What’s the secret to a successful launch?
I just wrapped up a launch (selling ONE $197 product) over the last week or so…
And in this blog, I’m going to pull back the curtain and show you exactly how I did it.
Keep watching…
Hey, Posse! What’s up? It’s Alex.
Coming at you this week with a super juicy, behind-the-scenes snapshot of how we approach all of our launches over at the Copy Posse.
But before we get into all of that… if you’re new to the crew – welcome!
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Now if you read my blog last week, we talked all about social selling – and how many brands will utilize their social media platforms to promote their offers HEAVILY from fall through spring each year.
Now, social media is an important aspect of any launch…
But like most things in life, it’s not as simple as just posting about your new launch a whole lot on Instagram…
And then expect to have a smashing success of a launch…
No.
Great launches are going to take a little more thoughtful planning than that.
Ever since I started the Copy Posse, I have done 3-4 product launches and promotions each year…
So after doing approximately 12 launches over the past 3 years, we’ve found a launch strategy that works pretty well for us – and that’s what we’re going talk about today…
Specifically, I’m going to take you behind-the-scenes of my most recent product launch – the 5-Day Posse Eye Brand Voice Challenge.
But before we get into the nitty-gritty, I just want to say…
THIS strategy is not the ONLY strategy.
There are hundreds of variations of launch strategies you can follow, I’m just sharing my personal experience and what has worked well for my brand.
Cool?
Alright, let’s get into it.
Now if you’ve been following me for a while then you probably already know that I am a HUGE BELIEVER in “Attraction Marketing”.
I’ve spent most of my time over the last few years creating content and building my list and audience organically…
I don’t do a lot of classic direct-response marketing. I don’t spend tens of thousands of dollars on paid ads or get tons of affiliates to promote my stuff…
Not saying there’s anything wrong with any of that – it’s just not my style…
And if you’re a small business or just getting started, buying traffic can also be pretty expensive.
Which is exactly why I went the content marketing route and spent my time nurturing and growing my audience with high-value content and then promoting new products and offers to them…
And for us, that means we start seeding our product MONTHS (yes months!) in advance.
Which brings us to the first step of my launch strategy – seeding the product.
1. Seed The Product
Attraction marketing means your customers are compelled – or attracted – to buy your product or service WITHOUT being pushed or coerced to do so.
And one of the ways we can accomplish this is by dropping subtle hints of the benefits of our product wayyyyyyyyyy before mentioning the actual product or service at all.
We do this, so that by the time our launch does come around, our audience already knows the importance of whatever it is we’re selling….
They’re already excited about the possibilities. And in many cases, they are SUPER READY to buy.
For example, we didn’t officially launch the Posse Eye Challenge until November 7th.
But we started posting on about the power of a Brand Voice on our social media page in early September…
So we spent the better part of TWO MONTHS doing “prep work” to get our audience educated, excited, and primed to buy.
Again we did all of this without making a single mention that we would be later offering a program to help our audience do this.
So step 1 is a big one – educate your audience, seed the importance of your product, and do the prep work.
Then once your launch date gets closer, you move to step #2… tease what’s coming.
2. Announce Something Is Coming
Okay… so up until this point, you have been VERY SUBTLY educating on the importance of whatever it is you’re about to promote.
But now it’s time to be much less subtle.
About 3-7 days before we start promoting a new product, we doa little teaser of what’s coming…
The goal here is very much: to communicate something exciting is coming and here’s why it’s so epic.
The goal here is to BUILD ANTICIPATION.
Remember, you’ve been educating them on the importance of this for MONTHS.
This teaser should give your community a feeling of:
“Finally!!! We have been waiting for this!!!!”
This is also when I’ll start to email my list and run some paid ads…
So we’ve now moved into an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy – we’re sending our message through social media AND through email – to increase the likelihood that my audience will see what I have to say.
For our latest launch, we posted on social media and sent out emails to my list about 3 days before our launch officially started….
Remember, you don’t want to give away too many details of your offer yet – you’re just getting people excited so they COME BACK on launch day.
If you’ve seeded the importance of the product well enough, then you should have A LOT of excited people on your hands.
And that (finally) brings us to LAUNCH DAY!
3. 7-Day Promotion
I like to do a 7-day promotion on all my product launches – but you could do longer or shorter, it’s really up to you.
Here’s what my promotions look like:
- Daily email to my list promoting the offer…
- Posting 2x/day on social media promoting the offer with user-generated content, videos and carousels…
- And running paid ads that promote the offer.
I know, I know – that sounds like a lot.
But honestly, running paid ads is totally optional (I didn’t start running ads until last year! I had tons of successful launches without running any ads at all).
And I already post on social media twice a day.
So really – the only thing I kick in high gear during my launches is emailing my list.
I go from emailing twice a week to emailing them every single day – for 7 days. And I cannot stress the importance of this enough.
EMAIL IS IRREPLACEABLE IN LAUNCHES.
I don’t care how big your social media following is….
If you haven’t built an email list from that community, then you are going to have a hard time monetizing it.
Period.
For every single launch I’ve ever done, the majority of my revenue has come from EMAILS.
NOT from my social media links, NOT from my ads, from EMAIL.
From my recent product launch – the Posse Eye Brand Voice Challenge, well over 50% of revenue came from email, 30% from organic social media, and 20% from ads:
So if you take ANYTHING from this blog, let it be this…
Start your email list now – even if you have nothing to sell.
Start your list, start nurturing them, and build your community.
Then when it comes time to sell or promote or launch something… you’re going to have a much easier time with it.
But you’re not done yet!
The final component of all my launches is…
4. Step Up Customer Support
I’m a big believer that a community that feels seen and heard is a community that stays loyal and continues to buy.
That’s why I do my absolute BEST to interact with every single comment, message, and email I get…
And during launch time, this is EVEN MORE important.
You really need to step up your customer support and make sure you answer every single question that comes your way about the product or service.
And remember – time is of the essence when it comes to customer objections.
The longer it takes you to respond, the more time they have to convince themselves they don’t need it.
So if you normally check your messages once a day… step it up to twice or even 3x a day during your launches.
You want to get people the answers they’re looking for ASAP so you can crush their objections and chat with them about any other concerns they might have.
The same goes after my customers purchase as well.
My community groups are POPPIN’ and that’s because my team and I are in there ALL THE TIME answering questions and offering support.
And there you have it!
- Step 1 – Seed the importance of your product
- Step 2 – Tease what’s coming
- Step 3 – Heavily promote with omnichannel marketing for 7 days
- Step 4 – Step up customer support
I hope you found this behind-the-scenes insight helpful.
Until next time, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!
