells you nothing.

On day 2, ask whether they got the result, and offer to fix anything in the way. On the last day, ask about the next step in one question: keep going, buy, or tell you what stopped them. Write every answer in the sheet in their own words. What they say is the best feedbacksoon you will get, and the people who got the result are the ones to ask for a testimonialsoon and for one introductionsoon to someone like them.

Day 2: Hi [first name], did you get [the result] yet? If anything got in the way, tell me and I'll fix it today.Last day: Hi [first name], your [try] ends [today / this week]. Want to keep going? If not, what was missing? One line is plenty.

If you run a SaaS: send the day-2 note from your own address, not as a system email. If they never used it, offer the 15-minute set-up call again. The emails that run after that belong in your onboarding emailssoon.

If you run a D2C store: check in 5 days after the sample arrives, not after the order, so they have used it. On the last message, remind them of the credit code and the date it runs out.

• Tool: your email and your sheet.
• Time: about 20 minutes a day.
• You will have: two check-ins sent for every try, and every answer written down.
• It worked if: at least half of the tries that started reach the first result.
• Common mistake: waiting in silence until the trial ends, then sending a discount. By then they have forgotten it.

6. Count tries every Sunday and fix the step where people stop#

Every Sunday, fill in one row: offers sent, yeses, tries started, tries that reached the result, and next steps. The biggest drop between two columns shows which step to fix.

Add one column for where each try came from, so you can see which list or message brings tries. Tag any link you share with UTM parameterssoon, and ask every new person how they heard about you: this is self-reported attribution.

Week | Offers sent | Yes | Started | Reached the result | Next step (paid, pilot, order) | Where they came from

After 2,800 offers (4 weeks at 100 a day), look for the biggest drop and use this rule:

Fix one step at a time, then send the next 700 offers before you judge the change.

• Tool: Google Sheets.
• Time: 20 minutes each Sunday.
• You will have: one row a week, and the one step to fix next.
• It worked if: you can name the step with the biggest drop and what you will change next week.
• Common mistake: counting signups, page views or likes instead of tries that reached the result. The other one is changing the offer, the steps and the list all in the same week, so you cannot tell what worked.

Your checklist for getting people to try your product

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Step 1 · Turn your product into one small try

• Write your try in one sentence: the result, the time it takes them, and the cost to them.
• Read the sentence to 5 people who fit and ask what they would get.

Step 2 · Remove every step before the first result

• Go through the try yourself as a stranger and list every step.
• Remove every step the first result does not need, such as a card, a call or extra form fields.
• Watch 3 people who have never seen it do the try, and fix where they stop.

Step 3 · Offer the try in 100 messages a day

• Every dayAdd 100 new names of people who fit to your list.
• Every daySend 100 personal messages that offer the try by name.
• Every dayFollow up with everyone who has not replied, up to twice, 3 days apart.

Step 4 · Ask everyone interested to start today

• Every dayAnswer every interested reply the same day with the direct ask to start.
• Send the direct ask once to everyone who showed interest before and never tried.

Step 5 · Check in on day 2 and at the end

• Every daySend the day-2 and last-day check-ins that are due.

Step 6 · Count tries every Sunday

• Every SundayFill in one row of the Sunday sheet.
• After 2,800 offersFind the biggest drop and fix that one step, using the table.

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