How do you promote your product without an MVP?

One idea is to create viral content around the topic you're going to release a MVP for.

Students having to read long readings could go viral (or at least build a following) on Youtube and TikTok where student aged customers would hang out

One more idea, you could also recruit a few influencers or micro-influencers that have the audience you'd like to target (if you don't have a marketing budget then you may want to work with micro-influencers in a partner manner instead of an influencer marketing deal)

You could try surveys to gauge interest. Try asking around in different user groups, like middle school students, high school students, university students, university students. This can be helpful for determining how much resources you should dedicate to developing the MVP.

Honestly, nobody cares about software - they care about solutions. If you can make me rich, I don't care if you use software or a horse and buggy to do it. So don't worry so much about software. Or even having an MVP. Just talk to potential customers, and see.

But beware, everyone will say "that's a great idea" no matter what. It's important to see not what people say, but what they're likely to do. If they say, that's a great idea, you could try to pre-sell it to them. If you can't deliver, you can have an agreement to refund them. But if they're not willing to pay for your solution, then it might not be as great an idea as they're saying.

Honestly, I am figuring this out too! Seeing is believing is something we are told too often.

My take is that if we regress a little, we can find something achievable and actionable to work on.

Talk about the problem more, talk about the value more! Instead of "can I sell you this, or will you use this? ", maybe more of "is the problem real to you? how annoyed about this are you?"

Hopefully everything goes well for you!

I struggle with this also.

Few ideas

1. Try to get a high-quality landing page up and running as soon as possible.
2. Create content for your target user.

I'm in the same place and figuring it out.

I think there are many factors and it's always hard to say "do this". The bottom line is that you try something, and switch to different things if you notice that it doesn't get traction. As for your case I'd probably start by creating tiktoks, YouTube shorts, talking with teachers if they can promote it...

I think it'll be helpful to break down your waitlist project into two initiatives.

1. Creating the waitlist itself
2. Distributing the waitlist

Re #1 - the waitlist itself ... there are some good ideas here already. Essentially you need potential users to land on your digital real estate (i.e. landing page, email), decide your thing is for them and give you a way to reach out in the future. A basic landing page and sign up form is all you really need. Perhaps use or check out Ship by Product Hunt for inspiration (https://www.producthunt.com/ship). The conversion rate of this exercise alone can tell you a lot about the attractiveness of your offering.

Re #2 - distributing the waitlist ... think about channels where your target audience lives. Are they on Tik Tok? Consider making a channel. Are they in your LinkedIn network? Write a post. Before you do any kind of mass communication, I would figure out a way to get feedback from a smaller group. It's always a bummer to send out comms and then immediately realize how your positioning could have been improved through a few initial conversations.

Hope that helps.

Mockups! Bring the idea out visually first. Get a couple of email addresses.

I visualized my idea and put up the Figma screenshots on my site (https://www.qanda.design/) with an email capture. A nice description and you're done.

I think the importance is in finding a way to communicate an idea in 3 seconds. Textually and visually are your most important channels, so focus on those first.

You can even hire someone to do a quick mockup if you feel enthusiastic and lack skills.

I think there are many elements and it's in every case hard to say "do this". Most importantly you have a go at something"https://lifetimeprimarycare.com/(primary care physician sugar land) and change to various things in the event that you notice that it doesn't build up some forward momentum. Concerning your case I'd presumably begin by making tiktoks, YouTube shorts, conversing with instructors on the off chance that they can advance it...

i'm kind of in the same spot you are. i've created a landing page with an email signup form. i plan to do a small email campaign. the first email is a survey to get more information about the problems of the potential users and i'll send a couple more with some high value blog posts that'll be relevant to them.

Create a fake Figma mockup. Could be animated. Share it on channels where your target audience hangs out and ask them to sign up for a beta form.

One idea is to create an "early bird" landing page and promote it across social media.
The goal would be to collect some money upfront by selling a limited special offer, and see who's actually interested in your product. Once you collect some cash, you will have validated the idea and you can use that to build an MVP.

You can use most of the same tactics but simply display an email optin on your homepage to get the launch announcement.

For instance, you can start blogging and writing bottom-of-the-funnel content now. Let people know about the solution you're building in the article and link them to the homepage to signup for the launch notification. When you launch, you might already have some search traffic, and you can update all the posts with screenshots and new copy.

You'll probably get a better conversion rate for the free trial after you launch than the email notification, but you can start building your "marketing flywheel" now.

Others have mentioned collecting email lists and having a polished landing page, which is all good. There might also be some benefit to good old fashioned fly posting and leaflets around the campus. Leave some flyers at the local coffee shop. See if you can get the coffee shop to partner and give out flyers with the coffee? I doubt the coffee shop would do it, but you don't have anything to lose!

Creating a mailing list and offer launch discounts to people that are on the list!
That way people get value from being on the list, and you get value from having more customer leads!
That's what we do over at https://chainspy.net :)

Sell the idea. Market the "content" about it and ask people to join the waitlist as if you are about to release the MVP. This way, you'll at least get a discussion around it.

can anyone give feedback on this idea:
A YouTube video reminder app that reminds you to revisit your saved videos, unlocking new insights and 'aha' moments.

I'm attempting to do this via creating relevant content on TikTok (and Youtube). I'm hoping I'll have enough of an engaged audience so that the first users will come from my existing audience. Whilst I'm doing a more informative approach, others are using memes - hard to say what's most effective, but I'd argue my followers are lower but more engaged as a result.

I've started a waitlist after I hit 4k followers on TikTok as I felt it could get enough traction.