#1: Set Your Launch Date and Time (And Stick To It!)
Launch day is the day where you will reap whatever you’ve sowed; it is the day you have been building towards and looking forward to. There are limited words to describe how excited you are for the launch.
Setting your launch date and time can be said to be the utmost important task you have above and beyond anything else that pertains to your launch. Of course, this means setting a date and time and sticking to it, too!
There is no hard and fast rule that you must consider when deciding on the date and time that your product will launch. However, if you have a due date, or that is to say a goal to head towards, you will be motivated to finish the job on time. With that said, it is better to have a date and time set before get started on much else.
Some of the Internet marketers choose to jump straight into Product Creation first, especially when they already have a clear-cut idea of the type of product they want to create.
However, research has proven that setting a goal can increase the engagement and motivation of a person towards the job assigned. Also, when you have a launch date and time, you can schedule your promotional emails ahead and upload them to your autoresponder. This way, you can free up your time to do other important tasks while your pre-launch promotional materials do the work for you.
There is a myth about the best day to launch a product. I believe you may have heard about this before – the best days for product launching are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, because those are the days where work isn’t that busy.
While Monday is too soon after the weekend and people are still getting settled in to work, Thursday and Friday are too close to the weekend. And from that came the conclusion that Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be the most profitable days to launch your product.
In actual fact though, whether you launch your product on a Monday or Tuesday or even a Sunday, as long as you’ve mailed out the launch date and time to your list in advance, any day is a good day to launch. Do not let this myth limits your plans.
#2: Conduct a Pre-launch Campaign
This is especially important for newbies in Internet business. Conducting a pre-launch is really essential, because it is the process where you will announce your launch date and time to your subscribers.
As mentioned earlier, announcing your launch date and time ahead is really important. In the pre-launch, the promotional emails that you send to your subscribers are to stir up the excitement for your product launch. Let them know there will be something special and new for them coming soon.
To complete the bigger picture of what a pre-launch is, I want you to imagine this scenario: When you are informed that next Wednesday is going to be Christmas, will you start looking forward for the holiday? It doesn’t matter how small the excitement is, you already excited for the holiday that is coming soon.
Same theory applies to the pre-launch, when you inform your subscribers ahead of your launch date and time, they will start feeling the excitement for the product launch as well.
In the pre-launch campaign, it is good to keep in touch with some of the Joint Venture partners that you usually work with. This way, you can collect some new leads for your mailing list as well. A pre-launch campaign that runs smoothly will lead you to a smooth-running, profitable product launch, so make sure your pre-launch campaign is effective.
#3: Creating a Sales Funnel
Creating a sales funnel that is strategic is another great way to tweak your launch for maximum profits. Sales funnels are one of the most profitable tools Internet marketers have at their disposal, as they can greatly increase Earnings Per Click (EPC).
With the implementation of a Sales Funnel, you can increase your revenue without putting in extra effort for extra traffic. The Sales Funnel is a proven technique that can help you grow your profits exponentially with just a few clicks of your mouse. It is time-tested and is always used by top internet marketers around the globe.
In fact, a product launch would not be complete without a configured Sales Funnel. When you incorporate a Sales Funnel into your product launch, it becomes the main source of your income.
You can see the results almost instantly, within minutes of implementation. The sales funnel is the reason why product launches are so profitable and tweaking it correctly can even triple your earnings.
It all comes down to how well you know your target market and how well you can link your upsells and downsells. Once you’ve got these locked in, your sales funnel will do all the work for you. So spend some time getting your sales funnel up and running, then sit back and watch your profits grow.
#4: Beta Group Test
Having a beta group test your product before your product launch is another solid way to increase your product’s profitability. What you want to do is invite a group of beta testers to have a look at your product. Next, you need to gather their feedback and opinions regarding their experience using your product. You want to find out what they think – did they like the product, were they satisfied, would they pay for this product, any opinions at all.
Beta group testing is a great way for you to gather information and analyze your market more closely. The more thorough your beta test, the easier it will be to sell your product to your prospects, because you can refine and improve your product based on the initial feedback that you receive from your beta group.
Don’t worry if your product is 100% ready when you do your first beta group test – the point of a beta group is for you to tweak and refine your product based off feedback. Things like design and cover can be added later on – primarily, you want to get your content and product structure reviewed.
You’ll want to make sure that you schedule a beta group test early on in your pre-launch stage. This will give you more time to work on your end product after you get feedback – having a beta group test a day before your launch isn’t a good idea because you will have to short a time to improve on your product.
#5: Testimonials
Testimonials can really increase the success of your launch. Without testimonials, you’re just a person on the internet. With them, you build your credibility and establish yourself as someone who can be trusted and is capable of creating success stories.
Testimonials are the one of most powerful forms of internet marketing which you can apply to your launch for your own benefit. A product launch that makes effective use of client testimonials can help to increase the number of sales almost instantly.
If you’ve done a beta group test, you can get testimonials from the people involved. You want to only feature testimonials that say good things about your product and you don’t need too many – you could have less than 5 positive testimonials and that is already good enough.
The testimonials help to provide social proof regarding your company’s good reputation, as well as ridding your prospects of buyer’s fear. When people see that their peers have had a good experience with you and your product, they will be more inclined to try out your product or service.
These customer testimonials can be delivered via e-mail to reinforce the value of your business during your pre-launch campaign. You can even use them in your sales letter or sales page to encourage your prospects to click on the Buy button.
#6: Affiliate Marketers
Affiliate marketers are sales agents who can help to promote your products online, in exchange for a commission. An affiliate will promote and sell products from vendors to their own network, so they’re a great way to reach a wider group of prospects.
Because affiliates are so integral to a product launch’s success, having a vast network of affiliates more or less guarantees you a giant increase in your revenue.
If you look at affiliate marketing from perspective of someone who is launching a product, it’s a huge bargain. A product vendor doesn’t need to pay the affiliate any money upfront whatsoever because affiliates will only be paid a commission based on every sale they initiate.
This means that there is no risk of the vendor losing any money, because even if the affiliate marketer fails to make any sales then he just won’t get a commission.
Through a network of affiliate marketers, a product launch can reach an audience base of thousands. And finding affiliates aren’t that hard either. If your product is listed in an online marketplace like ClickBank, JVZoo or Warrior+ Plus and you offer an attractive commission, the community of affiliate marketers on these websites would be more than happy to promote your product. Of course, it’s better if you actively search for affiliate marketers yourself!
#7: Endorsements
If you have big name joint venture partners, get them to write in to endorse your product. Endorsements from industry professionals and experts can give you an edge in the product launch game.
You could also compile a video of their endorsements, which you can then slide into your landing pages, squeeze pages, sales letters and promotional e-mails.
Being vouched for by a popular industry expert makes it a lot easier for your prospects to trust you and purchase your products. Endorsements are also a great way for you to really grow your network of affiliates. Being endorsed by the big players helps to improve on your social and professional standing, so affiliate marketers will naturally be more inclined to promote your products.
Similar to testimonials, endorsements from professionals help to build on your status and credibility. But, actually, endorsements carry more weight when it comes to nailing down affiliates. And when you can grow you affiliate network, your product launch will gain much more visibility.
Remember that the more influence a person has, the more valuable their endorsement of your product launch.
#8: Target Relevant Lists (Niche)
When you collect e-mail addresses, you will usually separate and categorize your leads into different lists. One of the most common ways to categorize your list is by grouping them according to niche or labeling your list with your product name.
Depending on how detailed you want to go, you can spend a lot of time organizing your target groups into relevant lists.
Now, when you create a product launch, you will want to send out promotional e-mails to the current list of leads that you have in your possession. However, you might want to make sure that you only target the right lists – the lists that are would be interested in your current offer.
For example’s sake, let’s say you are doing a product launch for the Internet Marketing niche. You have 2 lists currently active, 1 full of leads from a previous IM product, and another list that you gathered while launching a personal development e-book.
You should not promote your current product launch to the personal development list, even if you think it’s worth a try. Yes, you might gain a few extra sales, but at what cost?
If a majority of people are subscribed to your mailing list because they are into Personal Development, how do you think they will feel if they suddenly received an e-mail on Internet Marketing?
They might take your e-mail as spam and unsubscribe from your list altogether, which will surely be a loss the next time you create a personal development product. This is why it’s better for you to only target relevant lists with your product launch.
9#: Schedule your promotional e-mails (before launch)
Promotional e-mails are what you use to promote your launch to your mailing list. It’s the easiest way to tap into your leads and get sales, provided that your list has already been effectively built up. Scheduling your promotional e-mails ahead of time can greatly help increase the effectiveness of your e-mail marketing strategy, which will then increase your profits.
Usually for a product launch, you would want to send out teaser
e-mails first. Teaser e-mails are mainly a device to create curiosity and interest within your list.
The way you craft this e-mail is very important as you want to let your prospects know that something big is coming their way in the near future, without saying exactly what it is. You want to give lots of hints, without being too obvious or giving away too much – this is to pique their curiosity and also build suspense.
For your first teaser e-mail, you can expect to start sending it out a couple of weeks or at least a week before your projected launch date.
Some people choose to send out two or three teaser e-mails during the pre-launch period, so plan your schedule ahead of time. You want to space them out a bit and schedule them at the right time. This is so that you can steadily build hype with your prospects.
#10: Split Test
Split testing is a method of conducting a controlled, randomized experiment with the goal of improving the metric of a website, such as clicks, conversion rates and purchase rates. There are many other factors that you can test with.
This is what Internet marketers will usually do to improve their sales page. When the clicks or conversion rates to your page become stagnant after some time, you can conduct split tests to improve the sales page and breathe new life into it.
Here are some factors that you can test for your sales page:
Color Scheme
Firstly, you can test the color scheme of your sales page. You may not have noticed this before, but it does affect the conversion rates of your sales page. This is a really vital factor which some of Internet marketers might overlook.
For instance, let’s discuss the color of your buy button. Did you know that researchers have found that the most converting color scheme for a buy button is actually orange? According to the results, buy buttons that are orange tend to work best for sales pages, as they can greatly increase purchase rates.
This can be applied to your sign up button in your squeeze page as well. The color orange is more likely to catch the attention of your visitors. You can conduct a split test on this as well to see the results for yourself. Try one sales page with an orange buy button and another one with a green buy button, for example.
Sales Letter Formats
You can also conduct a split test with the format of your sales letter. There are 3 types of sales letter formats:
- Pure copy
- Pure video
First type is a sales letter that contains only text or copy in the sales page. This type of sales letter is usually used when there are a lot of testimonials and endorsements from the clients and JV partners.
The second type is a video sales letter. When the visitors arrive in your sales page, all that they can see is just a video. This video tells the story and sells your product. The duration of the video can be anywhere from 10 minutes to a whole hour.
Lastly, a hybrid sales letter is the combination of pure copy and pure video sales letters. This has become commonly used in online businesses. Nowadays, people run on a very tight schedule and they do not have the time to read all the text in your sales page. Hence, marketers use video to sell. And for people who don’t have the time to sit through your video, they can always skim through your copy.
You can conduct a split test to test which of these three formats increase your conversion rate the most.
Headline of Sales Letter
The headline of your sales letter is the first thing a visitor will see right after your sales page has loaded. Hence, a headline that stirs up their desire to buy your product is really important.
A successful headline copy can keep the visitors on the page whereas a dull headline will not attract them to stay on the page and they will likely just move on to something else. As a result, testing your sales letter headline is essential.
Sometimes, it is the choice of words you used in the headline. This might involve some copywriting techniques, which is something that you will need to brush up on.
You should try tweaking a few words from your headline to conduct a split test. You’ll need to keep track on the conversion rate of the different versions of your sales pages to tell which headline works best. You’ll be surprised at how just a small little tweak can make a huge difference to your conversion rate.
Price of Product
It is worth your time to test out the price of your product. The split test for the price of product can even be done on the day of your product launch.
This will be a test that is very important, compared to the other factors we’ve discussed. It goes without saying that the price of your product and bonuses are the biggest factors that affect your prospect’s decision.
Whether they will click on the buy button or the no thanks button depends very heavily on the price of your product. To conduct a split test, you will want to create 2 sales pages with different prices, divide your list into 2 groups and each group a different link.
You must take note on this, because you will not want them to see the other page with a lower or higher price. The results of this split test can even be used as reference for your next launch.
Sales Videos
Last but not least, you can conduct a split test on your sales video as well. If you are using sales videos in your sales page, it is really crucial that they are done correctly, as they will be doing most, if not all of the selling for your product.
The main elements which you want to test in your sales video is the beginning and the ending.
Beginning of the video decides the first impression you are going to present to the visitors. As you already know, first impressions can make or break a product launch. Prepare 2 different versions of your sales video and test them out to see which one converts better.
As the beginning serves to present an encouraging first impression, the ending will serve as a call-to-action. A strong call-to-action can bring you massive number of sales, so do not overlook this when you conduct your split test.
#11: SEO
Knowing how to configure and tweak your SEO is a really handy tool to have during a product launch. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, can make it so easy for people to come across your sales page when they search related keywords. By configuring your SEO, you are giving yourself access to so many new leads, which you might have never found otherwise.
SEO can greatly increase the traffic that your sales page gets and can therefore really boost your sales as well. That’s why you see the term SEO used so much when it comes to online marketing and businesses – it is truly one of those skills that is too valuable to not have.
If you get your SEO done just right, you can look at multiplying your current profits without having to move away from your keyboard. When launching a new product, it’s important that you ensure your product has a strong online presence and this can be achieved by mastering the art of SEO.
To properly configure your SEO, you’ll need to take into consideration your product name, sales page URL, photo captions, sales letter content – basically anything that you post online which is connected to your launch. It might sound like a lot of work but trust me – the profits will be worth it and once you get a hang of it, SEO for your launch can be completed without much hassle.
#12: Use Bonuses
To maximize your launch profits, you can (and should) offer bonuses in your first upsell offer. When you’ve successfully convinced them to buy the front-end product, you have already created a buying frenzy in them. You do not want the buying trend to end here when it has the possibility of snowballing and creating even more profit.
This is why you must ensure that your first upsell offer is a no-brainer offer that can’t be refused. To turn the upsell offer into a product they will grab right away, offering the upsell with bonuses.
Small reminder here: Make sure each of the products in your sales funnel is congruent to each other when you are drafting the sales funnel. The offers should complement one another and this applies to your bonuses as well.
To give you a bigger picture on how important it is to have congruent bonuses offered with your upsell, I want you to imagine this: What would feel if you saw the sales page for a product titled “How To Drive Massive Traffic To Your Website” that offered “Social Media Infographics” as a bonus?
It feels weird, right? It doesn’t add up to have Social Media Infographics offered when it doesn’t relate with the main product. For this reason, it’s very important to choose your bonuses wisely so that it brings you more profits.
#13: Implementation of Visual Aids
While words can only carry out limited messages, visuals can do the rest for you. We know that visuals always work better than just texts and numbers, especially when it comes to grabbing attention
The implementation of visuals can be a powerful aid for your call-to-action. For instance, you can add a countdown timer at the top of your sales page when you are giving out a limited time offer for your subscribers.
The countdown timer serves the role as a catalyst to speed up the time they make decision. It creates a sense of urgency, whereby they need to make a decision fast or risk losing out on the offer.
Another example can be seen in the discount technique or Price Slashing technique. In this case, you will state the original price, slash it off and replace with the discounted price.
Can you see the impact of the visuals in your sales page now? You can conduct a split test to test out the conversion rate between the sales page with and without visuals as well.
14# Banner Ads & Social Media
If you have an active website or other webpages, there’s a stream of traffic that you can tap into. All you need are banner ads.
Banner ads are a form of online advertising. Web banners are embedded into a web page and serve as advertisements. They are intended to divert traffic to a specific website. When it comes to product launches, banner ads are usually linked to your sales page or sales letter.
You can also share your banners with your affiliates, so that they can use them on their own sites and landing pages, as tools to promote your product launch. With banner ads, you get to make the most out of the web traffic that you and your joint venture partners receive on a daily basis.
As for social media, you want to share your product launch details on your Social Media accounts, especially if you are connected on these networks with people from the niche your product launch is related to. This not only might help you get more affiliates and boosts ales, but it will also add to your overall credibility.
#15: Set Up Your Customer Service Helpdesk
One of the turn downs for customers is the slow response of a customer service helpdesk or, in some cases, the complete lack or a customer service helpdesk. I believe you, as a customer, have experienced this as well.
When you desperately need help with something, it can be really frustrating when the response from the service helpdesk is slow – especially if you are a customer who has already paid for a product and then some.
So, as a product vendor, you need to make sure that you’ve set up your customer service helpdesk before the launch.
Just in case of any problem occurs in your launch, there is someone who can attend to the customer right away. Customer service helpdesks can help to turn a bad situation into a profit and that is why they should be set up properly.
16#: Schedule follow-up e-mail series (During & Post-Launch)
For those who are not familiar with follow-up email series, they are a series of emails that are sent to the subscribers on your respective lists.
The contents of these emails can be anything from a newsletter, blog posts, articles or even the latest product offers. The purpose of these e-mails is so that the subscribers are still actively hearing from you after they initially opt-in to your mailing list. It is a good way to keep your list active and you get to constantly engage them through a series of pre-planned e-mails.
Another reason to send follow-up emails is so that the subscribers don’t forget who you are. They are your subscribers, which means they are most likely interested in any product you are going to sell in the future. But you can’t be quiet and suddenly pop up one day with an offer.
You have to keep in touch with them, even when you are not trying to sell to them. It’s all about catering to your fan base and the more engaged you are with them, the likelier they will be inclined to purchase from you when you launch your product.
When it comes to your current launch, scheduling your follow-up series can help to promote your other products to your new subscribers. It’s also a great way to continue promoting your launch and extra bonuses to them, in hopes of getting an extra sale or two.
