How does one launch on platforms where you have no presence?
I am curious how would you launch a product on a platform where you have no presence. Creating an account with 0 karma and 0 posts and launching your product would be considered almost everywhere as spammy .
Paid ads look like the only reasonable option.
Create you account > offer value to communities > Suggest your product.
The answer is simple (though a bit counter-intuitive)...
Don't launch a product.
It doesn't matter how good it is, the vast majority of people in any target market aren't actively looking to buy right now.
As a result, they'll flag it as spam and ignore it.
Instead, build a presence and an audience by selling a new approach/belief system for your target audience to reach their most desirable outcome.
Take HubSpot for example - spent most of its time talking about "inbound marketing" rather than its internet marketing software.
Or one man business Bullet Journal, which spent its marketing efforts promoting a new way to be productive instead of selling its products.
Or CrossFit - doesn't spend its time promoting gym memberships (the product it sells) but a new way of being fit.
This side-steps the natural sales resistance that people have to being pitched a product because you're not pitching a product but a new approach to reaching their goals.
Doing this enables you to build an audience that is also highly receptive to buying your products. You can read more about it here (for free) - www.thebluntmethod.com
Collaborate with influencers: Identify influencers on the platform who have a large following and whose audience would be interested in your product. Reach out to them and propose a collaboration where they can review your product and share it with their followers.
To be effective, you should concentrate on scaling one or two channels, such as Product Hunt or Reddit. Building an audience takes time and effort, and even if you have 1,000 karma, it won't matter if you're not building an audience.
In order to launch a particular product with 0 presence is really difficult. However there are ways to achieve it:
1.) Reddit : By hitting the comments of reddit post you have chance of pushing your product out there. Reddit communities are strong and if people see a value in it then they will buy your product.
2.) Friends and Family: Best and most easy option is to find someone within your own inner circle to use your product. This will also help you in getting feedback on your product thereby helping you improve it more.
3.) Paid ads: Paying a particular third party company to host your product add on their platform will help you get notice faster and easier.
To avoid Reddit takedowns,
respond to relevant Reddit comments and conclude with a link to a blogpost. In your blogpost you can more freely promote your app.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while as well. I want to launch a product soon but I’m practically invisible on social media. An idea I had is to get my friends to comment on my product on Reddit and twitter then I’ll engage them that way I think I won’t appear like a bot.
I'm curious, too. I suppose that until there is some kind of reputation, there is no way. (
Launches often + build audience along the way.
Find topics where your product is relevant and reply with a contribution and link, it is less spammy that way.
In my very limited experience, paid ads only work when you have lots of money to spend. I'm sure others have a better understanding of paid ads.