So in the module where we talked about idea of validation I went into detail about how you set up a product 1
launch page, how you go about validating your idea by channeling traffic through Facebook or through 2
Google or through whatever means to your landing page and having a brief explainer about what your app 3
is about or what your product is about, and having the all important email collection box so that you can have 4
a list of emails on the day of launch who you can contact and tell them "Hey do you remember when you 5
said that you want to download this app? 6
Well now it's finally available. 7
Go ahead and download it here." 8
That's going to be so much more powerful than just spamming people on forums or you know putting out 9
ads at that time. 10
So one thing that you might notice here is this line where it says become founding member number 11
80,512. 12
Now the backstory is that the founder who created Great little Place, and I know I've been using this 13
example a lot because it's actually a really interesting case study. 14
But the guy who found Great little Place put in this line for essentially social proof. 15
So the idea is that you land on this page, you see that wow 80000 people already signed up and put down 16
their email. 17
This has to be something worthy. This has to be something that's going to be really great because otherwise 18
why do all these people want to sign up? 19
And we as humans have a great deal of herd mentality. 20
We like to do what other people do. No matter how much we think that we are special snowflakes, 21
we're really not. 22
We have a bunch of heuristic rules in our brains that determine how we act and how we make decisions. 23
And this is one of those cognitive biases where when we see a lot of people doing something we're more 24
likely to do that thing. 25
But the relatively unknown backstory is that the founder of this app actually went onto this website 26
and manually updated that number every day to a new random sounding number that's greater than the one 27
that was there yesterday. 28
So ethics of this, I don't know, but it worked really really well and he had tens of thousands of emails 29
on the day of launch who he can email and get that massive download spike within the first 24 hours 30
of launch on the App Store which eventually led to him being featured on the App Store which got more 31
traction and sustained him within the top free apps category for quite a while. 32
So it's really really worth doing. 33
And the common advice that we give to people is that if you're going to build a product you should have 34
a landing page yesterday. 35
If you can't do yesterday, then today is second best. 36
So build one now and start collecting emails. 37
Now some of the things I've mentioned and I'm going to mention in this course is a lot about psychology 38
and psychology plays a huge role in marketing which is why I find it actually really fascinating because 39
you know we all think that we're so unique that we make decisions based on our personality etc. But 40
actually the rules that govern human behavior are very simple and there's a lot of great cognitive psychologists 41
who have gone in to explore some of these things and also a lot of marketers exploit these cognitive 42
biases in order to sell you things. 43
So one of the best places to see this is in a supermarket. 44
So why is it that when you go into the supermarket in any supermarket the first section that you're 45
confronted with after you enter the door is the fresh fruit section? 46
Why is that? 47
Why is it that the the the brands that make the supermarket the most money are usually stacked at eye 48
level? 49
Why is it that a lot of supermarkets have a bakery even if they don't bake a lot of the goods on site? 50
It's just to put out the scent of freshly baked bread so that you start secreting hormones and you 51
start feeling hungry 52
and we all know what happens when we're hungry in a supermarket. 53
We just end up buying or at least I end up buying everything. 54
So it's really fascinating to me and to really be able to market effectively 55
you do need to know about this. And also even if just to know how you are being manipulated by the powers 56
that be. 57
So you have a read of some of these great terms on psychology in marketing. 58
This is a really good book by Robert Cialdini and it's on influence and a lot of great marketers have 59
recommended it and I certainly would. 60
And it's just a really simple distilled book on how marketers use various cognitive biases to influence 61
you in various ways. And once you get into this kind of stuff you start noticing it everywhere. 62
And yeah, so this is something I would really recommend the other book if you're interested in cognitive biases 63
or heurisitics is a book by Daniel Kahneman which is called Thinking Fast and Slow. 64
So Kahneman and Tversky were two really really influential psychologists. 65
And I remember studying them a great deal when I was doing my degree in neuroscience. 66
This is a really good book on thinking about decision making and how we use heuristics every day. 67
So the idea that you know we can't be bothered to think through every single decision 68
and instead as humans we've come up with various ways of simplifying decisions by following certain 69
rules. 70
And one of those rules is herd mentality, 71
so doing what the majority of your tribe does will usually keep us safe, 72
you know as a neonatal. Whether will keep us safe nowadays I don't know. 73
But the other thing that is relevant to what we're talking about in this module is the idea of consistency. 74
So when people put down that email it's them declaring I want access to this app. 75
And as humans we have a consistency bias. 76
We like to be consistent with what we say and what we do. 77
And this is why sometimes you can get into arguments with people that are impossible to win. 78
So people might have declared in the past that they're pro-life or pro-choice whatever it is. 79
And it's very difficult to change their view on something because their identity is so closely linked 80
to that decision they made previously. 81
Now coming back to something like this, it's a very similar psychological construct. 82
When you email your list on the day of launch, you're saying "Hey do you remember when you said that you really 83
wanted to download this app? 84
Well now it's available and you can actually download it." and just by the force of being consistent with 85
their past selves you will see a high conversion rate 86
than if you just cold-emailed them. 87
So in summary build a landing page as soon as you can 88
even if you just have an inkling idea of an idea for your product. Drive traffic towards that landing 89
page whether it's through posting in Facebook groups or posting in Slack channels or creating Google 90
ads or Facebook Ads, driving traffic towards it and start building that list. 91
The second thing is think about some of these cognitive biases that a lot of marketers use in order 92
to influence people in their behavior. 93
Even if you're not going to use any of them it's important to know what is being used on you. 94
And finally think about how you're going to make your stats stand out during those crucial periods of 95
your app launch on the App Store. 96
And the best way of going about that is using email marketing.