{"id":30241,"date":"2013-01-03T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mixergy.com\/?p=30241"},"modified":"2016-06-25T06:26:28","modified_gmt":"2016-06-25T13:26:28","slug":"course-cheat-sheet-launch-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixergy.com\/course-cheat-sheet-launch-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noah Kagan and his partners spent eight months building Bet Arcade. They talked to customers, did tons of research, and even hired a designer to make their product look just right.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought, \u2018We’re going to be rich, I can’t wait for this. I want to drive a Ferrari, what color do you want?\u2019\u201d says Noah.<\/p>\n

But when it launched, no one came.<\/p>\n

Noah, founder of AppSumo<\/a>, says the worst part was how demoralizing it felt. He invested several months of his life into Bet Arcade and got zero return. \u201cAnd this is something that’s happened to me many, many times,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

So what went wrong?<\/p>\n

They didn’t realize they needed to continually validate their product and launch strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like running a marathon,\u201d says Noah. \u201cYou don’t know really where to go, right? So it’s kind of like having little markers along the way to help you track that you’re going towards [your] end goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today Noah doesn\u2019t launch a product without being 100% certain it\u2019ll take off. In his Mixergy course<\/a>, he shows you how he does that. Here are three highlights from the course.<\/p>\n

1. Make a Plan<\/h2>\n

\"\"If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know how to get there?<\/p>\n

When Noah asks someone what they\u2019re trying to accomplish with their launch, and they say something like, \u201cOh, well, just to get big,\u201d he says that\u2019s a sure sign that they\u2019re running blind. Their launch efforts end up being random, diverse, and ineffective.<\/p>\n

So how do you get some direction?<\/p>\n

Start with Your Objective<\/em><\/h3>\n

Decide on a simple, realistic objective for your launch. Then, create a strategy to achieve that objective.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou set up your objective, then you work backwards from there,\u201d says Noah. \u201cI want to get 10,000 people. I want $5… Who are those people? Where are they?\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only will setting an objective focus your launch, but if you accomplish it, \u201cyou get your momentum going,\u201d says Noah.<\/p>\n

2. Seek Validation<\/h2>\n

\"\"When you launch, will customers buy?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not sure, you\u2019re doing prayer marketing. \u201cI think a lot of people…hope and pray,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2018Oh, I pray that traffic comes,’ and, ‘I pray all this stuff will happen.'”<\/p>\n

But prayer marketing results in failed product launches. You\u2019ll end up launching a product that isn\u2019t right for the target market. Or you\u2019ll launch a product that doesn\u2019t have a market at all!<\/p>\n

And as Noah found out with Bet Arcade, you pay a steep price for failing to understand the market.<\/p>\n

So how do you know<\/em> whether anyone will buy?<\/p>\n

Use Guaranteed-Success Marketing<\/em><\/h3>\n

Before you launch, guarantee your own success.<\/p>\n

“When I do a launch of a product, I know ahead of time that it will work,” says Noah.<\/p>\n

How?<\/p>\n

He tests his product offering.<\/p>\n

To test AppSumo, for example, Noah looked to Lifehacker. He says, “I got [productivity apps] that are mentioned on Lifehacker, I put them in the bundle, and then I went to Lifehacker and said, ‘Hey, this is a bundle that’s perfect for you. Would you love the exclusive scoop?’ And they said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Lifehacker readers bought the bundle, Noah knew he was onto something. \u201cBefore [AppSumo] even launched, I was like, all right, it’s going to make money.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t Go It Alone<\/h2>\n

\"\"You need exposure, but no one’s heard of you. Most importantly, your target customers have never heard of you.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re starting out, though, you usually don\u2019t have your own audience to leverage. After all, you haven\u2019t even launched yet!<\/p>\n

So how do you get the word out to the right people?<\/p>\n

Find a Partner<\/em><\/h3>\n

Go to sites your customers already love, and come up with a way to partner with those sites.<\/p>\n

“Marketing is\u2026understanding who your people are and where they are,” says Noah.<\/p>\n

For instance, when Noah saw that AppStorm had extra ad inventory, so he proposed that they put AppSumo\u2019s badge on their site in exchange for splitting the revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no downside for them,\u201d he says. \u201cWe get new exposure, we get new traffic, and we should be making them money, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheat Sheet written by April Dykman.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Noah Kagan and his partners spent eight months building Bet Arcade. They talked to customers, did tons of research, and even hired a designer to make their product look just right. <\/p>\n

So what went wrong?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2370,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[293,295,245],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheat-sheet","category-course-cheat-sheet","category-courses"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLaunch Strategy - Business Podcast for Startups<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Noah Kagan and his partners spent eight months building Bet Arcade. They talked to customers, did tons of research, and even hired a designer to make their product look just right. 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