I’ve been working online long enough to know product ideas are fairly cheap. The tricky part of building a sustainable online business for me, and many others, boils down to 2 things:
- Sticking with the same product/vision long enough
- Making money to sustain yourself and the business
Thankfully the 2 problems above can often be solved once you have found product/market fit and have some happy paying customers. Once you’ve solved this, you transition your thinking into how to scale to more paying customers.
So how do you find product/market fit and some happy paying customers?
You launch, test and measure results.
And boy does this get a lot easier if you have a marketing budget that allows you to split test different user acquisition channels fast.
The question; “how would you launch a product with a $10k marketing budget” is one of my faves I like to ask founders and entrepreneurs I hang out with.
I always get a wide variety of ideas and strategies which are almost never the same from person to person, which makes for an interesting conversation.
*Obviously, the user acquisition channels will vary largely depending on the product and target market.
How I would launch a new product online with a $10k marketing budget
The first thing I would invest in would be a great domain name (.co and .io TLD’s are fine, especially in B2B), a pro designed landing page with clear messaging outlining the core value proposition, and a clear CTA.
If you can edit HTML/CSS, I’d buy and edit a template. If you’re not great at writing copy, I’d spend a couple of weeks researching this to figure it out.
With a pro designed landing page and systems set up to convert visitors into customers (i.e, onboarding calls, email funnels), I’d then invest the remaining budget (sub $500-$1,000) into driving targeted visitors to the landing page.
Here’s how I’d personally do it in 2017/2018:
1. Viral blog content – especially the kind that will get shared within your industry (i.e lists)
2. Newsletter sponsorships – they can be a really cost-effective way to reach your target audience in quantity quickly
I’d invest $4,000 into both viral content and newsletter sponsorships and then wait to track the results. Once the data is in I’d then invest the remaining budget into the channel that performed the best.
Yesterday I asked my followers on Twitter how they would launch a new product with a $10k budget and got some interesting ideas:
Without any specifics, and assuming it’s in a decent niche ($), I’d probably hire contractors to power through content and link-building.
— Jesse (@jessethanley) October 26, 2017
2k for landing page and ad creatives. 6k for promoting the new LP on Google/FB/Twitter/Linkedin.
2k for sponsored posts / guest posts.— Thomas Peham (@tompeham) October 26, 2017
Assuming you validated idea? Depends on niche, I’d build funnel and try influencers with big followers to promote it on Instagram and FB ads
— Bryan Millhouse (@bryanmillhouse) October 26, 2017
Closing thoughts:
- If you’re launching a new product, I think the aim should be driving targetted visitors in quantity quickly. This is why I’d personally avoid link building, SEO etc. which takes some time to build momentum.
- I’d focus on 2 channels, maybe 3 channels max. This will allow you to compare the results to find the channel that drives the best results (allowing you to scale that particular channel).
- Don’t forget the free channels available to you: Email outreach, getting press, ProductHunt, Twitter search, Quora, Reddit, Facebook Groups, publishing interviews, etc.
- I deliberately left out Facebook advertising as I think this channel works best once you have solid numbers to work with (but make sure to install your Facebook pixel before launching to track visitors for when you do start to experiment with FB ads)
Next time your with an entrepreneur, ask them, how would you launch a new product online with a $10k marketing budget?
