7 Key Factors to Consider BEFORE Launching a Waitlist

Building a list of people who are interested in your new product or service is much wiser than dropping it out of the blue.

Putting together a basic name-and-email-address landing page without a strategy isn’t going to cut it, though.

So, if you want to set yourself up for success with your launch, here’s what you must put in place and consider BEFORE sharing a waitlist.

1. Do you know your audience?

Maybe you already have a rough idea of who they are, but are you crystal clear on what makes them tick when it comes to your new offer?

If you don’t, you’re basing your entire launch on guesswork!

A simple solution when building a waitlist is to attach a short but strategic quiz to its landing page.

By asking the right questions, you’ll find out:

Exactly who your audience is
What problem they’re struggling with right now (remember: people don’t buy new products or services! They buy a solution to their problem)
What they’ve already tried to do to solve it
What they think about your initial idea
Their preferences, likes and dislikes

That way, you can also validate your new idea (more on that soon!) and find out exactly what to focus on when marketing it to this audience.

Create a FREE waitlist quiz and landing page with ScoreApp

2. Are you clear on what you’re offering?

At this stage, you don’t need to have all the details figured out (phew), but you do need to have an initial concept and value proposition.

So, use your waitlist landing page to sell this idea. And when you attach a quiz to it? You can validate it before going all in.

Then, depending on how many sign-ups you get and what their feedback is like, you’ll encounter one of these scenarios:

Your target customers love your initial idea – Awesome! Now, use their quiz answers to inform your entire launch and marketing
The response is average – Don’t worry: you can use your new data to optimise that idea and plan your launch accordingly
It flops – That’s disappointing but… imagine if you had skipped the waitlist quiz stage! You would have wasted months and a tonne of money creating something that nobody buys. Instead, it’s better to fail fast and cheap. So, use these valuable insights to go back to the drawing board, coming up with a new idea that’s aligned with your audience’s needs and preferences

3. Are you creating special offers for your waitlist?

A simple way of getting your target customers onto your waitlist and encouraging them to share their feedback? Offering them a special bonus or discount.

This can also help you build momentum and sell more as soon as you launch.

So, consider creating an exclusive offer:

As an incentive to join – Add it to your landing page, and send it to them as soon as they sign up (for example, a freebie, digital download or a discount on a different product)
As a reward for when the new product or service launches – Tease it on your landing page: everyone on the waitlist will receive an early-bird discount or bonus when this new offer goes live

You could even use your quiz to segment your subscribers and send different and more relevant offers to each group!

4. Do you have the right technology and systems in place?

Ideally, you don’t want your waitlist and landing page to require yet another standalone platform. They should work in synergy with your existing marketing tools!

When you choose ScoreApp, you can connect your waitlist quiz and landing page to your website, CRM and email marketing platform.

Your quiz will also segment your subscribers based on their answers. So, you can then set up more personalised and targeted emails for each group (all automatically).

5. How are you going to promote your waitlist?

Having a compelling waitlist landing page is a must. If you don’t direct your audience there, though? Nobody will sign up for it!

So, once you’ve set up your waitlist landing page, promote it EVERYWHERE. For example:

Your website (your homepage, a separate page in your menu, a pop-up and so on)
Your social media, including your bio links
Your existing email list
Creating new content around it (from posts to videos and webinars) to encourage your audience to sign up for it

When you promote your waiting list, don’t lead with a generic and overused “Sign up to be the first to hear about it.”

Instead, focus on how your offer will solve your audience’s problem.

Also, people LOVE to help out! So, if you attach a ScoreApp quiz to your waitlist, you could lead with something along the lines of:

“Tired of [pain point]? I’m working on a new product/service to change it so that you can [benefit]. But I want to make sure I’m creating the right offer for YOU. So, could you spare 2 minutes to share your preferences and feedback?”

6. Have you got a marketing strategy for when people sign up?

A common waitlist mistake? Announcing it, disappearing and then dropping the new product or service out of the blue weeks (or months) later. Very anticlimactic!

Instead, for a successful launch, you must keep emailing your list. So, think of your waitlist email sequence as a bridge between the initial announcement and the actual launch:

Pre-launch emails – Make your audience feel like a part of the journey, and prime them for your launch. For example, thank them for joining your waitlist, show them how your new product will change their current situation, share some behind the scenes and talk about your story or ‘why’
Launch emails – Get your audience excited, and create some FOMO leading up to the big announcement! For example, share your launch date, remind them that the first X people to buy it will get an exclusive discount or bonus and send several reminders closer to it
Post-launch – You can’t expect to send ONE launch email and sell out! You must keep talking about it and double down on that FOMO. For example, remind your audience you’ve launched, tackle common misconceptions, answer their questions, tell them when the doors are closing or the discount expiring and include a countdown timer

Of course, when you start with a waitlist quiz, you can easily create relevant email content that speaks to your audience’s pain points and goals (instead of basing it on assumptions).

7. Have you worked out your capacity to deliver this new product/service?

Don’t just wing it or hope for the best! If you know your numbers before launching your new offer, you can set realistic and achievable goals (and even sell out).

What’s your minimum for launching?

Get clear on how many waitlist sign-ups you need to confidently turn this new idea into a reality.

That way, you’ll avoid wasting time and money developing something that isn’t likely to sell.

What about your maximum?

The most common launch worry is “What if it doesn’t sell enough?”

Not to stress you out even more, but… what if it goes TOO well and you can’t deliver everything?

Whether it’s your time or a set number of products, be realistic with your resources when planning your launch. In fact, it might make sense to cap its availability.

This isn’t only wise: it will also create scarcity and FOMO, helping you sell out more easily. A win-win!

For example, look at big players like Glastonbury. Instead of making their tickets available to everyone, they promote a waitlist, make it clear that those tickets are limited, release them to their subscribers and… sell out in under an hour!

Scaling your offer if you see success

It’s a good idea to treat your launch as a first run and to test it. For example:

What went well and what can be improved?
Can you gather new feedback from your customers once they’ve actually bought your offer?
Should you start selling it on evergreen or periodically?
How can you upsell to each segment?

So, make a plan to reassess your strategy and scale your offer after launching it for the first time.

Set up an effective waitlist with ScoreApp, launch confidently and SELL OUT

For a successful launch, go beyond a basic name-and-email-address waitlist!

When you start with a ScoreApp quiz, you’ll get to:

Really understand your audience and what they value
Validate your offer idea before going all in
Add the right incentives and offers for your audience
Connect your waitlist to your website, CRM and email marketing platform
Promote it EVERYWHERE more easily
Nurture your subscribers with a more relevant email sequence, building momentum
Fail fast and cheap (if you need to fail at all), and then sell out once you actually launch it