Roadmaps for startups usually focus on product development and our pre-launch roadmap did exactly that. Sharing it publicly was a great motivator and helped us stay on track to get twitMate launched.
But anyone who has bootstrapped a startup knows that the job isn't done when you launch. It just changes.
So we are shifting the focus from development of the service to getting our first paying customers. Using twitMate in-house and with beta testers has been a great success but it's time to up our marketing game and focus on content creation, SEO and sales.
We will continue to embrace the #buildinpublic ethos and, unlike many startups, we are sharing our marketing journey...
Post-launch Marketing Roadmap
- ■ Put in-house and beta-user success stories front and centre on the homepage and add a 'success stories' page
- ■ Define an 'elevator pitch' for twitMate
- ■ Refine the homepage copy to add more results-based language
- ■ Add an 'About us' page to the website
- ■ Add a 'How it works' section to the website with greater detail on what we do and getting started with twitMate
- ■ Create a sitemap and submit to Google
- ■ Send a newsletter from Downtime Monkey (one of our beta-users) showing the benefits of using twitMate
- ■ Launch on Product Hunt and Hacker News
- ■ Set up conversions in analytics
- ■ Test Google Ads, monitor the results and decide if Ads are a viable long-term strategy
- ■ Write 5 blog posts with evergreen content and share them to Twitter on autopilot using twitMate
- ■ Submit twitMate to 20 startup directories
- ■ Reach out to 10 contacts who would benefit from using twitMate
Today we ticked the last two jobs on the development roadmap and... twitMate is launched!
Waitlist Retired
The final invites to waitlist members who had signed-up while the site was under development were sent out. Several times, new members joined the waitlist as we were sending out the last invite so this ran on a little longer than expected.
We've now replaced waitlist sign-up with full sign-up which enables you to get started without an invite.
Early Adopter Discount
If you didn't make the waitlist you can take advantage of our current discount for early adopters. Although not quite as generous as the waitlist discount, it's still a whopping 70% off for life.
It won't be around for ever though. Once the first bunch of sign-ups complete, the discount will end.
Check out our plans and prices page for more info.
twitMate is an open startup and here is our development roadmap. It will be updated regularly so you can see how close we are to launch. If you would like early access please join the waitlist.
twitMate has now launched! Here is the journey that got us there...
- ✓ 2020 Develop tweet engine and test in-house
- ✓ 2020 Develop audience management and test in-house
- ✓ Feb 2021 Run private beta testing
- ✓ 08 Mar 2021 Launch a basic version of the website
- ✓ 08 Mar 2021 Launch waitlist for early access
- ✓ 11 Mar 2021 Launch the blog
- ✓ 15 Mar 2021 Publish the roadmap to launch
- ✓ 17 Mar 2021 Update tweet & audience management engines based on results from private beta testing
- ✓ 23 Mar 2021 Create plans and pricing, including discounts for early adopters
- ✓ 26 Mar 2021 Create terms, privacy and company information pages
- ✓ 20 Apr 2021 Develop demo page for visitors to view real scheduled tweets and edit/delete them in a sandbox
- ✓ 08 May 2021 Complete the login system including 'remember me', 'forgot password' and 'logout' functionality
- ✓ 10 May 2021 Develop the dashboard including: view/edit/delete scheduled tweets, view follower growth, view/edit your profile, view your twitMate plan
- ✓ 20 May 2021 Integrate with Stripe to process payments, including create, upgrade, downgrade, cancel & renew subscriptions
- ✓ 03 Jun 2021 Develop customer onboarding. A series of short webforms to get the information to setup accounts, manage audiences and create tweets for new users
- ✓ 11 Jun 2021 Run a short public beta test to get feedback on the setup process
- ✓ 13 Jun 2021 Fix a minor bug found in beta testing
- ✓ 21 Jun 2021 Finish sending invites to those who joined the early-access waitlist
- ✓ 21 Jun 2021 Launch full site!
If you are reading this the twitMate website is live! At the minute, the site is fairly simple - a landing page, a blog and an option to sign-up for early access.
However, a lot of the design work and front-end development is complete which means it should be quick to roll out the other aspects of the site. We're getting close.
Beta testing successful
Behind the scenes, the tweet and audience management engines have been running successfully as part of private beta testing. We've seen really good results for the accounts that we have been managing.
Check out our beta testers' Twitter to see for yourself:
Early access to our Twitter management service
If you'd like to use twitMate I recommend joining the waitlist. You'll get early access at a heavily discounted price which is locked-in for life.
There will be a small number of early-adopter places available on a first-come, first-served basis. Once these places are gone, twitMate will never be as cheap again.
How long is the waitlist?
You may be wondering how long you'll have to wait? Check out our development roadmap which is be updated regularly.
Watch this space!