228: Secrets from the World's #1 Crowdfunding Marketer, Samit Patel

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Samit Patel. Samit is World’s #1 Crowdfunding Marketer. He is the founder of Joopio and several other businesses that help grow, scale, and get companies known. He and his teams create “done for you” campaigns that are unique to each product and service.

Samit has been featured everywhere from Forbes, Fast Company, Alphr, and is tapped by many of the world’s biggest influencers and companies to help them get their products and services off the ground or better known.

Samit has created a process that ensures products and services get the attention needed to be funded and sell into the future. They do everything from making sure pre-launch is right all the way through to E-commerce after launch. And that is what I want to dig into with him in this episode, to have him teach you how he and his teams do it.

www.SamitPatel.net

Samit got pushed into business when he went to university to help pay the bills. He set up an events company that helping make $1000 or so a week as an 18-year old. He graduated in 2009 into a horrible job market. And after making $1000 a week, was not going to take a job for less, so he started a number of other businesses in sectors like travel, beauty, and he says, “You name it, I tried to do it.” He then got into a partnership for a new business where he worked for over a year to make it come to fruition and just when it was about to launch, got kicked out of the partnership.

He was dejected and lost and hit a bottom. It took a freak accident that happened to his younger brother that led him take a consulting role for a startup and had success. It took him about 10 years and pretty much giving up before things happened for him and he found a big success.

The freak accident that happened was his brother drowning and being brought back to life. It made him realize that he needed to rethink his whole life and really get focused – a wake up call that he was nowhere near where he wanted to be.

It was in this startup that he built a campaign to launch the product it did over $1.3 mil, one of the top crowdfunded products at the time. He then went on to another product in the skiing industry with great success and further honing his skills. And nowadays, he raised over $30 mil launching product across 40 different industries.

Why is Crowdfunding such a good way to launch a product or business?

• It’s a great way to validate your product or service and see if it is truly worthwhile.
• It allows you test it out with consumers and get feedback.

What are the pitfalls or bad side Crowdfunding? What mistakes do people need to be careful to avoid?

• If you look at Crowdfunding as your only channel and pin your hopes solely on it, then most will be disappointed.
• Think of Crowdfunding as a part of a glorified PR campaign introducing your product to the market, but you cannot just stop there – you need all of the other marketing, engagement, resources and actions to go with it (social media, e-commerce, etc.)
• You also should use a multi-platform approach across the different crowdfunding platforms across the world.

Take us through your process and how you do what you do. (it’s best to listen, but here are some short notes)

• First, you don’t necessarily need to create your product. You could go to Alibaba and find a product that is close to your idea and use that.
• Second, create a landing page which has the product, 3 core features, and why people should buy it.
• Third, you can start advertising and sharing it on Facebook groups or spend a little money on Facebook advertising. You will be asking for their name, email, etc. and your goal is to get at least 100.
• Fourth, you will put them in a VIP or community group, so when they sign up, on the thank you page and you can push them to be part of the group.
• These groups are critical because they give the feedback you need to make your product great and give you ideas for ancillary products.
• Fifth, you can jump on a call with each of the 100 people to walk through the product and discuss it in detail with them – and sell it to them.
• At this point, you will have validation of interest in the product or not.
• You can also test pricing at this point to see if people will pay for it or put a “deposit” down for it once it is available.
• Sixth, scale the whole process up. If you spend $20k, you should be seeing a 3x return and give you 10-15k leads when the campaign goes live.

What else should we know about how to launch a product right?

• Samit will always launch on Crowdfunding first because it gives validation and gives early adopters.

Samit has a system he calls TLFES:

• Traffic
• Leads
• Funnels
• Engagements
• Sales
• You should also put your face behind the product – it will separate you and help you connect with your early adopters.

At the 30 min mark, Samit and I discuss other nuances of launching.

• When you launch, you want to get 200 sales as that will get you trending and get the platform promoting your launch. Samit says it takes about $20k spend to achieve that.

At the 32:30 mark, Samit explains more about how Crowdfunding platforms work…

• Crowdfunding platforms have algorithms just like social media and if you generate 200 backers on your first day, you will trend on the platform.
• Kickstarter, for example, has “Projects We Love” that highlights products that are trending. 200 sales are the key.

​ What are the lessons you’ve learned being an entrepreneur? What are the principles you use to succeed?

• Structure is important.
• Samit has had to become a lot more patient and less YOLO.
• Putting systems in place are very important to success in anything. Personal, business, etc.

 

Best Quote: You should also put your face behind the product – it will separate you and help you connect with your early adopters.

 

Samit's Misfit 3:

1. Don’t be ashamed of getting a job to help you while you are getting your business off the ground.
2. Work to replace yourself. Create process and SOP’s for the actions you do so you can hand them off.
3. Create the structure for yourself. Health, family, etc. Beware of chasing the money. You do not get time back that could have been spent with your loved ones and friends. Make time for it.

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