📂 You’re only pre-launch once (so make the most of it)

​

​

​

Today's newsletter is proudly supported by Sales.co 🎉

Sales and marketing are two sides of the same coin. And there's no better way to generate results tomorrow than through email outreach. I couldn't be more excited to partner with Sales.co to help more startups do cold email well. They handle everything from idea generation to a/b testing. All you have to do is show up for the sales call. Founded by two software engineers, their approach is data-driven and scalable, and they only care about bringing you qualified leads. Make sure to mention "Corey" or "Swipe Files."

Check out Sales.co →

​

📖 The following is an excerpt from my work-in-progress book, Founding Marketing. It's a (very) rough draft of thoughts, notes, and research... so feel free to reply with your feedback on what I should expand more on and what needs to be clarified. Enjoy!

After the new feature/product is shipped into production, I think about the launch in four phases.

Phase 1: Beta launch

Tease what problems this feature/product solves, start to collect interest, and recruit friends/investors/influencers to do a test in a controlled environment.

• Coming soon landing page
• Waitlist
• “Beta” sticker in dashboard navigation for Surveys
• Email invite to early access list (toggle in settings)
  • Option 1: Set up “Early Access” program in settings that allows users to opt in to getting access to new and experimental features. This is a great way to ship earlier than you normally would and start getting into user’s hands. Since Surveys already has users, this would be more of a long-term infrastructure technique to get this stood up and then use for Surveys. The email invite to the broader user base would be framed around an invitation to the early access list first, with an additional invite to Surveys shortly after.
  • Option 2: Skip the “Early Access” program altogether and jump straight to an invitation to reply/engage in some way that indicates to the CrazyEgg team who Surveys should be enabled for (if it’s not already generally available).

Phase 2: Early access launch

Start to collect quantitative data on usage, qualitative data on what users think about it, and build anticipation by teasing an upcoming official launch.

• Roll out to early access users
  • Option 1: Throttle invites to batches of 5-10% of the user base. This can be an opportunity to test different messaging. It’s also a mechanism to see how cohorts adopt the tool and find any “leaky buckets” where onboarding or the UI can be improved.
  • Option 2: Invite 100% of the user base with the frame of getting “early access.” This can come with asks on what actions you want users to perform. It can also be a way to cushion more heavy use of tooltips or product tours so that users go through thorough onboarding. Another possibility is to manufacture urgency by asking users to “claim” their invitation within a certain time frame (e.g. 7 days) which can increase the likelihood that they’ll actually use the feature and give it a try.
• User research with power users to capture voice-of-customer
  • Option 1: Followup with early access users in the top 50th percentile of usage inviting them to a user research call. The call would be 30 minutes, recorded and transcribed, where questions would be asked following a jobs-to-be-done approach to understand what is attractive and detractive about the feature, as well as any confusion or objections they encountered. The baseline goal to get ample sample size is 5 calls minimum per user persona. An effective approach to getting the calls booked is to offer a $ account credit or donation to the charity of the user’s choice in exchange for their time.
  • Option 2: In addition to or instead of… Run a short product/market fit survey.
• Banner/callout in dashboard for new upcoming feature

Phase 3: Official launch

Announce general availability, roll out to production for all users, and make a splash about it.

• Email to customer base
• In-app popup
• In-app product tour
• Changelog update
• Website banner linking to launch asset
• “New” sticker in dashboard navigation
• Blog post announcement
• Social posts
• Product Hunt / HackerNews

Phase 4: Incorporate into ongoing product marketing

Create assets for new users to get acquainted with the feature, do a followup announcement for anyone who missed the launch, and lay the foundation for demand generation.

• Educational automated email for new users or customers
• Inclusion in monthly roundup email
• Publish competitor comparison pages
• Update all other web pages with section about the new feature/product
• Create a no-code demo version to preview on marketing pages

—Corey

​