by Jeff Walker
The Big Close
One absolute, cardinal rule for creating a successful launch is setting a definitive close for your launch. And there must be some negative consequence if people don’t buy during that limited open cart window. Make it clear that something bad will happen if they don’t buy before your launch ends—that your prospects will miss out on something. That negative consequence is what creates scarcity, and it will generate a huge spike of sales in the last 24 hours of your launch.
IMPORTANT: Lots of people avoid creating real scarcity at the end of their launch. Don’t make that mistake or you will cripple your results. In fact, you will cut your sales in half. Put some real teeth into the end of your launch, and you will double your results.
So what is that scarcity? What is that negative consequence if people don’t jump onboard during your launch? There are three primary ways to create scarcity in your offer:
1. The price goes up. You have a special price during your launch, and people need to jump onboard during your launch to get that price. This is an easy one to understand. A “Grand Opening Sale” or Black Friday, the mega-shopping day after Thanksgiving in the U.S., are two familiar examples. While this is a good incentive to get people to jump during your launch and it’s an easy one to use, it’s not the most powerful form of scarcity during a launch.
2. Remove bonuses. Let’s say you’re selling a product that teaches people to play blues guitar. During your launch you have the special bonus of receiving a personal Skype guitar lesson from you. If they don’t sign up during your launch, then they don’t get the bonus lesson. This can be a very powerful form of scarcity. If you have a strong bonus, this can actually be a stronger incentive than a price increase.
3. The offer goes away. If your prospects don’t buy during the launch, then they get shut out of the opportunity—meaning, they can’t take advantage of the offer at all, ever. In most cases, with most offers, this is the strongest form of scarcity—it’s usually a much stronger incentive than the price going up. The only problem is that this type of scarcity doesn’t fit well for a lot of offers. If you’re opening a restaurant, then you don’t want to close down after a week. I’ve personally used this form of scarcity quite a bit, especially with my online programs (like the Product Launch Formula Coaching Program). It makes a lot of sense for my offer, because I teach the program to groups of students in a similar fashion to a college class. That means registration is only available for a limited period of time when I’m starting a new class. If someone misses the registration period, then they can’t get in. This type of scarcity is an extremely strong incentive for people to jump onboard if it fits with your product.
One key point: You can combine these three forms of scarcity and layer them on top of each other. If you can have the price go up and bonuses go away at the end of your launch, then you’ve just created more scarcity and a more powerful launch.
Finally, remember that using these types of scarcity are not about manipulation. The scarcity has to be real.
The reason this hard close for your launch works so well is that your prospects would much rather put off making a decision. And that goes double if the decision involves them opening their wallet and giving you money. If you have a great product that’s going to make a big impact on their lives, then you owe it to your prospects to make the best offer possible to get them to overcome their procrastination. Ending your launch with an exclamation mark—meaning some form of scarcity that instills a sense of urgency—is the way you do that.
Beyond the Open and Close
It’s critical that you don’t let up during your open cart period. I’ve seen some of my students make this mistake, and they end up leaving a lot of money on the table. You need to keep mailing your launch list each day your cart is open. Here’s how to use email to keep your launch in front of your prospects. For this example, we’ll assume your launch lasts five days.
On launch day, you want to send out two emails—the first when you open the cart (see the email above) and the second about four hours later to let your list know that everything is up and running and you’re open for business.
The day after your Open Cart, you should send one email—typically a social proof email, where you talk about the great response to your launch.
On Day Three you send a longer email that answers many of the top questions about the product. As with all your emails during your open cart period, you should include at least one link to your sales page.
On Day Four the message shifts to scarcity. You are basically giving a 24-hour warning ahead of your close. You should be absolutely clear about when you’ll close and what your prospects stand to lose if they don’t act before the launch offer closes down.
Then on Day Five you’ll be mailing two (or even three) times. The first one is sent early in the morning reiterating that you’re going to be closing that day. The second email goes out about six to eight hours before the cart closes. This is a day that will be filled with fireworks and a massive rush of orders—provided you follow this plan. Unfortunately, I’ve seen lots of people make the mistake of letting up on the last day. Either they don’t mail their list at all or they just mail once. This typically happens when they start to worry that they’ve already sent too many emails during the launch and wonder what good one more email could do.
That’s bad thinking. Don’t make that mistake. You need to send more than one email on closing day. Trust me . . . doing so makes a big difference. Many of your prospects have a big procrastination streak, and they’ll wait until the last minute. In fact, after you do your first launch and watch the final rush, I think you’ll agree with me that MOST people are terrible procrastinators. It doesn’t matter what time you close your launch, you will see people placing orders right up until the very last minute. So do yourself a favor—send at least two emails on your closing day, and consider sending a third.
When Stuff Goes Wrong
As much as I wish that everything always went perfectly and that every launch was a huge success, sometimes there are problems. Occasionally a launch can underperform. So I want to walk through some of the most common problems and give you a few pointers on what to do when your launch doesn’t go well.
The first class of problems is technical. It’s possible to crash your web site server if you send too much traffic. The good news is that this is not a problem you’re likely to have with your first launch. It takes a huge launch with lots of traffic to cripple a server, and unless you’ve already got a significant business with a large list, you’re probably not going to be putting a strain on your server.
However, if you do have a serious business with a large list, then this is definitely something to pay attention to. I crashed a server in one of my biggest launches, and it cost me a lot of heartache, plenty of orders, and ultimately a lot of money. It also cost me a lot of customer goodwill, and my reputation took a big hit. Make no mistake, server crashes are not fun. You can see my current list of recommended web hosts and servers on the Resource Page at http://thelaunchbook.com/resources.
Another problem that a lot of people don’t think about is collecting the money—in other words, getting paid. If you’re taking orders online, you’re going to be using some type of payment gateway or merchant account. And no matter whom you’re using, if you have a sudden huge influx of orders, it can make them nervous. Most likely they will look at that huge increase in orders as a credit risk and be worried that you might take all that money, not bother delivering your product, and then skip out to sit on a beach in Tahiti. And if you did something like that, they would be liable for all the refunds that would come pouring in. Bottom line, a huge increase in orders over your normal rate will scare your merchant account provider. I’ve personally run into this several times, both with my merchant accounts and with PayPal. The best way to avoid these troubles is through a lot of communication before your launch. And you should also do business with a “launch friendly” merchant accoun
t provider. There are providers that will understand when you tell them you’re doing a “Jeff Walker-style launch.” For a current list of my recommended providers, check out the Resource Page at http://thelaunchbook.com/resources.
What If No One Buys?
So what if your launch just doesn’t convert? You open the cart and you have very few sales. As much as I would like to tell you that this doesn’t ever happen, sometimes it does. When it does happen, it’s time to go into diagnosis mode.
First off, if you have no sales at all, you need to start testing your process. Start with your launch email. Open up the email broadcast in your email program and try clicking through to the link to make sure it works. Then go through the sales process at your site and make sure everything is working. Does the sales page or sales letter load? Can you get to the order form? Try to place an order to make sure it goes through. Does everything work?
Next step is to determine whether you’re getting any traffic to your site. Check the stats on your email broadcast. Did the email go out? Look at your stats. Did anyone click through to your site? What are the traffic stats on your web site telling you? How much traffic do you have to your sales page? To your order page?
Finally, if everything is working on the site and you’re getting traffic to the site and you’re still not getting any sales, then you’ve got a conversion problem. And in general, there are two primary reasons for conversion problems: It’s either your offer or your sales message. It can be tough to tease out which of these are causing your low conversion, and it could possibly be a combination of both.
First let’s look at the offer. Is your offer compelling? Does it offer a solution or solve a problem that your market cares about? Are you selling something that the market desperately wants as opposed to something you think they need or something that you just wanted to create? Does the offer address your prospects’ hopes and dreams? Does it address the fears and aspirations in the market? Is it on point to what the market wants?
Now let’s consider the sales message in your sales video or sales letter. Does your sales message articulate the transformation or the change your product offers to your prospect? Does it make the benefits in your product come alive? Does it make those benefits feel tangible and concrete? Is your buying process simple and understandable or is it confusing in any way? Do you clearly tell your prospects exactly what they’re going to get? What they can expect with every step of the process? How much the product costs? What your guarantee is?
If you determine that you have either an offer problem or a sales copy problem, then it’s time to get to work. It’s not too late to pull a rabbit out of the hat. I’ve seen remarkable turnarounds right in the middle of the launch due to a tweaked offer and/or a reworked sales page.
Keep the Good Times Rolling—What to Do after Your Launch
One of the most powerful and surprising results of doing these launches is the amount of goodwill that you will create. When you deliver real value in your Prelaunch Content, your market will fall in love with you . . . both the people who buy from you AND the people who just watch your Prelaunch Content but don’t buy.
Not everyone will love you, of course, but a big chunk of the market will. Those people are your tribe, and your prelaunch creates a great self-selection process for identifying that tribe.
Once you’ve gone through your launch and closed your cart, you will want to strengthen your relationship with those who bought from you. This is the “post launch,” and it’s critical that you use it to extend your momentum and positioning from your launch. I make a huge effort to over-deliver to my new clients, and I suggest you do the same. I always have a few extra bonuses that I never mentioned during my launch, and I start sending out those bonuses shortly after the cart closes. In these days where we are so often underwhelmed by our experience after we buy a product, adding something extra makes you stand out in the market. It’s amazing what a few extra unannounced bonuses will do. You don’t have to go crazy . . . just give more than you promised.
One of the biggest—and easiest—wins you will have in your market comes from putting together a solid new-client, follow-up process. And much of this can be done through automated follow-up emails.
Another area you shouldn’t skimp on is customer service. I provide world-class customer service, and it’s worth every penny I spend on it. I don’t look at customer service as a cost center, but as a big part of my overall strategic business building.
Finally, don’t forget about following up with the prospects who did NOT buy. You just spent considerable energy romancing them in your prelaunch, and even if they didn’t buy this time, they are still great prospects for future offers. Don’t let that romance go cold. Send them some more content in the days after you close your launch. Then they’ll be primed for a follow-up offer or for your next launch.
So now that we’ve gone through the launch, I’ve got something special in store for you—the secrets of the Seed Launch™, which is all about how to do a launch even if you don’t have a list or a product. And I’ll show you how I built up a business from a simple Seed Launch right into a $20+ million empire . . .
How to Start from Scratch: The Seed Launch™
Chapter 9
Tara and Dave Marino’s lives were turned upside down by the loss of their young child. It’s a nightmare that no parent wants to even think about. I can’t imagine that pain, but I do know the pain of losing someone who is very close and who passes way before their time. It’s not easy to move beyond that type of loss.
Dave had a great, secure job that paid him more than six figures, year in and year out, but he felt like he was drifting in corporate cubicle-land. And after the tragic loss of his child, he found it difficult to get excited about anything in his life. Tara sold a little real estate on the side, but she was mostly a stay-at-home mom with two young kids.
Tara, however, had a passion—helping her friends, mostly other moms and wives like herself, live a more sensual life. When she first heard about the Product Launch Formula, she knew it was exactly the right tool to bring her message to a bigger audience and build her business. And she thought it might even give Dave something that would spark a new outlook on life.
But Tara faced a huge challenge—she was starting from scratch. After helping her friends, she knew she had the raw material for a program about leading a more sensual life, but she didn’t have a book or a seminar or even a speech. And she certainly didn’t have a product.
Another problem: She didn’t have any type of an email list or any platform whatsoever. She had a few followers on Twitter and some Facebook friends, but that was about it.
So given a situation like Tara’s, how do you get started?
Getting Paid before You Create Your Product
With the magic of the Seed Launch™, you can literally create a business from almost nothing . . . which is exactly what Tara did.
She pulled together a list of about 200 people from her personal inbox and social media, and she started her prelaunch. The product would be called “You’re Perfect.” To hear Tara and Dave talk about it now, the whole venture was a ragtag process they made up on the fly. But when you’re launching your first product to a tiny list like they had, you can often overcome any mistakes due to your close connection with the people on your list. And in her Seed Launch, Tara was able to sell five spots in her training program and make almost $3,000 in sales!
The product was a series of six weekly teleseminars, along with worksheets and templates. That meant Tara was creating and delivering the product after she already had made the sale. Each week she created the material for the call, then she got on the phone and delivered a class. And since the entire process was extremely interactive, she was able to use the feedback from her clients to fine-tune the next call to exactly what they needed. Of course, Tara recorded each call, and those recordings became the basis for her product after the initial program was finished. The Seed Launch delivered a pay
day and a finished product.
Now making almost $3,000 from scratch is incredibly exciting, but it’s what happened next that makes this an amazing story. Because as Tara delivered that first training class, all the interaction gave her the idea for two more products: “The Power of Sensuality” and “The Beauty Formula.” And with the momentum from that first launch, Dave and Tara were able to build up a list of a thousand email subscribers. Their next launch did almost $12,000 in sales—a huge increase from their first launch. But again, that was just the beginning. The next promotion brought in $90,000, and then another did $190,000. Each launch built their list and their reputation in the market. They have now done over a half million dollars in sales of Tara’s products, trainings, and coaching.
Along the way, Dave quit his job. Suddenly the “security” of cubicle-land didn’t look all that great. And while no business success can ever take away their pain of losing their child, they’ve built an entirely new life for their family. That new life took a dramatic turn when Tara and Dave and their two young sons took a summer trip to France, and they decided to stay! Tara had always dreamed of living in France, and her new business and lifestyle suddenly made it possible . . . so they flew home, put most of their stuff in storage, and moved to the south of France.
(To read the full Case Study of Tara and Dave, go to http://thelaunchbook.com/tara.)
When You’re Just Starting Out
At this point I’m sure you can see the power of a well-orchestrated product launch. And you’ve seen how Product Launch Formula has been the proven system that’s worked over and over for businesses of any size.
But I’ve been at this long enough to know there are some folks who just don’t see how it can work for them, especially if they’re just starting out. You might be one of those people. Perhaps you’re thinking that while this all makes sense, you don’t know how to get started. You don’t have a list of prospects or you don’t have a product to sell. Maybe you’re thinking how you would love to launch something, but you have neither a product nor a list. Or maybe you’ve got a business right now, but you would like to start a different business. You’re ready to move on, but you don’t know where to start. Well, this is the chapter for you, because the Seed Launch provides the answers to all these questions.