LaunchRock: Invites Mailing Service

The fact that interaction with users of the future product must begin even before the official launch, many IT entrepreneurs say. Especially those who have already crossed their Rubicon and got a launch experience. This advice can be found in a lot of books, articles and blogs, but it is rarely listened to.

From these same people, one can hear how quickly the euphoria from the launch gives way to the sadness of the realization of how long the brainchild being developed on the first day turned out to be unnecessary. As many as two users have registered on the site, one of whom is the author's mother.

Axiom - the sooner you tell people about the upcoming realization of your idea, the earlier you will be able to solve several important tasks at once:

• Test the vitality of the idea itself. Perhaps even before the first line of code is written. Imagine how much money and sleepless nights you can save if you understand in advance that the “ingenious” idea simply does not bother anyone.
• “Reheat” the audience, which by the time of launch will already begin to understand what the product solves the problems.
• Attract first users. They will serve as the foundation and, due to the effect of “word of mouth”, will speed up the spread of the idea.
• Test your own application under load. And thus avoiding the need for testing at the first customers. Public beta testing is an honest way to warn people about possible mistakes and not throw out the whole heap on unsuspecting customers who think they are buying a mature product. Take care of your honor from your youth!

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All of the above applies equally to developments at very different stages. Our own software product can not be called a raw prototype. We started the first sales about two years ago in the form of a desktop Windows application. And almost all this time, in parallel, they were developing a new web-based cloud generation system. Such an evolution is connected with a number of technological barriers in which we are buried at the start. And also, with previous experience building web systems. This topic is very capacious, and if someone is interested in the motives and reasons for the transition from desktop development to the web - let me know in the comments, I will try to create a separate post. Now we will talk about the fact that a new, revised ActivTrak will be released soon, and we have a clear goal in front of us - to organize beta testing and collect feedback.

Our immediate task differs from all other situations in that we already have a client base. We are not going to test the perception of an idea from scratch. Its viability showed sales. For two years, we have accumulated a sufficient number of potential and existing users, to whom we, in the first place, are planning to offer a beta test of a new product. I would like to send an invitation to these people, somehow fix their desire to participate and create a list. And at the hour of X, when the beta version is released, invite for registration.

The requirement for a tool to organize the whole process is one thing - it must be very simple and easy to deploy. The need for such events arises in two cases. Or when the product is already written, the whole team is in a park and there is no time for anything. Or, when, as mentioned earlier, the product still exists only in the head: there is a task to understand whether someone needs it at all.



We immediately planned to create a simple one-page website for beta testers, which would provide an opportunity to register. I wanted to draw a line between the existing commercial version, which is still being bought (and will be bought for a while), and the beta version, the launch of which we are only planning.

Usually, for mass contacts with customer lists, we use SalesForce (in which we do all the marketing and sales) and MailChimp (as an auxiliary tool for working with mailing sheets).

SalesForce is convenient for working with existing customers when it is necessary to track transactions, accounts, opportunities, and so on. For marketing mailings, MailChimp is more convenient and quick to use. It was precisely to him that we initially laid sight, planning a beta test. MC offers a free fare or some very inexpensive ones. What you need if you want to test a raw idea: the budget of such a venture is usually zero.

You can create a page, place on it a short intriguing description, a form for entering an e-mail address integrated with MailChimp, and thus compile a list. On the appointed day, send a beautiful letter, track the conversion and so on.

However, this method has a significant drawback. Initially, MailChimp was thought of as a mailing list. No matter how you hide this fact behind the front of your web page, a person subscribes to the mailing list. This becomes clear at the time of the confirmation of the address (which is required in MC). And geeks, who are usually the backbone of the beta testers audience, don't always like this. They rightly fear further marketing attacks on their inbox.

Further searches for the tool led me to a service called LaunchRock . This service itself was recently announced on TC , and judging by the profile , its creators are people involved in such companies as Zappos and UserVoice . Parents inspire confidence. LaunchRock itself is still in beta, but they distribute the invitations promptly, if asked. I got mine literally within a few hours.

How does LaunchRock actually work? Simple enough. The system is conceived as a tool for sending invites so popular lately, allowing teams to announce a new product. You have the opportunity in a short time to create a customizable page with a subscription form to the beta version. Each signer is invited to share the news about this on Twitter, Facebook or any other social networks. If 3 more people sign up via a unique referral link to the beta, the user is entered into the priority list, which will get an invite faster than everyone else. The creators claim that, thanks to this socialization, it is possible to reach a very large audience. What we need. Let's check if everything is so simple.

Inside the settings interface of our future page is quite simple. Before starting, we are required to perform several steps.



Organizational steps:

• We create a short description of our beta version (or idea) that is minimal enough to attract the audience we are counting on. In our case, the public is already prepared, explaining why you need a product is not needed.
• We customize the content of the page, which will be shown after entering the email, in other words - “Thank you so much!”
• Specify the account in twitter, a page on Facebook, a blog. Very important step. If your product or idea doesn't have it all, it's time to create it. Nothing to lose.
• Add graphics to the page: image in the background, logo, favicon. I bought my picture for $ 5 in stock just before launch.
• Adjust the color range.
• Install the Google Analytics counter code.
• Specify which elements on the page to display and which not.

The technical side of the issue:
Create a domain on which our mini-site will be located. In our case - beta.activtrak.com
In the domain settings, create an A-record that redirects requests to the LaunchRock server.

Everything. In practice, the whole setup took me just over an hour. Considering drinking coffee, going around the room in circles, waiting for the DNS and so on.
I see the following advantages for LaunchRock for myself:

• Service is hosted in the cloud. It is designed for a large influx of visitors and should easily withstand all kinds of habr / slashdot / tc effects.
• Very quick to set up and run. Provided that you have something to say about your idea, about an hour.
• Does not require your own website. And in general, - reduces all the material and time costs for testing the interest in the idea to a minimum.

Disadvantages:

At the moment, the Russian language is almost not supported. However, this is a very childhood affliction. I think, soon, it will be corrected. Or just Launch Rock analogues will appear, oriented to the Russian market, since the service is very simple in its essence and implementation. In our case, this is not a drawback, since almost all of our clients are not from Russia.

It’s too early to write a conclusion, as all results from using Launch Rock are expected in the future. In the morning I have a newsletter charged that will invite our customers to the newly created beta.activtrak.com It will be interesting to see how Launch Rock will cope with its task. Of particular interest is its main feature - socialization. Thanks to social functions, it is theoretically possible to attract friends and acquaintances of our testers. Launch Rock is already performing 90% of the tasks it faces - it is guaranteed to show us what happens.