Unless you’re not on any Internet Marketing guru’s email list, it’s hard to imagine that you haven’t bore witness to at least a few big product launches in the last few years online. One of the first was John Reese’s “Traffic Secrets” launch, the first product launch to break a million in the first 24 hours. Bill Glazer, Frank Kern, Rich Schefren,  and many other well-known “gurus” have followed suit.

The genius behind this product launch phenomenon is Jeff Walker. If you have a list, and you’re in the planning stages of a new info product and/or coaching program, I would highly recommend investing in Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula (www.ProductLaunchFormula.com)

As copywriters, we often get asked to plan sequences & write copy for product launches. However, what we’ve often found is that even experienced marketers don’t seem to really have a clear understanding of how a launch is really supposed to work. Here’s some of common mistakes we see:

1. Deciding To “Launch” Late in the Process:

Often by the time clients call us, they want to start selling the product “next week”. It’s as if launching the product was an afterthought. The key with any launch is to provide tons of great FREE content to get people into the “priority notification list” of your launch (of course, they don’t know that’s what they’re doing at the time. They just think they’re opting in to get great free content).
For instance, before Rich Schefren started his coaching program, he released his “Internet Business Manifesto” ebook & video. Tons of marketers downloaded & watched because it had great content, designed to build Rich up as an expert.

2. Giving Away “Free” Content That’s a Thinly-Veiled Sales Pitch

We worked on a launch recently where the only free content given to the list was an “interview”, that was really just a glorified testimonial. The result? Poor sales. For a launch to be successful, you MUST build yourself up as an expert in people’s minds. The best way to do this is by giving away a LOT of free USEFUL content.

3. Not Giving JV Partners Enough Opportunity to “Cookie” Their Lists

Launches can be hugely successful if you have JV partners who will mail to their lists in exchange for generous commissions. Prior to the launch, every time you make a new free video, ebook, audio, etc. it gives your JV partners another opportunity for the people on their list to get “cookied”, so they eventually get credit for the sale when the product is launched.