Product Launch Strategies

So, you’ve spent the last six months preparing your website. Now that it is ready, do you just make it available online or what?

Think about it. If Jacky Chan had a new movie release, what would he do? Just release it quietly, or you’ll see lots of ads and news about his new movie?

Have you ever seen a new cafe selling its coffee for just $0.50 on the first week of its launch? It gives people a good reason to talk about the new cafe, which in turn becomes a free publicity. In a short span of a week, everyone in the neighbourhood knows about that cafe. That’s what you want to achieve with a good product launch.

Product Launch vs Traffic Generation

You may ask, what’s the difference between product launch and traffic generation?

To put it simply, product launch is traffic generation on an impulse! Whenever there is something new in the market, bloggers have an impulse to blog about it, list owners have an impulse to broadcast it to his/her list and more importantly, people have an impulse to try it. For some reason, people always think new is better. Your product will only be new ONCE. That’s why product launch is important.

Product Launch Strategies

1) Do a beta test

If you have a new product, you will need some people to test it before you launch it. But that’s not my purpose of doing a beta test.

Beta test is a way to extend the life of your product launch. You can’t have a product launch for a month, but you can have a beta test for as long as a year!

During the beta testing period, you can promote your website as usual, giving special offers for beta testers. Other than getting feedback and bug fixes for your new product, what’s more important is you are building your launch partners.

When you are ready to launch the product, you can invite your beta testers to be your JV partners. Many of them will be honored to be a JV partners because they don’t get much chance to be one. Assuming you’ve got a good product, a good launch offer and a good compensation, many of them will be willing to promote your product to their leads.

You can find your beta testers in the forums. Many of these ‘forumers’ are bloggers. Some even have a huge social network and an opt-in list. If you get some super-affiliates as your beta tester, your product launch is likely to be a success.

2) Work with a JV broker

JV brokers are people who link up joint venture partners with product owners like you. They usually demands a 10-20% cut from all the sales generated from their referred partners.

JV brokers have their schedule planned way ahead of time. You will have to contact them at least 3 months before your launch date. Also, you will have to get your commission tracking system ready, so that all commissions can be calculated automatically. Try to get yourself recommended to a JV broker because JV brokers don’t trust newbies. There are too many players and too many products in the market, and most of them are junk. You will have to prove to him that your product is different and you are credible, and the best way to do so is to have yourself recommended by someone he already trust.

3) Have some form of contest or extra reward during the launch

To encourage people to promote your product during the launch, it is important to have some form of contest or extra reward.

For example, you can organize an affiliate contest where the top affiliate walks away with a free ipad. You can even do something out-of-the-box like giving $0.10 for every new visitor that your user send to your website for a limited period of them.

The whole idea is to get people to start promoting your website during the launch. They may be blogging about your service or sharing in the forum. Whatever they do, these info are likely to stay online and bring you traffic in the long run.

4) Advertise

Nothing is as reliable as advertising. In advertising, you don’t have to rely on other people to bring you traffic. As I wrote in my previous article ‘Guaranteed Success In Any Advertising Campaign. Possible?‘, if you have the right strategy, success is guaranteed.

You can launch your product in beta and advertise to get beta testers. Due to the novelty of beta testing, it is often easier to get beta testers than users. Encourage your beta testers to submit testimonials, which will pave the way to converting more people when the product is launched.

Product launch is an important aspect of internet marketing but is often overlooked. With a good product launch, you will see yourself busily running an online business in no time. Without one, you may end up asking yourself everyday ‘how else can I get more traffic?’.