The prelaunch phase of a product launch in many ways is more important than the actual launch itself. During this period you have to decide what to give away, if anything, what marketing message to focus on, how to source the content and how to distribute it.
A successful prelaunch is all about building excitement and anticipation, but also – and this is critical – cutting through the noise and grabbing people’s attention through the power of your message.
You also use prelaunch content to address the major issues affecting your potential customers and deal with any justifications they may have for not purchasing your product.
The New Blog Mastermind Prelaunch
This week I’m about to kick-off the prelaunch for Blog Mastermind and I’ve been thinking about what to present as a demonstration of how much my training program can help people really leverage the power of blogging.
The Blog Profits Blueprint is available but I won’t be using it as my only launch tool. I certainly recommend it to everyone as the best introduction to the world of making money from blogging and as a great taste of what the full Blog Mastermind program is about, but if I want to make an impact I need something fresh – new ideas and new media.
Concepts For A Successful Prelaunch
Here are some ideas to consider when conducting a prelaunch –
- Clearly video is a must in today’s Internet marketing landscape, which is fine by me because it’s fun to create video. Since I’m learning new skills in this area I’d like to test them with some live content.
- Case studies are tremendously powerful as prelaunch content. Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula would not have done nearly as well if it wasn’t for the amazing case studies Jeff collected from his previous clients, especially the $9,000 board game case study.
- Proof is critical. It’s important you demonstrate that you have personally achieved what you are presenting to help other people achieve. If possible, it’s exceptionally powerful if can demonstrate your customers have also enjoyed positive outcomes as a result of working with you.
- Teaching is the key to providing value, and although there may be all kinds of marketing messages wrapped around the teaching component, it’s how much you genuinely help people that leads to having a real impact with your prelaunch content.
Taking the points above, if you can put together a video that uses a case study as proof and teaches people at the same time, then you have a pretty good launch tool. Now where do I find one of those…
What I’m Working On
I’ve been thinking a lot about the message I want to get across and what I want to teach you in my prelaunch content.
I want to have a lead-in video that covers the most important concepts, points out where people are going wrong and presents some solutions, but I have to be careful not to drown the core message about what Blog Mastermind is about, which is – how to make money with blogs.
I have a lot of ideas – and that’s the problem. Blogging is such a powerful medium, it’s given me so much but I see it as underutilized by most people, so as a result I feel could ramble on for hours, but that’s just not going to work in a launch video. I’ll lose people after the first five minutes.
Launch content must grab people’s attention, present clear and simple concepts that have impact, and do it as quickly as possible.
Thankfully I have most of the launch content already, it just needs editing. I’ve got a very good case study interview with my best performing blog student ever (we’re talking a million dollar blog) and I’ve done a couple of behind the scenes videos of my own blogging business. That’s all I can tell you at this stage 
.
I’m going to go huddle in my ideas bunker and finalize my launch strategy now. Next up, we begin.
Yaro Starak
Pre-Prelaunching
Yaro,
Great info!
Yes, case studies are powerful! Perhaps interviewing one of your most successful students in your previous Mastermind would work out nicely, IMO.
Cheers!
Yaro I can’t wait to witness the launch, I know the content you provide will be top notch information.
I also thank you for sharing the process leading up to the launch, as it is helpful for others considering doing some type of pre launch campaign.
we’re prelaunching LIFEinPERPETUALbeta.net and will be following your strategies!
Love your blog Yaro!
Are you going to limit the number of people you let into the program?
I’d be curious to see if anyone’s ever compared the two ways of launching a product, one being to just release it once it’s done and build up subscribers over time vs. doing the whole “pre-launch” anticipation thing.
For example, you never see Blogs doing launches, they just start Blogging and building up traffic. Google never launched, it just built up. Facebook didn’t launch, they just built up.
What I mean is lets say I have a product finished today. Is it really beneficial to spend the next two months putting together a whole launch with video’s and build up the anticipation etc. and then launch it in two months on a specific day at a specific time, or would it be better to just put it up for sale starting today and start promoting it over the next two months but generate sales as you go instead of people having to wait until a specific day.
I’m a student/graduate of your Blog Mastermind, and I didn’t sign up from a launch… I just found the site from banners and links I clicked on which led me to your eBook.
I have no doubt that launches work, but I’m just wondering if anyone’s every compared the two approaches of “Promote-Promote-Promote-Release” vs “Release-Promote-Promote-Promote”.
I had exactly the same dilemma after going through PLF in anticipation for my Stumble Rush course. I can’t do case studies because nobody has used the techniques yet – that kind of strategy works great for a re-launch or version 2 which seems to be a new trend these days!
Then i realised that I already had my pre-launch content and that is the free lessons that comprise the first half of the course. Had I started PLF before I had decided on the structure of the product then I might have managed the pre-launch content a little differently.
So did you launch the course without a “pre-launch” phase?
If so, how did that work out for you?
I’m just glad you are learning something from PLF Caroline.
So many people think that Internet marketing products are a waste of time, but once you start taking action and you see where you can action what you learn – that’s when experience the value of what other people teach.