No matter how long you’ve been in business, launching a new product or service can be daunting.
Setting up a waitlist is a smart way to build demand in advance. With it, you capture the details of prospects who don’t want to miss out on your new offer, then use different marketing tactics to increase anticipation.
Once it’s time to launch, you will have a list of hot leads ready to buy!
A waitlist also helps you measure interest in your offer and lets you make tweaks and changes before your launch, so you don’t waste money promoting an offer that doesn’t work for your target audience.
A quiz, like the ones we design at ScoreApp, can help you collect early feedback on your new offering and build your waitlist so you can guarantee an amazing launch.
If you plan, promote and manage it effectively, a waitlist can help deliver clients on-demand for your business.
And who doesn’t want that?
So let’s dive into the ultimate guide to planning, promoting, and managing your waitlist.
The benefits of building a waitlist
Think about Glastonbury for a moment. To purchase tickets for the most iconic music festival in the world, you need to sign up for their waitlist several months in advance. Tickets are then released to the people on the waitlist for just one day – and they always sell out in less than an hour.
All because they have built demand within their waitlist that far outweighs the supply of tickets.
Although it might be a little ambitious to think your offer will set alight in the same way, there are many reasons why you should build a waitlist for your next launch.
We like to break this down into the WAITS benefits:
Warm Leads
Anyone who signs up for your waitlist – particularly if they complete a quiz lead magnet – can be classified as a warm lead.
These people already know and trust you and are more likely to be interested in the product or service you’re launching. Plus, when you create an automated email nurture series for your waitlist, you can build on that initial interest to generate even more trust and credibility.
The number of people on your waitlist can also help you more accurately predict how many sales you can make from your launch. Sure, not everyone will buy, but the more people on your waitlist, the more likely your idea is wanted (and needed) in the marketplace.
Anticipation
Being on the waitlist for new products and services can be an exciting experience for your audience!
How you engage with your waitlist can help build anticipation and intrigue – especially as the countdown ticks closer to launch day. Use ethical marketing tactics to create a sense of urgency and fear of missing out (FOMO).
You should be sharing behind-the-scenes updates, any unexpected challenges or mistakes, and how you are changing things based on early feedback (more on this next).
Insight
Quizzes are great sources of market research, as you can ask questions that paint a better picture of your audience’s wants, needs, and desires.
Using a quiz to grow your waitlist lets you collect vital real-time data that can help improve your final offer. Maybe you find out your initial idea doesn’t sit quite right with the audience, therefore something needs to change.
When you ask people for specific details to clarify what they need and why they are interested in working with you, you can create the best version of your offer. All of which can help with how you promote the waitlist for your launch…
Teach
Once someone has completed your quiz and signed up for your waitlist, you can use their contact information to send valuable educational content that builds trust before your launch.
We’ve already mentioned email marketing for nurturing, but you can take this further by sharing information that educates your audience. Perhaps you already have a detailed blog post or a case study from previous projects that illustrates why you’ve decided to launch this new offer… share it with people as it builds trust and adds context.
Another area to consider is that you can arm your audience with the tools to teach their peers – growing the word-of-mouth opportunities to get even more waitlist sign-ups!
Sales Boost
If you plan, promote, and manage your waitlist effectively, you build up a lot of energy and excitement.
Then once your offer is ready to launch, people are ready to buy!
The more you do in the early stages, the better your final sales and conversions will be. Which is why you’re here, right?
Here is our step-by-step guide, breaking down the planning, promoting, and managing of your waitlist.
Stage one: Planning your waitlist
To best utilise your waitlist and create an amazing launch and get all the juicy benefits of the WAITS technique, planning is key.
Define your launch goals
There are many factors you need to consider before launching your waitlist.
The key question you need to ask yourself is: what does a successful launch look like for your business?
Any goals you set for your launch should be SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
For example, a smart goal could be:
“Add [X] people to the launch waitlist and sell [X] products/services within [X] weeks of launching.”
The clearer you are on what you are aiming for, the easier it will be to take action and make it happen. You can break the end goal down into manageable chunks that focus on your output, for example sharing the waitlist X times on social media per week, or personally DM’ing X number of people each week.
Choose your platform
There are several waitlist management systems out there. The most important thing is finding the one that best suits your needs.
ScoreApp, for example, can be used to manage waitlists, sell-out events, and promote your offer. It’s an ideal solution for businesses who want to not only attract new leads, but to also test their new ideas in one handy platform.
Our quizzes and landing pages can be used by any business that wants to create waitlists that promote launches or events and build a relationship with their audience in a personalised way.
One of the only instances where ScoreApp won’t be relevant is if you require a real-time waitlist system that manages bookings and appointments – for example, as a restaurant. But for all other types of businesses, you can try ScoreApp for free and get a waitlist set up in minutes.
Create an enticing waitlist landing page
There are several mistakes you can make when planning a waitlist for your next launch.
One of the biggest ones is creating a vague landing page that doesn’t provide enough information to encourage people to join your waitlist.
Your messaging needs to be clear and engaging so people understand your new offer and the benefits of joining your waitlist. Remember, people don’t buy features, they buy a transformation.
Here is our guide to structuring your waitlist landing page:
- An attention-grabbing headline about your new offer
- Description of the problems your audience is currently facing
- The benefits of your new product or service
- Social proof, such as the logos of companies you’ve worked with or publications you’ve featured in
- Testimonials from customers
- A brief introduction to you and why you do what you do
- A clear CTA that gets people to sign up for the waitlist
If you choose ScoreApp to create your waitlist, you can use our easy drag-and-drop software to a landing page.
Or try one of our ready-to-go templates, such as the two pre-made waitlist templates on offer:
Simply change the content to suit your waitlist offer, and don’t forget to adapt the style to suit your brand by putting your own logos and images in there.
Set up prequalifying questions for your waitlist
As we’ve already established, a quiz is a great way to get more sign-ups to your waitlist, as it is an interactive way for people to register their interest. It also lets you gather valuable insights about your waitlist audience. So to effectively prequalify people, you need to tailor the questions to your advantage.
Don’t forget to tell people why you need their input. If they feel involved in shaping your offer, they are more likely to fill out your quiz and will be more invested in the end result.
Within your quiz, ask questions to get information on the following topics of the people registering:
- Their current position/situation – to understand their current reality
- Their knowledge or experience – to learn what knowledge gaps they have
- Their challenges – to understand what is standing in their way
- Their aspirations – to learn the transformation they seek
- Solutions they’ve tried before – to explain why your offer is different
- Their budget – to check if they’re realistically a potential customer or not
Understanding the knowledge or experience people have can help inform your final offer and makes marketing far more effective. You can hone in on the specific challenges and aspirations people tell you about, so it’s based on hard data rather than guesswork.
If you get positive feedback, you gain valuable information that will help you attract more of the same information. Alternatively, if you find out people aren’t interested in your current positioning, understanding why helps you pivot in another direction.
You could use the results of this quiz to create a self-assessment Scorecard that shows people their current position or knowledge level in a particular area.
A Scorecard lets you naturally position your offer as a way to improve their situation, and you can use the data collected to send them specific resources before your launch to provide even more added value.
Plan your marketing strategy to raise awareness
Finally, you need to plan how to tell people about your waitlist! Because it’s no good creating a waitlist if nobody knows about it…
You should leverage your existing marketing channels as much as possible, as you will have built relationships with people who could be interested in joining your waitlist.
Think about where you’re most active already and before you know it, you’ll have a long list of people you can personally reach out to, which makes the next stage easier. This could be direct potential leads or people to chat to about collaborating with or asking a favour for them to share your waitlist for your audience.
Platforms you can use include:
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Your website
- The registration landing page
You should also set goals for each channel – for example a number of waitlist sign-ups on each – so you can measure how effective your strategy is.
Remember: you can’t tell people about your waitlist once and expect them to remember. Mention it regularly to raise awareness and gain as many sign-ups as possible. You might think you’ve talked about it constantly, but your audience doesn’t see (or take notice of) everything you share.
Stage Two: Promoting your waitlist
Now that you’ve made your plans, it’s time to put them into play and get the word out about your waitlist.
When promoting your waitlist, always make clear:
- What it’s for – the problem you’re solving
- Why people should join – your transformation promise
- How they sign up – the specific details to set expectations
- How long it will take to sign up – such as ‘Sign up to the waitlist by answering a few questions – it takes less than 2 minutes!’
Give yourself enough time to promote your waitlist. Depending on the level of investment for your prospects, we recommend a minimum of 3-6 weeks to build up demand before you launch your new offer.
Share with your current audience
You should consistently share your waitlist with your existing audience, as it will already be full of warm potential prospects who already trust you.
Here are a few of the ways you can do this:
- Social Media
Use the platforms where you get the most engagement and share posts with a link to your waitlist landing page. You could also share behind-the-scenes videos and images to build intrigue.
- Direct Messages
When people engage with the content you post about your waitlist, they are indicating interest. Send them a follow-up message with more information to encourage them to sign up.
And don’t forget that handy list of people you made earlier during the planning stage… now’s the time to reach out personally.
- Email Campaigns
Send emails to your existing audience about the launch, explaining your new offer and why they should join the waitlist to get first access.
You can easily connect your ScoreApp quiz to your email marketing platform, and segment the people on your waitlist by their results to send them targeted content around your offer.
Collaborations with others
You could also leverage other people’s audiences to promote your waitlist. A smart way to widen your reach is to strategically partner with another influencer or business owner with a relevant audience and ask them to share information about your webinar.
Is there someone that springs to mind who would be perfect to spread the word? Reach out – you have nothing to lose!
You could also suggest running an event together or offering to share their offer details or a freebie so they can tap into your audience too and you both benefit.
Content marketing
Content marketing is a great way to find new people who might be interested in your launch.
Here are a few of the different kinds of content you could create to promote your launch:
- Video Marketing
Create videos documenting the process of launching your offer. People love to see behind the scenes and will want to sign up for your waitlist to gain more insight.
- Podcast
If you host a podcast, record an episode about your new offer, why you created it, and the problems it solves.
You could also be a guest on other people’s podcasts if they have a relevant audience.
- Blog Posts
Write posts not only about your offer but also about your waitlist! Flesh out your quiz into a longer post to get people thinking, with a link to the waitlist landing page at the end.
- Webinars
People love exclusivity. Alongside early access to your launch, what other incentives can you offer to encourage them to sign up? One idea is to run a VIP webinar, exclusive to your waitlist, around the subject that your new launch covers.
For example, if you are launching a 1:1 Financial Management coaching programme, you could run a webinar sharing “Five Tips For Better Money Management”. This will warm up your audience even more and get them ready to buy on launch day.
- Website
Alongside the landing page you set up for your waitlist, give it as much visibility on your website as possible.
Include your waitlist sign-up link as a pop-up, within your Homepage copy, and as an individual page they can navigate to.
Paid ads
Finally, you could drive traffic to your waitlist with paid ads on Google and social media. Although a more costly exercise, this helps you cast a wider net and connect with new people you may not find otherwise.
The initial investment may be worthwhile to test your idea, as your waitlist will still save you money if the idea is a flop.
Stage Three: Managing your waitlist
Now that you have planned and promoted your waitlist, you need to nurture it effectively to keep people interested.
This is especially important if your launch is a while away. If you stop talking about it, people will likely forget they are on the waitlist and won’t be primed to buy when your offer goes live.
Segment your audience
Quizzes allow you to easily segment people based on their answers, and then send targeted follow-up emails to build demand for your launch.
Prioritise the people who seem most interested or suitable for your offer. You can do this by analysing how they answered the prequalifying questions in your ScoreApp quiz.
Nurture your waitlist audience
Keep your waitlist in the loop by sharing regular email marketing updates as your launch date creeps closer.
Sharing sneak peeks, live demonstrations, and hosting Q&A sessions helps people feel involved in the journey and builds loyalty and excitement.
How many emails you send is up to you – but you need to keep reminding people of your offer.
We recommend a launch sequence of 19 tried-and-tested waitlist emails that you can send to your audience for an amazing launch.
Prepare for launch
You will know exactly when your offer is launching – so remember to test your waitlist and your systems before doors open.
You can offer exclusive access, bonuses, or offers to people on the waitlist to encourage them to purchase on the exact date and time you launch – for example, a free 1-2-1 consultation with you.
You should also keep your launch exclusive. Let people know that people can only buy your new product or service if they’re on the waitlist for a certain period of time after launching to increase anticipation and demand.
Post-launch follow-up
Of course, the work doesn’t end after your launch date.
People who didn’t buy immediately are still warm leads. Thank them for being on the waitlist, and ask for feedback to find out why they didn’t buy.
Then continue to nurture them with email marketing and build up demand again by sharing:
- The number of spaces remaining
- Case studies from existing customers
- Videos as the launch progresses
- Questions people are asking, and your answers to them
Create your launch waitlist with ScoreApp
If you follow the steps above, you can plan, promote, and manage a waitlist to nurture warm leads, build anticipation, and ultimately, have an amazing launch with lots of sales!
Don’t base your launch on guesswork. With a ScoreApp quiz, you can pre-qualify your leads, validate your offer, and promote it everywhere more easily.
Our waitlist-specific quizzes and landing page templates can easily be customised with your brand fonts, colours, logos, and more.
Create your waitlist quiz and landing page with ScoreApp today for FREE.
