It's easy to spend months working on the perfect product, only to launch and then... nothing happens. We see it happen, literally, all the time. This can be quite frustrating, and can make you waste a lot of your precious time.
You can avoid this and save time by testing your ideas quickly. How? By creating a "fake product" and measuring the results. Confront your product idea to the real world, and see if there's really a market for it!
12. BLOG-FIRST STARTUPS
See how people react to
one article you post
Start to talk to potential
customers with a full blog
TOOLS
medium.com for one post
tumblr.com, wordpress.com,
(with SumoMe.com for virality)
13. LAUNCH A NEWSLETTER
Agregate your community
around your newsletter
Create a habit
TOOL
mailchimp.com
CHECK IT OUT
programmingformarketers.com
16. BUILDING A LANDING
Everything start with your
value proposition
Have a demo of your product
(video, images…)
And a clear, visible and
understandable call-to-action
TOOL
kickofflabs.com
17. VIRAL LOOPS
Collect leads (emails)
and ask them to share
Reward sharing:
leaderboard or skip the
waiting line
EXAMPLE
paris.agricool.co
18. PLUG YOUR WEBSITE
TO AN EMAIL PROVIDER
Store your leads to contact
them later
Be sure to customise the opt-
in process (in Mailchimp: list >
signup forms > general forms)
TOOLS
mailchimp.com
User signs up
Opt-in email
Final
welcome
email
20. SELL YOUR PRODUCTS
Build your own e-commerce
store
Start with just a few products
(even one), to measure
customer adoption
TOOLS
squarespace.com, shopify.com
(more advanced)
+ marketplaces like etsy.com
21. SELL YOUR PRODUCTS
Use a payment processor -
don’t go to your bank! (yet)
Automate your invoicing and
shipping
TOOLS
stripe.com, octobat.com,
shipstation.com
23. PROVIDE VALUE
People don’t come for you,
they come for them!
And make sure they get what
value you have to offer.
24. IMAGES
Please, never EVER use stock pics.
Find great pictures: unsplash.com,
thenounproject.com, 500px.com
25. VIDEO
It’s relatively easy to craft a video
Use your favorite films, screencasts of
your product (with QuickTime on Mac)
26.
27. DO THINGS MANUALLY
You want to test a service? Just give your
phone number!
Collect user input with tools like typeform.com
Automate what you can with zapier.com
30. FINDING YOUR FIRST
USERS
It start with friends and family.
Try to contact your target users
manually, just to see if it works.
31. BUILD YOUR EXPERTISE
Create content to show your knowledge.
It’s 20% creation, 80% distribution
Find freelancers: textbroker.com
Inspiration: copyhackers.com
32. EMAIL IS YOUR BEST FRIEND
Try to reach out people directly, start a
conversation on LinkedIn…
Use ifttt.com to automate your Twitter and
find your way into people’s inboxes.
33. DATA-DRIVEN GROWTH
No data = no knowledge
Use Google Analytics + mixpanel.com or
heapanalytics.com to track your users
34. AUTOMATING ACQUISITION
Once you have your value proposition, your target
and an addictive product, start automating!
Find which channels work better (liquidity?
conversion? cost?) & double down.