How to build hype with a waitlist

Jack Fertility, an Oxford-based startup, was conceived (pun intended) during the pandemic to address male fertility testing. After years of product research, regulatory compliance, testing and iteration, the company is now ready to launch.

Nick Shipley, one of the cofounders, is in charge of ensuring that the postable sperm-testing kits sell from the first day they’re on the market. One way to do this is to set up a waitlist for excited customers, pre-launch. Here, Nick — who has a background in consumer insights and has worked for big FMCG brands like Nestlé and Heinz — gives his top tips to get it right.

Understand why you’re building a waitlist

Is it to:

• Show traction to investors?
• Build community pre-launch?
• Identify superfans?
• Find product testers for feedback?
• Drive sales at launch?

The reason, or reasons, for setting it up will determine your targets and goals.

Decide where your waitlist is going to live

Use as many out of the box tools as you can — you don’t need to create proprietary tech for this. For example, you can use HubSpot, Mailchimp, Google Forms, Wix or a mix of them. It will save you time and money.

Relying on tools that already exist, have big money and years of experience behind them also lowers the risk of data breaches and hacks. In a regulated market like the one we operate in, trust and confidence in your company are key to success and growth.

Define your target audience

There's no point in getting just anyone signed up to the waitlist — even if numbers might be a helpful signal to investors. You want verified potential customers and to know the demographic you’re targeting.

For example, we have identified key groups that resonate with our product:

• People at higher risk of infertility due to their lifestyle
• People planning to start a family in the next one to two years
• People who don't meet the criteria for NHS fertility testing (e.g. not in a heterosexual relationship or who haven’t been trying for 12+ months)
• Communities that may be hesitant to discuss fertility issues, like South Asian communities.
• ‘Biohacker’ types interested in proactive health tracking.

Think creatively

With no budget for traditional marketing, you need innovative ways to attract the right people to your waitlist. Be cheeky, bold or funny — anything that piques curiosity and drives engagement.

Consider where your potential customers spend time. Marketing doesn’t just mean online: offline can sometimes be easier to grab attention. For example, we put up posters in urinals with the message, “The future is in your hands. Literally right now,” linking to our waitlist via QR code. The only cost was printing.

Be a salesperson

People love to support early-stage, small companies, so you want to create as many opportunities for them to do that as possible. Reach out to people, share updates on your personal social media and, if you have a physical product, take it everywhere with you — you never know who you might end up having a conversation with. You need to be a storyteller and excite the people around you. This is how you create word-of-mouth referrals.

Find aligned partnerships

Even before launch, strategic partnerships can help you reach your ideal audience and get them signed up to your waitlist:

• Identify potential partners: List brands that align with your values and target market.
• Find audience overlaps: Where does your audience intersect with theirs?
• Define mutual value: outline the benefits each partner brings to the table.

We’re partnering with local coffee shops that attract a similar demographic to us. On launch, they’ll serve as drop-off points for our testing kits, making life easier for our customers and driving foot traffic to the coffee shops. Right now, we’re using them to attract people to our research and to raise awareness of our brand — again, more people for the waitlist.

We're also working with Durex. On paper, we might seem like we have completely different goals, which we do: Durex doesn’t want you to get pregnant and we want to help you to! But by sharing insights and creating joint campaigns, we can support each other and provide value to customers throughout their journey.

Don’t forget about the media

Creating a waitlist requires people to trust you. Your credibility grows when you’re mentioned in the press. Keep an eye on the journalists reporting on your industry, follow them on social media and offer to comment on topics they’re writing about when suitable.

If you have subject matter experts in the team, put them forward for opportunities. The key here is to jump on trends and “journo requests” that appear on social platforms as soon as possible.

Finally, keep your messaging simple

It’s tempting to try and tell your potential customers everything in one go and educate them on the problem you’re trying to solve. But your goal is to intrigue, not to overwhelm.

On the subject of sales:

1. How to transform your sales culture. 

2. How to use AI to boost sales. 

3. How to manage sales teams that scale.

4. How to create a sales strategy. Listen to this episode of the Inclusive Startup Playbook for top tips.