Check out the book Traction, to get a bunch of free marketing channels and a strategy. My favorite is to go after the bloggers that are read by your target customer community.

https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

Thank you, and because you named traction, I remember the book from DDG's founder Gabriel Weinberg [1], that was previous to his success.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

So here's the rub: if you've already built an MVP, but have only spoken with 3 prospects to date, you're kinda going about this wrong (IMO). You should probably have spoken to dozens of prospects before writing a single line of code. Probably multiple dozens, actually. You shouldn't be writing any code at all until you already have a pretty good idea that the problem you're trying to solve is real AND that customers have at least some interest in a solution like what you're proposing to create.

There's also no real point in running ads when all you have is an MVP. Ads are for demand generation once you have a really solid handle on the problem, the product, sales channels, etc.

My suggestion would be the following:

1. Stop writing code or doing any development work

2. Cut expenses to the bone by any means necessary so that you're "default alive" no matter what (for the foreseeable future anyway)

3. Get yourself a copy of The Four Steps to the Epiphany[1] by Steve Blank. Read it. Then read it again.

4. Go through the customer development process as outlined by Blank, and start talking to prospects.

5. Don't start writing code again until/unless you sync up to that point where the process has you starting to take an MVP out to show to prospects.

6. Pick up from there and follow the process.

Now an exception would be this: you talk about a mature market. IF there are already plenty of well established, mature, market proven solutions that do more or less the same thing as your proposed solution, then you can skip some of the validation stuff. I mean, you could guarantee that you're at least building "something people want" by just copying one or more of your competitors. BUT... if all you're doing is copying a competitor, you have to ask "why would a customer buy your solution instead of theirs?"

Ideally in that case, you have some vision or idea for a "thing" that distinguishes your solution from the others on the market. In that case, though, you still have to validate that the market players actually see your proposed solution as better than the other solutions OR you need to be "at least as good as the others" but significantly cheaper, or something.

In terms of addressing all of that, a couple of books I'd suggest reading include:

1. The Discipline of Market Leaders[2]

2. Differentiate or Die[3]

3. Zero to One[4]

4. Traction[5]

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Successful-Strate...

[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Discipline-Market-Leaders-Customers-D...

[3]: https://www.amazon.com/Differentiate-Die-Survival-Killer-Com...

[4]: https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/080...

[5]: https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

I agree with this and have 2 book recommendations to help with marketing and sales.

For marketing, I recommend Traction by the founders of Duck Duck Go. It gives a practical guide to tons of different marketing channels and when each one is appropriate https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

For sales, I recommend How You Make the Sale. It's a general sales book no matter if you're selling software, services, or physical goods and it does a great job of walking you through the sales process and where it overlaps with the buying process. It also helps reframe a lot of the "scary" parts of sales like objections as "requests for more information". Highly recommend for technical people who are new to sales https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Sale-Frank-McNair/dp/1402204....

There are a couple of books out there.

The first one is The Mom Test[0] which has already been mentioned here. But it's more about customer interviews which you usually do before you even start doing something.

And the second one is Traction[1] written by Gabriel Weinberg founder of DuckDuckGo and Justin Mares. This book is highly relevant for a situation where you already have something and need to find your first customers. The great thing about this book is that it gives you a framework and a finite list of strategies that you can prioritise and execute one by one until you get traction.

0: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyon...

1: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-...

I'm building an app completely centered around this issue. The H1 is:

"A growth platform for hackers that hate selling."

It's a systematic approach to growth targeted at developers and based on the book Traction [0] by DuckDuckGo's founder.

https://www.wax.run

0 - https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

> "Anyone--founders, managers, and executives--trying to break through to new customers can use this smart, ambitious book." -- Eric Ries

> https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

Everything by Patio11 [0]. Traction by Gabriel Weinberg [1]. Also, see IndieHackers community [2] if you are interested bootstrapping.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=patio11

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

[2] https://www.indiehackers.com/

This is the one that's usually recommended here. It's a great book! https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

This is basically the advice of Traction[1], which is the best book I've come across on this topic. They recommend experimenting with acquisition channels until you find one or two that produce great results, milking them for all they're worth, then continuing to experiment in order to find the new channel(s) that will get you to the next stage.

That said, there is still value in seeing many potential channels laid out in one place, so that you can consider all of them, weigh them against each other, and potentially try out a bunch before zeroing in on the best ones.

1: https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

The website that goes along with the book https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu...

TJ – I've found this book to be particularly useful for generating marketing ideas: https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Cu... Written by the founder of DuckDuckGo, and a great reminder of all the different channels for marketing.