NOTE: This is Part 1 of a Series.
Last Friday, Jeff Walker finally released the "Product Launch Blueprint" video he's been promising.
But before you go and watch it…
…I want to tell what I mean by the subject line of this email.
(NOTE*** If you read the next few sentences of the following with a French accent, my sarcasm might be more obvious…)
I'll say it again, because it bears repeating. Product Launches DO NOT WORK.
This is an argument I've been having with Jeff Walker for almost as long as I've known him. He lets me win because I help him with web video stuff - but that's a different story.
Now don't get me wrong. Jeff's material is stellar, and we've used aspects of Jeff's "Product Launch Formula" material for every StomperNet roll-out we've done since we started the company in 2006.
Jeff's stuff WORKS - after all, StomperNet has had the First and Second biggest launches in our Market, and they followed Jeff's FORMULA to the letter…
But since I'm trying to give YOU a different perspective on how YOU can use "Launches" in your own market, I will maintain my silly and completely tongue-in-cheek position:
"Product Launches" do NOT work - And I can PROVE it…
… using one of Jeff's OWN CLAIMS! (Take THAT Jeff Walker!!!)
First, let me tell you why "Product" launches fail. I could give you huge bullet lists and we could discuss it for hours - but fundamentally, "Product" launches don't work because people DON'T CARE about products.
They care about Solutions… But, "Solution Launch Formula" is a lousy name for a product.
At the end of the day, your product is just a THING. And the real truth is, most of the time - it's a thing your prospects don't actually NEED.
Take my word for it - I sell swords.
In most parts of the world, no one has NEEDED a sword for several hundred years. But they sure sell all day long.
No one is going to invent a new kind of sword that I can have a successful "Product Launch" for. It doesn't matter how sharp it is, or how balanced it is, or even how cool it will look hanging on some wall.
Unless it's a magical sword that cures cancer, I'd have a very hard time doing a launch around a new sword. "It's newer, shinier, and made of more metal than our other swords!" You know what I mean? It's not very exciting. It's just a thing.
And that doesn't just go for swords - ANY product is the same. Soda pop, dog food, sunglasses, whatever. When you launch on a PRODUCT, you will inevitably fail, because the only appeal a "thing" can really have is that it's NEW.
Sure, that appeals to some people who have just got to have the NEWEST THING or the BEST THING - but those numbers certainly don't live up to Jeff's successes with "Product Launch Formula" tactics.
So what about Jeff's claims that prove my point?
Jeff's been saying repeatedly in his launch videos that "Product Launches" will work in absolutely any niche. He's had case studies, interviews, testimonials, etc. Heck, I've even REPEATED Jeff's claim. Materially, it's true. Jeff's stuff - his formulas and tactics - DO work in almost every niche they've been used in.
How can that be? Didn't I just say that it WOULDN'T work with swords?
Kind of.
I said that you couldn't do a "Product" launch with swords and be successful. 100% true.
But Jeff's stuff still works because "Launch Formulas" he created really are not PRODUCT launches. Not at all.
His formulas really have absolutely nothing to do with the product being launched - it makes no difference what it is, or what it does. In fact, it doesn't even have to be a "product" for his methods to work.
Do you sell a service? The formulas will work. Do you sell a subscription or membership? The formulas will work for that too.
But the methods work because they are NOT "Product Launch" formulas. They're something else entirely. What Jeff actually teaches his students to do is essentially IGNORE the product, and focus on marketing SOMETHING ELSE.
And the "Something Else" that you will actually focus your marketing on is something that you can create yourself from whole cloth.
It's wickedly easy, costs next to nothing, and is a bajillion times easier to market than a product (that's the actual number, too. Used a calculator and everything).
So what is it? What is this "Something Else" that Jeff's "Product Launch Formula" is actually about?
It's about "Events".
Note the capital "E" there.
Jeff's formulas are all about creating an "Event", and then marketing that one-time event to an ever-growing crowd. You market it right up until "launch" day, when you start getting orders literally the very INSTANT you open your cart. NOT because they want your product - that's hardly the reason they buy at ALL. It's because they want to be part of the EVENT you've created. And because it's a singular event, they've just got the ONE SHOT.
This is the true genius at the heart of Jeff's techniques.
When you go here to watch Jeff's "Blueprint" video, you'll hear him talk about an idea he had called the "sideways sales letter".
The idea is, you take a traditional long-form, copy-heavy direct sales letter. Let's say it's 30 pages long. It's filled with bullet points and sub-heads and benefits, testimonials, etc. - all the stuff it should have…
Jeff's idea is that you turn that letter physically sideways, and instead of a loooooong scrolling 30 page letter, you break it up into 30 DAYS of content.
Most of you know I have a film editing background, and this idea of Jeff's IMMEDIATELY brought to mind the "timeline" interface that almost all video editing software has in common.
By doing this you essentially trade SPACE (the long, long, long copy from your old-style sales page) for TIME. It's literally mapped out to the calendar.
So what would have been a suggestive (but passive) "Buy Now" button at the bottom of your letter…
It magically becomes a VERY LITERAL "Buy Now" EVENT. It's not just a mere suggestion that you go ahead and buy now. It means buy NOW - TODAY! The Event you've been hearing about, that you've been WAITING FOR? It's happening - so go NOW NOW NOW… etc. etc.
Do you understand how powerful this idea is?
By its very nature, real-time, real-world events have many of the strongest marketing persuasion tactics built-in. You don't have to make sure they're in your copy. You won't mess up if you leave them out of your marketing mind map. They are just automatically there.
Things like:
* Scarcity and Exclusivity
* Repetition of Messaging
* The Power of Participation and Social Pressure
Those are just three off of the top of my head. If you left those elements out of your sales copy during a non-event-based launch, you would be much, much poorer for it.
However, if you follow an event-based roll-out for your project, it becomes literally IMPOSSIBLE for you to forget about them. Even if you do the launch BADLY, you still have all these powerful marketing triggers working for you anyway.
Scarcity is already heavily implied when you are counting down to a specific date and time.
You automatically get the benefit of repeat messaging because you don't have to make excuses to mail your list. No more wracking your brain to think of ways to remind them that you have a product for sale. The build-up to the event is all the reason you need.
Psychologists know that people show affinity for groups they participate in. By doing an event-based launch, you're getting participation in advance (with all the blog commenting and survey feedback and whatnot). Not only that, you're INVITING them to "participate" in your launch by buying your product on launch day. Invitations are another powerful marketing trigger, too.
See, when you use Jeff's "Product Launch Formula" your product becomes an EVENT. Event marketing is superior to product marketing, even at the simplest test. Ask yourself, which is more likely to be sold:
A. The new band logo t-shirt for sale at a music store
B. The new band logo t-shirt for sale at their live concert event
You already know the answer.
See, my problem with Jeff's "Product Launch Formula" is just in the name. It's not about product launches at all. He should have called it "Event Launch Formula" or something.
Jeff even admits that he's not the best at naming things in Part 1 of his "Blueprint" video - he blames John Reese for that title. Maybe I should pick on Reese next time.
That's it for today. I need to go do some prepping for the next StomperNet LIVE Event in two weeks. An Event… huh, fancy that.
Keep Stomping,
~Andy Jenkins
P.S. Be sure you opt-in on Jeff's video page to watch Part 2 of the "Blueprint" video as well as Part 1. Tomorrow I'm going to talk about some of the stuff in that video. We're going to also discuss how focusing our marketing on an EVENT rather than a product led to us selling out Amazon's stock of an indie horror film DVD in 36 minutes. This stuff works everywhere, people. Not just in IM. (But it totally does NOT work for "Product" Launches!)