It’s not often that I love a blog post so much that I summarize it and link to it but this is it. If you have any desire to ever launch something this post will you really help you, you could even use it as a guide.
This Post Serves as a Guide and Summary on How to Launch Anything
By Nathan Barry on Smashing Magazine June 28th 2013
Summary:
Define the Product, with a Tentative Title
- Waiting until your product is finished before marketing it is a terrible plan.
- Start identifying your target audience and putting together a marketing plan.
Become A Reliable Expert on the Topic
- Create a blog and give out really great information.
- If you’re writing a book ANNOUNCE IT! This goes a long with with your readers or subscribers.
- Teach, Teach and then Teach – Don’t keep your knowledge to yourself. This builds TRUST.
Announce the Product
- Don’t wait too long. Do it really early!
- Create a great landing page with Spark Logix Studios.
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- On the landing page: lead with a headline, preferably something that speaks to the pain you are trying to solve. Next, a couple paragraphs giving the visitor an idea about the product and some great visuals of the product.
Use Email & Share Everywhere
- The most important element on your landing page is the email opt-in form.
- Promote your landing page via newsletter (often).
- Ask friends to share, introduce yourself to authors of relevant blogs, and ask for a link in relevant email newsletters.
- Capture email addresses all over your website (make it obvious).
Blog Posts
- To get people in your industry to really advertise your upcoming product, you need to teach (via blog posts).
- Write a few definitive, in-depth posts on your topic. Concept: Could each article be a chapter in a book? If not, rewrite it until it is of that quality.
- In each post, make sure to link to and talk about your upcoming product. Just remember that you are teaching, not selling.
- Keep in mind that the goal is to get people who are interested in your product to sign up for the email list.
Stay in Touch
- Any subscribers who haven’t been contacted in the last month start to go cold. After three to six months, your list is nearly dead.
- NEVER let your list go cold!
- Don’t forget to ask your friends to share!
Launch Sequence
- DO NOT spring the launch on your subscribers suddenly!
- Communicate all of the dates and product details well in advance.
- Send a pitch email the day before a big launch.
- Launch Email should be simple: get your audience from the email to the sales page. “The product is live — get it here.” Include a short testimonial or two if you feel inclined.
- Contact every person who has helped you with the product.
- Run a 20%-off launch day sale. Gives you a reason to send a reminder email at the end of the day saying that the sale is ending.
Nathan’s Review
Your sales will die down. Nothing will be as big as a proper launch, but just know that you went out with a bang and hopefully made some money in the process.
As a short review, here’s what you are going to do to launch your next product:
- Figure out what you can teach potential customers.
- Announce your product, with a landing page, as early as possible.
- Ask visitors to subscribe to an email list to stay up to date.
- Share the landing page everywhere possible online.
- Write an excellent blog post, and ask people to subscribe to hear about your product.
- Send this blog post to your email list, along with a product update.
- Share the post everywhere and with anyone who would find it relevant.
- Repeat steps 5 to 7 with two more blog posts, each time sending the latest post to the larger email list.
- Announce the launch date and other details as early as possible.
- Send an email the day before telling all subscribers to expect the launch the next day and telling them everything they need to know to make their decision.
- Send a simple announcement email.
- Work like crazy to promote your newly launched product.
- Send a follow-up email near the end of launch day telling your subscribers that the sale is ending and that they should purchase right away.
That’s it! You can do plenty more for an even more successful launch, such as write guest posts or form partnerships, but if you cover the basics outlined above, you are most of the way there.
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