The 4-Letter Framework for Launching Something People Actually Want

Hi Reader,

If you've got an idea and decide it put it out into the world -- a course, community, toolkit, roundtable -- there's often a disconnect between how you see it in your head and...what actually happens. 😬

No one shows up
No one pays
No one engages
You get discouraged

My personal approach to avoid this is to look at these four core launch elements that I've summarized as P.A.N.N:

P - Proven method, framework, approach, or strategy

A - Authority to speak on it

N - Niche interest

N - Network you can tap into

That second N, network, is probably what's most important in my opinion.

Let's say you have an idea to launch an online community for retirement-aged individuals who want to generate a new stream of income from their 401(k)investments (something we actually did).

Instead of going to the effort of building it and hoping they'll come, maybe do a brief survey of some folks in your network if they'd be interested in having something like that.

Hey, I've noticed a lot of folks your age often worry about running out of money in retirement. I spent 40 years in the financial services sector, and I'm thinking about teaching people how to self-manage income-based investments through an online community. If I built something like that, would you join?

If it's a yes, that's a good sign. Keep going . If you get enough no's, then at least you know it'd likely be a flop if you tried it.

In our case, he wrote a book that did that legwork. Enough people read it and liked it (indicated by reviews) that the conceptual interest was proven.

So we built it and rolled it out in a few phases, starting with hottest to coldest funnel sources: close colleagues, then newsletter subscribers, then social media followers, then everyone else.

Within a year, we had 500 members with a 97% engagement rate.

Based on that, what did this approach tell us?

People will tell you want they want if you listen.
People are more likely to support you if they know you.
People will tell other people about it if they like it.

So whether you have an audience of 100 or a network of 50,000, the engagement of the group matters more than the size. (Read about Kevin Kelly's "1,000 True Fans" theory)

My theory with P.A.N.N is that if you already have that warm pool of supporters to tap into, that'll help inform what that "thing" you're launching should be AND simultaneously spark natural word-of-mouth when it is launched...

...Because if what you've made is just that good, people will vouch for you. And when people vouch for you, you become "pre-vetted" to strangers.

Hey, a good colleague of mine recently wrote this book and it's really insightful. I think you'd get a lot of value out of it.

Hey, my former portfolio manager made us a ton of money when we were with him and he opened this community that I'm a part of. Wanna check it out?

THAT'S what we want. It's music to a marketer's ears to hear someone tell another person about this great new thing they bought. Because nothing sucks more than marketing something that's a flop.

Clear intentions = better marketing

Have thoughts or questions? Respond directly to this email and I'd love to get them answered.

Hope you found this useful!

Onward,