5 lessons learned from launching my GTM Bootcamp
💎 My proven briefing for a landing page that converts 7-9%
In this Substack, you will get tactical ideas to apply to your launches. We will dive deep into:
How to create good offers
Create credible social proof
The power of authenticity
How to leverage influencers for your launch
How to create landing pages that convert at 7-9%
Dear GTM Strategist!
We did it! 🎉 After only three days, I am happy to report that the GTM Bootcamp launch reached its targets. I knew that the product was damn good - but you know how it is. You never know for sure. The market “always tells.”
Thank you so much for your stellar support and for sharing your enthusiasm for the launch with me.
I am sharing lessons learned from this launch so you can apply them to your Q4 launches and beyond.
1. Hot offer for the win ♨️
By now, you know that I am unapologetically a fan of entrepreneur Alex Hormozi whom some of my more intellectual friends call the lumberjack philosopher 🤠. Still, I love his stuff because it is clear and easy to implement. My favorite “Mozi formula” is this one:
And that is precisely the formula I followed when I created my landing page and packages.
While most industry experts do cohorts, I was like - dang, people across time zones do not have the time to tune in at midnight. I feel terrible whenever someone tells me that they need to spend time with their kids in the afternoon - not on Zoom calls.
Moreover, many potential candidates are justifiably concerned that spilling their business secrets in front of 50 strangers on Zoom might not be the best idea especially when you build in a stealth mode and 4 people in the group might be your competitors.
So I resisted the pressure and said: “You can DIY this - you are smart enough to do it. But if you are dealing with a more complex business case and need more guidance, I will be there for you to make sure we crack the mission-critical challenge personally”.
I know the completion rates:
Udemy courses: 3-5%
Cohorts: 70% show up
If we do it together: 100% show up
We will get the job done.
Otherwise - we always have a safety mechanism of a money-back guarantee.
While I am not saying that it is a no-brainer offer, it’s the best offer I have up to date. The previous version of the product was selling for $1500 “done with you” and $997 as a cohort.
2. Double down on RELATABLE social proof
In retrospect, I think that I am making a mistake by pushing “big logos” of my references to the frontline. I am not saying that you should hide them if you have them. If something is good enough for Google, Bayer, Heineken, Spar, Rocket Internet - it is probably OK, right?
But the relevant question here is - will it work for me - I am an “indie developer with a full-time data science job and I do cool shit aside”. For that, we need a different sort of evidence. Were there people similar to me able to implement this? Can we share real numbers, stories, and names across geographies?
I emailed past customers and asked them 2 questions:
What (value) did you get from [my product/service]?
Do you have a result (numbers) to share?
Yes, we can 💪
I only wish that I would have done it sooner 🤯
Do you have a story to share? Send me your success story. I am happy to feature it on my Substack and landing page with a backlink. I want to hear from you. You are the real heroes.
Pitch in here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-ao70gQM6QoYHdeJ7A-fRa3jfHSTw9V1v-QM8Zb_EUkCR-g/viewform
In fact, if you analyze the landing page, you will see that I use 4 layers of social proof:
My traction
Hero stories from entrepreneurs who applied the GTM Strategist methodology
Partners who use methodology
Total stats - numbers
In short: show, don’t tell.
You say it < Others say it.
3. Be there for your customers
I spent 22 hours answering questions from the community about the GTM Strategist Bootcamp.
All conversations came down to 3 obstacles:
Price - “waiting for a paycheck, need to pay from company budget, do you offer installments?”
Time - “busy Q4, thinking of doing my consulting, will let you know when I decide, how long is the program - how much time to spare?”
Added value - “is it technical founders friendly, is it advanced enough for me, is the content the same as in the book, is it for scaleups too?”
I did everything I could to address them: Tella videos, calls, emails, voices. Each question deserves a good answer.
If I do not think that the program is the right fit for you, I will tell you.
We also gave all the buyers of the previous version of the bootcamp recordings a FREE upgrade to the new version. Why not? We appreciate their early support to the moon and want to share this 10x product with them too, without extra changes.
The only way this will work is if you trust me to deliver and I trust you to execute.
That is our social contract if you decide to go on this journey.
4. Create STRONG support and LEVERAGE with influencers and partners
I know what you are thinking now … “But Maja, I do not have the budget and I do not have access to influential people in my network.”
I did not, either. I worked extremely hard to build these relationships that I honor. You see, I live in a small village in Slovenia, and I do not go to $5,000 conferences and mingle with VIPs at networking events. I work, and I let my work do the talking for me. In reality, we have very little to offer when we are starting. We build our way up by producing good work, supporting others' work, and being helpful to them.
Give first - do not be impatient or too greedy. Relationships take time to develop. Sometimes it will not yield results - and that is OK. It should not stop you from being outrageously generous because when it works, it is just incredible. Reciprocity 🙏
I started a GTM advisory role for an AI platform for influencer management developed by a product manager at Instagram (Meta) in Silicon Valley. We are pre-launch, but we are already testing the platform for some selected campaigns with the companies that you know, but I cannot name them yet.
If you would like to run a pro bono campaign with them and work closely with the team to improve the product based on your feedback, let me know, and I will say a good word for you for a free additional relevant reach on LinkedIn if you are a good fit.
5. Do not “let go” when it comes to creating a good landing page
You have been working non-stop on making your product AMAZING and have invested so much to make it great. By this point, you are tired and you cannot wait to get it out there.
But don’t ship half-baked landing pages. I am not a copywriter and I had 5-figure launches with Google Docs and Notion pages before - but that does not mean that I do not believe in the power of a great landing page to support your launch.
As a founder - no matter how tired and distracted you are at this point - you need to sit down and do the proper landing page briefing for your team.
People cannot read your mind and while you can do everything yourself, some of us are just not copywriters, we are more passionate about product development than developing catch headlines. We might have blind spots by now because we know the product too well and 100% believe in it, so our ability to empathize with a website visitor who is just learning about the solution could be highly unreliable.
But you are the only person who knows everything and you have to set up your people for success. This is how I do the briefing for my team. It takes me a deepwork slot of 3-4 hours to do this right.
Here is the exact document that I sent to my team 14 days ago. No strings attached—just open the Google Doc 👇
In the Slavic world, we say not great, not terrible - but based on these inputs, we did manage to create a landing page that converts 7-9% for the third time around. These conversion rates drop in time when we bring colder audiences to the page, but since April, there was not a single week where the conversion rate (CR) was <5% so we are doing something damn right. Our AOV (average order value) has been >$100 since June. I am not sharing these numbers to bloat but to give you relevant context about the environment in which this is reported and that it has tested longevity, that we did not measure this just on a launch date when CR can be up to 15%.
Thanks a million to my incredibly hard-working team and all the AMAZING experts in my network who kindly supported the launch 💟. I could not have done it without you.
Now I finally need a weekend off. I have been up at 4-5 a.m. every day for three weeks. Need to catch up with my tranquility.
Have a great weekend! You can still snatch the GTM Strategist Bootcamp for $50 off by Monday, September 30th. The coupon code GTM50 expires at midnight.
Recommended further related readings
How we launched GTM Strategist Checklist with a Content Growth Loop on LinkedIn 🔁
How to work with B2B Influencers and an even more tactical sequel of this article
Case studies - you have to have a case study for your sales. Please learn how to sell with case studies. It will boost your business to new heights.
PS - Just a gentle reminder to do OKRs or whatever else you use for goal-setting. Q4 starts next week - let’s make it epic 🤘
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Hi, Maja, this is really a successful content again, thank you. Landing page website setups are important. Do you have any Funnel templates that you would recommend to us for web pages&landing pages?