The 7 Tricks I used to make $3,360 in 13.5 Hours
If you have seen my other blog posts about my 24 Hour Startup, you already know I brought in over $3000 in the first 24 Hours after launch. I thought I would put together a short write up of the tricks I used to reach that goal so fast.
Trick #1: Launch fast.
This may be a given considering the idea behind the 24 Hour Startup is to launch fast, but I have to give emphasis here. With startups, you have to do everything at 3x normal speed. You need to launch quickly; you need to onboard users fast, you need to scale fast. There is no such thing as slow during a startup. My first startup failed because I took so long to launch it. Instead of wasting time perfecting the idea I should have just launched and brought customers onboard.
Trick #2: Set Goals and Set Them Early.
One of the biggest mistakes I see is founders not setting goals. You need to set goals every step of the way, but it’s also important to set them before you launch. Goals let you quickly validate your idea. When I launch a startup, I always set goals, so I know if the idea is validated. In my book “The 24 Hour Startup” I offer this example:
“In the case of CoWriter, I knew I needed $5000 to go through with it. The $5000 minimum was to cover my costs and what I would charge I client to build a similar project.”
Figure out what you need to have a successful launch. Then set your validation goals around them.
Trick #3: Launch a Landing Page.
There are plenty of ways to build a landing page these days. I have used everything from Unbounce to Instapage to creating my own. Whichever you use, just make sure you do this before trying to get sales. Sure, if you are lucky and have a huge mailing list you may be able to get sales without having a landing page, but most of us don’t have that luxury. Instead, Build a landing page and send that to your audience.
The landing page doesn’t need to be fancy; It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to setup. All you need is a decent looking page, some copy, and an option to buy. I recommend using Stripe and Plasso for simplicity.
Trick #4: Target Small Networks First.
When you first launch you need to get those first sales fast. Your first customers can be your influencers and drive more traffic via word of mouth. This is why it’s important to target your small networks first.
Your small networks are your close friends and family. The people your talk to on a regular basis. These are the people that will be the easiest to sell to. I recommend reaching out via e-mail, Facebook Messenger, or text message. Use more personal means of contact for these people. In “The 24 Hour Startup” I give examples of how I reached out to my network of friends and got my first sales. The most notable example I give is:
“ For the first e-mail, it’s important to ask for something small and not rush into anything. We want that first response to come easy, as once a person has invested one reply, they are more likely to answer longer questions.”
I have sent hundred of e-mails over the years, and by asking for a something small, for example, an opinion on your idea, I have had a 40% higher conversion rate than when I would jump straight into a sales pitch.
Trick #5: Don’t Launch.
Every time I say this to a client, they do a double-take. However, not launching is one of the best things you can do. Once you’re landing page is up, instead of letting users by the product and get access, you should advertise it as a Pre-Order. You may think this would hurt your conversions, but in my experience, it only increases them.
People want what they can’t have. By giving them the option to buy something early, they feel special. More importantly, pre-orders let you bring in capital before launch.
During my 24 Hour Startup, I did just this. I advertised CoWriter as pre-order and made, so you HAD to buy a full year up front. This allowed us to get capital fast. Capital is paramount to a startup and by using pre-orders you can skip the need for seed-funding.
Trick #6: Use Heat-Maps and A/B Testing.
A lot of startups forget about using heat maps. It’s super easy these days to setup heat maps as well as basic A/B testing. These are vital tools to see what users are doing on your website, how they interact with it, and what is working vs. not working.
Without using these tools, you are running around blindfolded, you will have no idea why your conversion are low. For basic heat maps and session recording, you can use the free version of hotjar which I highly recommend. For A/B testing most landing page sites like Unbounce will include A/B testing, but if you are using your own landing page or a service that doesn’t support them, I recommend the free version of Optimizely as it’s super easy to setup, even for non-technical founders.
Trick #7: Use an E-mail list.
This is the most important item on this list. Collect e-mail addresses. Just do it. It’s easy to do, and it lets you reach out to users who are interested but haven’t bought in yet.
When you launch, you will get users that visit your site but don’t buy. This is normal, but some of those users may be interested enough to hand over an e-mail address for updates; They just haven’t been sold yet.
Even if you just have a simple form at the bottom of the page, this will get you more customers in the long run. That e-mail address opens the doors to a conversation, where you can upsell them at any time.
For e-mails, I used Campaign Monitor as it works well and is only $9 per month starting. You can use MailChimp for free when starting, but I found it wasn’t worth it once you start paying.
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