Simon Høiberg's Link Drip Pre-Sold to $75K Revenue Before Launch
Who is Simon Høiberg?
Simon Høiberg, a Danish serial entrepreneur from Denmark, is renowned for his SaaS ventures like FeedHive and LinkDrip. He transitioned from a sales background into tech entrepreneurship, leveraging his experience to build an engaged audience and successful SaaS products.
What problem does Link Drip solve?
Link Drip helps marketers easily manage and track their URLs, removing the hassle of manually shortening links and collecting engagement data, making it a valuable tool for simplifying digital marketing campaigns.
How did Simon come up with the idea for Link Drip?
Simon Høiberg's journey to create LinkDrip began with a strong foundation in understanding his audience, built through his previous venture, FeedHive. He was deeply engaged with his users and participated in community conversations, which helped him grasp the nuances of their challenges. Simon diligently listened to user feedback and identified a gap in the market for a more sophisticated link engagement tool—something that would complement the needs of marketers using social media management platforms.
Before diving into development, Simon validated the feasibility of his idea by leveraging his existing audience, offering a pre-launch to FeedHive users. This approach not only confirmed demand but also secured early financial support for the project, showcasing the importance of having a committed user base. Despite facing the challenge of pre-selling a SaaS that wasn't built yet, Simon's strategy hinged on transparency and managing expectations, ensuring he wouldn't overpromise and underdeliver.
This process illuminates the lesson of how transformative building a strong, responsive community can be. It highlights the importance of aligning product development closely with user feedback and stresses the value of pre-launching as a means to validate and finance a new business venture.
How did Simon build the initial version of Link Drip?
Simon Høiberg built Link Drip by first leveraging existing relationships and an integration with his previous product, FeedHive, to assess immediate interest and partial viability without committing substantial resources. The initial build was minimal, consisting mostly of a website created in Webflow, and an integration that allowed FeedHive users to auto-shorten their links, all accomplished in a single weekend. Simon embraced a community-driven approach by involving a group of early adopters, who provided feedback which guided feature prioritization. Through an iterative process, Simon's strategy included pre-selling the concept to validate demand and gather funds, ultimately securing over $75,000 even before the full product development began. This approach ensured that he and his team focused on building features that aligned strongly with user needs, while also managing expectations and mitigating development risk.
What were the initial startup costs for Link Drip?
- Pre-launch Costs: Prior to launching LinkDrip, Simon and his team developed a website and an integration with FeedHive over a weekend.
- Crowdfunding and Initial Sales: The soft-launch offered a lifetime subscription deal, generating $40,000 in sales in the first week. This was followed by lifting the restrictions, resulting in continuous sales over the next two weeks.
- Public Launch and Further Sales: Public announcements through social channels and a launch video on YouTube drove additional sales, further adding to the initial revenue.
How did Simon launch Link Drip and get initial traction?
Pre-Launch Campaign to Existing Users
Simon Høiberg initiated a pre-launch campaign for LinkDrip by leveraging the existing user base of FeedHive. They introduced a soft-launch to current FeedHive subscribers, announcing it as an add-on feature and enticing them with a lifetime subscription deal, which created urgency and excitement among users.
Why it worked: By tapping into an already engaged and loyal audience, Simon capitalized on their familiarity and trust with his previous product, resulting in $40,000 in sales during the first week of the limited-time offer.
Community-Driven Product Announcements
LinkDrip was gradually introduced to broader audiences beyond FeedHive's user base. Simon utilized his social media platforms, including YouTube and Twitter, to publicly announce LinkDrip, creating a sense of scarcity and exclusivity with limited-time offers, which resulted in continuous sales leading up to the full launch.
Why it worked: This approach effectively used the psychological triggers of exclusivity and scarcity, coupled with Simon's established community rapport, leading to increased visibility and sales as more people became aware of LinkDrip and its benefits.
Building Anticipation through Personal Branding
Simon consistently engaged with his audience across various social media channels well before LinkDrip's launch. He shared valuable content and insights to build authority and trust. This content-first strategy led to a substantial online presence with over 250,000 followers, who were primed and ready to support new ventures.
Why it worked: By focusing on relationship building and providing value over time, Simon cultivated a supportive audience eager to engage and invest in his new product, leading to swift traction and adoption when LinkDrip became publicly available.
What was the growth strategy for Link Drip and how did they scale?
Existing Audience Integration
Simon Høiberg leveraged his existing audience from FeedHive, a social media management tool, to pre-launch LinkDrip effectively. Before publicizing LinkDrip, he offered it to existing FeedHive users through an integration that allowed them to shorten links automatically when scheduling posts. This familiar functionality within FeedHive led to a smooth transition and soft launch, generating initial buzz and creating a seamless experience for users already engaged with his previous product.
Why it worked: By tapping into FeedHive's established user base of over 15,000, Simon leveraged trust and familiarity, which encouraged users to try LinkDrip. Offering a tool that naturally complemented a product his audience already used decreased friction in user adoption and built initial momentum.
Lifetime Subscription Offers
During the pre-launch phase, LinkDrip was offered as a lifetime subscription at an exclusive discounted rate to existing users of FeedHive. This created a strong initial interest, raising over $40,000 in the first week alone. The offer relied on the psychological principles of exclusivity and urgency to drive sales quickly.
Why it worked: The exclusivity of lifetime deals and time-sensitive offers created a sense of urgency and scarcity, prompting immediate action from users. This was bolstered by existing trust in Simon and his products, minimizing resistance to purchasing.
Social Media and YouTube Engagement
Simon actively used his social media channels, notably Twitter and YouTube, to announce LinkDrip. These platforms, where he had already built significant followings, served as effective channels for communicating the launch. His YouTube channel and Twitter thread were particularly successful in driving sales during the public launch phase.
Why it worked: With a combined following of over 250,000 across various platforms, Simon's active and engaged audience was already accustomed to receiving value from his content. Content that was informative rather than directly promotional helped maintain trust and engagement, leading to higher conversion rates from these channels.
Paid Advertising
LinkDrip also utilized paid ads to bolster its reach beyond the organic traction from Simon’s audience. While not the primary driver, these ads complemented organic efforts by targeting users who might not have been directly reached through his existing follower base.
Why it worked: Paid ads can effectively extend reach and attract new audiences when combined with a strong organic foundation. Despite requiring significant investment and experimentation to optimize, paid ads offer a scalable solution to user acquisition once winning ads are identified.
What's the pricing strategy for Link Drip?
Link Drip employs a tiered pricing strategy, offering plans from $11/month to $99/month, along with discounted lifetime deals during pre-launches to boost early adoption.
What were the biggest lessons learned from building Link Drip?
- Build an Audience First: Simon found success with LinkDrip by leveraging an existing audience from his previous SaaS, FeedHive. Building and engaging with an audience before product launch can create initial hype and validate the product idea, leading to better sales and user commitment.
- Pre-Sales Validate Ideas: Conducting a pre-sale was key for LinkDrip, securing $75,000 from eager early adopters. This strategy not only provided funding but also validated the market demand before significant investment into product development, reducing the risk of building an unwanted product.
- Focus on Feedback-Driven Development: By involving early users in the development process, Simon ensured that the product met customer needs. Using user feedback to guide feature prioritization can lead to a more user-centric product that is more likely to succeed in the market.
- Create Reusable Processes: Simon streamlined his workflow by creating reusable processes and building blocks, which made content creation and business operations more efficient. This approach can increase productivity without proportionally increasing effort, allowing founders to scale their impact.
- Financial and Emotional Preparedness for Ups and Downs: Entrepreneurship can be volatile, and Simon’s journey illustrates the importance of being financially prepared and emotionally resilient to handle fluctuations in business. Having a financial buffer and being adaptive can keep the business steady through challenging times.
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More about Link Drip:
Who is the owner of Link Drip?
Simon Høiberg is the founder of Link Drip.
When did Simon Høiberg start Link Drip?
2022
What is Simon Høiberg's net worth?
Simon Høiberg's business makes an average of $5K/month.
How much money has Simon Høiberg made from Link Drip?
Simon Høiberg started the business in 2022, and currently makes an average of $60K/year.
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