2 builders who never spoke to each other

Co-brand the defaults with a name they trust

Commission the themes, templates or presets that ship with your product from people your customers already recognise, paying a fee or a commission, so the defaults arrive carrying somebody else's reputation. It is the cheapest way to borrow credibility you have not yet earned.

The method

1. 01

   If your product supports themes or presets, commission a few from well-known designers and pay them either a fee or affiliate commission, to borrow their credibility for your defaults.

2. 02

   Go one step further and co-brand those templates with a recognised name from your customers' world, so the template carries their reputation rather than a generic label.

3. 03

   Derive the mission statement from the narrowed position, then recruit endorsers who embody that mission rather than generically famous ones.

What it returned

• Suggested alongside email tools building templates jointly with major brands or well-known course creators

• Modelled on the meditation app Calm recruiting Stephen Fry and Matthew McConaughey to narrate sleep stories; his examples are a named investor's inbound-contacts CRM template instead of a plain CRM, and a publication's own content scheduling template instead of one called Content Calendar

• Once positioned, K-SWISS declared a mission to equip and inspire the coming generation of entrepreneurs, and signed sponsorships with entrepreneur figures including Gary Vaynerchuk.

Sources

• #HYPERGROWTH18: The Cheat Sheet | Corey HainesBarney Waters · corey.co · Barney Waters · 2018-09-07
• Idea Pad: Guest starring customer templates - Tyler TringasTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · 2019-01-04