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Launch to an Army of Fans: The Creator-Centric Pre-Launch Playbook

You've perfected your product and polished your store, but you're about to make a critical mistake: launching to an empty room. Without a pre-launch strategy, you start with zero audience, leading to high ad spend on cold traffic and a cripplingly high Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) from day one.

This playbook introduces 'The Creator-Centric Stack,' a low-cost, easy-to-implement system designed to build genuine relationships with your first supporters *before* you launch. Instead of just collecting emails, you'll treat your waitlist like VIPs. We leverage a creator-focused platform (ConvertKit) to build your waitlist and a modern, personal CRM (Folk) to manage these crucial early relationships, turning initial subscribers into long-term partners and evangelists.

Expected Outcomes

  • Launch your brand to an engaged, pre-warmed audience, not a cold one.
  • Build a high-quality email waitlist of potential customers and brand evangelists before day one.
  • Dramatically lower your initial Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) by avoiding expensive 'cold start' advertising.
  • Establish a scalable system for managing long-term relationships with key supporters and influencers.

Core Tools in This Stack

ConvertKit

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The creator marketing platform that helps you grow your audience, foster community, and earn a living online by managing email lists, automations, and selling digital products.

Key Features
  • Visual Automation Builder
  • Landing Pages & Forms
  • Audience Segmentation and Tagging
  • Sell Digital Products & Paid Newsletters
  • Customizable Email Templates
  • Creator Network for Audience Growth
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small

Industries: Creative & Media, Education & Non-Profit, Health & Wellness

Pricing

Model: Freemium, Subscription

Tier: Medium

Ease of Use

High

Folk

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Folk is a collaborative, all-in-one CRM designed to manage relationships, from contacts to campaigns. It offers templates for various use cases like sales, recruiting, and fundraising, allowing teams to build a customized workspace for their contacts.

Key Features
  • Contact Management & Centralization
  • Customizable Pipelines
  • Team Collaboration Features
  • Personalized Email Campaigns
  • Pre-built Templates (for Sales, Recruiting, Fundraising, etc.)
  • Chrome Extension for contact import
  • Data Enrichment
  • Integrations (Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, Zapier)
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Creative & Media, Education & Non-Profit, Other

Pricing

Model: Free, Subscription

Tier: Mid-range

Ease of Use

High

The Workflow

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Integration Logic

  • Make

    This integration uses a Make scenario to connect ConvertKit and Folk. It's triggered when a new subscriber is added in ConvertKit (e.g., via a form or tag). Make then retrieves the subscriber's data (like email, name, and custom fields) and uses it to create a new person in a specified group within Folk. This automates the process of populating your CRM with new leads from your email marketing efforts.

Build Your Army of Fans Now

Get the creator-centric playbook to build pre-launch hype and slash your Customer Acquisition Cost from day one.