This week’s LaunchBoom Live was hosted by our very own Joe Piperni! Here’ a breakdown of what he went over:
Contents
Lemonlight webinar
I joined Lemonlight’s Chloe Romero and Chad Rogers yesterday to talk about the LaunchBoom system and how you can raise $100k+ with your crowdfunding campaign. Don’t worry if you missed it—you can watch the replay here!
Competitive research and analysis
Competitive research and analysis is integral to running a good crowdfunding campaign. One key way to do this is to look at your competitors’ Facebook ads to see what they’re doing. This isn’t something that you do to copy what your competition is running; it’s research that you can do to inform your own ads. You’re already improving on your competitors’ product, so do the same thing with their marketing content!
This isn’t just important before you launch, and it doesn’t just apply to crowdfunding. If you’ve already run a campaign and have moved into ecommerce, knowing what ads your competitors are running can help you focus your own advertising efforts there, too.
For a step-by-step guide on how to check on your competitors’ ads, look at Joe’s recent blog post and walkthrough video!
Reservation funnel
The reservation funnel is one of the most powerful tools that we have in the crowdfunding tool kit. It’s what lets us create a list of VIPs that will convert at a 30-40% rate—much higher than the 2-4% rate of a normal email list.
In order to have a successful campaign, you need to build a community before you launch. We recommend doing this by running Facebook ads that drive people to your landing page. This landing page has one simple call to action: enter your email address to join the mailing list so you can get a discount when we launch on Indiegogo or Kickstarter. Once someone enters their email address, they’re put into what we call the “Non-VIP” bucket. They’re then redirected to a page thanking them for signing up and offering them the chance to put $1 down. By putting that dollar down, they’ll get access to a bigger discount at launch.
The people who pay that $1 are your VIPs. Putting a dollar down shows purchase intent, and it’s more predictive than anything else we’ve tested. Somewhere between 30-40% of the people who make this reservation will end up purchasing your product when you launch. (Generally speaking, the lower your product price, the higher the percentage of people who will buy it.)
The other big benefit to this reservation is that we can use the Facebook pixel to optimize for people who are more likely to purchase. This way, you’ll be spending your advertising dollars more wisely to grow a community of people who are excited about your product. As long as you nurture your VIP community by sending them regular updates and interacting with them in your Facebook group, they’ll be your most ardent supporters and will help you blow your goal out of the water.
Pre-campaign email strategy
Your pre-campaign email strategy works hand-in-hand with the reservation funnel. You’ll send different emails to each list depending on whether or not they’ve put that dollar down.
For Non-VIPs, you’ll send an email thanking them for signing up. In subsequent emails, you’ll outline the benefits of becoming a VIP (additional discounts, early access, VIP Facebook group, etc.). Put a link to the VIP reservation page, and that’s it. All of your emails in this sequence will be on this theme. Rewrite them so they’re not exactly the same, but the idea is to urge them to sign up to be a VIP.
Your VIPs will get a different email sequence. The initial email will be to thank them for signing up, and the rest of the emails will be urging them to join the Facebook group. This is where you’ll share updates and stories. You’ll interact with your VIPs here and answer their questions. This gives people a chance to get more engaged with your product.
The goal for your pre-campaign email strategy is to turn your Npn-VIPs into VIPs, and to turn your VIPs into excited backers!
Free product launch training
If you want to learn more about the reservation funnel and the pre-launch email sequence, watch Joe’s free product launch training. It’s full of incredible information that you need before you get started with your campaign. You can sign up for the training here!
If you want to watch the LaunchBoom Live replay, we’ve got you covered! Check it out here. And if you want to be part of a community of people working on their own crowdfunding launches, join our Crowdfunded Community today. We’ll see you there!
