Empowering Creators: The Story of Creative Market's Rise in the Design Marketplace
Company profile
Company business details
Problem that their product solves
Creative Market solves the problem of finding high-quality design assets for businesses and individuals. The end users include designers, marketers, and anyone in need of creative resources. Solving this problem is important as it enables creators to monetize their work and provides customers with access to unique and diverse design assets.Their unfair advantage
Creative Market's unfair advantage lies in its strong community of independent creators and a diverse range of unique design assets that are not easily found on other platforms.Strategies
Pre-Launch (Product Development & MVP)
Community Building through COLOURlovers
Before launching Creative Market, Aaron Epstein and his team leveraged the existing COLOURlovers community to build a foundation for their new marketplace. They engaged with users by encouraging them to create and share color palettes, which not only fostered a sense of community but also provided valuable insights into user preferences. This community-driven approach helped them identify potential sellers and buyers for Creative Market, ensuring a smoother launch.
Community Building for Initial Support
Aaron Epstein first built a community called Color Lovers, which was a platform for designers to share and create color palettes. This community became the foundation for his next venture, Creative Market. By leveraging the existing community, he was able to convert them into his first subscribers and customers for Creative Market. The community members were not only supportive but also provided valuable feedback and content that helped shape the marketplace.
Viral Referral Program
Before launching Creative Market, Aaron implemented a viral referral program where users could sign up for early access and receive $5 in credits. This program incentivized users to refer friends, with rewards increasing for the number of referrals. For example, referring 50 friends could earn users $200 in credits. This strategy successfully generated 70,000 sign-ups before the official launch, creating a strong user base from day one.
Free Goods Page
To attract potential customers before the launch, Aaron created a 'Free Goods' page where designers could offer free products in exchange for sign-ups. This not only helped build the seller side of the marketplace but also provided users with valuable content, encouraging them to join Creative Market. The combination of the Free Goods page and the referral program significantly boosted user engagement and sign-ups.
Launch Stage
Viral Referral Program
To tackle the chicken and egg problem of launching a marketplace, Creative Market implemented a viral referral program inspired by Fab.com. They created a teaser page where users could sign up with their email to receive $5 in free credits upon launch. Users were encouraged to invite friends through email or social media, earning additional credits for each successful referral. This strategy resulted in over 70,000 sign-ups before the official launch, significantly boosting their initial user base.
Learn more about Creative Market
Aaron Epstein - Baremetrics
