MySwimPro · B2C · swim coaching app
Send swimmers found on Twitter to a mockup page that collects emails
200 email sign-ups in a couple of weeks for an app that didn't exist
Workedvalidationlanding-pageorganic-social
What they did
Bought a domain (myswimpal.com) and built a page with a mockup of the app, four value propositions and an email capture to 'download' the app. Searched Twitter for people tweeting about swimming, favorited their tweets and DMed them the URL (today the equivalent would be Instagram DMs). Principle: put the screen you want to test in front of paid or free traffic and measure demand.
What happened
About 200 strangers entered their email within a couple of weeks; the app launched in 2015.
- Stage
- pre-launch
- Effort
- A couple of weeks of manual Twitter outreach
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Building a Content Marketing Flywheel — Fares Ksebati, MySwimPro“I basically bought a domain, it was MySwimPal at the time, myswimpal.com, and I created a mockup of what I thought the app would look like. And I had four value propositions on the screen, so I had the mockup of the app and then an email capture, and I used Twitter to drive traffic to this website.”
“I just find people who are tweeting about swimming, and I would just message them, favorite their tweets, send them to this URL”
“after just a couple of weeks, I had 200 people who inputted their email to download this app that didn't even exist yet”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- MySwimPro: Write one article a week answering common swimming questions people search forHundreds of articles over 3 years; traction compounded slowly, no sudden spike
- MySwimPro: Answer the questions users email you in a weekly whiteboard videoEarly videos got 75-4,000 views; years later some have millions
- MySwimPro: Cut each long video into short clips and post them everywhere~500K Instagram and 300K+ TikTok followers; TikTok hits didn't drive many downloads
- MySwimPro: Earn from your YouTube videos with ads and sponsor shout-outsContent pays for itself even ignoring app installs; funds two full-time editors
- MySwimPro: Hand off blog, email, then editing so the founder only films5-person in-house team now; paid for by ad and sponsor income
- MySwimPro: Film yourself training with the app on screen instead of pitching it~30% of videos feature the app for 60+ seconds; no conversion numbers
- MySwimPro: Post videos of customers' big swimming wins on the company channel
- MySwimPro: Give each social channel its own App Store link to track revenueCan now tie revenue to each channel; only set up in the last few months
- MySwimPro: Try paid ads before you can track what the spend producedFirst two rounds failed; third round in progress with better analytics
- MySwimPro: Host in-person swim camps to reach new swimmersWorks but doesn't scale; limited by how many people can attend
- MySwimPro: Keep raising the yearly price, from $100 to $180, while conversion holdsConversion barely changed at each step (the app kept improving too)
- MySwimPro: Ask free and paying users four price questions to find what they'd payAverage matched current price (~$100-120/year); a segment would pay $200-300/year
- MySwimPro: Move free features behind the paywall as the app shifts to paidBuilt user entitlement and complaint reviews; guest would package it differently
- MySwimPro: Join a university startup accelerator for first funding and pitch practiceRaised $50K; learned customer discovery, built a network and a tight pitch
- MySwimPro: Raise money from your community through equity crowdfunding roundsAbout $1.2M raised in total, mostly from crowdfunding
- MySwimPro: Test in-app invites with rewards for your most active usersStill being tested; no results yet