Product Launch

People have NO IDEA how much work goes into the planning and launching of a successful product or event.  It’s a product launch process and every step needs to be planned carefully.

Our approach is to help you make your next product profitable – BEFORE you spend time, money and effort producing it.

Producing a product takes time, money and effort, so ensuring it will be successful BEFORE you start, surely makes sense?

Our new approach to marketing and selling on line involves working WITH your people so you find out the EXACT product or programme they’re desperate to buy from you – and what’s more, they pre-buy the product before you create it.  Let’s face it, it’s much more enjoyable to make that product when people have already paid you to produce it!

Briefly, once you have created your new product(s) any “Product Launch” divides up into 3-4 phases, each containing different elements of the marketing mix as originally outline by Robert Cialdini in his seminal book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”.

The Essential Elements Of The Marketing Mix Are:

• Reciprocity
• Commitment & Consistency
• Social Proof
• Liking
• Authority
• Scarcity

Each phase of the launch requires different activities linked to the different elements of the marketing mix.

Here they are explained, as they related to a recent project we worked on, the launch of Nicola’s sisters’ debut solo jazz album “At Last”

1. Pre-Pre Launch – this is where we are now with Heather’s album, no firm launch date, but need to start preparing (see below).  Building a potential audience, hinting publically but no firm details.
2. Pre-Launch – when we have a date, and we are getting everything ready for that date, building anticipation publically. Giving stuff away, getting folks involved in the back story, videos released, blog posts about seminal moments in Heather’s career, webinars hosted, interviews with key players, fans of Heather etc.
3. Launch – this can be as little as a week or as much as a month, depending on events happening around the launch date, which should mark the release of the album for sale online, be “event driven” ideally, such as a film premiere, launch party, live streaming of the event on Ustream etc.
4. Post-Launch – follow up on opportunities arisen during pre-launch and launch phase, settling into ongoing marketing activities.

Co-founder of ROARlocal, Nicola Cairncross, is a veteran promotional event organiser, from fashion shows at the Escape Club in Brighton while still at college, featuring every high fashion shop in the town, through to major music events in London for Sony Music Publishing International (Lanesborough Hotel) and Bottom Line / Esoteric Records (Garage City, Elephant & Castle).

She was also the mastermind behind the renovation and launch of 1950’s vintage cafe/restaurant The Victory Cafe in Greys Antiques, Mayfair, which featured hair & makeup by Vidal Sassoon, a vintage fashion show, live jazz, free drinks and vintage glasses sponsorship from Babycham and themed spam and powdered eggs hors d’oeuvres!

Nicola says: When creating the plan to launch our most recent project, jazz singer Heather Cairncross’ debut solo album, I followed very closely Jeff Walker’s acclaimed “Product Launch Formula” process, which I’ve been a keen student of, since first investing in it back in 2006 and which I have used many times also to successfully launch The Money Gym events and products. We used to have a 6-8 week lead time for every one of our launches – whether a one day workshop or a new coaching programme – and I know that nowadays you have to work even harder to get the attention of folks and remind them of what you want them to do. This is a big challenge for anyone outside the marketing world, especially creatives such as musicians, but many people are scared of “pestering” or “spamming” their fans and then wonder why only a few people buy or indeed turn up at an event or gig.

Asked By Jazz Musicians Why Nobody Turns Up For Gigs (Or Buys!) I Replied:

• They totally missed your marketing and didn’t know about it
• You only marketed in one place – not in ALL the places your customers or fans hang out (twitter, facebook, youtube, text / SMS, the pub)
• You marketed offline but not online (posters in the venue)
• You only marketed online but not offline (no posters in the venue)
• You didn’t make it easy for them to share the info (Facebook events page to “share”)
• They wanted to come – and meant to – but totally forgot because you only emailed once or twice
• You weren’t obvious enough about how to buy / book – clue : CLICK HERE!!
• You didn’t make that easy for them to do – paypal buttons on website / facebook event pages
• You didn’t give them a deadline for when to do so by
• You didn’t give them an incentive to take action – early bird bookings, first 20 get a free drink on me

You would be amazed how much planning & work launching and then marketing something effectively can be!

Especially when you have an emotional hangup about not wanting to be pushy, or seen to be promotative, or even whether you are any good in the first place, you can see how your marketing can fail miserably, even if you knew what to do?

A product launch – or you could just call it a damn good plan – can take away a lot of the guess work and create and then assign tasks to those best suited to do them.  Here’s the definition of a product launch from BusinessDictionary.com:

The debut of a product into the market. The product launch signifies the point at which consumers first have access to a new product.

Bit dry, that!  Perhaps a better definition comes from InternetMarketingDictionary.com

When a new product is created there are 2 ways to offer it to customers: One is to introduce it to the market on a gradient by putting up a website with a sales page once the product is ready for sale and starting building up traffic, ideally with the help of some affiliates or JV partners. The other way is to make a big Product Launch event out of the release A Product Launch is a marketing strategy consisting of a carefully planned and scheduled sequence of events with the goal to make a big happening out of the release and, of course, make as much sales as possible in a short time span. To achieve this the launch is scheduled to a specific date and time. You really beat the drum already days and weeks prior to the actual release (the prelaunch phase), have a lot of friends / JV partners / affiliates on your side who support you in massively promoting your product in the Prelaunch phase. You can even have potential customers subscribe to a VIP style preference list which entitles them to a special bonus when they buy shortly after the Launch. Then have the actual Product launch at exactly the specified time, that is, your sales page goes live at that point. And after the Launch keep the promotion going by sending out several follow up messages (content to be determined) but could include letting your customers know that there were so many sales in the first hours already that the product will probably be sold out soon and they’d have to hurry if they’d want to secure their copy. The most successful Internet marketers consider the Product Launch as the most important phase in their marketing strategy. Therefore they plan it through to the last detail sometimes even with the help of a special Product Launch expert. One famous example is John Reese’s 1 million dollar day in 2004, when he made 1 million on the first day of releasing his traffic secrets course.

If you have a new product or service launching, why not talk to us about how to maximise the impact of the launch of that?  Book a Success Strategy Session today!