“Don’t waste a crisis.”
That quote immediately came to mind when thinking about how to open this case study.
Because these two friends found inspiration to create a product while one of them was recovering from cancer.
And that product they came up with just did $626,497 on Kickstarter.
Here’s their story.
Meet Anish Shonpal and Nikhil Shah – the founders of the Loka Chai Maker.
Anish and Nikhil met at University, bonding over their shared love of music, basketball, and chai. But it wasn’t until COVID hit and Anish was diagnosed with cancer that their entrepreneurial journey truly began to take shape.
During Anish’s recovery, the duo spent countless walks together drinking chai. They found themselves constantly frustrated with how annoying it was to make a proper cup. That’s when they decided to solve the problem.
They poured themselves into researching, developing, and testing a device to make the perfect cup of chai.
The result was the Loka Chai Maker – a device designed to make chai quicker, cleaner, and easier than ever before.
But creating the product was only half the battle. Now they needed a launch strategy to bring their innovation to market. So they joined forces with my team at LaunchBoom to help them launch it on Kickstarter.
On the first day, they raised $169,122… 30 days later, that number was $626,497 from 5,936 backers.
How’d they achieve this incredible success?
There’s a lot that goes into a winning campaign, but one of the most crucial elements is the pre-launch marketing strategy.
Let’s dive into what made theirs so effective.
Contents
Loka Chai Maker’s pre-launch marketing strategy
Anish and Nikhil made $169,122 in one day. This was only possible because they understood the importance of pre-launch marketing. And not just any pre-launch marketing, but building an email list of Superfans before they launched. Here’s how it worked.
1. Loka Chai Maker drove traffic with Meta Ads
Meta ads are the first step to build a pre-launch email list. This is how Loka Chai Maker drove traffic. They tested many different variations of copy and imagery, but here was their best performing ad.
2. Loka Chai Maker collected email addresses on a landing page
The landing page is where they explained their product and collected email addresses. The landing page looked like this:
By the way, this is a screenshot from our LaunchKit software that all LaunchBoom Creators get access to.
3. Loka Chai Maker collected $1 reservations
This is an optional step that creators can take if they want to understand who on their email list is most likely to buy. It requires creating a “VIP Offer” where you give something valuable to the backer in exchange for a deposit in the pre-launch.
Here was their VIP offer:
- A guaranteed 40% discount
The most important thing to know is that people who put down the reservation were way more likely to buy.
Loka Chai Maker got funded on day one
Leading into the launch, 3,181 people had put down a deposit in the pre-launch. We’ve found that “number of reservations” is one of the best predictors of how successful a launch will be. And just as predicted, the campaign took off.
On the first day, they made $169,122.
By the end of the campaign, they had driven $626,497 in revenue from 5,936 new customers.
This was all possible because they followed the LaunchBoom system, which is laser focused on getting creators the highest return on their investment.
Because at LaunchBoom, our goal is not to launch a successful product, but to launch a successful business.
And Nikhil and Anish were pretty happy with the results.
Want Even More Details?
Check out this Masters of Crowdfunding podcast we recorded with Anish & Nikhil.
Do you have an innovative product like Nikhil and Anish?
We can help you turn it into a real business (or dramatically grow your existing business).
We’ve worked with over a thousand product creators.
If you want to be the next one…
Click here to talk with a LaunchBoom expert.
