Is There a Perfect Product Launch Formula to Follow?

How to Go About Building Interest in Your Product Launch.

By Paul Smithson

When you’re getting ready to launch a product, you need to have a well thought out plan if you are to maximize the chances of it success and minimize the chance of having a flop on your hands.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size fits all formula for launching a product or service, as there are so many different factors at play such as price, target audience, advertising budget, etc. However, there are a few key things you can do to kick-start nearly any product launch.

One of the first things you need to plan for is generating some pre-launch buzz.  Don’t think you need to be a well-known marketer to generate buzz. You can get a good buzz going about your product, even if you’re completely unknown in your field.

One easy way to do this is to find some relevant forums in your niche, but don’t rush straight in and start promoting your new product or service, as that is a complete no-no. Before you even think to mention your product you should make some genuinely informative, helpful posts related to the subject of your product, but don’t mention your product, or even that you’re about to release a product.

The point of this post is twofold.  First, you establish yourself as an expert on your chosen topic.  If your post contains good information, and it’s presented well, people will begin to trust the fact that you know your stuff on the subject.

Second, you’ll make people want more.  Because you’ve left out the key points, there’ll be a lot of questions on the subject.  Your product will help answer those questions, but you don’t want to reveal your product idea yet.

Remember, if you even hint about a product release, your post will probably be deleted.  Just answer as many questions as you can, without giving too much of your product away.

Invite people to send you a private message if they have questions.  Keep those messages and send them a reply closer to launch with an invitation to sign up to your pre-launch notification list.

Once you’ve established your credibility and proven yourself to be a helpful member and supportive member of the forum you can reveal your intentions, but choose the right moment. Make sure that before you do so that you have made a genuinely useful contribution otherwise people will smell a rat and you’ll go from being hero to zero in a single post.

A method of doing this that can prove effective is to offer some sort of free incentive to get people to sign up for your pre-launch notification list.  This could be a free chapter from your product, or the prospect of a hefty discount on the product only for those who are on the pre-launch notification list. You can make this a general invitation or, if you feel it would be right to do so, you can make it exclusively for people on that forum.

The purpose of this data collection exercise is to build a list of people who have already shown interest in your product, so that you’ll have buyers lined up when your product is officially launched. This is crucial because you’ll be relying on these ‘early adopters’ to start spreading the word about your product as soon as they get their hands on it.

Depending on the type of product you’re offering it can be well worth offering the people on your pre-launch list a heavy discount on the product, and possibly the additional benefit of being able to buy the product a day or two before the official launch. People love feeling like they’re getting something exclusive.  If you let them know that they are the only ones who will have the product for the first 24 or 48 hours after launch it will act as an extra motivator, particular if you’ve introduced a scarcity factor by limiting the number of units you are going to sell (e.g. “Only 1000 available”).

If you conduct this stage of the launch program well you will have started some buzz within your chosen niche and this will hopefully have brought you to the attention of potential joint-venture partners.

Had you gone to these JV partners cold, before they had even heard of you or your product, you probably wouldn’t have received a reply, but now that you are ‘on the radar’ the chances of them at least replying, and getting into a dialog with you is increased significantly.

However, don’t assume that JV partners will be eager to get onboard. The chances are that they get approached daily by people wanting them to recommend their product. If you do get into a dialog with them treat them professionally and respond to messages in a timely fashion so that you can keep the discussion moving forward. Just because they are interested this week doesn’t mean they’ll be interested next week - things move quickly in the world of online business - so aim to firm up on the commercial arrangements and get their commitment as soon as you can.

There are three things that interest most potential JV partners. The first two are purely selfish on their part and the third demonstrates their professionalism and commitment to the people on their lists.

The first selfish thing is WIIFM, which stands for “What’s in it for me?”. It will often be the first thing you get asked and it will often be a deal breaker for the simple reason that potential JV partners know the worth of their lists or sales channel.

The second thing is exclusivity. JV partners love being able to offer something exclusive to their list so if you can provide them with a selection of unique bonuses that they can include when they sell your product you’re far more likely to be able to get them on board than if they get exactly the same deal as everyone else.

Finally, some JV partners (not all, I’m afraid to say) will actually want to see the product so be prepared to send review copies out to anyone who requests one. The reason a good JV partner will insist on this is that they don’t want to recommend a second rate product to their list. Sometimes just sending a few chapters of an ebook or the first video in a set will suffice, but where possible, and when it is potentially worth your while, send the whole product. This has two benefits, firstly it meets the needs of the JV partner who wants to know that what he is selling is good, and secondly it can help the JV partner to better communicate the benefits to the needs their own customers or people on their lists.

As you can probably gather from the above, launching a new product or service can be like running a military campaign. There are various jobs that need to be done and often they need to be done in a particular order, and that is where a clear and well thought out plan comes in. Putting together the plan and then putting into action is very much along the lines of 1% inspiration (putting the plan together) and 99% perspiration (putting the plan into action), but without the 1% of inspiration and careful planning all the perspiration will be worthless.

About Paul Smithson - Paul Smithson is the founder of Intellimon and the driving force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development tool. Since graduating in Business Strategy and Direct Marketing from two of Europe’s leading business schools, Paul has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software development, and maximizing the potential of on-line businesses.

For more information about this, and many other Internet Marketing-related topics, visit Paul Smithson's site, by clicking here.

Regards

The Team at www.Angel-Investor-Network.co.uk