Launch Read online

  Here’s the big picture: The Product Launch Formula® is a system to get your target market so engaged with your product (or business) that they almost beg you to sell it to them. And this all happens before you even release the product.

  PLF works in all kinds of markets and with all kinds of products, and it’s remarkably adaptable to just about any situation where you’re releasing a new product or starting a new business. It’s so effective that I’ve actually had people ask if they could just give me a credit card number to hold on file so I could charge their card and send them the product the instant it was released.

  This is the system that I’ve been using and developing since 1996, and been teaching to clients since 2005. The proof is in the results—the formula just keeps working.

  So let’s start with a fact we all know to be true: how the growth of the Internet since the late 1990s has changed the world in a fundamental way. It’s a very different world, and we’re never going back to the old ways of doing things. Nowhere is this more true than in business, and in that arena, we’re going to focus on three huge changes:

  1. Speed of communication: It’s a lot easier and faster to communicate with your market than ever before. Within just a few minutes, you can write an email and broadcast it to your list of prospects and clients. They can be reading your message within seconds of when you press the “send” button. A few short years ago, the total time from original thought to creation to publication to consumption would be measured in days or weeks or months. Now it can be compressed to minutes.

  2. Cost of communication: The cost to send an email or make a post to your social media followers is extremely low. The barriers to entry in the publishing game have been removed. What does it cost to become a publisher? Someone can create a Facebook page or a Twitter profile for free and start publishing instantly. A decade or two ago even the most inexpensive ways to start broadcasting or publishing would have set you back thousands of dollars.

  3. Interactivity: When your followers respond to your message, you have all kinds of tracking data. This gives you nearly instant feedback on how your message is resonating with your target market. Compare that to a few years ago, when publishing was almost like shouting into the wilderness. Depending on the terrain and other conditions, you might hear a faint echo some time after your shout. Or more likely, you would get no feedback whatsoever.

  Perhaps you’ve never thought about these changes before or maybe by now you take them for granted. Either way, they have huge implications in many areas of our human experience—from politics to entertainment to medicine to interpersonal relationships. But what we’re going to focus on here is business. Because those three factors—speed of communication, cost of communication, and interactivity—changed the way business and marketing worked, they created a world where nimble entrepreneurs can generate shockingly successful results in their businesses. And as you’ll see, all of a sudden those crazy numbers I’ve been sharing with you will start to make sense.

  Turning Your Marketing into an Event

  Have you ever noticed how Hollywood tries to build buzz before a movie is released? First there’s the trailer six months before the movie. Then there are TV ads leading up to the movie. Then the actors head out on a tour of the talk shows. And nowadays there’s a social media campaign right around the release date.

  And how about when Apple releases a product? They always create a massive campaign leading up to the release date. In the months before a new product release, all the Apple fanboy sites are full of breathless rumors about when the release will be, the actual product to be released, and what new features to expect.

  Those types of campaigns create a huge amount of buzz and excitement BEFORE THE PRODUCT IS EVER RELEASED. In fact, sometimes the product release becomes an event in and of itself. Huge anticipation surrounds the launch, and people are genuinely engaged and paying attention.

  Now contrast that to a normal marketing campaign, what I called “Hope Marketing” earlier. That’s where you create a product or open a business or roll out a new ad campaign, and you hope it does well.

  Now “hope” is an uplifting word and can be truly wonderful in many areas of our lives. If you’re shipwrecked at sea—to give an extreme example— hope can keep you alive while you wait to be rescued. But in business, hope is an ugly, nasty word. A soul-sucking word. You need to take control of your success; to the best of your ability, you want to take chance out of the equation. Don’t bank the future of your business on hope.

  Clearly, it would be better to engineer your product releases, your business launch, and your promotions so that your prospects are eagerly anticipating your launch . . . right?

  That’s what’s behind those big Hollywood releases and the Apple launches. Wouldn’t you love to have instant momentum for your business? Imagine how that type of a start would change your business. Think about how creating massive anticipation for your product—before it’s even released—would be a complete game-changer.

  Of course, there’s only one problem. You probably don’t have a budget of millions of dollars for your promotion or a hot-shot creative team. And unless you have the resources and talent of Apple or Universal Studios, it seems like you’re stuck with Hope Marketing.

  Well, hang on, because this is where the Product Launch Formula has changed the game. Remember those three game-changing factors I mentioned earlier—the decreased cost of communications, the increased speed of communications, and the greatly enhanced interactivity? Those are your keys to the kingdom.

  And that’s why tiny online businesses, run by ordinary folks like you and me, have built an entirely new playing field . . . and it’s a playing field with unprecedented opportunity.

  Your Market Is a Conversation

  So let’s start with a nearly universal truth: people find conversations a lot more interesting than monologues or lectures.

  And the evolution of the Internet has basically been one long movement toward increased conversation. Never before in history has it been easier to communicate and converse with more people around the world.

  Sure, sometimes when you look at the comments on YouTube, those “conversations” may make you question the future of humanity. Nevertheless, we’re clearly conversing with each other more now than at any time in history. And that conversation has carried over into business—and marketing. People are no longer interested in being shouted at from a TV commercial about whatever features your product has.

  Actually, they were never interested in that, but now they have more choices, and it’s a lot easier to tune you out when you start shouting at them, “Buy my stuff, buy my stuff, BUY MY STUFF!”

  So instead of shouting at your prospects, what if you engaged them in a conversation? For instance, imagine you’re a beginning guitar player, and an expert guitar teacher that you’re following online says something like:

  “Hey, I’ve got this really cool new technique where I can teach anyone to play one new song each week, and I just came up with a crazy idea to put together a course that teaches my ‘secret’ method.

  (Actually, I don’t know if it’s a secret, but I’ve never seen anyone else use this method. I showed it to a few friends, and it works like gangbusters.)

  In any case, before I create the course, I want to make sure I really cover everything. So can you help me out and tell me what your #1 challenge is when you’re trying to learn to play an entire song?”

  It’s so simple . . . but asking that question starts a conversation. It definitely doesn’t shout out “BUY MY STUFF” to your followers.

  Opening a dialogue with your potential clients is an example of what I call “the shot across the bow,” and it’s a great way to start your prelaunch campaign. And that simple question, modified for hundreds of different markets, has been the start of countless successful PLF-style product launches.

  Sequences, Stories, and Triggers

  Okay, I just gave you a little example of the sta
rt of the PLF-style prelaunch. It might not look all that powerful or special, but you’ll see soon enough how that inauspicious start can build into something that almost takes on a life of its own.

  At its heart, Product Launch Formula is made up of sequences, stories, and triggers. We’ll cover sequences first.

  The level of information that each of us is subject to every day is staggering. We’ve got email, voice mail, texts, social media, TV, radio, advertising everywhere (on my airline seatback tray . . . really?), mobile phones, online chat, etc., etc., etc. The volume of information and data is only expanding and will continue to do so. And the number of marketing messages we see every day is growing just as rapidly.

  Of course, our ability to absorb and comprehend those messages has NOT expanded. That means we’re all working harder and harder to filter out those messages. We’re all actively trying to avoid them, to tune them out. We use technology to filter what we can, and then we simply ignore most of the stuff that slips through those filters.

  The military uses a term they call “the fog of war.” Well, as a business person or marketer, you’re competing in an environment that I call the “communication fog.” You have to find some way to cut through that fog or your business will perish. It’s that simple.

  You can’t rely on one single marketing message; instead you need to think in “sequences.” Instead of relying on a single communication to make your point, you use a sequence of communications that build upon each other. Our product launches use a series of sequences—pre-prelaunch, the prelaunch, the launch, and the post-launch.

  Think about the Harry Potter books. Which book release got more attention? The first book or the final book? The answer is the final book, because each book in the sequence gathered more attention and more fans—and those fans were rabidly anticipating each new book in the series.

  So let’s take a quick look at the primary sequences in PLF:

  1. Pre-Prelaunch: This is where you begin. You use it to start building anticipation among your most loyal fans. (And I understand that you might not have any loyal fans yet—I’ll get to that in Chapter 3.) The pre-prelaunch is also used to judge how receptive the market will be to your offer and to figure out what some of the primary objections people will have. And, surprisingly enough, the pre-prelaunch can even be used to tweak your final offer.

  2. Prelaunch: This is the heart and soul of your sequencing, where you gradually romance your market with three pieces of high-value, Prelaunch Content. You use your prelaunch to activate mental triggers such as authority, social proof, community, anticipation, and reciprocity. And you do all that while you answer the objections of your market. Typically, you release your Prelaunch Content over a period of 5 to 12 days. The format for that content can vary widely, from video to audio to written PDF reports to blog posts to teleseminars to software (and I’m sure we’ll invent a few more formats as the years go by).

  3. Launch: This is the big day you’ve been building up to, the day you actually send your product or service out into the world and start taking orders (in PLF jargon we call this “Open Cart,” as in “you open the shopping cart”). Your launch is actually a sequence as well, and a very powerful one at that. It starts with the email that basically says, “We’re open, you can finally buy now,” and continues for a finite amount of time, usually anywhere from 24 hours to seven days, when you finally shut it down.

  4. Post-Launch: This is the clean-up sequence, where you follow up with both your new clients as well as the prospects who didn’t buy from you. The post-launch isn’t as exciting as the other sequences, but it’s important because that’s where you deliver value and build your brand. And if you do it right, the post-launch starts to set up your next launch.

  It all sounds pretty simple, right? Well it is. And it’s also pure gold when you mix in the power of story . . .

  Story: How Humans Communicate

  Stories are powerful. They are how humans have passed down wisdom, knowledge, and culture for as long as we’ve been around. Think back to some of your earliest memories from school, and it’s likely that the lessons you actually remember were based in stories. Think of all the world’s religions, and you will realize that the vast majority of their teachings are delivered through story.

  I’m a logical person, and I love knowledge and facts. That’s a world I naturally live in. In this book, I would love nothing more than to give you data, theory, examples, and more data. But look how I started the first two chapters of this book, with my story in Chapter 1 and then with John Gallagher’s story in this chapter. And guess what you’ll remember from those chapters a week from now? I’m willing to bet that it will be “Mr. Mom doing six figures in seven days” and “food stamps to six figures.” That’s the power of story.

  If you want to make your business and your marketing memorable, then your marketing needs to tell a story. That doesn’t mean you have to become a novelist, but you need to tell an engaging story about your products and services and why they matter to your prospect. And you need to communicate that story to your prospects.

  There is no better way or better place to tell your story than in your launch sequence. This is one of the hidden weapons of PLF, because the most powerful way to communicate your message is with a story, and the serial nature of your Prelaunch Sequence is a perfect place to tell that story.

  It’s no accident that most Prelaunch Sequences have three pieces of content. Most movies or novels naturally break down into three parts, and no doubt you’ve heard the term “three-act play.” We’re dealing with a structure that has been proven over time immemorial, so why not use that structure in your marketing? And why not base your sequences around it? Even the launch itself has three primary sequences: pre-prelaunch, prelaunch, and launch.

  Again, this might seem simple, but it’s incredibly powerful stuff. And when you start to layer sequences and the power of story together, then you’re creating a powerhouse structure.

  The Final Piece of the Puzzle: The Mental Triggers

  Humans are funny creatures. We all like to think that we make rational, logical decisions. But it’s really not that way. In fact, the vast majority of our decisions and behaviors are based in emotion and mental programming—and then we use our precious logic to justify those decisions.

  In fact, there are a number of mental triggers that influence those decisions and behaviors. These triggers are always working just below our consciousness, and they exert enormous influence over how we act.

  For instance, if we perceive something as being scarce, we will naturally give it more value.

  Or if we consider someone as an authority figure, we are almost automatically more influenced by that person.

  Or if we consider ourselves part of a community, we will overwhelmingly act in accordance with how we think the people in that community are supposed to act.

  Those are just three mental triggers: scarcity, authority, community. There are many more, however, and I’ll cover them a little later. But here’s the thing to understand right now: These triggers create enormous influence over our actions. They are timeless, and they are universal. They will not lose their power of persuasion anytime soon, and they work in any language, in any country, and just about any business.

  And at the end of the day, no matter what business you’re in, you are really in the business of influencing your prospects and your clients. And your launch sequence gives you the ultimate opportunity to activate those mental triggers that will influence your prospects and clients.

  Putting It All Together

  This chapter was a quick whirlwind through the Product Launch Formula. What I gave you here was just an overview; I’ll cover all of this in much greater detail in the following chapters. But for now, you can start thinking about combining your sequences, the power of story, and the mental triggers.

  When you layer these mental triggers on top of each other, you’re not dependent on any one trigger but combining them t
o create a powerfully influential message.

  Then you embed those mental triggers into a compelling and memorable story that cuts through the marketing fog, a story that connects your offer to the hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations of your prospect.

  And you deliver that story in a tight sequence that turns your launch into a big event that captures your prospects’ imaginations and builds anticipation toward your launch day.

  Now you’ve got a formula for an incredible launch.

  This is the formula that John Gallagher used to sell 670 games instead of the 12 games he sold with traditional, old-world style Hope Marketing. And it’s the formula he’s gone on to use over and over to build a serious business in a small niche.

  Now before we get into the nitty-gritty of the Product Launch Formula, I have one more critical piece of the puzzle for you. And this one will grow to become your own personal “money machine.” I think of it as a metaphorical printing press where I legally print money on demand. And you can have one of these printing presses as well . . .

  I’m talking about your email list, and that’s what we’ll cover in the next chapter.

  (P.S.—If you would like to see a Case Study I did with John Gallagher where we went through his “food stamps to six figures” launch in detail, as well as his other launches, you can see it here http://thelaunchbook.com/john.)

  A License to Print Money: Your List

  Chapter 3

  A number of years ago, I remember being at a function at our kids’ elementary school, where I chatted with the mother of one of my son’s classmates. Both of our children were in fifth grade, which meant we were about six years away from the first college tuition bill. And that’s a topic parents of school-aged kids have on their minds.

  Since the other parent knew I had an interest in the financial markets, I suppose it was natural for her to ask what kind of college savings plan I had for my kids. My answer wasn’t what she expected. This is what I said: