rVibe LogoWhen engaging in selling a consumer product that has not launched, you can choose any number of methods to market it. The standard one is to hype it up - use press releases, create interviews and reviews and get friends excited, start ad campaigns, etc. The less standard one is not hype it, but instead tell some key people who might be interested. That’s what we’re doing - for good or ill. Some would be critical of not trying to generate lots of buzz, claiming you can only grow with lots of chatter around it. But I would suggest that creating buzz prior to a launch might actually hurt things. Here’s why: It’s easy to create buzz. But buzz is just curiosity and it’s difficult to live up to the expectations you set. So - instead of getting your user excited and then disappointing them, let the product speak for itself. It may slow the initial number of sign-ups, but I believe you will have lower churn and higher retention. Oh, and you should build in a way for people not only create their own buzz, but want to create their own buzz. We’ve done that too.

Originally published on WordPress on March 29, 2007. Migrated to this blog on May 29, 2025.