Hey entrepreneurs, Dani here!

The title of this post is a “half-truth”… Let me explain: while it is true that we have generated 10,000€ in sales since we started to give life to this new SEO SaaS, the reality is that the 1.504€ MRR has been achieved in just 21 days.

In this post I explain the pre-launch strategy, the email marketing strategy, the launch strategy and share the emails we have used in the campaigns. And what comes next.

The idea

The idea of this SaaS (Software as a Service) was born at the beginning of 2022 and I started to set it up with a partner, but for various reasons the project was on “pause” and fell into oblivion… Until a few months ago I met Ricki thanks to #BuildInPublic on Twitter and we started to build products together. One of them is this new SaaS.

Build FAST, ship FAST (HYPER FAST)

The project started to be developed at the beginning of September 2023 (in fits and starts) and by the end of that month we already had a working prototype that met its goal: automate and speed up the indexing of website URLs in Google [Dani’s note: BUILD FAST]. As we started to develop the product (or almost), we set up a landing page to announce it and start collecting emails from interested people: “Subscribe and be among the first to know when we launch the tool and enjoy the special launch price”. In total, about 500 people subscribed.

What did we do to get people to subscribe? Tell people about the project on Twitter, LinkedIn, some mention in The Open Projects and not much more… Hence the importance of having audiences.Without having the product 100% ready, Ricki and I decided that making 50 lifetime plans available for sale at $89 that were only going to be available for a very short time was a good way to see if the product would generate interest and sales, and to test the software and then optimize and improve things. And gather feedback. We announced this in early October and communicated it by email (2 emails) to everyone who had signed up to our list. The 50 lifetime plans at $89 sold out in just 5 days. In addition to sending out the emails, I personally contacted prospects interested in this product and generated about 10-12 sales out of the 50 total. This all happened in early October 2023.

50 x $89 = $4,450 (about 4,100€ -taxes included- at exchange rate)

The fact of selling these lifetime plans and communicating to customers that the product was going to be available and operational on a specific date (around mid-October) also made us work hard to have the initial MVP 100% ready.

Those 50 lifetime clients started using the tool and, besides giving us SUPER VALUABLE feedback, they started talking about it on Twitter and posting Google Search Console screenshots of URL indexing growth… Amazing! You can see all these tweets on our testimonials page: https://testimonial.to/indexed-pro/all

In other words, we had a product that worked VERY WELL and VERY HAPPY customers.And we kept on improving and refining the product… Until November 9, 2023, without making much noise, we changed the homepage of the website to the one you can see today and activated the option to subscribe (and pay) and start using the tool… We can say that the first launch date of the SaaS (with subscriptions) product was November 9, 2023. But, I insist, without making much noise, without sending emails…

What was our surprise when customers started coming in 😱 most likely thanks to the recommendations on Twitter from lifetime customers. Since then, MRR’s daily growth has been as follows: https://www.theopenprojects.io/content/images/2023/11/supasnap-2023-11-30-12.41.29.jpg

But there was also a second launch, the real and official one, that we decided to “match” with Black Friday 2023; it was on November 22, 2023. Between the 9th and the 22nd I started to post things on Twitter (#BuildInPublic) and, in short, to do some marketing…

What did we do on November 22, 2023? Send an email to the entire mailing list (excluding those who were already customers of the lifetime plan) to communicate the official launch of the tool, the special launch price and a SUPER DEAL on the occasion of Black Friday 2023: 40% discount forever on the Growth and Ninja annual plans. Only available until Friday, November 24, 2023. You can view this email at this link: https://indexed-pro.mailcoach.app/webview/campaign/00e13989-5460-49ca-876d-85f60b805044?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=official-public-launch

That email generated €1,300 in sales.

On November 23rd we sent another email, shorter than the one on November 22nd, excluding those who were already customers of normal plans (not lifetime), to remind them that there were only 2 days left to enjoy the Black Friday 2023 discount and to share business growth data (again, #BuildInPublic). This email generated €644 in sales. You can view it here: https://indexed-pro.mailcoach.app/webview/campaign/62b969fb-313b-4b4e-bcdc-6fe904316517?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=duplicate-of-official-public-launch

On Friday 24th we sent a last email to indicate that it was the last day to enjoy the Black Friday discount and again share business data in the purest OPEN METRICS style. This email generated €2,600 in sales and if you are curious you can view it at this link: https://indexed-pro.mailcoach.app/webview/campaign/344486d6-770c-43c6-81e1-8e1e2a6eb88c?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=duplicate-of-black-friday-2023-jueves

These 3 emails generated about €4,500 in yearly and monthly plan sales and about €600 in additional MRR. Since November 9, 2023, €6,000 in sales have been generated: https://www.theopenprojects.io/content/images/2023/11/supasnap-2023-11-30-12.42.01.jpg

Since November 24th we have started to do more marketing (like this launch on Product Hunt) and to do a lot of #BuildInPublic on Twitter (on our accounts and on the tool official account). In addition to this, we have started to define the SEO strategy of the website (a lot of educational content and good link building) and to contact potential partners / content creators to help us grow the business. We have not forgotten about the product and we have a VERY POWERFUL roadmap with VERY COOL features. Some of them with marketing touches…

#BuildInPublic - Show me the money

As of today, November 30, 2023, 2 months after starting to generate sales with this business and 21 days after the “first launch”, the data are as follows:

  • MRR: 1.504€.
  • Total sales: 10.000€ (lifetime + subscriptions)
  • 172 customers (50 lifetime + 122 subscribers)

Expenses:

  • About $50 / month on server and services (email, AWS)
  • $200 invested in appearing in some directories of tools for entrepreneurs.
  • ZERO investment in online advertising
  • Ricki’s and my priceless hours…

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My takeaways:

  • You can (and maybe you should) start doing marketing BEFORE launching your product
  • Having audiences (social media, newsletter…) helps A LOT with new product launches. Start working on your audiences.
  • It is possible to generate sales with a qualified email list.