If you want a stress free launch that maximizes profits then you need to create your own product launch checklist.
That might sound like hard work, but I am going to share my personal product launch checklist with you later in this post.
This is the same product launch plan that I used to generate $134,171 in just 6 days.
What You Will Learn
- The 7 stages of a 6 figure product launch
- How to get people excited about your product
- The strategy that delivered $56,369 of sales on the last day
- Download a copy of my personal product launch checklist
The 7 Stages Of A 6 Figure Product Launch
Before I give you a copy of my product launch checklist, it is important that you understand all 7 stages of a successful product launch-
- Pre-Pre Launch (this is the secret sauce everyone misses)
- Prelaunch Content Release #1
- Prelaunch Content Release #2
- Prelaunch Content Release #3
- Open Cart / Sales Video Release
- Closing The Cart
- Post Launch Management
I am going to explain each of the stages along with real examples from my own 6 figure product launch to give you a better picture of how it all fits together.
Until you understand each stage, my product launch checklist won’t make any sense at all.
Step #1 – The Pre-Pre Launch
The pre-pre launch is the most important part of the entire product launch but is often overlooked entirely.
It serves a few important purposes-
- To finalise your product and offer
- To identify any objections to your product (reasons people won’t buy)
- To collect testimonials
- To build excitement & anticipation
That might sound difficult to do, but trust me – it is as simple as sending an email and scheduling some social media updates.
The Shot Across The Bow
Using Jeff Walkers Shot Across the Bow technique, I sent out the email below.
Take note of how it is written and structured to gently introduce the product and start to build excitement.
That then took people to a survey which continued to build excitement but also asked 2 very important questions-
- What is your single most important question about private blog networks?
- If I could go the extra mile & include something you haven’t seen before – what would it be?
The first question is used to create a list of reasons people would not buy the product so I can tackle those issues head on later on in the product launch.
Here are some of the answers that I received-
The second question is purely to help me deliver the best final product possible.
It allows me to see where I might have holes in my teaching or how I can really knock peoples socks off with the product.
Here are some of the answers I received-
As you can see, each of those answers serve to help me to plan the rest of my launch and fine tune my product.
But it didn’t stop there, on the next page of the survey I implemented the secret sauce that Jeff Walker teaches to collect testimonials to use during the launch.
Building Buzz & Excitement
The other purpose of the pre-pre launch is to build excitement and buzz for your upcoming product.
The way I did that was by teasing people with behind the scenes tidbits of information and photos much like popular TV shows do when they are about to launch a new season.
Here is an example of how I did that-
Nothing too fancy but enough to start drumming up interest.
Take a look at another example here-
I applied the same strategy to every marketing channel I had available to me, including all social networks, emailing people I know and on the blog.
Drip feeding out that teasing content as you approach your launch will get people excited for what is about to come.
You should do the same thing with your product launch!
Step #2 – Prelaunch Content Release #1
I talked about the importance of prelaunch content and how to structure it in my previous post.
When you release the first piece of content you want to make as much noise about it as possible.
You should write down a list of ways that you can promote that first piece of content and then use each of them to their full potential.
For example I had these opportunities-
- This blogs email list
- A new post on this blog
- Deploying a header bar across the blog
- Deploying an exit popup on the blog
- Updating signatures in related forums
- Updating my personal email signature
- Adding a PS line to all emails in my autoresponder
- Contacting people featured in the product
- Social networks
- Google+
- Facebook adverts
- Twitter adverts
I suggest you make your own list of promotion opportunities to work from!
Then you just need to make a plan of attack like I did with my product launch checklist which you can download below.
Step #3 – Prelaunch Content Release #2
Launching the second piece of prelaunch content is in essence a mirror of launching the first piece.
The only difference is now you must also send an email to all of the people that opted in to receive the first piece of prelaunch content to let them know the second piece is avaialable.
Again you can see everything I did to promote it step by step in my product launch checklist below.
Step #4 – Prelaunch Content Release #3
As with the first and second prelaunch content releases, you want to maximise exposure of the third release through all available channels.
Don’t be afraid to push your message hard.
Remember, prelaunch content in itself is highly valuable and will knock the socks off anyone that watches it.
At this point in the game, all you have delivered is pure content that helps people so don’t be afraid to push it as hard as possible.
Step #5 – Open Cart / Sales Video Release
For me, this was the most difficult part of the entire process.
Not because it was actually difficult, but because the day you put the sales video live and open the cart is the culmination of all of your hard work.
If you get it wrong – it sucks!
But if you get it right, you will make it rain.
Before you rush out to tell everyone that the final video is available and you have opened the cart, you must do one important thing.
And that is to test everything AND THEN test it all again. Here are a few examples of things you should test-
- Does the sales page load correctly
- Do all of the links to your cart work
- Is your payment processor set to “live” mode and not stuck in “test” mode
- Try placing a live order – doesw everything work as expected?
Make a list of everything you need to test ahead of time and then run through it all before you start sending traffic to your final offer.
Trust me, you don’t want to learn that lesson the hard way!
Once the cart is open you need to PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE.
Promote harder than you have ever promoted in your entire life because the cart is only open for 3-7 days depending on the Product Launch Formula you have used.
That means you have got less than 1 week to make as much bank as possible!
I have shared my entire open cart day promotion plan in the product launch checklist below.
Step #6 – Closing The Cart
Closing the cart might seem like a bad idea, but it’s important that you create scarcity by taking the product away from the market.
This drives sales absolutely wild, I mean take a look at how my sales were distributed below-
The last day shows $11,344 in sales but that was just to account for time differences.
In actual fact the last day made $56,369 which is over 40% of total sales.
To maximize your sales you always want to make sure that you close the cart on a weekday. Avoid closing the cart on a weekend like your life depends on it.
You can take a look at how I closed the cart in my product launch checklist below.
Step #7 – Post Launch Management
After everything is said and done, it’s very important that you shift your focus to the customer.
Make sure that you follow up with all of your new customers and most importantly, deliver first class customer service.
People will have all sorts of problems from losing their login details to questions about the product itself. Make sure you are available to answer them.
You should take all the questions you get asked and use them to build out an FAQ page that will help serve other customers without duplicating your own workload.
I can’t stress how important it is to deliver a fantastic customer experience end to end!
There are a couple of things I like to do that helps with that.
First of all I send out a little thank you post card that looks like this-
Secondly I have set up my email marketing automation system to congratulate people as they move through the course automatically.
I have also set it up to reach out to them if they haven’t started the course or stop working through it at any point-
This will ensure everyone who bought the product, actually consumes the product which will lead to happier customers and significantly less refund requests.
Take time to get your post launch right and you will transform every customer into a raving fan for the lifetime of your business.
My Product Launch Checklist
So now you understand the 7 parts of a successful launch, I am going to share the exact product launch checklist that I created for my own 6 figure launch with you.
But before I do that, I highly suggest you check out Jeff Walkers free product launch workshop and download his blueprint.
You will learn how to take everything I have shown you above and put it all together to drive sales wild!
There is also a 22 page PDF that outlines the entire process for you that I highly recommend.
Click here to watch the product launch blueprint video and download the PDF now.
My Personal Product Launch Plan Checklist
For those of you that just want to download my personal product launch checklist, you can do that below-
Wrapping It Up
So there you have it!
In the last post I showed you the product launch formula I used to make $134,171 in 6 days.
And in this post I detailed my entire product launch plan by sharing my personal product launch checklist with you.
The only thing left to do is watch the free product launch workshop videos for yourself.
After all, that is precisely how I learned to put together my 6 figure product launch.
I hope you choose to do the same!