Noah Kagan is the Co-Founder, Chief Sumo and CEO at AppSumo, a daily deal website for software. Prior to that, he served as a co-founder of Gambit. Noah is also a very popular Youtuber and social media personality.
Guest Author: Noah Kagan
Marketing can be broken down into 3 steps:
1- Make a great product.
2- Set a clear goal with a timeline.
3- Break down the goal (by marketing method).
Here’s the exact process I used to market my new book Million Dollar Weekend (and how you can apply this strategy to market ANY product… it’s what I share in Chapter 8 of my book).
Step 1: Make a great book/product.
99% of the time people think they have a marketing problem when they have a product problem. When I spoke with best-selling authors like @tferriss, @JamesClear , and @ramit, they all told me the same thing: The most important marketing strategy is writing a great book.
Tactics and gimmicks may work in the short-term, but to be a long-term success, the book has to be great. Word of mouth is the primary driver of sales.
How did I make sure Million Dollar Weekend was a product people wanted?
- Wrote a blog post on Tim Ferriss’ site in 2011 that went viral
- Helped 10,000+ people via my Monthly1K course
- Hired my favorite best-selling author, Tahl Raz
- Got feedback on every single word in the book from 1,000+ beta readers
- Ran free weekend cohorts for 6 months helping people take action using the book
Each step was validation that I was on the right track.
Step 2: Set clear goals with a timeline.
Goals should be exciting enough to get you out of bed in the morning, but realistic enough that you can take action on them. Something I learned from Zuckerberg and use across every one of my businesses is setting ONE clear goal.
My #1 goal for this book was to get 1,000 Amazon reviews.
To hit this goal, I did 2 things:
- For 2 years, on YouTube office hours, emails, and podcasts I said something like, “If you’re interested in hearing about my book, email me”. ~500 emailed and about 75% converted into buyers.
- Then, I posted on Twitter and LinkedIn asking people to DM me or leave a comment if they wanted to join my book launch team. I messaged every single person and asked them to pre-order the book to get access. About 50% said yes.
Many entrepreneurs won’t “do things that don’t scale” because they think they’re ‘above’ the 1:1 work. Long-term it’s not scalable (lots of late nights messaging)… BUT I LOVED IT!
After we secured the 1,000 reviews, I set a new goal to sell 25,000 books during launch week. I want Million Dollar Weekend to help as many people as it can to start businesses and achieve freedom. And data shows if authors can hit 10,000+ sales, the book will likely gain momentum and sell more. So I wanted to focus mucho attention on getting the book snowball rolling.
Hence I initially targeted 10,000 sales. But Ramit told me to “dream a little bigger”, so I upped my goal to 25,000. This forced me to prioritize high-leverage marketing activities. With 25,000 as the target, we had to work backward to plan HOW to get there.
Step 3: Break down the goal (by marketing method)
In May 2023, 9 months ahead of launch, I started to plan my marketing strategy (the same framework I used at Mint, AppSumo, and my YouTube channel). Here are the 5 marketing methods I used:
1- Build a launch team of 1,000 true fans.
One of the best pieces of advice I got from Tim Ferriss was to involve my early readers in the process. People want to be a part of your journey, not just watch from the sidelines. Build your business WITH your customers.
They like seeing what’s cooking in the kitchen. We brought 1,000+ true fans into a Slack community and crowdsourced feedback by putting each chapter of the book into a Google doc where they could leave comments. As the book progressed, we’d send out early sneak peeks, marketing ideas, and weekly updates.
This was by FAR the most helpful strategy to get customer feedback. Once the book launches, I’m going to message every single person and ask them to leave a review (ideally positive ones!) Target sales: 1,000
2- Leverage existing assets.
Over the past 15 years, I’ve built assets that I can use to promote the book (especially my email list and AppSumo). But you don’t need a huge audience or a big business. The key is to think about what assets you already have. Check every LinkedIn connection. Pull up your contact list. Ask your friends. There are WAY more people there to help than you realize.
Then, give your existing audience a nice incentive for their support. With Million Dollar Weekend, we are doing book-exclusive incentives. “Buy x, get y”.
- For inspiration, we researched bonuses that other popular books offered
- For feedback, we ran our incentives by our launch team • For impact, we chose bonuses that were both fun and helpful Target sales: 18,000
3- Create a Dream 10 list.
I made a list of the top 10 podcasts I wanted to go on that I knew could make a big difference. For each show, I made a list of questions and answers we could cover that would appeal to their specific audience. I also sent the title and thumbnail so they could visualize how EASY it would be to have me on as a guest.
I asked 8 months before launch and followed up (which is), but still faced a lot of rejection. I ended up getting 8 of my Dream 10 Target sales: 1,000
4- Work with Prefluencers.
I looked for people with niche, rapidly growing audiences in 3 categories: entrepreneurship, real estate, and personal finance. Why Prefluencers? They are easier to get replies from without an existing relationship and their audiences tend to be more engaged.
This included amazing people like Rose Han, Ben Meer @SystemSunday, and Nick Hutchison from @bookthinkers 3 ways I found Prefluencers to work with:
- Asked my audience for shows I should be on
- Asked each podcast host after our interview
- Googled podcasts similar authors went on for their book tour (like Ali Abdaal) In total, I compiled a list of 150 people. Then I reached out asking to give them an early copy of my book, collaborate on content, and just connect. Over 50% were excited to be a part of the book (yay!) Target sales: 2,000
5- Ask for ‘Bulk Buys’.
Most authors overlook bulk buys. But it’s MUCH easier to sell 1,000 books 1 time than to sell 1 book 1,000 times! I looked up everyone who sponsored my podcast or YouTube channel, every friend on LinkedIn who runs a company or co-working space, and companies who sponsor similar podcasts to mine.
This isn’t about having rich friends buy your stuff. It’s about focusing on high-leverage actions where a bit of effort gets an outsized return. Target sales: 3,000
The marketing I did for my book is the SAME method I’ve used for each of the eight $1M+ businesses I’ve started. I dive deeper in my book Million Dollar Weekend. If you get a copy before Jan 30, you’ll receive bonuses like an invite to my virtual Launch party (with special guests), and my Million Dollar Weekend Live Online Bootcamp – which I’ll NEVER offer again.
If you’ve already ordered a copy (thank you!) make sure you’ve submitted your receipt to receive your bonus bundle.
I can’t wait for you to read the book
Check out the original tweet here.
