The principle of early launch or how we got the first customers before the start of the project
You can read about Giveaways.ru in the company profile. Let me just say that this is a personal project that I do after hours. From the beginning to this day, only I and a freelance programmer work in it, other specialists are occasionally involved.
When the project is financed from personal funds, which are only enough for development, and the project idea and business model are not tested, there can be no talk of any advertising. And how to advertise a service that is not yet? Nevertheless, I wanted to start promoting the project as soon as possible so that something would be known about it before the launch. I also wanted to make sure that the project solves real, not artificial problems of people.
As a result, I had a plan that helped me to start communicating with users even before the official launch, to confirm my hypotheses and even agree with the first clients on holding tenders through the service. In this article I want to summarize the experience of launching the project and share it with the community. There is a lot of theory about such approaches now, especially in start-ups, I want to share my real experience, maybe someone will find it useful.
In summary, the plan looked like this:
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Then I will explain why we need each of the items and what was done by me personally.
Starting a project, the first thing I do is decide on a name. If it has not yet arrived, you can do other things, but when certainty with a name has appeared, you need to register it immediately.
What for?
When discussing a project with people, one way or another, its name appears and someone can register a domain for you, and then try to sell it to you. To avoid problems in the future, it is better to register the name in advance, especially since it is inexpensive.
What is done
I immediately registered the domain in the .me zone, although I later decided to rename the project by purchasing a more suitable domain in the .ru zone. Since this happened a month before the launch, the renaming was painless for the service.
No one doubts the effectiveness of this channel. I will add only that today many have forgotten about the good old forums, and in fact many professional audiences can be searched there. First you need to find your users, read what they care about, try to help with advice or deed. Then create a community with useful content for the audience and communicate on its behalf.
What for?
In the process of communication, people can ask who you are, go to the page and remember you. Just do not forget to describe there what you are and what you are working on.
What is done
I created communities on Instagram, Vkontakte and Facebook. I wrote about what these profiles, set up automatic crossposting.
What for?
In the future, you will need to attract readers to the community. And people will subscribe to you only if they understand that you are useful, because no one will subscribe to an empty account. What to write about? Obviously, your future service is aimed at solving some problem. While you are programming a problem solving tool, you can write about why these problems are important or how they can be solved using existing methods, giving some advice and life hacking.
What is done
Our Instagram account was the first on the Runet to start collecting all contests in one place.
I found and placed with a dozen of the most interesting competitions in my opinion, before I began to attract people.
What for?
As practice has shown, people are more willing to subscribe when they see that the account has at least several hundred subscribers.
What is done
I ordered to attract subscribers to the group, for a day everything was ready to work with potential users.
People involved in the community should be able to go to the site and read at least some minimal information about you.
What for?
The ultimate goal is to inform people about the service, and the community is just a means. While there is no full-fledged project, going to the site people should be able to read what it will be for the service and even leave the mail to find out about its opening. Do not forget to indicate contacts for feedback so that the most interested can ask you questions. By the way, having questions and left email addresses became for me the first indicator of interest in a project. Be sure to include a link to the site in community profiles. The name of the service was reflected in the address of the site and in the address of the communities, so that people immediately understand that they are dealing with a certain site. This will ultimately attract Type-in ​​traffic, as well as traffic at the request of the site address.
What is done
For a start, I used the launchrock.com service to make a simple quick landing. A month later, he was replaced by a more meaningful page, with the ability to log in via Instagram. So I received the first contact to report the opening of the service through direct messages.
What for?
Having a loyal audience, in the future you can make it the first and even regular customers. In addition, you can understand what type of users will be the core of your audience, which messages and ways to attract more effective.
What is done
Since the first version of my service was made for Instagram, the main emphasis was placed on this audience. Comments, tips in other contests, likes of photos - I tried everything with my own hands. It turned out that invitations to the community in the comments are most effective. The @giveaways_ru account is of course targeted more at contest participants than at the organizers. I even tried to develop a separate business account, but refused to do this, since both audiences were almost 100% overlapping and messages for them could be the same.
A lot of good has been written about attracting users through useful content, including here. I also decided to do this while the development process is underway.
What for?
To have something to tell the audience and try to get expert status in the field. And of course, unique articles help to get seo traffic, this effect is not instantaneous, but it is worth the effort.
What is done
I created a blog section (thanks to Drupal, which I recently wrote about ) and wrote the first few articles. Then he tried to write new articles regularly. Where to get topics for articles? I looked at the questions of the audience and thematic queries in search engines. Three months after the launch, the project's seo traffic exceeded direct traffic from Instagram, which confirms the usefulness of the project.
When you have an approximate project release date, and the community is about who you are and how you can be helpful, it's time to add more information about the service to the project's main page and announce the release date. It would not be superfluous to think up some kind of bonus for the first users or participants of closed testing.
What for?
This will once again remind the audience that you are not just a community, but a new and useful service. Those who once heard about you can finally go to the site and leave contacts or enroll in volunteers.
What is done
I announced closed testing and scored some first users. We even had to speed up the development in order to start testing earlier and not lose the “hot” clients. I was lucky to get a client with a fairly large Instagram community before the official start, thanks to which the performance problems and limitations of the Instagram API surfaced. With closed testing, valuable feedback was received. Many asked questions about the details of the service and wrote that they really lacked such a tool. It was the second moment (after the questions and emails left from the landing page), when I realized that the service was really needed by someone.
What for?
All previous work was done just to be able to tell about the project to those to whom it will be interesting. At this point, you should have a community (subscribers, readers, contacts, new friends) familiar with you and waiting for the service to be released. How many first users you get after the announcement of the launch will be an indicator of the effectiveness of your work. Create a post about running in social. networks, remind discounts to first customers and get ready for a lot of questions.
What is done
I talked about the launch and in the first week I received about a dozen first users. We didn’t need anymore, since we were actively working on performance and closing bugs. I also hung up an online consultant on the site and regretted only that I did not do this before.
When the clients who have received results appear, inform the others about it.
What for?
No one wants to be first. Especially in completely new services that have no analogues. Show how it works, so that others understand that it is reliable, easy, profitable and not scary.
What is done
I recorded on video the moment of determining the winner in the competition, published messages about the completed competitions, so that people could see the activity and decide to try it themselves.
The implementation of the giveaways.ru launch plan took me no more than a thousand rubles, and an hour after work for two months while it was being developed. In the first month I received about 30 clients who took advantage of the free opportunity to hold the first contest without spending a single ruble on advertising. I also received many suggestions for improvement, which helped me to prioritize the development of new functionality.
The main idea of ​​this approach is to open for users as quickly as possible, giving them something that will cause initial interest, will allow collecting early feedback, and when the service is ready, inform the already prepared audience about this. The approach does not cancel the traditional advertising, it helps to reach the users faster, instead of waiting for the final release and understanding that the product requires rework.
When the project is financed from personal funds, which are only enough for development, and the project idea and business model are not tested, there can be no talk of any advertising. And how to advertise a service that is not yet? Nevertheless, I wanted to start promoting the project as soon as possible so that something would be known about it before the launch. I also wanted to make sure that the project solves real, not artificial problems of people.
As a result, I had a plan that helped me to start communicating with users even before the official launch, to confirm my hypotheses and even agree with the first clients on holding tenders through the service. In this article I want to summarize the experience of launching the project and share it with the community. There is a lot of theory about such approaches now, especially in start-ups, I want to share my real experience, maybe someone will find it useful.
In summary, the plan looked like this:
- Register domain
- Create a community in the social. networks
- Post to start a few publications
- A bit of "pump" the community
- Create a simple landing page (with contacts and subscription to start-up news)
- Engage potential users in communities
- Create a section with tutorials for users.
- Announce the imminent launch of the service
- Report launch
- Share first customer results
')
Then I will explain why we need each of the items and what was done by me personally.
Register domain
Starting a project, the first thing I do is decide on a name. If it has not yet arrived, you can do other things, but when certainty with a name has appeared, you need to register it immediately.
What for?
When discussing a project with people, one way or another, its name appears and someone can register a domain for you, and then try to sell it to you. To avoid problems in the future, it is better to register the name in advance, especially since it is inexpensive.
What is done
I immediately registered the domain in the .me zone, although I later decided to rename the project by purchasing a more suitable domain in the .ru zone. Since this happened a month before the launch, the renaming was painless for the service.
Create a community in the social. networks
No one doubts the effectiveness of this channel. I will add only that today many have forgotten about the good old forums, and in fact many professional audiences can be searched there. First you need to find your users, read what they care about, try to help with advice or deed. Then create a community with useful content for the audience and communicate on its behalf.
What for?
In the process of communication, people can ask who you are, go to the page and remember you. Just do not forget to describe there what you are and what you are working on.
What is done
I created communities on Instagram, Vkontakte and Facebook. I wrote about what these profiles, set up automatic crossposting.
Post to start a few publications
What for?
In the future, you will need to attract readers to the community. And people will subscribe to you only if they understand that you are useful, because no one will subscribe to an empty account. What to write about? Obviously, your future service is aimed at solving some problem. While you are programming a problem solving tool, you can write about why these problems are important or how they can be solved using existing methods, giving some advice and life hacking.
What is done
Our Instagram account was the first on the Runet to start collecting all contests in one place.
I found and placed with a dozen of the most interesting competitions in my opinion, before I began to attract people.
Pump a bit of community
What for?
As practice has shown, people are more willing to subscribe when they see that the account has at least several hundred subscribers.
What is done
I ordered to attract subscribers to the group, for a day everything was ready to work with potential users.
Create a simple landing page
People involved in the community should be able to go to the site and read at least some minimal information about you.
What for?
The ultimate goal is to inform people about the service, and the community is just a means. While there is no full-fledged project, going to the site people should be able to read what it will be for the service and even leave the mail to find out about its opening. Do not forget to indicate contacts for feedback so that the most interested can ask you questions. By the way, having questions and left email addresses became for me the first indicator of interest in a project. Be sure to include a link to the site in community profiles. The name of the service was reflected in the address of the site and in the address of the communities, so that people immediately understand that they are dealing with a certain site. This will ultimately attract Type-in ​​traffic, as well as traffic at the request of the site address.
What is done
For a start, I used the launchrock.com service to make a simple quick landing. A month later, he was replaced by a more meaningful page, with the ability to log in via Instagram. So I received the first contact to report the opening of the service through direct messages.
Engage potential users in communities
What for?
Having a loyal audience, in the future you can make it the first and even regular customers. In addition, you can understand what type of users will be the core of your audience, which messages and ways to attract more effective.
What is done
Since the first version of my service was made for Instagram, the main emphasis was placed on this audience. Comments, tips in other contests, likes of photos - I tried everything with my own hands. It turned out that invitations to the community in the comments are most effective. The @giveaways_ru account is of course targeted more at contest participants than at the organizers. I even tried to develop a separate business account, but refused to do this, since both audiences were almost 100% overlapping and messages for them could be the same.
Create a section with articles for users
A lot of good has been written about attracting users through useful content, including here. I also decided to do this while the development process is underway.
What for?
To have something to tell the audience and try to get expert status in the field. And of course, unique articles help to get seo traffic, this effect is not instantaneous, but it is worth the effort.
What is done
I created a blog section (thanks to Drupal, which I recently wrote about ) and wrote the first few articles. Then he tried to write new articles regularly. Where to get topics for articles? I looked at the questions of the audience and thematic queries in search engines. Three months after the launch, the project's seo traffic exceeded direct traffic from Instagram, which confirms the usefulness of the project.
Announce the imminent launch of the service
When you have an approximate project release date, and the community is about who you are and how you can be helpful, it's time to add more information about the service to the project's main page and announce the release date. It would not be superfluous to think up some kind of bonus for the first users or participants of closed testing.
What for?
This will once again remind the audience that you are not just a community, but a new and useful service. Those who once heard about you can finally go to the site and leave contacts or enroll in volunteers.
What is done
I announced closed testing and scored some first users. We even had to speed up the development in order to start testing earlier and not lose the “hot” clients. I was lucky to get a client with a fairly large Instagram community before the official start, thanks to which the performance problems and limitations of the Instagram API surfaced. With closed testing, valuable feedback was received. Many asked questions about the details of the service and wrote that they really lacked such a tool. It was the second moment (after the questions and emails left from the landing page), when I realized that the service was really needed by someone.
Report project launch
What for?
All previous work was done just to be able to tell about the project to those to whom it will be interesting. At this point, you should have a community (subscribers, readers, contacts, new friends) familiar with you and waiting for the service to be released. How many first users you get after the announcement of the launch will be an indicator of the effectiveness of your work. Create a post about running in social. networks, remind discounts to first customers and get ready for a lot of questions.
What is done
I talked about the launch and in the first week I received about a dozen first users. We didn’t need anymore, since we were actively working on performance and closing bugs. I also hung up an online consultant on the site and regretted only that I did not do this before.
Share first customer results
When the clients who have received results appear, inform the others about it.
What for?
No one wants to be first. Especially in completely new services that have no analogues. Show how it works, so that others understand that it is reliable, easy, profitable and not scary.
What is done
I recorded on video the moment of determining the winner in the competition, published messages about the completed competitions, so that people could see the activity and decide to try it themselves.
Summarizing
The implementation of the giveaways.ru launch plan took me no more than a thousand rubles, and an hour after work for two months while it was being developed. In the first month I received about 30 clients who took advantage of the free opportunity to hold the first contest without spending a single ruble on advertising. I also received many suggestions for improvement, which helped me to prioritize the development of new functionality.
The main idea of ​​this approach is to open for users as quickly as possible, giving them something that will cause initial interest, will allow collecting early feedback, and when the service is ready, inform the already prepared audience about this. The approach does not cancel the traditional advertising, it helps to reach the users faster, instead of waiting for the final release and understanding that the product requires rework.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/290850/
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