New services, products, events, books… To launch something confidently (knowing it will sell), you need a waitlist strategy.
Otherwise, you’d be basing everything on guesswork, and you could waste months and thousands of pounds creating and promoting something your audience doesn’t want.
How does a waitlist change that?
- Marketing – From social media content to videos and blog posts (and more), use it to direct traffic to a waitlist landing page
- Waitlist landing page – Illustrate your new idea, and compel people to join the waitlist for it, creating both excitement and FOMO (for example, by including subscriber-only perks)
- Quiz – Ask some quick but strategic questions to validate your idea, get insights to inform your launch and marketing, and segment your waitlist subscribers (for example, based on their biggest problem or what they value the most)
- Emails – Nurture your waitlist subscribers in a personalised way, building and maintaining momentum until you’re ready to launch (and sell out!)
With ScoreApp, you can create that waitlist landing page, quiz questions, and segments, connecting them with your email marketing platform to automate the rest. Easy!
But to show you what those four funnel phases can look like in practice, we gathered some successful waitlist strategies for different types of launches.
1. The ‘Book’ Waitlist
While you can create a waitlist for fiction titles too, it’s particularly effective for business and self-development books.
Not only will it help you sell them by reaching more potential readers and creating momentum: your waitlist will bring you data that you can then use to contact those readers and upsell to them, turning them into paying clients.
- Marketing – Get your audience curious and excited by creating social media content that teases your book, sharing excerpts and interview-style videos, and writing long-form blog posts that feed into its main topic
- Waitlist landing page – Share a preview of your cover, summarise the book, introduce yourself, and focus on how reading it will benefit them. Waitlist subscribers could get perks like signed copies, a discount, or a free 1:1 session with you
- Quiz – Ask questions to understand who your potential readers are and what they’re most interested in
- Emails – Take your future readers on your journey when promoting your book! Through your personalised emails, tell them why you wrote it for them, share stories and sneak peeks, show them how it’ll solve their problem, and tease its launch
Example of the ‘book’ waitlist strategy
Rich Litvin, founder of a global coaching community, used ScoreApp to create a book waitlist for $100K Clients, his upcoming book.
When someone signs up, they’re asked questions like “What does attracting $100K clients mean to you?” and “What do you think is holding you back from attracting $100K clients?”
2. The ‘Event’ Waitlist
From conferences to in-person strategy days, you don’t want to waste time and money planning an entire event… only to end up with several empty spots!
So, instead of selling your tickets straight away, start with an exclusive waitlist.
- Marketing – Create a buzz around your upcoming event with targeted posts and high-quality visuals, highlighting its exclusivity
- Waitlist landing page – Go all in on that premium vibe: lead with how the tickets will ONLY be available for purchase to those on your event waitlist
- Quiz – Still trying to find the perfect angle or theme? Ask your subscribers what they would find most useful. Otherwise, focus on uncovering their wants, needs, likes, and dislikes, so that you can plan the perfect event and fine-tune its promotion for each segment
- Emails – Talk about the problem this event will solve and what your attendees will walk away with. Share relevant stories, anecdotes, and compelling visuals (for example, photos of the venue or quick video messages from your speakers). Keep teasing how exclusive and limited this event is, encouraging subscribers to watch out for your email announcements and tickets
Example of the ‘event’ waitlist strategy
Real estate expert Todd Tramonte will be running an event next year but has already been promoting its waitlist. The landing page positions it as a must for real estate businesses, offering additional benefits like a free copy of his book.
Then, his ScoreApp quiz questions segment the subscribers based on factors like “What stage are you at in building or scaling your real estate team?” and “What’s your biggest challenge in growing your real estate team?”
3. The ‘Product Test’ Waitlist
Unfortunately, it happens with the majority of launches: businesses go all in on a new product or offer that fails to meet targets or flops altogether.
Instead, with a waitlist and quiz strategy, you can gauge interest, validate your initial idea, and if needed, optimise it or change it based on your audience’s feedback.
- Marketing – Reach more people and build momentum with teasers and exciting social media content, focusing on the problem you’ll solve and how this new product will benefit your audience
- Waitlist landing page – Illustrate your initial concept, highlighting the benefits of joining the waitlist (like exclusive access or an early-bird discount). Tell your audience this is their chance to help you shape that new product or service, too!
- Quiz – Ask questions to understand exactly what your audience likes and dislikes about that idea, how much they’d pay for it, and if they have any doubts or questions
- Emails – Expand on the problems, concerns, and questions that came up throughout the quiz. Educate your subscribers on this new product, get them excited about it, and keep teasing its launch
Example of the ‘product test’ waitlist
Jammy Digital, a content marketing agency, used a ScoreApp waitlist and quiz to validate their new offer idea: a video marketing service done entirely online and remotely.
They asked questions like “What are you struggling with currently with video marketing?” and “Would you pay for this service?”
This allowed them to perfect their initial idea, get clear on what their audience cared about the most, and plan their launch and marketing accordingly (spoiler alert: they sold out within two weeks and added £144,000 of revenue to their agency!).
4. The ‘Membership’ Waitlist
Memberships are a great way to build recurring revenue (for example, by offering exclusive access to certain resources, a community, or your help).
Unlike high-ticket offers, though, they require A LOT of smaller sales, which can actually be harder to make. So, don’t build the entire thing straight away!
- Marketing – Get your audience curious with teasers and valuable content that feeds into your initial membership idea
- Waitlist landing page – Illustrate your concept, and invite your audience to shape it by sharing their feedback. Tease some subscriber-only benefits too, like an early-bird discount or getting the first month for free
- Quiz – Ask questions to validate your initial idea, understand what people want the most from this membership (what problem are they struggling with?), and identify the right price
- Emails – Focus on the problem you’ll solve, build trust with reviews from past clients or beta testers, and inspire FOMO when teasing the launch of your super valuable and exclusive membership
Example of the ‘membership’ waitlist
A business coach is planning a membership for women solopreneurs, but they know there are already so many options out there.
So, instead of developing their first idea, they could ask their audience to share their input so they can plan a membership they would actually use and get value from.
Their ScoreApp quiz questions could include “What do you need THE MOST in your business right now?”, “If you had a membership that’s just for women solopreneurs, what would you be most excited about?”, and even “Have you ever signed up for a membership without then making the most of it? What stopped you?”
5. The ‘Seasonal Sale’ Waitlist
Seasonal sales are an excellent opportunity to maximise your revenue or get rid of stock. However, your competition will be even fiercer.
So, instead of adding to all that white noise with a generic offer, capture your leads earlier and create hype and exclusivity with a waitlist.
- Marketing – Engage your audience with valuable posts and user-generated content weeks before your sale
- Waitlist landing page – Introduce your upcoming offer, include social proof (like reviews from past customers), and lead with what makes it exclusive: is it a waitlist-only offer? Will subscribers get a HIGHER discount and additional perks?
- Quiz – Discover what your leads are most interested in, and if relevant, what problem they’re trying to solve
- Emails – Create both excitement and scarcity (with teasers, reviews, personalised content, and narrative-based emails). Focus on what makes this sale so valuable and limited, sending plenty of reminders
Example of the ‘seasonal sale’ waitlist
A skincare brand (and any type of e-commerce businesses) could use a waitlist to sell out on Black Friday.
The landing page will tease their upcoming offer, and the ScoreApp quiz will ask questions to understand what each customer values the most and what’s their skin type.
Then, before and during Black Friday, they’ll receive tailored offers and emails with unmissable CTAs.
6. The ‘Limited Edition Product’ Waitlist
This waitlist strategy can work for both product-based businesses (for example, when launching seasonal items or one-off collections) and service providers (such as exclusive 1:1 offers with limited spots).
Either way, the goal is to gauge demand and build hype to make sure it sells out.
- Marketing – Reach and engage more people with targeted content (for example, speaking to “fans of [topic]” or “Are you also [experiencing a specific problem]?”)
- Waitlist landing page – Tease your upcoming collection or offer, including show-stopping visuals. Lead with its exclusivity and scarcity, encouraging people to join the waitlist to be in with a chance of snatching it
- Quiz – Still toying with various ideas? Use your quiz to identify the strongest one. If your limited collection is already in the making, find out what your audience values the most
- Emails – Stay top of mind with tailored emails, including teasers, freebies, high-quality photos and videos, and reminders of what makes this collection limited
Example of the ‘limited edition product’ waitlist
Let’s say you’re a sustainable fashion brand specialising in timeless handmade dresses that don’t follow trends. You’re now thinking of creating a limited collection inspired by folklore.
Use a ScoreApp waitlist and quiz to find out what designs are most popular among your customers (for example, by showing them your initial mock-ups) and how much they’d pay for one. Then, only develop and promote those.
Build hype, and sell out with a ScoreApp waitlist strategy
A waitlist strategy is a lot more than just “a list of names”.
It’s a full funnel that’ll allow you to reach more people, build hype, and optimise your marketing, launching your new product or service confidently.
But for all that to happen, you need to go beyond a basic “coming soon” page.
So, create your waitlist strategy with ScoreApp today and for FREE.
