3 builders who never spoke to each other

Keep the waiting list warm the whole way through

A list that hears nothing between signup and launch has gone cold by the time you need it, and silence after a prepayment is what turns into refund requests. Progress notes, screenshots, the parts that went wrong and plain product updates keep the relationship alive so the announcement lands on people who already care.

The method

1. 01

   Start capturing email addresses from the first day of the project, then actually mail that waiting list regular progress updates rather than saving everything for the announcement.

2. 02

   Narrate the build to your mailing list and podcast including the parts that went badly, because being let into the process is what makes people care.

3. 03

   Show progress as a run of screenshots with one line of text under each, instead of describing it in paragraphs.

4. 04

   When you rename a product, tell the waitlist in plain terms that it is the same product under a new name and not a second one.

5. 05

   Mail the people who prepaid every week with digested highlights of the work in progress, because silence after payment is what triggers refund requests.

What it returned

• 80%

  Over 80% of the revenue from the Marketing for Developers launch came through the mailing list.

• The Feather progress email was dashboard and feature screenshots with a single caption each: analytics, email capture, tags, authors, search, related posts, pagination.

• Emailed the Feather waiting list to say Feather was a rebrand of his existing product MDX.one.

• His subscribers heard from him only when a new teardown went up, so the launch arrived as an aside

Sources

• Feather ↔ MDX.oneBhanu Teja · bhanuteja.dev · Feather ↔ MDX.one · 2021-03-11
• May 2021: Retrospective & Income ReportBhanu Teja · bhanuteja.dev · What I got done during May · undated
• My First Year Teaching: How I Built My Audience - Double Your FreelancingBrennan Dunn · doubleyourfreelancing.com · My First Year Teaching: How I Built My Audience · 2013-08-15
• How to build demand before you launchJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Building anticipation during your product launch · undated
• End of an eraJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · End of an era · undated
• Three reasons product launches failNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · A launch sequence · 2014-03-18
• How Samuel Hulick made over $37,000 with his self-published bookNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · What would Samuel do differently? · 2014-06-09
• How Adii Piennar used Authority to publish his own bookNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · 2. Build an audience by shaping your brand · 2013-07-31