Hrishikesh Jobanputra is a marketing strategist, copywriter, and co-founder at 39shops.com. He helps small business owners boost revenue with razor-sharp marketing strategies and conversion copywriting. He can be reached at his twitter handle @hrishikeshj
October 26, 2020
A wise man once said - well beginning is half done.
When it comes to your subscription box business, a pre-launch can be synonymous with a well-beginning.
You might have heard of the word ‘pre-launch’ on social media. And you might be wonder how it can be executed to get the best results.
That’s precisely what you are going to discover in this article.
First, let’s try to understand the concept of pre-launch.
As the name suggests, pre-launch is ‘launch before the launch’.
The core idea behind a pre-launch is to let your market know about your subscription box much ahead of time. It means you can build customers first without investing a ton of money in inventory, marketing, or advertising.
A pre-launch is a smart way to validate your subscription box idea before you go too far.
Pre-launch enables you to build a cohort of the first set of customers who will buy your subscription box before it is launched. So before you invest a ton of money on product sourcing, logistics, and marketing, there is already a group of people eager to take out their wallets.
Here is why a pre-launch is absolutely essential:
“Failing to plan is planning to fail” - Benjamin Franklin
It is a well-known fact that every minute you invest in planning will save six minutes in execution. Pre-launch requires meticulous planning.
Here are a few things you need to plan for your subscription box pre-launch:
For the purpose of this article, we are going to stick to the pre-launch strategy where you collect the email address and get people inside the waiting list.
This brings us to three core components of your pre-launch.
The three core components of your pre-launch are going to be:
The biggest mistake people make in marketing is that they spread themselves too thin in too many media channels.
Result? None of it is effective.
You need to pick just one media to reach out to your market. Remember, the goal of your pre-launch is to get the first few customers. And focusing your energies on a single media channel will be sufficient to achieve the numbers.
Here is the bottomline.
Pick one media that you think is most relevant to your subscription box and focus on it. Learn about it. Experiment with various approaches and see which one is effective.
There are no shortcuts here.
The pre-launch landing page is nothing but a stripped-down version of your home page.
It essentially communicates your value proposition and spark interest so the visitors get inside the waiting lists.
That being said, not every pre-launch landing page has all these components. You can use the components depending on your needs and preferences.
Home Chef clearly communicates the problem it is solving in the main banner supported by a clear call to action.
This brings it to the third component of your pre-launch email list.
Email marketing can help you keep in touch with people in your waiting list. You want to keep them engaged with relevant and interesting emails. You can build anticipation by revealing one or two aspects of your subscription box.
You also want to let them know when your subscription service goes live.
Here is a great example of an announcement email from Beard Brand:
Hrishikesh Jobanputra is a marketing strategist, copywriter, and co-founder at 39shops.com. He helps small business owners boost revenue with razor-sharp marketing strategies and conversion copywriting. He can be reached at his twitter handle @hrishikeshj
Everything we've learned (and are still learning) about growing a subscription box business.