How to
Quickly Get Visitors
to your Validation landing Page
license
it out. For any other info and requests regarding this
This ebook was written exclusively for the App Idea
license just contact heidi@designforfounders.com and
Validation course, but it’s licensed under the Creative
check here for updates.
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
4.0 International License. That means that it can be freely shared, but never for monetary compensation and
only as-is (can’t be modified). So you can send it to your email subscribers, neighbours, moms, and imaginary
friends as long as it’s free of charge. If you want to be
super-nice however, please direct people to this page
when doing so.
If you’re looking to add this ebook to your digital
product as, say, a bonus please contact me and we’ll sort
License
page: 2
About
About the Author
Heidi Pungartnik is a designer, speaker, and an online
entrepreneur. She started working in the design industry
5 years ago. In 2013, she final y decided to follow her
other passion, entrepreneurship, and attended her first
Startup Weekend. Her team had no developers on board,
but they still won the first prize with ThoughtProvoker
Since then, she’s determined to teach and inspire
more people to start their own businesses, as well
as demonstrate the value of design in innovation,
marketing, and sales.
Follow her on Twitter and check out Design for
About
page: 3
About Design for Founders
About App idea Validation course
Design for Founders promotes a different approach This ebook constantly refers to the The App Idea
to business – a design-driven approach. We explore
Validation course. In case you’re not yet a student there: conversions, marketing, idea validation, and even
it teaches how to refine, present, and even sell a mobile
building a product without writing code.
or web app - or even another digital product, like an
ebook or a course, before even producing it.
Solopreneurs, internet marketers, bootstrapping startup
founders, app and web developers, ebook authors, and
Within a single weekend, students learn to design a
‘side-projecteers’ are all invited to a startup party where MVP (minimal viable product), build a landing page,
development takes second place and is being replaced by
and start collecting pre-orders for their ideas. This way, lean business methodologies.
people with app ideas can avoid wasting time and money
on ideas that don’t work. For more info click here.
About
page: 4
introduction
So you’ve finished the App Idea Validation course and
products. In fact, you might waste a lot of money paying
you’ve ideal y ended up with a landing page. But your
advertisements for landing pages in newsletters. As I
work is not done yet! This ebook will list the best ways
always point out, you’ll need to test what works for you -
to quickly drive traffic to your validation landing page,
and this ebook will guide you through ideas.
all of which I’ve personal y used. They are sorted into
Purpose
free and paid ones, but you’ll notice that paid methods
are much more effective. I think it will prove itself that Let’s refocus. What is the purpose of a validation landing investing a $100 into advertising can be of great help in
page?
accelerating the validation process. You can even lower
Wel , first of all it is used to determine if there’s enough this investment with AdWords and Facebook coupons demand for the particular app idea to start developing
(just search the web!).
it. As I’ve discussed in the course, exactly how many
Mind you, not all of the methods described in this
pre-orders you need to collect will vary by the app’s
ebook are suitable for normal landing pages of
characteristics like its price and end development costs.
Introduction
page: 5
General y, there is no golden rule about this - but if
audience. That means that first of al , you need to define during the validation period you only make 3 sales of a
your target market. Think about who your customers $.99 app that’s a pretty good indicator that the idea is not are. Are they male or female (or neither)? How old? How
going to work.
tech-savy? What sites do they use? etc.
But we have not yet discussed another purpose of these
With these assumptions, it will become a lot easier
landing pages and that is - to get worded feedback.
to find and select the best social networks, sites, and
Friends have already given you their opinions, but you’ll
newsletters to advertise or guest post in.
need to reach further - and internet will definitely help
So before we continue, please take 10 minutes to
you out (whether you like it or not). See chapter Posting
elaborate on who exactly is your ideal customer. Draw
in Online Communities for more.
a picture or find a photo of him or her and list all the
targeting
relevant characteristics (here’s a list that may come in handy!).
An omnipresent idea of this ebook is targeting the right
Introduction
page: 6
Glossary
Keyword is a word or a phrase that internet users input into search engines to find information.
Here is a small glossary of less known words that appear
in this ebook:
Validation landing page (VLP) is a landing page built with the purpose of finding out how much demand is
Target audience is a specific group of people within there for an idea. It features the idea in the form of a
the target market at which a product or the marketing
simple minimal viable product.
message of a product is aimed at.
Post-validation stage is the process following a
Conversion rate is the proportion of visits to a website (successful) validation - normal y marketing and
who take action (e.g. make a purchase) to go beyond a
product development.
casual content view or website visit.
Niche (market) is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused (by price point, target
audience, product quality, ...).
Introduction
page: 7
PAiD metHoDs
Pros: Targeted, effective, relatively cheap
Paid search
Cons: Time to learn
Then, you can dive right in to advertising with
AdWords and other paid search channels are the
AdWords. If you’re a rookie, here’s how it works: when ultimate tool for driving traffic to your validation
a web user types a phrase into Google, such as “how to
landing page. In validation stages you want quick results, fix a computer at home”, I can target them specifical y
so it makes more sense to pay for the most targeted
and display them an ad linking to my validation landing
visitors and see where that gets you. And what is more
page. But I only pay when a user clicks on it (because of
targeted than people who are already searching for a
the PPC - Pay Per Click model)! Another great bonus is
solution to their problem?
that when visitors leaves my landing page, I can display
I suggest you set up an AdWords account and learn how
them my ads again them to bring them back and get
you can use it for free to find out how many searches of them to buy (retargeting).
your phrase are made each month. This process is called
Obviously, there is much more to it, but I’d just waste
keyword research and it’s a very useful skill to have in space here if I went into details. If you’re interested, head online marketing.
on over here for an official walkthrough with videos.
Paid Methods
page: 9
Pros: Highly targeted, PPC pricing (=cheap)
social media Ads
Cons: None that I can think of
Advertising is where social media real y makes money.
With tons of personal information users are willing to
share, targeting users by their age, gender, location, and even likes has became super-easy, rather cheap, and
effective.
Probably the best place to start SN advertising is on
Facebook since it’s so easy to set up. Other channels include Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, etc., make sure to select the right networks that your target audience
surely uses.
Apart from “go advertise on social networks” this is all I have to say about the topic.
Paid Methods
page: 10
Pros: Fixed price, ability to advertise on large sites Display Advertising
Cons: Non-targeted, can be ineffective and expensive Since I am mentioning all other advertising methods
to banner-blindness. Just guessing here, but maybe more I feel like I have to talk about display ads as wel , even design-based products would perform a little bit better
though they’re not as effective for validation landing
in banner advertising.
pages. Let me explain why.
If you’re still not discouraged to use display advertising, Display advertising is in its core very close to offline,
check out BuySel Ads and select a site.
real-world advertising. You buy an ad space on a site,
upload your small picture (a banner), and hope that
people will click through to your page. Usual y, this
advertising is paid per impression (every time your
banner is displayed) or per month (depending on
how many monthly visitors that particular site gets).
Especial y in niches frequented by more tech-savy
people, this type of marketing is highly ineffective due
Paid Methods
page: 11
Pros: Targeted if chosen wel , good quality traffic solo Ads
Cons: None that I can think of
Solo ads is just marketing jargon for advertising in
from a list of 10.000 of random people from all over the
newsletters. If carried out correctly, they can convert
place.
very wel , but they might be more suitable for post-validation stages (building an email list and the likes).
Keep in mind however, that solo ads (just like any other
type of ads for that matter) don’t just work regardless. Be sure to do your research and find the right provider that
will actual y expose your ad to your target audience. You
will be better off finding the right sites and lists yourself instead of trusting agencies to do it.
Yet again, what you want is quality, not quantity. You will get a lot better results from a list of 500 people who are all very interested in your (app) idea or the niche than
Paid Methods
page: 12
Free metHoDs
Pros: Trust=sales, getting first-hand, worded feedback social Profiles
Cons: Needs existing following of target audience
For this method, you’ll need to have an existing
about promoting anything. But when you manage to
following. Building social profiles and attracting valuable build relationships with people, the conversion rates will followers is a complex topic that we can’t address in this go through the roof!
ebook, but for validation purposes, it wouldn’t even be
The beauty of social media lies in the direct
appropriate.
communication between you and your customers - not
Once you do have the right followers that might be
only will you be able to make sales, you will directly
interested in your idea, you can start careful y promoting converse with your customers and get first-hand
your landing page and collecting their responses. Mostly,
feedback on your idea.
people are happy to see that their friends have produced
something new, but be careful to avoid spamming them
with links. As Gary Vaynerchuck says in his latest book
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, your social media profiles must continual y provide tons of value before you even think
Free Methods
page: 14
Pros: Trust=sales, can be more direct, can get you referrals Word of mouth
Cons: Possible relationship damage
Friends can be a valuable source of feedback, but it
must be taken with a grain of salt. A much better way
of leveraging your friends’ enthusiasm is by asking
them to buy your product. Sure, you can give them a
small discount, but they still need to hand you the cash,
just like everyone else. An step-by-step example of this
approach can be observed in the AppSumo’s video here
and of course, in the App Idea Validation course.
Just keep in mind that you’re not supposed to intimidate
your friends into buying your thing; if they don’t want to buy, at least you have a less biased feedback.
Free Methods
page: 15
Pros: Quality traffic, builds authority and relationships Guest Blogging
Cons: Takes lots of time and work
Guest blogging continues to be one of the most efficient If you’re confident that your writing will get published
ways of online marketing. While it may not get you tons
on big blogs, go pitch them. I can tell from experience
of traffic right away, this traffic will be highly targeted - if that unless you’re at least somewhat of an authority in
the blog you’re writing for is chosen careful y.
the niche, you won’t get a post published. But no worries
so, where to find blogs?
- pitching small blogs can work as wel .
One way to find these small blogs is by checking
First, simply google your niche. For my computer-fixing
comments under posts on large blogs. You’ll likely find
app from the course, I would search for “computer
owners of smaller blogs adding their two cents there -
fixing” and come up with large blogs like Lifehacker,
click through to their sites to see if your content would
MalwareTips, and TechRepublic. I’ll check those out
be a good fit.
and read posts’ headlines so I know what they’re writing
about. Chances are, if large blogs are writing about it, it The key is quality over quantity. Discover if blogs have a must be popular.
responsive audience and enough following. Also make
Free Methods
page: 16
sure to ask the owner in advance if it’s ok to promote
your landing page with the post.
Of course, you can outsource writing posts by hiring
a freelancer - I use oDesk for finding talents. It’s worth mentioning that many blogs also accept paid
submissions, meaning that your article can get published
somewhere for a fee paid on your part.
Free Methods
page: 17
Pros: Effective, but long-time strategy
Being mentioned
Cons: Takes time
Being mentioned refers to a large site or an authority in
Without personal y knowing someone from a large blog,
the niche featuring your project. It is extremely effective you’ll never stand out. That is just the cold reality of
since careful y selected authorities and blogs already
startups. Unless you have a truly revolutionary idea, that have the access to the audience you’re trying to reach,
is. But not all is lost. Here are some ideas:
and on top of that, the audience trusts them. Remember
If you happen to have the right kind of friends, ask
what we said in the Validation course about trust?
around if anyone can help you get a foot in the door.
A common mistake that noob startup owners do is
Follow the sites and editors on social media, then start
expecting to get featured on sites like Co.Design by just casual y retweeting/replying/commenting on their
emailing their editors. The thing is, they get a ton of
posts. Chances are if they see your name a couple of
emails like this every day and so you are just a drop in
times, they will be more inclined to read your email.
the ocean of requests. So, how can you stand out if you
Remember, there are real people even behind large sites.
can’t pay for expensive PR firm? The answer is, build
Make friends!
relationships.
Free Methods
page: 18
Or, attend a conference and chat up somebody from the
press. You don’t need to become their best friend - just
make sure that they remember your name. Pitching
them your projects will be a whole lot easier from then
on.
These techniques seem like a lot of work, but if you’re
looking to be an entrepreneur, making connections with
the press will definitely help you in the future. If you’re interested in modern-day PR, I recommend you read the
book Trust Me, I’m Lying.
Free Methods
page: 19
Pros: Easy, instant, can be targeted
online communities
Cons: Shor-term, traffic can be low-quality
If I needed to pick the best free method from this ebook,
useful content there. If someone has a question you
posting in online communities would be it. Even though
can answer, do it. If you can add to a blog post that has
it’s a short-term strategy, it’s probably the easiest way to been written, write a comment. Blog owners, forum
get traffic relatively fast and so it’s perfect for validation administrators, and community members will quickly
landing pages.
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