Steps to your launch communication - Part 1

Posted by writer | Steps to your launch communication - Part 2 »

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.


| Launch Strategies, Pre-launch

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