A product launch is supposed to be an exciting event, but if you do nothing until the product actually goes live on the launch day, you will likely to create chaos. Many things can go wrong no matter how carefully you prepared in advance yourself, such as your landing page, payment gateway and the product itself. The last thing you want to receive is a series of complaints from your new customers and too many negative reviews from experienced users.
Wise creators make a good product launch marketing plan well in advance and start a pre-launch campaign. Preparation at the pre-launch stage is what makes the difference. It is in order to avoid confusion and a waste of time but to get positive support and most importantly, to make sure they generate the maximum amount of revenue.
Reach Out To As Many People
The best way is to reach out to as many people before the launch and build the number of supporters of the product. Because people can create a buzz for you, you cannot create it by yourself. Also whether the reaction is positive or negative, it’s better to buzz than being ignored.
Also if you try to reach them out in the friendliest manner as you can, people will be on your side. Even if your product turns out to have a good reputation as you expected, although it may be disappointing for you, people will be helpful to you. Especially if there are some authorities, leaders and key players in the related industry, it will be beneficial for you.
Here are some types of people that you can connect as part of your pre- product launch marketing plan.
Affiliates
Affiliates are your most invaluable allies. Networks such as ClickBank and JVZoo are the best place to make your new product known by affiliates. By offering a higher commission rate, many affiliates will be happy to promote your products on their websites or to their own subscribers.
To attract some of the top affiliates, you should have your banners created and ready for them to use. You can send a personal message to your JVZoo affiliates upon approval of their application. You can also create a special instruction page for ClickBank affiliates, where you can thank them and ask them for their help and support.
Your List Of Subscribers
Your existing subscribers will be happy to be the first one to be notified of your product launch. If your subscribers are customers, you can offer a subscribers-only, launch-special discount. If any of them are affiliates, you can also offer higher commission levels.
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Bloggers
Bloggers can write a review of your product. Find as many leading blogs in your niche, find the contact email address of each site and send an email. You can offer free access to the blogger and/or offer a chance to become an affiliate.
Finding bloggers in the same niche isn’t difficult. First, find a similar product to yours which is created by someone else, if you don’t know any. Then google search for the review by typing “XXX (product name) Review”.
- Your email to the bloggers should be personal and polite.
- Start by calling the blogger by their name (“Hi Joe.” instead of “Hi there.”)
Tell them that you like their website and specify one page that you like (and why you like it if you can)
The rest of your email can be a copy from your template. The template should contain:
- You are launching a new product, ask them if they are interested in writing a review.
- The brief explanation of the product and most importantly, what the users are benefitted from the product.
- You can offer them free access and/or an affiliate opportunity.
What you should not do is spam. For example leave a comment in blog posts randomly with a link to your site. Your comment will only be deleted and your IP address may be blacklisted by the bloggers.
Beta Testers
Beta testing is a great way to improve your product before running the official product launch marketing campaign. You can call up the candidates by sending messages across social media as well as to your list of subscribers. Once again if your subscribers are customers, you can offer a discount, and if they are affiliates you can offer a higher rate of commission upon sale.
Beta testers will be happy to give you honest opinions, find bugs and things that you never thought were problems as the product owner but are problems for the users. You run a beta testing campaign well before the launch date so that you will have plenty of time to fix issues and improve the product.
Product Marketing Plan Before Launch Day
Many marketers are afraid to reveal too much at the pre-launch stage and want to keep some of the content secretive until the product goes live. But this often works the wrong way. Because people generally don’t like to be surprised. They often purchase something that they already know inside out, and they decide to buy it because they are 100% sure that it will be useful to them.
This is why it’s important to get as many users to understand your new product, as much as possible. Here are a couple of ways to do this.
Create A YouTube Video
In order for them to understand your new product, you can explain everything in your invitation page. But just like nobody is a fan of going through a lengthy instruction book, the description of your new product should be reasonably brief and clear.
Many people prefer to digest complex information through graphics, video or audio (speaking) other than by reading. Creating a few minutes worth of YouTube video to demonstrate your product is a good idea. If you choose to write, it’s essential to insert images between paragraphs to help readers understand the product visually.
Offer Your Product For (Partially) Free
It’s also vital to ask as many people to beta-test your product, as already mentioned above, so that you can receive honest feedback from them.
Don’t be afraid to give your finished product for totally free to bloggers who write reviews. Because many of them prefer to test it themselves before they can express their unbiased view on your product on their website. You would rather be judged by honest people.
While affiliates can write a favorable review for the commission on their website, many other bloggers write negative reviews purely based on your sales campaign, which are also biased. You cannot stop them from writing fake reviews, but you can try mitigating the risk of fake unfavorable reviews spreading across search engines by asking as many leading reviewers to test your product.
Monitor The Market Response
Set up a Google Alert, which will make it easier for you to check what’s being said about your new product. All you do is to save your product name, and Google Alerts will pick up any web articles containing the keyword and email you a list of the articles daily.
Twitter is where you get to see the most direct opinions from the users. The good thing about Twitter is not only to check their opinions but it allows you to send a quick response to each user. If they say they like your product, you can simply thank them, and if they say something negative, ask them how they think you can improve the product.
