Last week (early September, 2024), we released our first internal brand,
Ordinary Mushrooms.
It was an official “soft launch” – we announced the brand to friends and family, and focused on organic content to get the ball rolling.
This approach saved us A LOT of headaches.
Even with the eyes of our team members, things still fall through the cracks.
So instead of diving straight into ripping funnels to paid traffic, we let those closest to us give honest feedback on the general operation.
And while going through this process, we fixed any broken elements on the fly.
These included:
1. Shipping: Our brand offers free NZ shipping, but after releasing we realised that AU also had free shipping set up. Had we gone straight to running ads for NZ/AU, this would have cost us.
2. Old label renders: Original concepts showing 250g instead of 300g were still live on our website. A minor slip up, but also something that would have been exposed by the general public.
3. Fulfilment: Because our packages are fully compostable, they are more susceptible to rough handling couriers. A family member received their order with a small leak following shipping. We’ve amended this by adding additional protection to courier bags.
4. Link preview image: Sharing the link with friends and family allowed us to tidy up the dusty link preview image for Ordinary Mushrooms, which was pixelated and not by any means aesthetic.
5. Mobile loading issues: We noticed via screenshots that the website wasn’t functioning as smoothly on Android compared to iPhone. This was something small but wasn’t initially spotted on our end – as the three of us have iPhones at Frisson Media HQ. A few quick tweaks resolved any issues.
Now that we have these hiccups out of the way, we’re ready to start testing ads to paid traffic.
If you’re in the process of launching a brand, don’t wait until everything is perfect before going live.
Run a soft launch to friends, family and organic traffic.
You’ll be able to iron out any minor issues with added urgency – and the morale boost of having your own brand “live” will leave you even more motivated to get things done.
