Building a waitlist

Overview

Building a waitlist is crucially important before you launch your product. Not only does it build anticipation and engagement from your audience, but it’s a terrific tool for driving interest among investors.

When to start your waitlist

Experts agree that you shouldn’t have your waitlist run for too long or your customers will forget about you and not come back to check out your product. Thirty to ninety days is the general recommendation, though some waitlists have run for much longer if the product is in huge demand.

How to grow your waitlist

Since you don’t have to build any of those pesky admin things, you can devote yourself to growing your waitlist as large as possible.

Enlist Your existing customers

Build a waitlist through email campaigns, push notifications, and in-app messages to existing customers.

Pay to acquire waitlist members

Acquire new customers through advertising, word of mouth, and press if you can. Keep in mind that if you are paying for waitlisters, you will need to discount the likelihood that they will convert to paying customers. That will drive up your Cost to Acquire a Customer (CAC) and could even make those customers unprofitable if you aren’t careful.

How to launch a marketing campaign

Keep your waitlist engaged. Keeping your audience engaged with your brand is the second most important part of managing a waitlist after acquiring them in the first place. After all, it doesn’t matter if you have a massive list of people who don’t remember you and don’t ever come back. This is your fan base and you have to find ways to rile them up and give them reasons to tell their friends and family about your company.