Building Your List – by doing a prelaunch

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve spoken to a business owner, and they say to me… “I’ve nearly finished by brand new product, but how do I sell it?”. How can I build my list so that I can sell my product? Ideally, you want to have your list of customers on the day that your product is ready… Jeff Walker’s book explains how to do this.

Ideally, you’d have a list first…

If you already have a database or list of customers ready to advertise your product to, then selling your product is pretty straightforward.

You might have this list of prospects from your list of existing customers, or you might have a lead magnet which is already attracting prospects.

Then you’d have a big launch, which has a launch offer (usually an impressive discount), to encourage your customers to quickly. Typically a very short campaign length (perhaps 7 to 10 days), with a hard deadline where you’ll remove the offer at 1 minute past the deadline.

Does this really work for business?

Yes it does. I’ve seen a few businesses use this ‘amazing-offer-but-be-quick’ style, to amazing impact. I’ve even used it myself on several occasions because it’s so effective! Usually I see 15% of sales when the offer opens, 35% of a trickle of sales, then about 50% of sales within 2-3 hours of the deadline. (Deadlines are AMAZING for offers – as long as you remind prospects that the offer is approaching.

Your customers will NOT want to miss out. As long as you offer is compelling and you have a good product, you’ll get the sales. And this does work for a large number of businesses, although it did find its way into the world originally from the Info Marketing space.

Why would you do a prelaunch?

A prelaunch is essentially about building a list of customers who are interested in your brand new product – before you’re selling it. You might not have even finished the product either!

You’d typically build that list from your existing database to ensure that people on your prelaunch list are VERY interested in what you’re selling. Essentially these prospects are sticking their hands up and waving at you!

They want to know more about this product. Often this prelaunch list is called a ‘VIP list’, as you’re promising people who sign up to the prelaunch list your best possible offer. Giving these prospects the best offer is a reward for them taking action.

The big advantage of a prelaunch campaign is that you can gauge how much interest there is in your product before you start selling. You can also share teaser content to get your VIPs very excited about what’s coming.

Know someone who does this REALLY well?

Apple.

Given their products sell out within in hours on launch day, demonstrates this perfectly. Their keynote speeches are several weeks before the products are stocked in stores. Yes, they have a loyal following. They create demand by using the keynotes to essentially build a prelaunch list.

I’ve done this before too.

What if you don’t have a list yet?

Then build a list using other people’s lists, existing Twitter/Facebook profiles you have, and possibly some paid advertising. Create videos and blog content to create a buzz, so that you can build you prelaunch list.

Essentially the lead magnet is the promise of more information. That’s why it’s so simple!

This is something that I did when I first launched the Squeeze Page Toolkit. Something like 10% of my prelaunch list made a purchase. This stuff works!

Want to know more about launching a product?

I don’t recommend products or services lightly, but Jeff Walker’s book “Launch” is a very easy-to-read book that explains how you can create the pre-launch hype and energy, so that on day 1, you get sales for your product. This process works really well for new products and services.

Jeff has explained the approach using his knowledge of internet marketing. However, the concept of warming up the prospects, the sales offer, the campaign length, deadlines (and more) are all covered in the book. So if a sales campaign is something you have EVER considered, then this book is a must read.

And yes, you can use the toolkit to create pre-launch lists and sales pages. That’s how I launched the toolkit itself!