Our Pre-Launch Story

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Our pre-launch campaign plays a significant role in our launch process - the better the pre-launch hype, the better the launch. Pre-launches are however tricky areas, if the product is still under development/testing when the campaign begins.

We know that we have to play with some extremely important mental triggers to get the kind of attention that we want. Our greatest challenge was to build a feeling of scarcity - because our product is free and available for the mass market. Our business model was to give access to the product for free so that adoption could spread via word of mouth. We get prospects visiting and using our site that we can later market specific services to; whereas they get a great website for their events. Its a win-win.

Our marketing strategy was to attract early adopters through delivery of good quality content through blogs - these early adopters will later lead the masses into using our products and are thus very important for our business. Our revenue model is to attract commercial event promoters and planners who would take up our ticketing & merchandising modules earning us a small percentage of all tickets & merchandising sold off their pages.

Building a launch story around this model that can instill a sense of value for the application is our next step. In our prelaunch phase, we also want to create a sense of scarcity and exclusivity at the same time that will prompt them to visit and join as soon as we launch.

In our case, it wasn’t that easy to create a story, considering the fact that we didn’t have a product to show and no social proof to help ease prospects. Yet, we had to get strangers to give up their names and email addresses to get on a queue to use it. Perhaps the toughest part of the prelaunch process. We’ve thought of adding dramatic videos in the hype phase to build a sense of anticipation, all the while touching upon some basic functionality details. Since the idea is to attract early adopters, we started to engage them in conversation and brought them into our launch process. The more engaged they are, the better it is for us - after all, these 100 or so people are going to be our beta level product users.

If we gave our early adopters a couple of months on the application and close the doors to the general public we would get away with a scarce community in the early few months. Lets face it, nobody likes to join ghost towns. It is human psychology to relate buzz and traction to the value of the products offered and likewise have inhibitions if there isn’t enough traction. We understand that it takes time to get the activities rolling, and so we don’t want to lose people who can eventually become a valuable part of our community.

So, in essence, what we lack in terms of volume would be made up in the form of exceptional personalized support for the early trial adopters - they will share in the launch, feedback and development process; until we know we ready to launch with a bang. To formulate this constant feedback mechanism we will have a consistent flow of communication to and fro, involving them in the thick of the process.

After the initial testing we can move onto a series of small launches for referred people only - perhaps friends of the early adopters. So, the private beta will still be going on, but with a slightly larger set of people. When these additional people are exclusively picked up (not because there names were next in line), they’d feel a sense of reward and will hopefully be able to provide valuable feedback. We’ll also get audio and video testimonies from these initial users to use in our marketing campaigns.

Some four months after our early adopters have been using the system and are completely hooked on to it, we’ll open for public. We would want to time our official public launch just a couple of months before the most festive season of the year - thats right, before Christmas - when everyone will be celebrating events and would benefit from using our platform.

Our entire launch sequence will undergo a three week cycle of extreme excitement and buzz. Hopefully, we’ll get the word around and everything will turn out good. Anyone who is launching a business or product or event, can effectively apply these pre-launch tactics for maximum effect. Remember, its all about pulling the right strings at the right time.

Steps to your launch communication - Part 2

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I talked about how you can warm up your lists before launch using specific emotional triggers in your email campaign. This is an extension to the same post.

The image above sums up the entire interaction process. We’re guiding the prospect through this step by step cyclical process of launching and are using mental triggers to help them make their buy-decision based on impulse or need, or a combination of both.

Throughout the process, remember to have the basic material and content prepared before you begin the prelaunch campaign. However, you can tweak and modify things as you go based on your interactions with them. These interactions are important. You have to keep your prospects involved and engaged throughout the campaign.

Whats the green star in the image? The green star before launch represents the emotional triggers that you will be hitting at through your emails and blog posts. Almost anything that can increase the excitement and can influence their buying decision can be considered a trigger. Generally, at this point you want to make sure that your triggers fall into the following categories:

a- Traction: You need to prove that there is a lot of hype and buzz around the product. Referring to examples of your communication with communities or to the hype adds to social proof. The reader needs to feel that he or she isn’t in it alone.

b- Scarcity: Creating a feeling of scarcity in any way helps people to make their buy-decisions quicker. If they know that the product is going to go off the shelf, or that a bonus is going to finish, or that they can get limited special offers - they will be more inclined to participate in your launch. If you are launching an event, then you can easily play with limited ticket supply.

c- Need: Anything that can make your readers think “I really need this..” is a bang on target. This can be done by addressing their current frustrations and by showing them how things can be different. For your events, they need to want to be part of your event. You want them to start picking their clothes in their minds.

d- Price: Up to this point, if you had built a higher price expectation in their minds, you can launch at a lower price to surpass their expectations. This is always a great way for them to make an impulsive buying decision. This is also great when you can build your events brand around exclusivity.

Steps to your launch communication - Part 1

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I’m writing this post after a lot of research and analysis of whats worked for people. It has a lot of influence from the Jeff Walker’s internet marketing philosophies - and we all know how he has contributed to the success of countless businesses. He sold over 1 million dollars worth of course product in a couple of hours last launch and he and his clients do it randomly. So be sure to know that these aren’t necessarily to be followed to the bone - but they are techniques that have worked for many in the internet marketing game and are techniques I have molded to work just was well for launching an event.

After all, whats different about launching a conference, training course, product or website to launching an event online. I believe there is no better business on earth more suited to internet launches by use of social media than event based businesses. Events come with so much human emotion, they are all about socialization and word of mouth is the most effective method for marketing a launch. Social media and the use of the internet as a delivery platform creates exponential opportunities for event marketers.

We’ve talked earlier about setting up your mailing lists and building hype all the way to launch. I often receive emails asking me about specific tactics to use to build hype. I know I have touched on my methods throughout other posts but I thought it time to walk you through a simple example case thats easy to explain. Ill use a product as an example rather than an event to show you how these methods apply to any business. Ive talked in detail about similar tactics for planning and launching events but have never formerly stepped you through the process. I will step this one out, one step at a time and leave you to see how you might best translate the example into your own businesses.

First of all, when you are building your event launch strategy, make a timeline with the exact dates for major mile stones and triggers that must all be thought out before launching. In this example we are launching a simple online “event planner specific calendar application” and will start sending the emails two weeks before launch. You can send out emails in as much frequency as you want depending on your list, I’m just going to discuss the few important ones here.

Email 1 contents: Day 1

This email goes out to your main list that you have already been adding people to. You would want to keep it simple and informal here. Initially break the ice with some comment about how you have been meaning to write for a long time, but never got around to it.

In the second or third paragraphs, very briefly touch into the frustrations that they have which you know your product solves. Don’t mention anything about your product here, but just talk about the frustration as if you have to deal with it as well. They need to be able to relate to you and the frustration. So in this example you would talk about how the all of the calendar apps out there are difficult to sync to to-do lists, or something like that.

You would also subtly want to touch on an aspiration that can give the readers a feel good moment. I wish we could have a event planner specific calendar app that could do this.. and that…

You keep talking along these lines with hooks in each corner of your email. Make sure you have a paragraph near the end that clearly describes how they can benefit from your app. You have to answer the whats in it for me question.

If you want, you can briefly mention that you are working on solving these frustrations for the longest time and are close to introducing the best possible solution to it. The idea is to set some basic level of anticipation upfront, so that they wait for your next email.

Also, you need to engage them at this point. So ask them a question related to their frustrations or needs (e.g. what do you think is the most important thing to have in online calendars for event planners). The idea here is to get them to reply and also to gather information that you can use for your product and launch.

Email 2 contents: Day 4

Get back to them after 3-4 days with an excited email about how the response to the question was overwhelming. What you are doing here, is showing them that all of the other readers on the list are really into this whole thing and are taking these emails seriously (delivering social proof). That is going to make them want to do the same.

Secondly, through this email, you are giving them proof of the importance of this issue to other similar people. This will make them feel like it is important for them as well.

Thirdly, you would want to tap into the frustration a bit more to reiterate it incase they have forgotten

Fourthly, you need to give away stuff that is of value to them for free - so a great thing to do is package up the response that you got into a pdf and tell them here that they can get it for free. OR, you can package your blog-posts on the software industry trends for then into an ebook. OR just about anything of value that you can give away for free. The way to do that would be to give them a link to opt-in for the free copy of that package. You are going to collect these email addresses that have opted in and build another sub list out of it.

These emails are playing on scarcity by showing that a lot of people are interested.

The landing page that this email leads to should reiterate the same core message and have a small and simple opt-in form for them to enter their email addresses.

Email 3 Contents: Day 8

Send out another email here to both the main list and other list that you created from the opt-in forms on the landing page. Make the email interesting. Quote authoritative bodies in the industry (e.g. Techcrunch) to gain authority for your product as well. This a subtle emotional trigger of association that works well.

Repeat another aspect of the frustration. Send them links to the landing page again. Tell them that the compiled package is available for them to download.

You can even address any objections that you think they may have later about your product. You can do this by talking about how things are not the way they should be. Essentially you’d be giving them a feel for the kind of issues your application will solve.

Email 4 Contents: Day 10

With this email you can release a sneak peak video demo of the application. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a huge expense, but perhaps just a screencast of some of the cool features that you have.

In the email you talk about the issues with the current systems again (the frustrations). Then you make them understand how this application effects their bottomlines and should thus be considered an investment rather than a cost.

Then send out a link to your demo video for them to watch.

Meanwhile on your Blog - Day 11-13

Build the hype on your blog. Reinforce the same messages that you are giving in your emails. Discuss any questions or objections that the readers have.

In the posts, play with the mental trigger of showing them prices that are higher than your actual price so that when you launch, they find the prices lower than what they expected. The way you do it is simply by anchoring higher prices according to the value of the system or of competitive product prices. Don’t commit your own prices yet.

In these posts show that a lot of people are anxious to get their hands on your application, but try to keep playing on scarcity. You want to tell them that you are launching a limited private beta for the calendar app for the first two months.

You want to get them to be part of the people who act first as soon as you launch.

Email 5 Contents: Day 13 (day before launch)

Always send an email a day before launch. Tell them that you are prepping up for launch and everything is going smooth. Tell them how everyone’s excited about being a part of beta and how you hope they will make it to the beta as well.

Make them want to be the first person to sign up.

If you want you can share more videos here or anything to stir up the excitement again right before launch.

Email 6 Contents: Day 14 - D Day

Send them an email with the steps to follow to sign up. Send another email as soon as you launch to notify them that your launch site is live and is taking in sign-ups.

Email 7 Contents: Day 15

Send an email to tell them about the raving crowd you saw. How the numbers have surpassed your expectations. How you are grateful.

This is a sure shot framework that you can use for any product launch. It guides you how to plan your prelaunch content all the way up to your launch day - and how to place specific emotional triggers at the right times.

The steps to a mind blowing launch

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Alright, so I apologize in advance for the dramatic title. There are many successful ways to launching your events & your products. In the tech sector we’ve seen all kinds of launches. Some startups launch website products into the market with a big bang just weeks before opening up for beta. Their big bang is based on the coolness of the product itself, or on a great demo video.

If you’re not offering an event that is news worthy or a product that is revolutionary, then I’d suggest more tried and tested ways of marketing your launch.

Product and website launch tactics that have been supported by some of the most influential people in internet marketing can as easily be applied to your event launches. Try them out for your next event launch and see how well you do.

First of all, the success of your launch (read: $$$) depends immensely on how well you have connected with your potential customers in the pre-launch stage. Make sure you time your pre-launch perfectly so that your launch is introduced at a point where the hype reaches its climax. Some additional pointers:

1- Start building your lists way before launch. Get people on your lists. Build relationships with them. If you want, you can build a following on an authority blog about your industry.

2- Use social networking sites to network with people with the aim of getting them onto your lists. These lists are the backbone of your launch, so work on making it as strong as you can. Also, keep the lists and social networks connected and engaged at all times - you would want to have a constant communication going on at all times.

3- This is the best time to gauge your markets response to specific elements of the event. You can either get their opinions, ideas by discussing them firsthand, or get them to fill out surveys. You already want them to be involved in a conversation before you start the pre-launch campaign (typically, in the form of email series + blog posts).

4- Once you have your lists all set up, a pre-launch phase can typically take about 2-3 weeks starting from the initial introduction to “something new is coming up”. The way to calculate the duration is to first see how much pre-launch content you have that you can spread across in an email series. One email should lead to another and help in building your launch story. You can then see how you want to spread it out for the maximum effect.

5- If you have decided on a 6 week long pre-launch campaign, then set a target date for your event launch (e.g. April 15th) and run back 6 weeks for the pre-launch campaign to begin. You would want to have the pre-launch content emails all scheduled up in an auto-responder program to start running on set dates or follow up sequences. Make sure you get the content revised and approved before signing it off (I join my list before anyone else can - so I end up getting each email days before my list does), to avoid errors which are a bad look, although if you correct them publicly - they can also make you seem more human. Make sure your content hits the right emotional triggers at the right times based on their frustrations, aspirations, needs related to your product industry.

6- In the middle of your pre-launch campaign you need to start to build momentum and give them more and more information about your event. A nicely made video intro can be placed in this time-period to get the market talking about something pertaining to the event, or just a little more detail about the event. They need to know what to expect by the time you get close to launch. This is also a great time to answer questions that people have raised about the product through your blog posts.

7- You may also want to give away the price of your tickets a couple of days before your launch. Some people prefer to make it a surprise till the launch date, and thats perfectly OK as well - as long as the surprise isn’t coupled with “that much..?” . If it is much, you need to have subtly built a sense of value during your pre-launch campaign.

8- As the launch date draws nearer you need to have your market sensing scarcity in ticket availability as well as feeling like if they miss this, they could be the only ones. Make it clear to them exactly how to make the purchase a day before the tickets go off ons sale. You want them to be talking about the big launch amongst themselves. You want the authority blogs in that field covering the upcoming launch. You would also want interesting stories within your launch story, to make it in the news. Don’t shy off from these things - allow this excitement to rise.

9- Send emails to your list on launch day. Make it exciting and momentous. Ensure to make it clear just how much demand you’re receiving on ticket sales & inform them that once ticket sales hit a certain number the curtain comes down. Make sure everything is in order and all queries are answered as quickly as possible.

10- Depending on how many days you want to keep the launch open for, make sure you keep sending them an email a day with updates on ticket sales and reminders of your capacity. These emails can also include triggers relating to, early testimonials from purchasers, more insights about the event itself - anything to keep them in the loop. People who haven’t yet made the buy-decision will know just how much time they have left to avail the launch packages. They will play cat and mouse with you and themselves as although people want to buy, they don’t want to be sold to. If uncertain they will wait until the last minute looking for you to give them a reason or an excuse not to buy. Play it cool and hit the right triggers at the right time and they will buy.

11- Show your list social proof that the response to your launch has been dynamic. Point them to your blog where people are commenting. Of course all these strategies are dependent on you having executing the pre-launch effectively, you must have comments in your blog and ticket sales to deploy them. I don’t recommend these tactics if you have no comments in your blog or have made few ticket sales throughout the first day of a launch. People will always want to follow a buzz, its human nature for us not to want to miss out one something that we sense a majority of the tribe (like-minded people) will participate in. You just need to create the buzz and entice early adopters to commit.

12 - You can also hit the final day of a launch by offering major bonuses to all ticket purchasers that you had not previously mentioned. This ploy is two fold in its effect, it leaves ticket holders with a sense of “thats cool”, I already paid for my ticket they didn’t need to give me that, but did. It also serves as a final boost for those sitting on the edge looking for that something extra to buy. Its important that you offer these bonuses to ticket holders and anyone else who buys before a certain time today. Don’t give them a lot of time to think about it, put them under pressure to buy immediately.

13 - Soon after the bonus time period is up - close the gates. I like to put a sign on our ticketing pages that says “Sold Out”. Send a message to your list informing them tickets have sold out and that you are processing all your 3rd party distributor sales before locking the doors permanently. Make it known that depending on your final count on tickets sales that there is a chance more tickets may be made available again, for a brief period. This sets you up for a mini relaunch where you reopen the doors to sell a hand full of tickets your count has confirmed are still available. This relaunch is designed to get all the people who experienced a sense of loss when the doors close last time across the line. Make it clear the second round of tickets will sell out in a short period of time. They wont miss out this time.

13 - After your launch is over, don’t forget about your lists. Keep the conversation going. Make sure you keep your lists warm by launching a post launch campaign thats all about the event, peoples testimonies & the success that it was. Keep your list warm until you are ready to execute a relaunch (e.g. a second event or some T-shirts commemorating the event or a video series of the night as a special offer).

You should always be pre-launching, launching, post launching or re-launching an event of some kind. Its business and the way to build success.

Good luck.

Launch Stories - make a perfect blend and serve it hot

Posted by writer

Stories have an important role in making a launch a raving success. Your launch story is simply how you present information to your prospects. What are you about? Why should they care? I’ve always wondered why some launch stories hit it big and others just fizzle out like they never even existed.

We all want big successful launches, and it turns out that a lot of it is in our hands. All of this assumes that the product or event that you are about to launch is worth the hype.

I’ve written about how to build your stories here and here. Today, I’m just going to expand on it a bit more. If you are marketing your services or launching products, you need to really know how to tell effective stories. Story telling is an art that you can learn and adopt for your businesses and it helps define complex things into simple words. We come across countless situations where we can benefit from this skill - when you’re in an elevator with a potential business partner, when you get a chance to meet an investor, when you’re pitching to your clients, when you run across an old school friend on a weekend getaway and most importantly, when you are about to launch products or events in the market.

Telling a launch story is about summing everything up nicely and presenting it in a way that can influence your potential clients or audiences to take action. This is done by hitting the right mental triggers to the right people at the right time.

The mental triggers that you choose to hit will depend on your individual products, but we can safely say that the old tested rules of “hero play” still apply. And boy do they work! We, as humans, are attracted to stories of drama, intensity of emotions, shock, winning. We want that adrenaline rush. We want that human to human association. We want that heroism. We want to listen to people who understand where we come from. If you can incorporate these into your story, you’re bound to have a greater impact and response from your targeted audiences.

Make your key message (verbal or email) as informal and relatable to your audiences as possible. Make it like a conversation between two people. Here is a structure (also proposed by Industry leader Jeff Walker) that you can use for your message:

1- start with reiterating the fact that you are just like them. That you have a lot in common. The purpose of this intro is to get the attention of your key targeted audience and make them think “hey this guys just like me..”

2- Then name a few frustrations that you have (related to your launch). E.g. “I’ve been looking around for cool places to hangout, where I can just take my mind off work and network with likeminded people.. but there is just no such place in the entire town…”. This should make them think “yea. I totally get it”.

3- When you’re sure you have that nod, talk about how you aspire for things to be different. You can throw in ideas and thoughts and let their minds wander off. Don’t limit their thoughts to specific examples, let them imagine as much and as far as they can.

4- Finally, when you know that they are excited about how all of this can turn around, present your solution and discuss how it can benefit people like you (i.e. him).

It takes very little time to come up with the good meaningful stories that you can use to turn your business around. So get down to work and get creative. Let me know if you need further inspiration or assistance.

Its all about the buzzz..

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Having the right strategy for your launches is important for the success of your ventures. If you don’t plan your events well, you may not be able to draw the attention that it otherwise deserves. Remember how we discussed that events are like revolving doors of launches and relaunches? The more hype you can create in your launch, the more revenue you will generate for even bigger and better launches.

You have to make your events news worthy to create the initial buzz. Have stories within stories. Make people want to share the “did you know that….” stories about your event. A great way to do that is to have interesting themes for the event and streamline your entire promotions based on those themes.

The more different and unique the themes are, the more interest they will generate. So, think creatively. Look at it this way, if you can get people to blog or talk about you - you are getting free media coverage worth thousands of advertising dollars. Its a win-win for both you and your targeted audiences. They want something interesting to talk about, and you want to be talked about.

You can also create videos and demos to generate buzz. Good videos spread around a lot faster and are great tools for marketing. I’ll add a post on how to use videos on the Social Media Strategies blog soon. Teaser ads or messages are also a great way to attract attention. Anything that leaves questions in the viewers minds will make them wait for and talk about you.

Whatever marketing strategies you apply, make sure you can get your audiences buzzing way before you launch. The reason why I am repeatedly talking about creating hype is because I really want you guys to get your pre-launch preps right. Just want to make sure our basics are covered before we dive into details of launching.

Creating high impact launches - with minimum investment

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For most businesses, launches are important determinants of the future success of a venture. However, if you’re new in the market it’s often difficult to build that level of interest in crowds. Lets expand on an example that I mentioned in one of my previous posts of launching night-clubs. As a night-club owner, you want to attract the right audiences and create a lot of buzz at launch. The problem is that if people haven’t heard of you before, they will be skeptic about attending. If they don’t attend, your launch wont be a success. If your launch isn’t a success, it may never catch the popularity wave.

Lets face it, a $200,000 a year lawyer will not risk attending an unknown club launch if they believe the event will be full of railway workers. Likewise railway workers would rather walk on fire than attend an event full of lawyers.

The key is to create a story of the event being filled with the perfect crowd in the perfect venue for a perfect night out. When you know your crowd you will know what this story needs to be, and all you will need to do is get the story out.

Now if you know what you are doing, all of this can be achieved by using online social tools that are an ideal platform for leaking your story to create buzz. Lets take an example of how you can use Facebook in this scenario.

Target the early adopters. These people are the first to catch the fever and are usually the most active online.

If you get them on your lists, you’ll invariably create an environment of excitement around your nightclub launch. Of course, they won’t be easy to convince unless they see the value in it for them. Make it all about “them”.

Step 1: So, the first step is to create a virtual group on facebook of a cool usergroup who have great parties every now and then. You don’t have to mention the venues or details of the parties these people attend, in fact you can build a culture within the group where doing so is considered a taboo. Focus on group member’s party experiences & stories after a weekend, build excitement, promote their pictures — and the fun they all have each weekend! You want new viewers of the group to think two things: 1- these people are cool. 2- the parties they go to rock.

Step 2: You want to keep updating this group page with new activities, party ideas, themes, photos and all of the things that would attract your targeted audience as much as possible. Remember its taboo to mention a party venue, date or time. Promote the story pertaining to the event: 1- get people to start following the group in anticipation. 2- get them to share it with their friends. 3- get them to add stories and photos of their own nights out, in the lead up to your event. Remember the emphasis is always on non-disclosure of your venue or the date of your launch, though you would want to indicate a month. You may also want to promote personalities within the group as being the kind of people you want at your event. (always create that feeling of scarcity wherever possible).

Step 3: Suggest a “anything goes” policy (within the law), release parcels of information over weeks not days. Remember you are getting the crowd excited, by telling them the story where they can become the stars (if lucky). The story must reflect the perfect night out for these people. The key is to engage them into a conversation by having them participate in it. Get them to answer survey questions online (use survey monkey) about the entertainment or dress regulations, even crowd selection, make the group feel like they are organizing the biggest night out since the Beatles. The thought leaders, people who can move other people will rise to the top of this group through natural selection.

Step 4: As each thought leader puts their hand up you can leak a little more information to these people only, give them more detail regarding plans than you do for the rest of the group.

Remember don’t let them or the group know when the event will be held or where it will be, but you can leak details like the capacity, ticketing & how the selection process will play out. Give these people some ownership, give them something that sets them apart from the pack, its what they live for and you are going to need their support. Get your target audience excited about the concept of your launch party and begin syndicating this story through microblogging, use link baiting, photo tagging and other strategies to drive traffic to the group while the buzz builds momentum. Keep building the suspense until you have the group publicly asking how they can get tickets.

Step 5: When you have the numbers you want buzzing around the launch, outline your plans. Give the group a location but not the venue (address) and give them the date. Send out electronic invitations along with the party ticket capacity ensuring the number is well below the number of active members you have attracted to your Face book group (say 600 people). Be prepared to partition walls if you have to, ensure the venue size matches what ever crowd capacity you end up with. You are telling the story that everyone has bought into for this big night out, at the end of the night what you said will and must go down at all costs. You need to put your reputation on it and come out the other side.

Inform the hungry crowd that only people who RSVP as interested are eligible to attend. Make it clear that people are not to RSVP as confirmed, you don’t want to build walls around your story that you cant tear down if you need to. You want the group knowing that everyone wants to come without them knowing who will be there. Anyone who RSVP’s as confirmed is instantly deemed not-eligible for entry.

Step 6: If you have done everything well to this point you will have at least twice as many people that have indicated an interest in attending the launch than the number of people you have declared to be your capacity. Communicate the situation of scarcity to the group with concern for those who look like missing out. Do not allow yourself to become the door bitch whatever happens. Ask the group to decide on a door policy, have them fill out a quick survey about how to deal with the problem.

Now this is a multiple choice survey, so whoever writes it will want to make sure the group gets an option to vote for the lead personalities in the group to hand-pick a certain number of guests each from the list of people marked as interested. Most people in the group will know one of these leaders directly or indirectly which gives everyone a better chance of getting a ticket than your promotions team implementing a door-policy, its the choice I would pick.

Let everyone know that the leadership group will decide who receives tickets and these lucky people will receive text messages on the night of the launch event. Messages will go out between 9.00pm and 10.00pm and it will include the venue, directions & instructions for the midnight launch.

Included within the text message will be a pin number that can be used to open a locked doorway in a back alley (preferably) that leads them into a chamber where security will greet them.

Timing is everything in this game. Pick your launch night when the groups interest peaks - if you delay the hype may begin to wane and the result may even be a flop.

Its a fine line between getting this right and getting it wrong. Time your launch well, hit the right emotional triggers at the right time and you will see the results.

Your event launch will not only be full, patrons will have paid top dollar to get in. The marketing will have cost less than the security pin pad at the front door and all the people who couldn’t get in will spend the following week telling everyone about your club. More importantly you have already established a second tier of early adopters who all feel like they own the club, ensuring long term success.

Of course all of this is virtual instigated hype - some may consider it manipulative even. But again, nobody is forcing anyone to do anything against their will. If you want high impact launches without investing in promotions or losing out on ticket values or sales revenue because of freebies or discounts - this is the way to go. I’ve been involved in massively huge club launches based on this tactic alone. If you already have a market presence, creating online traction won’t require any virtual or artificial hype. A good example of that is how Techcrunch markets its conferences.

Selling yourself short? The business owners paradox

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Pricing your products or services well is important for business sustainability. What happens when you lower your standards or sell yourself short just to get to your markets? Well, you get to your markets alright, but you don’t leave a lasting impact on them.

Take the example of a nightclub owner about to launch his first club in town. Nobody knows about it yet, and so he fears there wont be enough attention. The better the launch, the more successful the club will be in that part of town. To create a good launch, he may have to come up with clever group discount packages, sell drinks at a cheaper rate, he may even resort to giving away free tickets to everyone. All of this for the hope of attracting larger crowds and creating excitement. Hope. This may seem like a perfectly reasonable approach to marketing, and it is. But, if he can create a larger buzz, without having to lose out on potential $$, why shouldn’t he? After all, a high impact launch results in lasting memories and a consistent traffic flow thereafter.

The question is, can his approach ever generate scarcity? Can it ever generate exclusivity? Aren’t both of these important factors in the success of a nightclub? In the fear of having an “empty club” launch - where nobody wants to enter, the owner sells himself short. All he really needed to do was understand what would make his potential customers pay BIG $$$ and cue in line for: It may be an attractive crowd. It may be seeing the excitement and buzz. It may be interesting stories. It may be the thrill of anticipation. It may the chance to meet successful people. It may be a combination of all of these.

One solution for this is to throw parties with modeling agencies during launch to get the attractive crowd at the venue. Next, you could get people to cue up to create an illusion of scarcity. If you can artificially create an environment conducive to what your market perceives as “popular”, you can kick-start your club from nothing to being the hottest in a matter of days.

Translate all of this to the online world and your options increase considerably. Here are a few gorilla marketing steps I’d recommend (I’ll write a more detailed example of this in another post)

1- Target the early adopters.

2- Get them excited about the event.

3- Get them to bring their networks to the event. Frequent customers would stay with you for years.

4- Build a community. Treat them royally. Let them spread good things about you through WOM.

5- Use online social media tools to share this excitement with other untapped potential customers. Let this excitement sell itself.

Event launches - whats your attention magnet?

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Event Launches - Whats your magnetI am sure most of you would agree that we can’t just expect people to get excited about our events just like that - they need to have an incentive to. These incentives are based on basic human feelings - joy, thrill, excitement, suspense, comfort. Understanding what causes these emotions and what effects they have on the moods and actions is important for creating the right kinds of incentives for your audiences.

When you have built the brand of your events, you will know exactly what emotional bracket you want to trigger to build hype. Different events play on different human emotions - new years eve at Times Square plays on thrill, happy family picnics play on joy, the Macworld plays on suspense and curiosity, concerts play on fun, soccer matches play on excitement, talk-shows play on comfort.

Once you figure out how you want your audiences to feel before your event, you’re already half way to creating hype. Lets call it the ‘event emotion’ for convenience. All of your marketing messages, communication, interactions, advertisements, letters - everything has to trigger the event emotion. If you manage to touch their feelings, they will form an invisible relationship with your event - whether they know it or not, you just managed to touch their heart. This will put them in a position where they will be more likely to attend the event or tell others about it. Thats your attention magnet!

This may sound like you are toying with people’s emotions - but thats not the purpose of this exercise. Always remember, the new year’s party at time square will thrill everyone present and give them a natural high. But what would happen if nobody knows what new year’s at time square is? What would happen if nobody knows what it ‘could’ potentially mean to them? Well, they’d rather stay home and watch TV. Unless you tell them what to expect from the event, you can not expect them to come. Thats it - you’re just setting their expectations straight using event emotions.

Next time you’re planning an event, make sure you find your attention magnet first. Good luck.