We messed up.
When we initially launched our product we didn’t have a pre-launch waitlist. This meant:
- We didn’t have an audience (which is crucial for a successful product launch)
- We didn’t truly know if we were building something people want
- We had no easy way to share our launch with people who would’ve otherwise been happy to support us on our journey
So what did we do? Instead, we spent hours reaching out to people on LinkedIn sharing our launch with them. Total strangers who — prior to us reaching out to them — had never heard of what we were doing.
“There’s got to be a better way!” we thought, knowing full well there totally was.
Why do I need a pre-launch waitlist?
Validation
Did you know someone invented a tool to turn boiled eggs into cubes? Seriously.
Save yourself the headache of building something that nobody wants (no shade to the inventor of square eggs.)
Before you invest your time, energy, or money into something, you should know there's a want or even a need for it. Experienced investors look for this assurance too, and a pre-launch waitlist can be a strong identifier of interest.
Newsletters/emails convert (really well)
Compared to other marketing channels, emails work.
- Cost-effective (free): There’s really not a better price than free. Odds are likely that you’re one of the more than 1.8 billion people that have a Gmail account. If not, your Hotmail account will do just fine, but maybe consider switching.
- Easy: Almost anyone can write an email. If you want to save yourself the time and effort, we wrote a product announcement email template for you that you can use for free.
- Open rate: Quit yelling into an empty warehouse. With a pre-launch waitlist, you are significantly more likely to speak to your audience rather than a brick wall. Statistically, an average email campaign’s open rate is 34.2% with some as high as 40.55%.
- Platformless: No algorithms, just conversation. Plus, you have full ownership over your mailing list so you don’t have to worry about anything happening to a platform you’re on or getting banned, your audience is safe.
How to launch a product successfully using a waiting list
Meet your users where they are
Don’t just create a waitlist and hope for the best. Engage in the spaces and communities they’re in, then share your waitlist with the people who would benefit most.
Messaging
Both on-page content (like text and imagery) and design should be optimized for your target audience. So when you’re writing or designing your pre-launch waitlist, keep in mind who your audience is to speak directly to their pain-points and how your product solves them.
Responsiveness
And if your customers (like most of the web) are visiting from mobile, don’t even think about not being mobile responsive.
Luckily, our free product early access waitlist template has you covered on all of these aspects.
Conclusion
A pre-launch waitlist is essential to gauging demand, owning your audience, and building interest surrounding your product. Best of all, you can do it with a free tool like Whirr, or a paid tool like Mailchimp.
