TCM 003: Launch to customers ready to purchase.
Read time: 4.5 minutes.
Hey 👋 – Tom here.
Happy Saturday morning to 783 motivated ecommerce entrepreneurs.
Below is one short tip on marketing and revenue growth for your ecommerce business.
Enjoy & please do let me know if you have any questions whatsoever.
I'll always do my best to help if I can.
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In today's issue, I'm going to tell you how I would go about launching my ecommerce brand if I were starting again from scratch today.
It was one of the most common questions I got after posting this tweet earlier in the week.
Building an audience of evangelical customers is the key to growing an ecommerce business, but when starting from zero, there's no doubt about it – it's hard.
When you launch to crickets on Day 1, it's easy to get discouraged, throw in the towel and move on to something else, thinking the business was a failure.
We want to launch to an audience, make a sale and gain momentum right out of the gate.
Even if you do only 20% of what's below, it should be more than enough to set you on the right path with sales from Day 1.
Stack the deck to find 100 raving customers
Consider an existing brand or influencer – GymShark or GaryVee, for example.
On launch day, they already have an audience lining up to buy, ready to lay down their credit card to buy whatever they release.
They have a rush of sales on launch day because they've built trust with their audience earlier on.
Now, you don't have to be GymShark or GaryVee.
With just a small (yet engaged) audience built over 14-30 days, it's possible to launch your new brand to a list eagerly anticipating your product launch.
The goal is to reach 100 people ready to buy on launch day.
Step 1: Think Smaller
Niche content resonates.
When you go deep into an audience, you're communicating exactly who you're for and who you're not.
When someone sees your content for the first time, they should know whether it's for them.
If it is, they'll feel seen, understood, and like they just found "home".
One of the best examples I found of that this week was the Outdoor Swimming Society.
I'm no outdoor swimmer, but if I were and stumbled across their content, I'd instantly know I'd found my people.
So identify where your target market hangs out – they're already online:
- In Facebook Groups
- Following Instagram Pages
- Watching videos on YouTube
- Responding to Twitter Threads
- Receiving weekly newsletters
- Pinning boards on Pinterest
- Listening to podcasts
Step 2: Create content for that person
If you build for everyone, you build for no one.
Create content for, build relationships with, and engage around your target market where they already hang out.
You're only looking for 100 people to buy on launch day:
- Ignore the hype of the "best" new social platform
- Pick one platform you enjoy where your target market already hangs out
- Respond meaningfully to questions
- Give your take on something
- Create content around common questions
- Help solve problems for your target market
Using the Outdoor Swimming Society as an example, they have an entire site they've built to locate community saunas.
How's that for serving their audience with niche content?
You better believe anyone looking for that will rally around this brand and be willing to trust and engage with them.
A brand really is just earned trust.
Earn it, and word-of-mouth marketing can snowball quickly.
Step 3: Document the process
Tell the community what you're working on:
- What's unique about it?
- Why have you made certain decisions?
- How far into the process are you?
- Can they give feedback on your first version?
- When do you launch?
- What roadblocks are you running into?
Share it all. Even the ugly bits.
The last time I launched, I took photos every time we received a sample from the factory and posted it on our brand's Instagram.
The images were of terrible quality. The lighting was awful.
But I posted them anyway and said:
"Our first samples are off the production line! What do you think?"
I put a tiny budget behind posts like this (£10) a day and targeted them at my target market to get their honest feedback before launching.
It built trust and engaged an audience.
They were now a part of my brand's story.
Step 4: Tease the launch
As you build up your following, engagement, and content by responding to *every* comment, DM, sharing valuable advice and content within your community, and documenting it all too, it becomes time to shift.
Shift to letting your followers know when you'll be launching.
If you're passionate about your target market and building for them, you'll know who the influential characters are by now.
Approach them via the Seeding Process I laid out previously, and let them know when you'll be launching.
Even if they only have a "small" following themselves.
We're only looking to get 100 people to purchase on launch day – we don't need that many eyeballs.
Line up 10 people who can influence 10 people.
There are your first 100 customers.
Step 5: Get people on an Early Bird List
As you're getting closer to Launch Day, getting a little more promotional and prepping your followers for your big day is okay.
You don't need to be too pushy, but messaging as simple as:
"We're now just days away from launching! However, we only managed to secure 1000 units for our first launch.
If you want one, ensure you're on the Early Bird Launch List to avoid missing out.
Leave a comment below, and we'll put you on the list to be first in line!"
- Drive your followers to a simple Klaviyo form on your site to collect their email & phone number
- Ask folks in the DMs for their email and add them to Klaviyo manually
It's okay to be scrappy.
Use authentic scarcity, sell your solution to your target market, and excite people.
Summary
If you can get 100 people lined up and excited to buy on Day 1 – because you've earned their trust and they believe in what you're doing – it can almost guarantee sales out of the gate.
Even if only 10-20 of those folks purchase on launch day:
- Follow up
- Collect reviews
- Ask your new customers if they know anyone else they could recommend you to
- Get your community rallied up behind you
Sales out of the gate on launch day can be the almighty momentum you need to scale to your first £1M.
Especially when we then repeat this process to launch a 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th product to the same target market.
But start small.
Earn trust.
Gain momentum.
That's all for this Saturday. 1 simple ecommerce growth tip.
If you don't find value in these tips, please let me know or consider unsubscribing.
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See you again next week.
Cheers!
Tom
P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
- The Ecommerce OS: The same system I've used repeatedly to go from $0-1M in revenue profitably. (Launching March 2023)
- Work 1:1 With Me: To outline your goals, build a strategy, and develop a tactical action plan to grow your Shopify store. (200+ clients to date)
