This is a guest post by Nic Penrake
The first launch I did – it was a WSO, an ebook on marketing with squeeze pages – was pretty lame, I have to admit. But hey, I was new to the whole thing. About the only thing I got right was the sales copy – I’m a copywriter – but even that was probably not hard-hitting enough, because I was so unaccustomed to writing so-called ‘sales’ copy back then; ad copy is quite different, being so much more economical and restrained by comparison.
Sadly, the product was pretty good – and I still sell a few copies every week, and not one refund to date. So it wasn’t the product that was naff, it was my marketing of it.
Over the past year or so I’ve had time to take note of my mistakes. Lots of notes, lol. Now that I’m 2 -3 weeks away from launching a new product, I’ve at least got a much more complete picture of the preparation involved. And boy, there’s plenty of it.
Where do I even begin?
OK… so… you write your sales page. Which in my case has been a sales video on powerpoint/Camtasia AND a sales page because, as we all know, videos often convert better than long form sales copy.
I’ve written the dedicated affiliate page. With all the essential tools for affiliates, such as email swipes, articles, blog posts, etc.
The upsell? For some time, I was in two minds over what to offer. It would have been easy enough to go buy some PLR and do an editing job on it and sell it on – but I wanted to offer a logical EXTRA to my main product. For me, that meant coaching.
Now coaching’s kinda tricky. Because:
a) You have to charge at least $30-40 per hour to make it worth your while
b) Your prospect almost certainly knows very little about you, so trust is a major hurdle you must overcome
So let’s say my new product markets at $9.90 on the Warrior Forum – a typical price for most Warrior Special Offers (WSOs). Buyers go through to the upsell, where I pitch my coaching. If I now present my customer with a coaching package, which is going to be in excess of $97, I’m unlikely to make any sales because the leap from 9.90 to 97 + is just too big for most people.
Solution? Make the upsell no more than a pitch to get people interested in your coaching program. You ask them to sign up to your FREE 25 minute consultation, during which time you will show them what you can do for them. No obligation to buy with the promise that even if they don’t take you up on your great offer, they will finish the call a little wiser than when they started. The more entrepreneurial, go-getting minority will sign up – and that way the upsell kicks in.
What else?
Collect some testimonials. I will be approaching some of the top marketers I know to request a testimonial. But I’ll have to offer something in return. I could offer the biggest fella some space on my download page, for example. Of course I will have to provide access to my product – top affiliates have to feel they can back your product or they just won’t bother.
So far I’ve a couple of good testimonials I could put on my sales page, but I’d like to get a couple more before launch date, so that’s one of my tasks right now.
I’ll have to write some articles with titles which match my product name – partly to generate traffic, partly as components in the tool kit I must offer my affiliates.
I must build a simple review site – something like myproductnamereview.com.
I must put together at least 3 videos that serve as a pre-sell. I’ll have to find a way of offering some useful content, relevant to my product, that whets the appetite of potential buyers. I’ll have to maintain momentum in my pre-launch so that people don’t lose the thread of my ‘story’ and are eager and keen come launch day.
Video marketing. Following the launch I must put the sales video up on youtube, metacafe, daily motion, etc. etc.
I must also put the word out to:
- Twitter
- Facebook
- My list
- And social bookmarks
Write some PR, so it’s ready to go out come launch date…
Can you see how involved this all is? I tell you, the next one I’m outsourcing a whole big chunk of it!
But can you see how important it is not to rush a launch? You have to have all your ships in a line. It’s like preparing an invasion. And it’s not even over once you’ve launched. You have to be ready to reply to questions and comments on e.g. the Warrior Forum. And as John Thornhill rightly points out in his recent WSO Domination, you need to show you are confident of your product. It’s essential you don’t get into a scrap with anyone and always come across as helpful.
You might also need to tweak your sales copy if it’s converting less well than you’d thought.
And when the dust settles, finally, you might consider launching at a higher price – via webinar, say – in a month’s time. You could also turn the digital offering into a physical product and try marketing that at 6 or 7 times the price.
Two months later you need to analyze your strengths and weaknesses so your next one will be bigger and better.
I don’t pretend that this list is exhaustive. But I think this is plenty to take in for a lot of readers. For those expert marketers reading, I’m sure readers would welcome your tips for making a good launch great.
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November 20, 2011 at 8:33 am
I agree with Nic, a very good marketing and a strategy that will launch a website or product successfully is very much needed. I must give credit to the social networking sites, they can really help great!
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November 20, 2011 at 11:22 am
from the very beginning of my blogging i always tried to think about launching a product that gives me regular income and also provide my customers great happiness & information. But all ideas i tried has not given me good success but reading this will also help to launch a new product with new boom thanks
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November 22, 2011 at 12:58 am
Really interesting read Nic. I like how you explain the process of preparing for a product launch. I should add some more structure too.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
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Nic Penrake Reply:
November 24th, 2011 at 5:54 am
Nice quote Danny, very true. And there’s quite a lot of planning to do for a launch!
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November 23, 2011 at 12:28 am
Hi Nick,
Wonderful tips. This is a big help for us who are starting in this business. One of my problems before is making my products well known to the possible buyers. I have done things to promote my product. Many times I failed, but I never give up. Still standing and still trying. Do you have any tips about common problems in this business?
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November 27, 2011 at 10:35 am
Have a good job and thank you for the sharing. This tips are useful to me. I really confused how could I publicize my product online, Twitter, facebook and blog, all of these need to much sills, experiences and time. But I need to learn from is slowly and make effort.
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November 30, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Hi Nic,
first, thank you for sharing your tips. It’s not easy to start with business.
I agree with Sophia. It gives so many methods to promote a product, and the social platforms are the future. So, you must work with them, and you need time for learning. I visit many sites and blogs in last weeks, and i learn so much and i`m thankful for all Tips about Blogging and SEO and all the other Methods.
I came from Germany and here the People don`t share informations.
Wish you all much success with your projects.
With best wishes and greetings from Germany
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December 4, 2011 at 4:48 am
Hi Nic, Great article. A lot of people struggles to launch their products in online successfully. After the launch they do not get enough response for it. Using social media in launching a product is a great idea. Thus it will get maximum exposure.
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December 8, 2011 at 8:32 am
I think the social networking sites are a huge help for a website which has just begun in its own quest which is to garner some traffic and rank.
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December 21, 2011 at 9:04 am
I am also pro social marketing, regarding websites and blogs! They are really helpful for increasing the traffic.
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January 8, 2012 at 12:39 pm
I have been blogging for several years now and I still have not launched a product yet. Maybe 2012 will be my year. I will bookmark this post for when the time come. great tips here.
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January 17, 2012 at 11:38 am
I think that the combination video marketing and social networks is a very powerful weapon!
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January 27, 2012 at 11:42 pm
Thanks for the info about backlinks.. I do know a little bit about them but this cleared just about everything else up that I could’ve been wondering. I appreciate it!!
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January 29, 2012 at 12:16 pm
I agree with video marketing strategy. These days, people want to see visual things to really hook up, because if all they see and read are articles, they are getting tired and bored already.
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February 1, 2012 at 12:59 am
I think that the oral marketing would be the best way in order to launch a new product. Oral marketing tactics are on of the traditional tactics that the ancestors have used. But it is effective still. And the multilevel marketing companies are widely using this methods now and they have found it as a very unique and successful way of marketing. But they use the referral system which could promote the pyramid. Pyramid is not a great idea for any good businesses.
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