Over the years my co-founder and I have launched 5 products, and we’ve helped hundreds of other companies launch their products. Sadly I can’t say that each launch was successful, but I did learn what not to do over the years.
From each launch we’ve gotten a better understanding of what should be done and I can confidently say that I have a formula for every product launch. Here are 7 things I learned from launching 5 products:
Lesson #1: Collect emails, even before your product launches
One of the first products that I ever launched was Crazy Egg. The launch was very successful, but it wasn’t because I knew what I was doing, instead I got lucky.
Before we even launched Crazy Egg we created a landing page that showed off the product and had an email opt in box for people who wanted to be notified when the product launched.
We didn’t have any traffic coming to the website, so I bought $10,000 worth of banner ads on all the popular CSS galleries. Within months we collected over 20,000 emails from people who were interested in using Crazy Egg.
When we launched roughly 500 of those 20,000 people signed up for our product. We should have had at least a few thousand convert, as our product was a freemium one, but a lot of the emails on our list were stale as we hadn’t emailed them in over 6 months. The big lesson I learned here was that we should have created an email drip sequence in which we kept all of the people on our list up to date with what we were doing versus sending them one email about our launch.
Before you launch your product make sure you create a landing page where you can collect email addresses, as it is never too early to start your customer acquisition efforts. You can easily do this through LaunchRock.
Once you setup your landing page, make sure you follow up with your potential customers on a regular basis. You can keep them up to date with the progress of your product, educate them, and notify them about your launch.
Lesson #2: It’s never too early to get press
The one thing I did right with most of my launches is that we got press before the product had even launched. We did this with Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics, but we didn’t do this with Fruitcast, KISSinsight or Product Planner.
You want to get press before you even launch because if a journalist covers your product launches, they will most likely be open to also covering it post launch. That means you can potentially get twice as much press.
You just have to be strategic with what stories you give each journalist, as they typically won’t cover the same exact story as other journalists. For example, you may want to first give Mashable the scoop on the product you are building and what it does from a 1000 foot view. Then you may want to give TechCrunch specific details on your product, such as telling them about your hot features and even giving them screenshots of it.
The cool part about getting press before your product launches is that you’ll start getting hit up by people and companies who want to work with you or even partner up. Plus you can list “as seen on logos” on your website when you launch as it helps with credibility and it can potentially boost your conversion rates.
When dealing with journalists you ideally want to do it yourself versus going through a PR agency. There is nothing wrong with agencies, but if you can build those relationships yourself, it is much easier to get press stories over and over again.
Just think of it this way, I’ve been able to get every product I’ve launched on TechCrunch because we’ve built a great relationship with them over the years.
Lesson #3: There’s nothing wrong with a beta
I know a lot of people look down on the word “beta”, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. If you let the right people into your beta you can get some really passionate users who will continually evangelize your product throughout its’ existence.
The key with beta programs is that you have to let in the right people, such as influencers and bloggers as they can easily spread the word about how awesome your product is. Plus you also want to look for qualified users. For example you don’t want to let in a small business into your beta when you are creating an enterprise solution for the Fortune 500.
A good way around this is to survey potential beta customers, similar to what we are currently doing on My Analytics.
Before you let people in, make sure you have a decent beta with very little bugs. If you have a ton of errors, people may get frustrated and not use your product again.
And during your beta phase, make sure you get feedback from your customers as quick as possible and continually iterate as fast as possible because if people don’t like what they see they may not use your product again. With KISSmetrics, some people didn’t like our first version and we didn’t iterate fast enough. Because of this many of those people didn’t try our product again even though our current version is a whole different product that people love.
Lesson #4: Be careful on how you price your product
The launch of Fruitcast was pretty good as it was something the market really wanted. It gave podcast owners a simple way to monetize their podcasts. We had a cost per listen model in which we could insert any audio ad into a podcast on the fly and charge advertisers every time the ad was listened to.
There was one big problem… we charged way too much per ad listen. Our prices started at a dollar a listen, which was attractive to podcast creators, but way too high for advertisers.
We didn’t listen to the market and we didn’t do any price testing. Because of this the business flopped and we lost around $100,000. And worst of all, the potential acquires who hit us up when we got all of our press during the launch slowly disappeared, as we couldn’t make the numbers workout.
You should survey your beta testers to figure out what price you should charge, and make sure you are optimizing for maximum revenue versus maximum number of signups. In addition to that you need to be careful which users you price test with as someone who didn’t even use your product is very unlikely to pay for it versus someone who used your product on a daily basis.
If you are looking for a price testing survey, check out Qualaroo.
Lesson #5: You’ll always have competitors…
With a few of our products, we thought we were the only ones in the space, but boy were we wrong. Even if there are not direct competitors, there are other players who are at least somewhat similar. And sooner or later there will be direct competitors.
Plus if you are too slow to launch, similar to how we were with a few of our products, other people can quickly beat you to the punch. That’s one of the downfalls of getting press before you launch as it can give other people the idea to copy what you are doing.
Not only were we late to launch with a few products, but people also innovated faster than us, which allowed them to be larger than us.
It pays to be the first in the space, so try to launch as quick as possible. That way when journalists talk about your competitors they will usually mention you as well, as you were the first player in the space. This will help boost your web traffic and increase your overall revenue.
And don’t worry too much about having competitors. It’s actually a good thing because it encourages you to innovate and move faster. Plus the market you are in is probably big enough for multiple players, just like how Pepsi and Coke both exist. That means you have no excuse when it comes to making money.
Lesson #6: Have clear messaging
This is actually one of the hardest challenges we had with KISSmetrics. Although the product is great and it solves a major problem, it wasn’t too easy to explain what we did in simple words.
Over time we figured a lot of our messaging issues out, but when we launched our product we had to continually explain to reports what we did as they didn’t always understand it. And when we did explain it, their stories weren’t always 100% accurate because our messaging wasn’t clear, which wasn’t their fault. And to top it off, our conversion rate was lower than it should have been because we didn’t have a clear message.
Now when we launch products we come up with the messaging before hand and test it out for conversions. Before the product is even finished, we setup landing pages with different messages and have a “signup button” on each page that doesn’t really do anything. The signup button is what we consider our conversion point and we drive traffic to each of our landing pages from Google AdWords. Whatever messaging has the highest conversion rate is what we typically use as a starting point.
After we have copy that we think will resonate with our potential customers, we run a User Testing campaign to get feedback on the overall message.
The biggest lesson I learned with creating messaging is that simplicity usually wins. Try not to use technical jargon and avoid creating your own new language. Use words that everyone is familiar with and if you can’t find a way to do this create a FAQ section that explains the terminology you are using.
Lesson #7: Always keep the momentum going
Launching a product is the easy part, the hard part is to keep the momentum going. You have to continually evolve the product, market it, get more press, and do business development deals to quickly grow your user base.
We actually made this mistake with Product Planner. It wasn’t an important product to us, but it could have been much larger than it is now. We could have even created a revenue stream from it. The launch was great and people loved what they saw, but we didn’t continue to innovate on it. Instead, we just let it sit there.
Lastly, don’t expect your launch to go perfect. Yes you may get a ton of traffic, but you probably won’t make hundreds of thousands of dollars right away, which means you can erase the idea of being an overnight millionaire.
Have realistic expectations and be prepared to adapt to whatever situation is necessary.
Conclusion
If you use the lessons I learned above, it will not guarantee that your launch will be successful… it just increases your odds of success. And if you are creating a shitty product, which sadly I’ve done in the past, the launch formula above won’t help.
So the next time you are launching a product, try the above tactics and let me know how it goes.
Do you know of any other tactics that can be used to ensure a successful product launch?
This amazing course will teach you, step by step, how to double if not triple your traffic over the next 30 days.
Great set of lessons, Neil!
#1 Collect emails, even before your product launches, resonated particularly strongly for me. In fact, I will go on to say you should not only be collecting emails, but starting your content marketing push, and you should do this even before you know what your product will be.
More about that in my post on Content-Audience Fit:
http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/the-very-first-thing-a-founding-team-needs-to-do-achieve-content-audience-fit/
Thanks Bob,
I will check it out when I get a chance.
Great post. Really enjoyed reading it! One of the biggest mistakes we have done in our site was to wait so long before we launch the product and get market feedback. From what I have learned, your vision may lead you to fail. That’s why, it is better to rely on the market data then your individual opinions.
This is good stuff. I have never worked with launching a product but I’ll have this post in mind if I ever do myself or for a client.
Do you think getting news press as a consulting service is as effective as a product service?
-Amir
It is. Press in general, as long as it is positive can help drive business.
Again, another fantastic post Neil.
These are some very useful tips for anyone, even me, on launching a successful product. I will definitely get back to this post in the future when I need it.
At the start, how often were you emailing your list? Once a week or once every 2 weeks? Id like to know that.
With Crazy Egg we didn’t email our list, but with the others a few times a month.
I think the most difficult thing for me always comes down to letting something not be perfect (like you said, there’s nothing wrong with Beta.) This applies to everything I do, from internet marketing to real estate investing. Sometimes just getting something out there is enough to get going. That paralysis by analysis can be a killer of many great ideas and opportunities.
As always Neil, I appreciate the article.
Yep, you are not alone. The mistake most people make is that they hold off for perfection. The reality is perfection does not exist it is about continuously updating and growing.
Hey Neil great post I have learned the hard way from each of my times being involved in a launch that you need to set up a strategic gameplan and keep to building buzz as you get off the ground.
Definitely a hard lesson to learn but a necessary one.
Great post, I love to make sure there are no any errors or bugs with generating leads and potential customers. Everything else can have a small glitch, but not sales funnel or a product itself.
And I like to have great support and to respond as quick as possible.
James
Awesome, that is exactly what you want to strive for.
Bang on! Right what I was in a dilemma for. Especially the landing page bullet. I always had the question if u launch the product instead of creating the landing page. Coz all it does is just get email ids from potential users without them getting an idea about it.
Great, glad the tip on the landing page helped!
Simple – concise – and all true. Thanks for always the best info!
Mary Lou
No problem, glad you liked it.
Great article….Can I add one thing?
Make sure it’s EASY to buy your products. One thing I have learned is that the easier things are to buy, the more the likley they will buy.
Thanks
Marvin
Yep, you have got it.
Great post, I’m about to lunch my first product soon so I will use all information from here. Thank you Neil!
Awesome, let me know how they work out for you.
Neil, I am in the process of my 4th launch & sharing with anyone willing to listen to my idea has been extremely valuable for me Yes, my idea is duplicable. But so what? First to market is one thing. Having a market on standby ready to buy is a science within itself. I once shared an idea in a online forum back when phpbbs were all the rage and I found that someone else took the idea that I had and ran with it. I was less committed to my idea once I saw someone implement it and that to me was an indicator that I would have lost my enthusiam for it.
Cool, best of luck with your current launch.
Yeas, I would definitely advice to learn how to make successful launches from movie makers, Create the buzz with teasers and trailers and attract media attention then keep people enthusiastic about it then there you go
Yep, that is a great way to do it.
Hi Neil. Today I had the opportunity to listen to the talks of a serial internet entrepreneur. I was amazed to hear about Kissmetrics from him. He was so impressed with the service that he could not stop blabbering. It was an instant recall from my earlier reads of your posts.
This post also for instance is informative enough to be archived for future reference. Thanks for bringing out such a gem.
If you don’t mind me asking who was it that mentioned it?
We are launchin Jan 15th 2013. Your post is timely, perhaps a little late for us, but nonetheless timely.
In place of your Lesson #1, I am glad I have been collecting emails for the past 12 years! However, I am afraid we have not have kept them posted about our launch. Any last minute suggestions on how we might remedy this situation is appreciated.
Neil, as always, thank you for so much insight and free stuff.
You rock man.
There is not much you can do, I would start emailing them about your launch as soon as possible.
I would add that you should always be looking for, building, and nurturing joint venture partnerships. The success of most of the launches that I have managed with my own clients has relied heavily on having many affiliates/joint venture partners. This is an ongoing task – never ends – and the best place to start is at events (first building relationships face to face).
Definitely, it is all about making connections and keeping them.
This is really good and lesson 5 is something every new entrepreneur should learn sooner rather than later. We always think we are the only ones when suddenly there is someone who seems to be better even though they may not necessarily be better.
Thanks for sharing this Neil.
Yep, there will always be competition to deal with.
It is also a good idea to give free stuffs like eBook, memberships, and etc. In this way, people will surely come back to you once you already have the final product launch. I have been launching some products recently, and I am always looking for ideas. Thanks Neil, this is really helpful.
That can work too, thanks for the recommendation.
Thanks for this article Neil, it’s very timely for me as I plan to launch a beta product within the next two months.
I’ll definitely revisit this article many times of the next few weeks and months.
Awesome, best of luck!
Thanks for the invaluable insights about your own lessons from your past product launches. All the above learning that you have shown are worth millions. It always better to learn from other mistakes rather than from your own.
The best is the last .. i.e. keep the momentum going. It becomes very hard to keep the momentum going when times are tough. But, as someone has rightly said, The tough get going… when the times are tough.
Indeed it does, momentum is what makes one successful or not. You have to keep going strong, if you stop even for a moment you risk being passed by a competitor.
Great article, another interesting topic would be how to launch a site (as a product or service) from a seo perspective. I would love to read your take on that.
Thanks for the suggestion, I will consider it for a future post.
Excellent points! One strategy that I found great for getting on television (which then gives you the clip to put on your website and boosts credibility – “as seen on TV” works!). If I am ever in a city and see a cameraman doing any story I approach them and ask them directly the best way to get on TV – they will usually give you the producers contact details and tell you what story angle the producer would be looking for. You can then call the producer using the reference of the cameraman you just met and they are a lot more likely to take your story.
Make sure when you get on television you ask then for the clip – it is easier to get on a local station than you think especially if you give them the local story angle. Once you have the clip on your website your social proof goes up hugely and people trust you more as you have been on TV.
Thanks for the tips!
Amir Anzur
Dean, Webpreneur Academy
Great tip, thanks for sharing with everyone.
That’s a very admirable quality you have Neil, to be able to discuss deeply personal experiences including what you learned from them so as to be able to improve for the future.
Thanks very much for sharing these helpful tips and advice for launches.
Thank you, I appreciate it but it is my pleasure.
Thanks for the advice and for all of these valuable tools Neil. I have bookmarked them.
Rob
San Diego
No problem, hope you find them useful.
One thing I see over and over with my clients during a product launch is underestimating the importance of sales copy and the sales page for the product.
Some of my clients spend so much time working on the product itself that when it is time to actually launch it, they realize they have no sales page….and they have no idea how to talk about the product and how to convey the value of it.
My advice is to start thinking about your sales copy immediately and start putting time in your calendar to work on the sales page as you build the product (or before, even).
This would eliminate SO much of the frustration that I see…and the side effects are great too – you start to think more about your customers. Plus, you’re more in touch with the features/benefits of your product and if they are really necessary for your launch to be successful.
The bottom line is that your customers will not know how great your product is if your sales page sucks!
Good point Stacy, you can have a great product but if you forget to take the time to plan on how to market it to your customers then it could be harder to sell.
Great Article, Neil.
Thanks for sharing your learning with the rest of us.
Liked the way you shared relevant products available in the market for some of your points. Thanks.
Keep it coming!
Thank you Arun,
I appreciate you letting me know what you liked about the post.
Some startups spend too much time on a product before putting it out there for real users to test the app. There’s definitely nothing wrong with a beta. You can learn a lot more about how best to serve your customers and users interact and give you feedback.
Release, Iterate and Repeat!!
Exactly, glad you have got it.
Another great article Neil – glad I subscribed to your emails as your blog posts always have something worthwhile in them, even if they don’t apply directly to me we can use your advice for our clients.
Thanks Brian,
Glad to hear my posts have been useful to you even if it is indirectly.
Hi Neil
These are real useful tips.
But for point #1, how did you bring trafic to the launch page ?
Regards
We bought traffic from other sites. From Twitter, to AdWords to Facebook… you have a ton of options.
While he did mention $10k worth of ads, hunt down smallers sites within your niche and in my experience, most have no problems featuring your site. Betalist is a popular one that drove in about 300 emails for my startup. I also did some micro-advertising, I’ll refrain from posting a link in the comments but you can checkout my blog.
Thanks for your added input Jay.
It seems like your posts have gotten more personal recently. I really appreciate it. Getting press before launch is a great tip. I’m going to hop on it ASAP. I’m curious though if you have any thoughts about the prweb / prnewswire packages? We’ve been looking at partnering with 2 other companies on an annual subscription but I worry about the stories getting spun and the eventual low quality links that seem inevitable when auto syndicators pick up the rss for press releases done that way.
Any thoughts on that?
Thanks, and again, really appreciate your content!
Jim
The PR services aren’t bad, but I haven’t had too much luck with them. It gets you some back links, but I haven’t gotten too many press inquires from using PR Newswire or PRweb.
And yes, you are right. The backlinks are low in quality.
Neil,
Awesome read once again.
I’d add, having a specific amount of vendor booths of really great business groups that compliment your business model they will also promote your launch to their members which in turn will bring more people to your launch and possibly bring more users or clients.
Thank you Neil, you’re the man!
~ Rob
Thanks for the suggestion Rob, appreciate it.
Awesome Neil! Thanks for sharing
No problem, thanks for reading!
As always, a TOTALLY SUPERB post! THANK, Neil! The lessons actually also hold broader and not just product launches! Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Thanks Olga,
Always happy to share information that is useful!
I agree with you, that is post makes a lot of great sense! Wish that everything written would have at least half of that!)
Thanks Ketty, glad you think so.
Can I just say what a reduction to find somebody who truly knows what theyre speaking about on the internet. You undoubtedly know the way to carry an issue to mild and make it important. Extra people have to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant consider youre no more widespread because you positively have the gift.
Hi Neil,
A timely post for me as I’m developing a social network for a very specific niche which over the past few years has been creating its own communities to identify itself (use of a specific hashtag on Twitter as an example).
I’m already making use of a landing page, but need to implement a video when I have the design finished of the site.
Thank you for a great post which I will refer back to these coming weeks as the site progresses!
Stuart
That is great, here are a couple of posts I thought you may find useful as you create your video.
Stop Creating Explainer Videos, You’re Doing It All Wrong!
http://bit.ly/MTw85k
How to Rank on the First Page of Google Through Videos
http://bit.ly/yIf72g
Good luck to you!
There’s little-to-no downside to launching a sustainability effort at your business, and plenty of benefits. Thanks for shedding a little light on the topic.
Yep, happy to do so.
Collecting the right emails and that to according to our product niche is very important as they are only who are going to buy our product
That is correct, glad you have got it.
Fantastic article Neil.
Right now #6 is sitting at the top of our agenda, as we have an awesome product that people love once they’re using it, but explaining it in clear marketing messaging isn’t the easiest as the product means a few different things to different people.
We think this is also making the PR a lot harder, just as you point out in your post, if a journalist doesn’t “get it” they’re unlikely to cover it.
Sage advice
I understand well, it takes time to develop a clear message. It is easer to do so once you get consumer feedback.
Thanks for the lessons learned, Neil. I definitely agree with “you’ll always have competition.” Many companies start out thinking their product is revolutionary, when in reality, something, somewhere can replace it.
That is right, there will always be another competitor out there wanting to take your customers and leave you in the dust.
Hello Neil,
What a fantastic post, thank you!
Launching a product has never been more challenging, I think. There is so much competition out there! If you want to increase your chances of success, you must have a strategy.
I’m working on an eBook on social media strategies, and your tips should definitely help!
Thank you,
It is definitely important to strategize and have a plan. It is also important to make sure you are flexible. Rarely if ever does anything go according to plan so you have to be ready and willing to make changes.
Hi Neil, thanks for posting your experience over here. There are a lot thing to learn from your experience, I really appreciate your hard work and greeting to you.
Thanks
Than you Joseph, I hope these lesson help you in your future endeavors.
In my opinion, Keeping the momentum going is the most important one, we have already seen many big Brands, services and products in past Going down after much hype. Its also important to stay Fresh in terms of being there in the mind of customers. Because little tweaks and updates are possible in every product old or new.
Yes, it is important to stay “fresh ” as you said in the mind of your current and future customers. I agree that there is always updates that can be made to improve.
Hey Neil, would you apply these methods to selling an E-book. If not what would you recommend other than gathering emails? Thanks
Same thing. Just replace product with ebook… for example you can create a landing page and buy ads to drive traffic to the landing page. Collect emails and then notify them when you launch your ebook.
Hmmm, clearly I have to revisit the contents of our landing page. There’s too much blah-blah on our virtues and not enough on the real meat of our services.
Thanks for this.
Good, sounds like you know what you have got to do. Let me know if you have any questions as you go.
Interesting article. Websites are, in a way, never fully launched. Never be afraid to keep tweaking.
Couldn’t agree more, I am constantly testing and updating my own site.
I’ve often thought about creating an email list even though we don’t have a newsletter yet, and you further proved that I should. Thanks!
Definitely get started, you will need it in the future even if you don’t use it now.
Took some interesting thoughts from this text! Nice, easy and informative to read!) Thank you!
Thanks Ketty, glad you liked it.
I love what you say Neil about striving for simplicity in your message.
One of my favorite reminders of this is the quote, “Powerful ideas, simply presented”.
I learned this from Carl Ally, the man who came up with Fed Ex’s legendary slogan, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnightâ€.
Tim Ferriss is someone I pay close attention to in this arena. If you look at how he sums up what his blog is about in his header he says, “Experiments In Lifestyle Design”.
For his “4 Hour Body” book his winning powerful idea, simply presented is, “Eat like Santa, look like Jesus”. That idea is bodybuilder strong and Homer Simpson simple. That seems to me to be the sweet spot.
As Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
Thank you Lewis,
Those are some great quotes by some very bright people. Thanks for sharing them.
Jeff Walker is the king of product launches and you can get a lot of value from his videos, many of which can be accessed by searching youtube. You learn about the sideways sales letter and warming up your clients before hitting them with the launch.
I haven’t heard of him, I will have to check out his videos.
Dear Neil,
You always get back with loads of amazing insights
Thanks a ton.
Thanks Alok, glad you think so.
Keeping the momentum (zeal and fire) going is by way the hitting point that make one stay motivated and dare the unimaginable.
Thanks Patel
Yep, that is correct!
My biggest mistake was listed as number 1 here! Yes! Collect your clients and readers email ids as many as you can! They cannot have panda, penguin or EMD!
Yah, it is always good to collect emails. It allows you to remarket to them.
Great article Neil! As far as generating press through direct contact with reporters how do you go about setting up those initial connections? How do you meet those contacts? If using email would you jump directly in with information about your product?
Thanks,
Dan
I just reach out to them directly through cold approach. I also use sites like Help A Reporter Out.
I jump directly into things 50% of the time. If I can help them with something or provide feedback, I usually do that first.
I’m releasing my first book in 2013 and I have two major worries:
1. How much should I charge – I’m releasing it as a physical book, an ebook and available on kindles. Obviously I have to price them differently but it is a headache.
2. How to sell it on my site – I’ll be selling the book through as many outlets as I can but I’ll be looking to push it from my personal site (as I’ll get more money) but I’m struggling to find a WP e-commerce plugin that will handle it.
1. I am not sure as I haven’t released a book.
2. I would check out how Gary V, or Ramit Sethi do it. Both have used their site well…
Thanks for the article Neil, these should help me on my upcoming launch.
Just a question on beta users for a freemium product. I’m thinking of letting users have a higher package for free to give me some good feedback and hopefully spread the word. Would you do this, and if so, would you continue giving this free after full launch, or at some kind of discount? So rewards for beta testing essentially.
Thanks
Stuart
I would do this and have done it. I usually give it to them free after full launch.
Excellent article Neil! thanks
Thanks, appreciate it.
http://LaunchSoon.com offers the easiest way to collect emails before launch. Check it out!
Cool, I will have to check it out.
Awesome tip Neil, one needs to learn with every launch.
Thanks, it is crucial to success that you learn what does and doesn’t work when you try something.
All the above learning that you have shown are worth millions. Thank you..
Glad you think so.
I think I have another lesson.
It may be simple but it is important.
It is about giving something free. Something which is related with the main product and your customers/subscribers will be happy to take it.
I don’t know exactly when should you give it (before launch or after) but people like to check out before checkout.
Thanks a lot Neil
Thanks for the suggestion, definitely something to consider.
Well put, Neil. A lot of times, the hardest thing to accomplish with startups is maintaining the momentum. It’s usually quite a challenge to get word of the product out initially, but if you can’t keep things rolling once sales start coming in, you may find yourself back at square one before you know it!
Yep, you have got it!
Loved the blog, especially your point about it never being too early to get press. Nice going Neil!
Thank you, I am glad you like it.
Hi Neil,
This is true that we need email before starting the product and yes the price and comeptition plays an important role in product performance.
Thank you
Glad you agree, thanks for reading.
well, i like your point about Price and competition. We need to check competition before entering into any market.
Thank you
Definitely, it is important to know what your competitors are doing and even more so what they are not doing.
this my first time i read your article,get to the point – simple -clearly,awesome neil.
and again you have solved problem in my site..
big respect for you neil.
Thank you, happy to hear this post was helpful.
Great Post Neil…,
I think Lesason #!1 Collect emails, even before your product launches
and Leasson #2 It’s never too early to get press
are most important to kickoff the business.
These two factors have helped “Fab.com” and “Everlane.com” to reach where they are today. Both of them had started collecting emails way before launching the websites, and they were extremely smart spreading the message and getting the pres early.
Thanks again for sharing…
Thanks for the examples, they are definitely both important.
Hello,
It is also a good idea to give free stuffs like eBook, memberships, and all other. In this way, people will surely come back to you once you already have the final product launch. I have been launching some products recently, and I am always looking for ideas.
Thanks
I agree Jessica, thanks for your added input.
Hey Neil,
Thanks for the great post. The example for proper product pricing really had me floored. I’m about to sell a higher end shaker cup and I realize now that I need to re-analyze and re-analyze and test, test, test my price or it may turn away a large portion of customers.
Glad I could help. Full speed ahead!
This is good advice. I really agree with the bit about not worrying too much about competitors. It will make you work harder and faster (not to quote Daft Punk lol). I will say that as a consumer, if you put out your landing page really early and then I find myself coming back for updates but nothing has changed, that can be very frustrating; so update as frequently as possible! Thanks!
Marci, great points… and I love the Daft Punk reference
.
Very useful advice, it’s good to consider also the feedback from others or from your customers. You will discover different opinions that somehow could be beneficial for you.
Great points. Feedback and constructive criticism is essential.