In this review, I want to explore how Prelaunch.com helps with campaigns before officially launching live - essentially providing more information on how it all works. This involves using their software to build email lists for a product launch, and gathering relevant data to ensure projects hit the market successfully.
I'm Giles, Founder of Hyperstarter. I previously reviewed The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF), and in 2022 their co-founder moved away from the crowdfunding marketing agency to create a brand new company under the short url - Prelaunch.com.
Prelaunch preparation (or lack of) can make or break a campaign. We found that out quite quickly when we started work in the niche of crowdfunding.
Right now, Kickstarter and Indiegogo are trying to keep their users on their site by improving their pre-Kickstarter and pre-Indiegogo pages. They're making them more user-friendly, adding more text and focusing on collecting followers. The goal for creators would be for them to knoe exactly who will support them on Day 1.
From initial impressions, Prelaunch.com is an all-in-one platform designed to help entrepreneurs and businesses with product launch services, before they go live. This website moves beyond crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, as it focuses on ecommerce and general companies too.
The thinking behind the site is that by focusing on prelaunch marketing, their tools help validate your product idea (Now using AI), help to build an email list, and create buzz before the official launch. As per their press release where they showcased a $1.5m raise, they're looking to Revolutionize Outdated Product Validation Systems.
Prelaunch.com focuses solely on the phase called "pre-launching". The platform helps brands and innovators showcase their product concepts on their website, test customers’ willingness to buy them via dynamic supporters, and get early supporters through email list Building for their product launches.
This is what we do when we're helping to launch a crowdfunding campaign. We test demand by creating a landing page, collecting potential backer's email addresses and engage with the audience. Through this data (whether that's by measuring clicks, cost per sign-up, or even calculating the number of people who are replying to posts, ads and emails), we decide whether to go ahead with launching a campaign or have some idea how much the campaign will raise, once it launches.
Prelaunch.com serves as a platform for product validation, allowing creators to understand market demand before launching their product. It assists in determining pricing, pinpointing the target audience, and collecting valuable early customer feedback. This feedback empowers creators to make informed decisions about whether to proceed with confidence or reconsider their product idea.
To secure a product reservation, potential customers are required to place a reservation deposit, which not only guarantees them a discount if the product is launched but also confirms their actual buying intent.
How in-depth data provided by Prelaunch.com helps product builders decide...
So what is the information on how it all works? The key to the value of Prelaunch.com is about analytics, or more precisely - if X changes, what happens to Y. You can use the site to make changes, that effectively changes your data (and outcome) immediately.
With the Analytics page, you can get answers to:
Once the campaign is set up, Prelaunch.com promotes it through various channels: Website homepage, Newsletter and Social media.
My thoughts: I would say one disadvantage, is that you're working on their platform. If you're promoting your prelaunch-url, then it'll be their url and not your own personal site.
This quote comes from their Press Release:
“I was running a successful marketing agency. Despite our many achievements, we kept spending months working on products that held great promise, only to end up as failures,” says Narek Vardanyan, founder and CEO of Prelaunch.com.
“So, I started to research ways companies understand market interest. And I found that every current method was tied to discovering peoples’ opinions. The drawback here is that people don’t always do what they say. And this planted the seeds for a new concept — reservation funnels — which, unlike traditional alternatives like surveys or focus groups, is a system where customers place an actual monetary reservation providing tangible proof of their genuine purchase intent.”
My thoughts: Using a reservation funnel is not new, as most crowdfunding agencies use it to offer "VIP" discounts to prove potential backers real purchase intent.
As mentioned at the top of this review, my only worry are platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo are trying to discourage people to reservation funnels, as essentially a reservation pre-order can simply be bypassed by a user just following a campaign page. They will be notified first, be offered the same discount and save any reservation payment they could've made previously.
Taking reservation payments further, Prelaunch has an option to let people the option to cancel their pre-payment before you go live. They recommend you do this via email — as you’ve already collected them.
This it the message they recommend to send out to all VIP's:
As we’re going live tomorrow, [DATE], this is your last chance to cancel your reservation and receive a full refund on your Prelaunch Deposit. Failure to send this message out to your reservee's could lead to your reservation deposits being withheld.
The company already counts 2,000 registered brands and access to nearly 1 million community members and potential buyers. Industry names like e-bike and e-motorcycle producer Fuell, co-founded by former Harley-Davidson legendary engineer Erik Buell have already collected enough emails to validate their product concepts to ensure ultimate success in the wider market.
Inbuilt on each custom web page is a Discus embed, essentially gathering comments from anyone on the page.
After viewing the site in action, it's really good. Prelaunch is more than a glorified landing page. It integrates AI, there is promotion on site, and offers useful data in real-time.
The problem I see is that it's self-contained on their website - which has advantages and disadvantages. Launchboom's Launchkit I think noticed what they're doing, and left this note on their page: Don’t prelaunch on a platform… build your own brand.
Their comprehensive approach ensures multiple touchpoints, increasing the chances of conversion.