The Beginner’s Guide to Infoproduct Development: Product Launch [Part 5]

This article is part of a five part series covering the topic of infoproduction development and launch.

Our final look into the process of developing an information product will take us through the product launch phase. It’s at this point in time that everything should have come together which included: choosing an idea, creating the product, tweaking the format, and setting up a shopping cart.

Now you’re right at the grips of releasing the infoproduct to the world … it can be scary … but it’s exciting.

The prospect of selling your own product can become very lucrative if you’ve done your research and hard work or could fizzle … but that’s part of the process. Whatever the outcome you can step away knowing that you’ve gone the extra mile and conquered what most affiliates never do.

From this point forward the work you place into selling your infoproduct relies on your momentum and drive. You can certainly launch and hope for the best or you can put on your business suit and get out there to sell the product.

Get ready … set … launch!

Pre-Launch Phase

The pre-launch is your moment to collect the last of your thoughts and prepare for the coming onslaught to your web server, email inbox, and social circles. There will be some mistakes made throughout the process but that’s why you have a pre-launch phase to hash out any of the kinks so the main phase doesn’t go off the rails.

The Success Stories

By now, you should have placed your product into the hands of a few of your followers and business connections with the guise that they will share their thoughts and feedback about the product.

The feedback and response you receive can either go toward fixing up any last issues with the product or as a testimonial for your product landing page (with their consent of course).

Likewise, you should encourage those early ‘testers’ to share their results so you can use it as success stories in your launch marketing materials and post-launch content. Gather stats and their personal recollection of what they learned, how they applied, and results from the information contained within the work; edit the story, include graphics, and publish these on your website and in your newsletter to create excitement for what’s to come.

Buzzing with Articles

An easy an effective way to generate buzz is to release a slew of guest posts on relevant blogs in your industry (and a few in areas completely unrelated). These articles can push people to a pre-launch landing page to collect email addresses which will later receive the launch email.

The added benefit is that you will begin building links to the landing page so it will start off with a decent reception in the search engines and come boosted by social shares.

In all, do what you would normally do as regards to using content for marketing but with the intent to educate and build a buzz around what you have to offer.

Attract Affiliates

Those of you that decided to go with a shopping cart with affiliate backend features or listing the product on a marketplace such as Clickbank will have the ability to attract affiliate marketers for the product launch. Catering to the affiliate marketer can help a launch tremendously.

Some main items you may want to include to attract these individuals may include: holding a contest with big prizes for the top affiliates, ad graphics, swipe files for email, a support forum, and excerpts from the product which can be used in content.

The point is that you want to give them a healthy commission and everything they need to aid in your product launch without lifting a finger. Piece together the emails, ads, and even articles they can publish to bring their community to your product.

Launch Phase

It’s go time.

You’re ready to launch, you’ve done the heavy lifting, and you’re excited to get the product up and out the door.

First and foremost: launch the product without anyone knowing and run a few tests to ensure that you can purchase your product. You don’t need to tell people about the soft-launch since it’s just to make sure there are no kinks during the big announcement.

Other items that should go on your list as part of the main launch phase should include:

Adding Product Presence

Take all those flashy graphics you created for the product and begin adding them throughout your website such as in the sidebar, header graphic, and below the post content. Don’t go too crazy with it because people will take notice but just cover all the basics.

Follow suit by publishing a post announcing the launch of your product which is, in essence, a sales letter but toned down as if it were any other post (it’s just special, this time).

Add your product to your list of affiliate resources and change out links to competitor products with your own in existing posts.

Basically: if you can add a graphic, link, or some form of media to draw attention to your product than get it out there.

List Awareness

If you’ve got an email list than you need to shoot out an announcement email … or two … or three.

Consider doing the first email that explains that you have released the product you’ve been talking about, where to find it, what it has to offer, and how much it costs. Go straight forward with this one and get to the point.

The second email should bring in some kind of emotional angle which can be provided through one of the success stories and a bit of injection of your opinions and comments along the way. The second email can pick up those stragglers that are on the fence about the product since it helps them to project what’s possible if they buy your products.

Finally, a third email that just comes out and says “buy me” as one last hurrah will stick around and do its job to catch anyone off guard by the blitz of the main product launch.

Overall: don’t go too crazy with emailing your list as people may get turned off from your aggressive sales behavior but do make the effort to keep your list informed since that’s why you built it in the first place.

Full-on PR

Get out there and begin running the social circles by updating every social profile you have at your disposal. Update the actual profile, share a link to the landing page, ask and respond to questions, start a Twitter discussion group, post a big event image on your Facebook feed, update LinkedIn groups, and release a YouTube video.

Bring awareness to your product through social media, advertising, content, and other traditional Web-related means as you have done in most of your work prior to the launch.

Post-Launch Phase

The product is up and out the door.

Maybe you’ve already got a few sales – maybe it’s still building momentum and gaining traction but regardless of its status it’s out there and there are a few nurturing things you can be doing to keep everything chugging along at full speed.

Responding to Reactions

Monitor what people are saying about your product and brand throughout the launch and respond to their comments and criticism. Keep a level head when responding even if their comments are negative and outright mean spirited. Tout and triumph those that have great things to say about your offer.

Most dialogs will be in the social circuit but don’t neglect emails, phone calls, live chat, and blog posts that begin to pop up post-launch. Nurture these individuals and they may buy your product if they had been on the fence but even if they don’t it’s still good nature to show your support and authority.

Telling the Tale

Share how the product launch went at some later point.

Write a blog post about what went on behind the scenes and what you had to do in order for it all to come to light. People will get to see a glimpse of you rather than just the sales side of your business; this may actually encourage people to buy your product since they may find you very relatable.

Additionally, you can continue to interweave the product and its launch into future articles to continually keep it in the focus of your community and those coming to the site. Tell the tale and you’ll hook them in.

Measuring the Response

Last on the list: test & measure

Use A/B testing on your product pages, advertising, email, and social updates to increase conversions on your product. Test one small element at a time, measure the response, update based on positive feedback, and repeat the process.

Likewise, measure the stats gained from your product launch and use that information to form new ideas for products, traffic sources, and dedicated customers. Build a new list based on those that purchased your product. Gather feedback for your personal records so your next product is a major hit!

 

There you have it. You just made your way through the infoproduct development series which took you throughout the entire process of setting up and launching an information product. Taking these actions can be very tiresome and difficult but they are immensely profitable and fulfilling. All the best that take the challenge and please let us know how it turns out if you find yourself launching a product!

Source: http://www.affiliateprograms.com/blog/guide-to-infoproduct-development-part-5/

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