OWAHL 005: How to launch a product: Launch Week!

Our Work at Home Life with Jason and Jami: Online Business | Blogging | Working from Home

On the podcast this month we've been talking all about product launches. We covered the big picture overview of how to launch a product, how to work with affiliates to help sell your product, and creating a free offer for your product launch.

If you haven't worked your way through those episodes yet, then back up and go through those. They will give you a very solid grounding before heading into this episode.

Today we are going to be covering Launch week! You've done all the prep work to launch your new product, now it's time to actually launch it! Here's everything to need to craft a successful launch week.

Launch Your Product

A typical launch period for us is 5-7 days. Anything shorter than that and it's hard to build momentum. Anything longer than that and it's hard to keep up that momentum.

If you listened to episode #4 and are creating a free opt in offer for your product, then a good option is to be in "sales" mode for one month. Spend 2-4 weeks spreading the word about your free opt in to boost engagement and get new readers, and then actually launch your product in 5-7 days.

A typical sales week:

We've played with this schedule and tweaked it a lot over the years. It will probably keep changing as we learn and grow, but here's what we typically do in a launch week.

Day #1: Cart Open

On day #1, the first thing you want to do is check all sales pages and links, a couple of times. The worst thing to happen would be people showing up to your page, unable to check out! So check, check, and double check that it's all working properly.

Then once you know it's all working, you can send out your initial CART OPEN email! This can be short and sweet and simply let people know that your new product is for sale.

I'm a fan of doing a short and sweet email for this (although you can do a longer sales email with all the info) because I think people are initially interested and will pop over to see what it is.

At this point, I would also publish a full blog post with all the details to share on Pinterest, Facebook, social media, those who follow you via RSS feed, etc.

I would also consider doing a Facebook/Instagram live video. The first day is so full of excitement that now is a good time to jump on and share that your new product is live and available!

Through your week: using evergreen content to sell

I know that not everyone on my list or in my audience will be interested in buying this thing. So while I do want to push the sale hard, I also want to acknowledge and not burn out that audience that has no intention of buying this product.

Evergreen content is simply blog posts, podcasts, and other content that is related to your product but that will still live on once this promotion is over. For example, if you are sharing a brand new cooking course, then doing some evergreen content revolving around your favorite cooking accessories, or simple meal planning tips can become great content to spread around that also includes a pitch for your product.

Bonus: It gives you a really good non-salsey excuse to reach out to your audience, share on social media, and send follow up emails! You are simply providing more good, related content!

Throw a Facebook Party

I do about 2-3 Facebook parties a year. They do a couple of things: 1) it raises awareness for my product launch 2) it helps boost my Facebook feed all week and 3) my audience LOVES it and is an amazing way to build up my community. I get requests all year asking when my next FB party will be!

Here's how to throw a Facebook party:

1) Set up a FB even on your page

Set this up and start inviting people to the party 1-2 weeks in advance. Ask them to RSVP on that event page so they get notified when the party starts. Share about the party on other social media, your blog, and via email.

2) A typical party

My typical party is usually 2 hours long. I do mine in the evenings because most moms can participate better when kids are in bed. I tend to post every 5-15 minutes through out the party.

I usually have 6 giveaways throughout the party, 3 each hour. I usually give away a few digital giveaways but I try and make them physical products as often as I can because people get more excited about physical items.

My focus in the party:

My focus throughout the party is on serving and loving my readers rather than selling. It's a time to build up community!! So I giveaway a ton of free digital goodies to all attendees and focus on giving more than I am taking!

I focus on my readers having a BLAST and then I also mention the sale. I want to do a video soon so you can see exactly how I structure my party. I will work on that soon :)

Other ideas for launch week

You can try and line up guest posts on other blogs. HINT: This is a great thing to do before your launch and share about your freebie then get people on your email list to sale.

Podcasts are another great idea! Reach out to podcasts in your niche and see if you can be a guest on their show.

2-3 days into the launch

Something I've just started doing in the past year or so, is resending my cart open email about 2-3 days into the sale to all unopens. I change the tagline and try to do a different angle. This results in a lot more opens to that initial email. Be warned: This segment of your audience tends to not be as responsive, so I end up with a higher percentage of unsubs from these emails typically.

Bonus tip: Don't neglect your email list the weeks and moths leading up to your big launch. The best thing you can do is stay consistent and engaged with them leading up to your launch!

Final day of your sale

Typically you will see up to 50% of your sales on this final day! So if your launch week has been lack luster leading up to this, it's easy to slack on the last day. This is a HUGE mistake. Stay consistent and follow up, it's worth it!

Email

On the final day, I send 2-4 emails to my list. Yes, this is a lot. And yes, I was terrified to do this at the beginning. So start out sending two emails that final day and work your way up to what works for you and makes sense.

1st email is early in the morning and is just a quick "sale ends tonight" or "doors close tonight". Remind them of the urgency!

2nd email is my long email of the day. This is my last chance to make a big sales pitch. I typically do a FAQ email where I will answer all of the common objectives to purchasing. This email tends to do VERY well. I usually send this in the early afternoon (around 10 or 11 am).

3rd and final email is a 5-8 hour reminder. This is another quick email reminding them that the sale or promotion ends soon! I will usually take a paragraph or two to highlight a feature that I haven't yet that day and then just leave them with a link to the sales page.

I have sent out a 4th email before with a 1 hour left. But this results in a TON of unsubs for me. I think it's probably because most people don't get it that night and end up opening it in the morning and by then, they obviously don't care. But I do know people who do this. I don't think it's all that effective for my audience, so I've stopped doing it.

Other hints

I would strongly consider doing Facebook ads. We've been playing with Facebook ads the last couple of years and just in the last 3-6 months we've started putting more significant time and money into Facebook ads with GREAT success.

Countdown timer

Nothing drives urgency like watching a countdown timer ticking down, down, down. Motionmail is a FREE website that allows you to create a countdown timer that works in blog posts AND counts down live in emails.

I add a countdown timer to every single one of my sales emails.

This is the last episode (for now) in our launching series. If you have more questions about launching, please leave us a comment! And make sure to download our FREE launch checklist to help you keep tracking of everything.

Download our FREE Product Launch Checklist!

I know this is a TON of information! So I distilled it all down into a handy printable product launch checklist for you. All you have to do is fill it out for you next product launch and you are well on your way to a successful launch.

To download the FREE checklist, simply sign up here and download right away!