LaunchRock: invite distribution service

    Many IT entrepreneurs say that interaction with users of the future product must begin before the official launch. Especially those who have already crossed their Rubicon and gained launch experience. This advice can be found in a lot of books, articles and blogs, but it is rarely listened to.

    From these same people, one can hear how quickly the euphoria from the launch is replaced by the sadness of realizing how long the brainchild being developed on the first day was no one needed. Two whole users have registered on the site, one of which is the author’s mother.

    Axiom - the sooner you tell people about the upcoming implementation of your idea, the sooner you can solve several important tasks at once:
    • Test the viability of the idea itself. Perhaps even before the first line of code is written. Imagine how much money and sleepless nights can be saved if you understand in advance that the “ingenious” idea simply does not catch anyone.
    • “Warm up” the audience, which by the time of launch will already begin to understand what kind of problems the product solves.
    • Attract first users. They will serve as the foundation and, due to the word of mouth effect, accelerate the spread of ideas.
    • Test your own application under load. And thereby avoid the need for testing at first buyers. Public beta testing is an honest way to warn people about possible mistakes and not dump the heap on unsuspecting customers who think they are buying a mature product. Take care of the honor from a young age!


    All of the above applies equally to developments at various stages. Our own software product cannot be called a raw prototype. We started our first sales about two years ago as a desktop Windows application. And almost all of this time, a new web-based cloud-based generation of the system was being developed in parallel. Such an evolution is connected with a number of technological barriers that we buried in at the start. And also, with previous experience in building web systems. This topic is very capacious, and if someone is interested in the motives and reasons for the transition from desktop development to the web - let me know in the comments, I will try to create a separate post. Now we will talk about the fact that the new, redesigned ActivTraksoon to be released, and we had a clear goal - to organize beta testing and collect feedback.

    Our immediate task differs from all other situations in that we already have a client base. We are not going to test the perception of an idea from scratch. Her vitality was shown by sales. For two years, we have accumulated a sufficient number of potential and existing users, to whom we, first of all, plan to offer a beta test of a new product. I would like to send these people an invitation, somehow fix their desire to participate and create a list. And at X-hour, when the beta release is to take place, invite to register.

    The requirement for a tool for organizing the entire process is one - it should be very simple and easy to deploy. The need for such events arises in two cases. Or, when the product is already written, the whole team is in stock and there is no time for anything. Or, when, as indicated earlier, the product still exists only in the head: there is a task to understand whether anyone needs it at all.



    We immediately planned to create a simple one-page website for beta testers, which would provide the opportunity to register. I wanted to draw a line between the existing commercial version, which is still being bought (and will be bought for some time), and the beta version, which we are only planning to launch.

    Usually, for mass contacts with customer lists, we use SalesForce(in which we conduct all marketing and sales) and MailChimp (as an auxiliary tool for working with mailing lists).

    SalesForce is convenient for working with existing customers when it is necessary to track transactions, accounts, opportunities, and so on. For marketing newsletters, MailChimp is more convenient and quick to use. It was on him that we initially took a look, planning a beta test. MC offers a free rate or some very inexpensive. What you need if you want to test a crude idea: the budget of such an undertaking is usually zero.

    You can create a page, place a short intriguing description on it, an email address input form integrated with MailChimp, and collect the list in this way. On the appointed day, send out a beautiful letter, track the conversion, and so on.

    However, this method has a significant drawback. Initially, MailChimp was conceived as a mailing list. No matter how you hide this fact behind the front of your web page, a person subscribes to the mailing list. This is determined at the time of confirmation of the address (which is necessary in the MC). And geeks, who usually make up the backbone of the beta tester audience, don't always like this. They rightly fear further marketing attacks on their inbox.

    Further searches of the tool led me to a service calledLaunchRock . This service itself was recently announced at TC , and judging by the profile , its creators are people involved in companies such as Zappos and UserVoice . Parents are credible. LaunchRock itself is still in beta, but they give out invitations quite quickly, if asked. I got mine literally within a few hours.

    How does LaunchRock actually work? Simple enough. The system is conceived as a tool for sending out recently so popular invites that allows teams to announce a new product. You are given the opportunity to quickly create a custom page with a beta subscription form. Each signatory is invited to share the news about this on Twitter, Facebook or any other social networks. If 3 more people subscribe via a unique referral link to the beta, the user is entered on the priority list, which will receive an invite faster than everyone else. The creators claim that, thanks to such socialization, it turns out to reach a very large audience. What we need. Let's check if everything is so simple.

    Inside the settings interface of our future page is quite simple. Before starting, we are required to complete several steps.



    Organizational steps:
    • We create a short description of our beta version (or idea) that is minimally sufficient to attract the audience we are looking forward to. In our case, the audience has already been prepared; there is no need to explain why the product is needed.
    • We set up the content of the page that will be displayed after entering the email, in other words - “Thank you very much!”
    • We indicate a twitter account, a Facebook page, a blog. A very important step. If your product or idea doesn’t have all of this, then it’s time to create it. You will not lose anything.
    • Add graphics to the page: background image, logo, favicon. I bought my picture for $ 5 in stock before the launch.
    • Customize the color scheme.
    • We set the Google Analytics counter code.
    • Specify which elements on the page to display and which not.


    Technical side of the issue:
    Create a domain on which our mini-site will be located. In our case, beta.activtrak.com.
    In the domain settings, create an A-record that will redirect requests to the LaunchRock server.

    All. In practice, the whole setup took me a little over an hour. Given the drinking of coffee, walking around the room in circles, waiting for the DNS and so on.
    The benefits of LaunchRock for now I see for myself the following:
    • The service is hosted in the cloud. Designed for a large influx of visitors and should easily withstand all kinds of Habr / slashdot / tc effects.
    • Very fast to set up and run. Provided that you have something to say about your idea, about an hour.
    • It does not require a site of its own. And in general, it reduces all material and time costs for testing interest in an idea to a minimum.


    Disadvantages:

    At the moment, the Russian language is almost not supported. However, this is a very childhood ailment. I think, soon, it will be fixed. Or Launch Rock analogues will simply appear, oriented to the Russian market, since the service is very simple in its essence and implementation. In our case, this is not a drawback, since almost all of our clients are not from Russia.

    It’s too early to write a conclusion, since all the results from using Launch Rock are expected in the future. In the morning I have a newsletter that will invite our customers to the newly created beta.activtrak.comIt will be interesting to see how Launch Rock accomplishes its task. Of particular interest is its main feature - socialization. Thanks to social functions, theoretically there is an opportunity to attract friends and acquaintances of our testers. 90% of the tasks Launch Rock has already completed - it is guaranteed to show us what will come of it all.

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