The world’s richest man Warren Buffett says the most important part of his job is reading.
When the world’s best investor says that, you know it’s time to listen. I’m a big fan of reading non-fiction books and try to read at least a little something every day.
I don’t plan on writing about most of the books I read on this site, but when a book may have a specific tie-in to a subscription business I run then I will try to cover it here.
Last night I finished a book called Launch by Jeff Walker and I’m going to base a new digital subscription product launch based on his Product Launch Formula.
I’m going to outline the most important points of the book here and will also be following this outline during the launch.
I’ll do a thorough blog post about how the launch goes and exactly what I end up doing as well as sharing results with you guys but for this post, I’ll cover Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula as explained in his book.
Mental Triggers
Two of the best mental triggers to use to generate interest in your product are authority and scarcity.
To demonstrate authority you can tell a story of how you helped someone. You can tell your audience about your accomplishments. You can add testimonials to your email. You can point out a book you wrote or video you made. Etc.
Like demonstrating authority, demonstrating scarcity is also self explanatory. People will pay more money when they believe a particular product is rare. Think about diamonds and Ferrari’s. People automatically accept paying a higher price for these items due to their rarity.
You can also suggest that the price of your item will increase in a very short period of time. For example: “special pre-launch price for a limited time only”.
To market your product use sequences and stories.
Sequences is when you deploy a variety of marketing tactics over several days. The latest sequence should build on the last one. People love good stories so make sure your sequence tells a story. With each installment you should go a bit deeper and keep engaging your readers.
Pre-launch Phase
You start in the pre-launch phase. During this stage you do not want to directly sell anything.
Start with a very short, straight forward email with the subject line: “Quick announcement and a favor”. – email is brief and to the point. Just inform reader that new product is likely to drop very soon and ask them to complete a brief survey which asks for feedback on the idea.
The pre-launch stage is actually three separate stages (or sequences as the book likes to call them).
At each stage (or sequence) you should release content with mental triggers that will get your audience to engage and connect with you. Your email sequences can be emails, videos, blog posts or PDF reports.
- Email 1 should answer WHY your prospects should care about your product. Most of the time this is achieved by showing them how the product can transform their lives. Tell them how your product will transform their life.
- Email 2 tells your prospects WHAT your product is about. Also provide little more info about the transformation promised. You can use case studies here. Tell the story of someone’s transformation.
- Email 3 should answer the question of HOW they’ll be transformed by your product. This will tell them how to get your product, how long they can expect to wait for the launch, and what special deal you’ll offer the first subscribers (creates scarcity trigger) – will only be available for limited time only.
Launch Stage – on launch day send an email letting them know your program is now open for purchase. Launch should not be open ended. Should have end day (or a day that the price will go up, or lose the chance to receive bonuses/extras).
Launch provided a good outline blueprint for the email sequence to use during a launch. Although Walker only touched on two mental triggers (authority and scarcity), during my launch I’m going to use triggers from Robert Cialdini’s book Influence as well. Things like reciprocity, social proof, consistency/commitment, etc.
I’ll do a review on the book Influence at a later date.
