How should I reach out to new users?

Use a platform like ConvertKit and build a funnel of emails like Onboarding, 101 on System Designing etc.

ConvertKit can automate this to a large extent. I have used it for Micro SaaS HQ platform and grew our subscriber base to 32K subs. Other alternative is Mailerlite.

We use Substack for our newsletter and blog posts. You can send updates to all of the subscribers altogether. People can subscribe to your newsletter, and you can also upload CSV files with already existing emails to it. Good luck!

Having an email marketing platform would be good to set your foundations, from a technical perspective (most mail servers don’t let you bulk cc more than a few emails at once), and you get to personalise in bulk i.e. “Hi #firstname#”

That said I wouldn’t put off messaging people as soon as possible so if this new tool takes you a week to do, you’re better off just messaging them one by one.

If you have their numbers give them a call as well, potentially connect with them in their socials. It can be surprisingly difficult to get users to respond to an email.

I’ve seen other people incorporate Discord into their sign up flow in either the thank you page, a tab on their UI, or you could also email them to join.

A lot of folks will say to use an email marketing platform, but at 40 users I still feel you're under the threshold of where that's useful.

When you don't have a lot of users, you don't really know the patterns between your users - what questions they will ask as they use your product, what is most valuable for them to set up, and where the 'aha' moments are. It's easy to spend loads of time over-optimizing a welcome sequence but not really get anywhere.

At 40 users, I'd email each one personally to say thanks for signing up and make some recommendations - and invite them to schedule a call to chat or send any questions they have. You will learn a TON by doing this. I still offer a free chat for new users because it's just as valuable for me to learn as it is for the customer.

Once you start getting multiple signups per week regularly then you can ease off and start automating, but it's hard to know what to automate in the early stages.

I would first go trough and select your ICP and they reach out manually.

If you personilise a bit the outreach it's even better.

40ppl isn't that much. Later automate it once you get more ppl signing up.

You can personally email each of the 40 new users to get their thoughts, this i'm saying as the number of users are managable. But if you set up an email platform like Zixflow, you may be able to communicate with your expanding user base in the future in a more structured manner, also think about attaching a survey form to your emial

I recommend reaching out to them directly via email, providing them with user behavioral insights. Explore aspects such as their website navigation patterns or their journey on the site to gain a deeper understanding of their user experience.

I'd agree with the rest that 40 is not quite large enough to need the use of a marketing platform / email campaign, when you could respond with more earnest emails directly. However, you could use Loops which is free. You'd call an API event from your codebase ("User Upgraded payment plan") or something, and it would send an email you've prepared to them immediately. It would also allow you to send emails requesting feedback. It also would allow you to capture important analytics data on interactions with those emails, which would be insightful.

I'd probably just recommend writing more blog content, and posting it on Linkedin or some social. Ideally you can get people chatting / giving feedback in your blog comments.

Just email directly. 40 isn't an insane number.

I guess as a follow up to this question - would manually emailing users directly present privacy concerns? (e.g. GDPR, etc.). If it's not an automated system there's not really a button for users to "opt out".

.