This is How You Launch a Product

Thank goodness for Facebook events because now it’s super easy to create, track, and encourage attendance for an event. You’re event can even exist within cyber space, which is perfectly fine as long as it does exist. The point is to do something. Create a buzz. Get the clock ticking for a countdown. I first saw this done back in the day for “Earth Day”, with record success. Sure, a bunch of people who didn’t know each other got together on Facebook ‘in spirit’, for an cause they cared about. That was enough. It was memorable, it offered a people to chance to participate easily, and it got them enthused and talking about it – helping it go viral. Of course, your product launch might not be as global as Earth Day, but giving people an active forum to come together from whatever corner or the earth they might be in is a solid move. It envelops them in and creates a connection between you, your product, and your audience.

Now before the actual event kick off, you should work to build a buzz and get the anticipation going. Keep your crowd filled in on what’s going on, including the prep work, by sharing on social feeds and event walls. Include photos if you can, and behind the curtain videos if possible. The more you give them to interact with the more successful your launch will be.

ProBlogger guru Darren Rowse recommends spreading your product launch campaign over three to four weeks. For prelaunch efforts, he advises using social media and sending affiliates advanced product samples and/or press kits. For the launch day, he chooses the email marketing route with a blog and social feed announcement. Most interestingly, Darren emphasizes a post launch period. Where most products are more or less forgotten about post launch, the buzz gone, Darren shows us how to keep breathing life into it. Over the first week, he recommends social blasts and repeat mentions in email campaigns. This is also a good time to encourage what we calls a “challenge” or contest.

One week post launch, he goes back to email campaigns and follows it up with a second blog post on the product. Now you’re in two weeks post launch, so shoot out that campaign email marketing piece again. According to Darren, now is a good time to encourage guest posts by other writers on the same topic/industry as your product. Here the focus isn’t on promotion but on value, particularly in relation to the product. The month should ride out with a notice to your audience about how special deals might be coming to a close. Also include testimonials if possible, and of course, keep up the email marketing campaigns.

According to Darren, “a key objective for me during all our launches is to continue to deliver high value to readers during the launch period that is outside of the launch. So while we’re certainly promoting the [product] during the above launch there’s also the normal level of blog posts going up on the blog about other topics. On a typical week on dPS I publish 14 tutorials – during a launch week it remains at this level. The same thing is true on social media – we continue to share great content on social that is not related to the launch. So anyone who doesn’t want to buy the [product] still is getting other value out of the site during the launch.”