How to build traction on day 1 with just an idea

Marketing Powerups #80: Kevon Cheung, Founder of Public Lab, shares his Build With Fans framework to gain traction from day one.

Ramli John

Mar 24, 2024

Hello, and welcome to Marketing Powerups! 👋🏽

Today's powerups include:

7 reasons why your AI content sucks (and how to fix it).
6 timeliness writing tips (backed by psychology)
Kevon Cheung’s Build With Fans framework.

Ready? Let's go! ⭐️

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⭐️ How to build traction on day 1 with just an idea

Editor’s note: Today’s Marketing Powerups is written by Kevon Cheung, Founder of Public Lab. He is a creator-educator and author who focuses on a community-led growth approach. I like that he walks the walk by involving his audience in a lot of the things that he does. …

I just finished reading his new free case study, The Build-up of A $100,000 Creator Education Business, and was blown away how detailed and actionable it was.

I think you’ll like Kevon shares here!

The best marketing wins hearts.

This is what I love about Ramli’s approach, as he always talks about users and community.

But when I look around at most of the strategies marketers share, a lot of them focus on what we can do after a product is already developed.

There is one area most people neglect that can drive a bigger buzz — kickstart your marketing when you’re still developing the product!

When you do that, you are not just buying yourself more time to build up the waitlist and momentum; you’re also leveraging your community’s power.

This works particularly well in the knowledge and education space. Do you know why?

Because our personal brands are more powerful than ever. We can share and sell what we know directly to our audience. When you factor in how quickly you can develop a new info product, how quickly a fan can get value from your product and give you a review, and how quickly people can make a buying decision, you can see why this strategy is used by many big info product creators.

So how do you build up traction since day 1 when you only have an idea for an info product?

Let’s take a look at my Build With Fans framework, where you involve your community every step of the way.

These are the 3 phases you go through in developing and launching an info product:

1. "Building The Product" phase

In this first phase, you want to focus on getting feedback to improve and shape your product. After all, if you want more fans to spread it for you, your product has to be useful so they cannot ignore it.

This phase includes ideation and market research which you can choose to do in public (on social media where you have an audience) or in private. Either way, you always make sure to share updates, thoughts, and important snippets publicly to create more awareness and get more people onto your waitlist.

2. "Collecting Momentum" phase

You enter this phase when your product is almost ready and you are doing everything you can to prepare for that buzzing launch. Have you ever seen a long queue outside a new restaurant? Yup, that’s what you want to replicate. You want people walking by to go “What is going on here?”

A buzzing launch is buzzing because of all the things that happen behind the scenes before the launch. Other than strategizing a launch strategy, you are laser-focused on getting early testimonials and preparing your fans to help you share at the right moment. That’s how you engineer buzz.

3. "Expanding Momentum" phase

Finally, this is the phase after your product is launched.

A lot of people launch something and take a well-deserved vacation. I think they are missing out on a huge opportunity.

When people buy your info product and consume it, you have a lot of things that you can share at that moment to attract even more people.

You can share sales numbers, new testimonials, new directions, and more. This is where you build in public some more and expand the momentum you've already built.

Chances are you'll be able to get at least 50% more sales.

I use this Build With Fans framework every time I release a new info product, regardless of its size. It is fun to involve the audience and see how things build up over time. But more importantly, all these buzzes create a snowball effect that simultaneously grows your business and audience. I like that a lot.

I hope you find this useful.

2 weeks ago, I released a free 45-page case study where I documented the steps and strategies I took to build up my business. I also went deeper into the Build With Fans framework. If you’re interested, you can check out: The Build-up of A $100,000 Creator Education Business.

✨ Mini powerups

Fun-sized tools, links, and blurbs to boost your marketing.

🤮 7 reasons why your AI content sucks (and how to fix it) (article):

Lazy AI articles full of plagiarized text and generic writing can't compete with insightful, specific articles by real experts. In this Search Engine Land article, Brad Smith (Founder and CEO of Codeless) shares why and gives tips to fix them.

📝 6 timeless writing tips you can't afford to ignore (backed by psychology) (LinkedIn post):

Writing is one of my “career power-ups” that’s helped me get promotions, new clients, and students for my courses. In this LinkedIn post, Taylin Simmonds shares 6 writing tips backed by psychology. My favorite one is to write fast, edit slow. I often do the opposite. 🤣

😵 Marketing playbooks are dead (song):

Marc Thomas, Sr. Growth Marketer at Podia, took a snippet from last week’s Marketing Powerups episode and turned it into a song. If you don’t already follow him on LinkedIn, you should! I love his content and his newsletter.

That’s all for now, friends!

Have a powered-up day,

Ramli John

Let’s connect on LinkedIn

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