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Duct Tape Marketing Coach

Your Customer’s Buying Process

by Bill Brelsford on September 28, 2010

Do you know what your customer’s buying process looks like?

If you sell professional services, or other complex and\or expensive products and services, your customers probably view buying as a process rather than as an event.

If buyers go through a process to make their decisions then it makes sense that the more closely our marketing system is aligned to their process, the better our chances of being selected by them to provide our service. The key is to provide the information they need at each step of their buying process, so they can move forward to the next step.

In her book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale (Amazon affiliate link), Ardath Albee outlines a 7 step buying process.

1.    Status Quo – Beginning to experience a problem, but not ready to do anything about it
2.    Priority Shift – actively interested in learning what change might mean for their company
3.    Research – committed to resolving the problem and is focused on building a business case. Looking for experts and realistic outcomes he can plan for
4.    Options – Narrowing focus to develop a short list
5.    Step Backs –New information or concerns are causing hesitations
6.    Validation – Has a short list and needs to make sure his assumptions are true before making a final decision
7.    Choice – Ready to make a purchase decision

Your customers may go through a slightly different buying process, but I think this is a good place to start, particularly if you sell professional services.

One of the challenges that we face is that today’s customers perform much of their research and early decision making before we ever know about them. They research on the internet, talk to their friends and colleagues, read newspapers and magazines, etc., all before they speak to a sales person. In the buying process outlined above, it is not uncommon for buyers to be at step 4 (or further) before they ever have a sales conversation with someone at your company.

Our job as marketers is to provide the information that customers need at each stage of their buying process. By providing this information we help them move from one stage to the next, shortening their buying (and your sales) cycle.

The more complex the sale, the more decision makers and influencers will be involved. Don’t forget to provide the information needed to answer their questions as well.
KEY – We must provide the information prospects need to meet their goals and where they are at in their buying process.

Steps to take:

1.    Take the time to learn about your ideal customers and their goals
2.    Learn more about how your customers make buying decisions. Does the buying process outlined above hold true for your buyers? Who else helps them make their decisions to buy your services?
3.    Determine what information your prospects need to know at each stage of the buying process.
4.    Begin to update your marketing materials to
5.    Get in the habit of reviewing and updating your assumptions and materials on a regular basis.

ducttapemarketingbadgeBill Brelsford is the owner of Rebar Business Builders. As an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Bill works with professional service firms and independent professionals who want to spend less time chasing business and more time serving profitable customers.
phone: 913.962.9261
email: bill@rebarbusinessbuilders.com
web: http://www.RebarBusinessBuilders.com
blog: http://blog.rebarbusinessbuilders.com

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5 Reasons to Build a Word of Mouth Marketing System

by Carolyn Higgins on July 21, 2010

Article by Carolyn Higgins

I constantly hear things like “most of my business comes from referrals”, “word of mouth is the only marketing I need”. But when I ask these business owners, “So, how’s business?” I hear, “slow”, “things are tough right now” or “I don’t have enough customers”. Word of Mouth Advertising Fortune Marketing

By far, word of mouth– or referral – marketing is the best kind of marketing there is.  But what I usually see is a passive approach to referral marketing as opposed to an “active” approach.  Most business owners have no real system in place to drive referrals on a consistent and regular basis; they just show up to their networking events and referral groups, cross their fingers, and hope someone will have a hot lead for them. This type of referral almost happens by chance, doesn’t it?  Yet, I constantly hear – “Word of mouth is all I need - 90% of my business comes that way ”.  But my question to them is this; is 90% of “not enough” enough?

What if you could be more proactive about referral marketing and actually put a system in place to improve the number, quality and consistency of referrals you get? What if you could have more control over when and how they come?

In his new book, The Referral Engine, John Jantsch gives 5 great reasons to take the time to build a systematic approach to referral marketing:

  1. People love to give referrals – People love to help other people and they like to appear smart and in the “in”. If someone can offer a tip to a friend, family member or colleague about a great product, service or business, it makes them feel (and look) good. So, don’t be shy about asking for referrals,   you’re actually doing them a favor!
  2. Greater ROI (Return on Investment) – Good referral marketing isn’t usually free. There are costs associated with joining networking groups, printed materials and maybe incentives. But compared to some of the other forms of marketing (print, radio, television, etc.) the potential for return –when done correctly – can be huge.
  3. More Qualified Prospects and Customers – When you “train” your referral sources, i.e.: meticulously describe to them your best customer, the quality of prospects and customers you get will be better.
  4. Built-In Credibility and Trust – People like to work with people and companies they trust. It’s hard to trust someone you’ve never met face to face. But it’s easy to trust a friend, family member or colleague- so if someone who has already gained the trust of the prospect refers you; you’ve already achieved a level of credibility and trust.
  5. Fewer Issues Regarding Price- your referral source did the selling for you! They already told the prospect how great you are and the value you deliver so you don’t have to compete on price.

Would you like a free preview of John Jantsch’s new bestselling book, The Referral Engine? Click here to download a free chapter.

ducttapemarketingbadge Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

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Photo by Balaji.B

Are You Making This Mistake in Your Business?

by Guest Author on June 30, 2010

I’m a big believer in systems.  I hate the idea of “reinventing the wheel” every time something needs to get done.  It’s a waste of time, money and resources – all of which are usually in short supply in small business.  Small business owners are great at systems when it comes to shipping it, fixing it, billing it, hiring or the day-to-day operation of the business.  Where they fall short is having a system for marketing their business.

Photo by Balaji.B

Photo by Balaji.B

For one reason or another, small business owners believe they can be successful without a marketing system.  Well, I’m here to tell you it won’t happen and here’s why.  A system keeps you focused and gets you results and a good marketing system generates qualified leads on a consistent basis.  Without a marketing system, business owners fall prey to the age old “promotion of the week” or promotional panic as we like to refer to it.  You know what I mean.  It’s the latest and greatest idea you saw at a recent tradeshow or that “thing” that a friend told you about over coffee that you just gotta try.

Why a marketing system?  A marketing system will help you turn suspects into prospects and prospects into clients and clients into raving fans.  People do business with people they know, like and trust and in today’s busy world, it takes more than 10 ‘touches’ to get someone to know like and trust you.  What are you doing to get people to know, like and trust you?  With a system in place, it can be working even when you’re not.

Back in university, I did Business 101 (seriously, that’s what it was called) and the first thing that we were taught was the four key functions of business (today there are five if you include information technology).  You have finance, operations, human resources and marketing.  All of them key to any business’ success.  Building a business with only three of the keys is like building a house on sand.  It’ll stand for a short while but eventually it is coming down.

So you decide!  Do you want your business built on sand or on a solid foundation?  If you chose a solid foundation, you might want to start building your marketing system because it’s probably the only one that you are missing.

ducttapemarketingbadge

Brenda Mahoney is a successful marketing coach with a passion for helping others succeed, personally and professionally. Working in the corporate world as well as being a business owner and marketing consultant for many years, Brenda has a strong track record for success. She’s worked with businesses in many different industries and loves what she does.
http://www.criticaledgemarketing.com/

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The three “real” rules of marketing success

by Marketing Masters on June 28, 2010

Clate Mask is CEO of one of the Inc 500’s fastest-growing companies, Infusionsoft.com. Ask him about how to build a successful business, and he’ll say, “There are three, and only three, factors that really have an iron grip on the profits of any marketing effort. The smartest marketing minds on the planet have boiled these factors down to this simple, but incredibly powerful, formula: The Right Message… To The Right Market… At The Right Time!”

The problem is, most businesses send out a message that’s only relevant to the company owner—that is, to people who are not in the market for their product or service, at a time when they are probably not interested in buying!

We often hear people say “I meant to get around to doing some marketing, but I just didn’t have time, so we just put something out there.” Or, worse, “I got a great deal on this program but I didn’t realize 90 percent of it went to people who don’t buy what I sell.”

Many small business owners spend money on “image” advertising, with no direct response offers included at all. There is no “next step” called for, and thus, no way to measure the effectiveness of the ad. Advertising just your brand is great if you’ve got a million-dollar budget like Nike or Coke, but it’s marketing suicide for the rest of us!

The objective of your marketing efforts is to generate leads—finding people you can follow-up with. When you convey the right message, to the right market, at the right time, you get leads. Social marketing tools in particular, can really help you do this inexpensively and effectively.

Here’s how: You want to attract people who are interested in what you’ve got to sell so you create a dozen powerful, benefit-filled headlines offering to provide free reports or “how-to” documents (or even a dozen different titles for the same document), e.g. “Free report—What you should know before hiring a contractor.” Or, “Get the facts: Learn how to work with a contractor before you renovate.” Offer them on Twitter.com and see which headline generates the most response. Expand the program by posting the same short message on your company’s Facebook.com “fan page” and your LinkedIn.com profile (you have these, right?). Use the same approach to learn what generates the most interest in a free webinar (that you could offer).

Create a series of three-minute videos introducing yourself and offering something—a free guide, a seminar etc. (this will take you about five minutes each using the camera on your computer and an on-line helper like JiveSystems.com). See which one gets the most response and build on that knowledge.

Marketing today is all about getting people to come to you . Stop just talking about your company, and start conversing with your customers and prospects. Offer them content they value—use some easy (and fun) tools and a little bit of learning how to test and track, you’ll soon see results.

ducttapemarketingbadgeKen Burgin and Elizabeth Walker are the Marketing Masters (www.MarketingMasters.ca), a full-service marketing and advertising partnership that helps build busy businesses. Send your ideas on How to Thrive in Times Like These to liz@marketingmasters.ca or ken@marketingmasters.ca, or call 1-866-908-5720.

web: http://www.marketing,masters.ca
blog: http://thebuzzwithkenandliz.blogspot.com/

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Why advertising doesn't work fortune marketing

Why Advertising Doesn't Work for (Most) Small Businesses

by Carolyn Higgins on June 24, 2010

Article by Carolyn Higgins

Pick up a newspaper, magazine or advertising circular and look at the ads. What do you see?  A whole bunch of the same thing: a list of services; a company name; a tagline; a pretty graphic; and maybe an offer.

Why advertising doesn't work fortune marketingMost businesses think of advertising in one of two ways: 1) Put your company name in front of enough people enough times so they’ll remember you when it’s time to buy. … or 2) Put an “amazing” offer out there and people will be compelled to respond (whether they’ve made the decision to buy or not).

The first scenario is called ”top of mind” advertising and unless you have a multi-million dollar marketing budget it’s very difficult to buy top of mind brand awareness. In the second example advertising sales people want their advertisers to see results (because results sell more advertising), so  they recommend you put an offer  in your ad:  Get 10% off service, $5.00 of a product, buy one get one free, etc.  And sure, that works - sometimes.

Let’s Analyze the “Compelling Offer” Approach:

Does putting an amazing offer in front of people influence them to buy even if they don’t have an immediate or compelling want or need? Does an amazing offer force someone to buy if they don’t have a budget? No, it doesn’t.  So your ad gets completely ignored and you don’t get any response. (Ok to be fair – best case scenario – someone may clip it, stick it to the fridge where it will hang for a month or two before it ends up in a drawer or in the trash).

How an Ad Gets Seen….or Not.

Consider this scenario:   I’m looking at an ad in the free local magazine that comes in the mail every month; it’s an ad for a $75 carpet, tile or grout cleaning.  Well, my tile and grout happen to be pretty clean- well clean enough for me right now. So I’m not interested in spending $75 to get it cleaned, even if it is a great deal. I ignore the ad and move on.

Now let’s think about this… I am a tile owner. At some point in my life I may need tile cleaning services. However, did I notice the name of the business offering the deal? NO. Do I know how they are different from every other steam cleaning company out there? NO. Has this ad given me a reason to remember them when I am ready to get my tile and grout clean? NO. Has this ad engaged me in any way? NO.

Old School Advertising Doesn’t Work!

And what’s the traditional reaction when advertising doesn’t work?    Ask any advertising rep and they’ll tell you - you need to advertise MORE (i.e.: spend MORE money), so that when your prospect is ready to buy  they will see or remember your ad and call you. But how much are you willing to spend to make a sale?

So let’s say you spend $175 / month on the ad and it takes me 6 months to decide I need to clean my tile. Let’s say I happen to choose you because I remembered seeing your ad in the magazine for the past six months and because your offer is better than the other guy who is doing it for $100. You’ve just paid $1050 to get my $75 sale. Sure, you may up-sell me, I may become a regular customer and my life time value may be in the thousands – but those are big “ifs”. Think about that:  you are spending hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars hoping to reach a prospect at exactly the right time in their buying process. Doesn’t that seem like a pretty large gamble to you? No wonder businesses think advertising doesn’t work!

A New Way to Advertise.

What if, instead of advertising with the hope of making your phone ring off the hook and breaking sales records immediately, you take a different approach! What if you try something Duct Tape Marketing calls the “2 Step Approach to Advertising”?   What if, instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on print ads trying to find that needle in a haystack – that rare person who is ready to buy what you are offering the second they see your ad – you find potential prospects and get their permission to market to them on a more consistent basis and with more targeted offers while spending less money?

Here’s How 2 Step Advertising Works:

Create an ad offering a free report:  “5 Easy Things You Can do to Keep Your Tile and Grout Clean”. Or better yet, “How to Remove Tile and Grout Stains Yourself”. OK,  I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking this is crazy and it’s going to cost you business –right?  Well, you’re wrong. It won’t cost you business; in fact this approach will accomplish three things. It will:

  1. Get people to your website where they can learn more about you.
  2. Attract people who actually own tile and who will give you permission to market to them on a regular basis.
  3. Prove that you care more about helping people than making a sale (prospects love that).

The goal of marketing is to get people who have a need to KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST you so when they are ready to buy, they buy from you. Offering helpful and useful information helps build your KNOW, LIKE and TRUST factors and yes, increases sales.

The goal of 2 Step Advertising is to get prospects to your site and get their permission to engage them by collecting their email addresses. Once you have their permission you can email surveys, newsletters, tips and offers geared specifically to their needs on a monthly or bi-monthly basis for about a penny an email.

Think about how powerful that is: You get to communicate with a prospect who has given you permission to market to them for one tiny penny! That’s HUGE!

Your New Advertising Strategy

How many more responses do you think you can get when you stop selling in your advertising and start offering helpful information? People hate to be sold. And that’s what traditional advertising is all about. What if you can get 10 new people on your email list from each ad? What if 1 of those people eventually buys from you at full price – or close to it? What is the cost of that one customer compared to the one you got by practicing traditional advertising?  I guarantee that if you implement this approach as part of your marketing strategy you will get results and begin to see your business grow.

ducttapemarketingbadge Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

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arrow

What Are You Afraid Of?

by Guest Author on June 2, 2010

arrowWe’re in an economic downturn; a slump in the economy; bad economic times and the list goes on.

Did you ever stop to think how this REALLY affects your business? I mean REALLY; not just believing all the naysayers but day to day what it means to your bottom line. My guess is nothing.  It doesn’t mean a thing. Let’s face it; we’re not Donald Trump wheeling and dealing with billions. We’re the local business next door servicing a few good clients and some so-so clients.

The media has made all the excuses we need to not succeed. If someone asks how things are going, you can say it could be better but you know how the economy is. It’s taking its toll on everyone. I call bull poop. It’s affecting large manufacturers; it’s affecting the stock market and it’s affecting my retirement fund but it is not negatively affecting my business or yours.

What is negatively affecting your business is getting caught up in all the negativity. How do you know this? The leads start to dry up. Is it because of the economy? No! It is because you stopped doing lead generation in your day to day routine.

So what are you afraid of?   don’t believe that you’re afraid there is not enough customers or enough business to go around. Think about it. How many customers do you really need to succeed this year? You don’t know! Well, that is the first thing you need to do. Figure it out. Not knowing is what is scaring the heck out of you. How can you possibly succeed if you don’t know what success looks like. Most small businesses only need a few customers; not thousands.  Some may need 10 good ones and others 100 or so. Either way, it’s not a huge number.

I think you’re afraid of making a commitment; of being accountable; of saying it out loud; maybe even afraid of success. You’ll find by knowing how many customers you need to succeed, you’ll know how many leads you need to generate and you’ll realize that it’s not that big a task and a lot less scary than the unknown.

ducttapemarketingbadge

Brenda Mahoney is a successful marketing coach with a passion for helping others succeed, personally and professionally. Working in the corporate world as well as being a business owner and marketing consultant for many years, Brenda has a strong track record for success. She’s worked with businesses in many different industries and loves what she does.
http://www.criticaledgemarketing.com/

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shoes

Can a Good Marketing Plan Sell a Mediocre Product?

by Guest Author on May 20, 2010

I recently worked with a small business owner who told me that she knew her target market. She was indeed able to describe her ideal clients in great detail, but she was not as talkative when it came to listing the needs and problems of her prospects.

The above mentioned entrepreneur participates in networking events, has posted several videos on YouTube and is familiar with most social media marketing tools.  She is also a decent speaker, active on Facebook and I can attest to her success in attaining thousands of followers on Twitter.  She seems to be doing everything right, yet she is not successful at converting prospects to customers.

shoesIn my efforts to give her some fruitful advice we analyzed her marketing plan, including her core marketing messages and marketing budget. Our discussion eventually shifted to her products.  Why couldn’t she sell seemingly good and well-packaged products? Should she blame the recession?

We came to the conclusion that her offerings and marketing messages did not have enough depth to stand out from her competitors’ messages and turn prospects into customers. In addition, her products did not offer a new solution to a real problem her target market was experiencing, nor did they meet a burning need of her ideal clients.  She did not have an edge – the hook was missing.  She could not sell sneakers to prospects who needed dress shoes.

Small business owners often fall in love with their products and services and stop thinking about their target audience and its changing needs. We tend to believe we know the audiences we serve, but we should stop and think again.

ducttapemarketingbadgeVarju Luceno is the owner of Global Office Partners – a marketing firm that focuses on the needs of professional service businesses. Varju is also a global marketer, blogger and writer on small business and technology related topics. She earned her MBA in marketing from the University of Montana in Missoula.
Web: globalofficepartners.com
Blog: outsourcemiracle.com
twitter.com/varjuluceno

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Marketing Review Process

The Marketing Plan Review Process – Your Key to Marketing Success

by Bill Brelsford on April 26, 2010

For most professional service firms creating a marketing system is not a onetime project with a definite begin and end period. Rather, it is an iterative process, where we work on adding a new component to the system, improve an existing piece, and perhaps remove a component that is not performing.

This need for an iterative process is driven by several factors including the complexity of creating a system, the need to change and adapt, and the reality that more often than not, the marketing function is being performed by someone for whom marketing is just one of the many hats they wear.

In my opinion, one of the essential keys to success in managing an iterative process is to have a well defined review process in place. Whether you are solely responsible for marketing, or work as part of a team, a strong review process will help you stay on track with your big picture goals while you wrestle with the challenges of implementing tactics on a day to day basis.

I am not a big fan of long, drawn out review sessions, so I have to tactics that I like to use to keep marketing review sessions useful and efficient. The first is to hold review sessions on a fairly frequent basis. If you are just getting started, I would recommend doing them monthly. Quarterly is better than not doing them at all, but I find quarterly meetings tend to run long and wander a bit.

The second tactic I use is to follow a four step process in these sessions. I find that the combination of following the same process and doing it on a regular basis makes for a efficient and effective marketing review process. Here is an outline of the process I like to follow:

Review

During the first phase I like to review the assumptions and strategy that make up our plan as well as any lessons learned.

Assumptions – all plans are based on assumptions using the best information available at the the time. One of the first steps in your review process should be to review those assumptions and determine if they are still useful for your planning purposes.Marketing Review Process

Strategy – I find it is helpful to restate our marketing strategy at the beginning of the review meeting as it helps us keep the big picture of what we want to accomplish in mind.

Lessons Learned – what did we learn since the last meeting. This could be anything from mistakes made, news about competitors, feedback from customers, etc.

Update

In this phase we want to make changes to our marketing materials, milestones, budgets, metrics, and our marketing calendar.

Plan

During the plan phase, we get ready for the next iteration. We create and assign milestones, identify resource needs, map out timelines, etc.

Implement

Now it’s time to “do marketing” again. During this phase we continue executing our regular tactics and work on implementing the ones outlined during the plan phase.

Consistence use of a review process is essential to the creation of a successful marketing system. If it is not on your calendar already, schedule a marketing plan review session today.

ducttapemarketingbadgeBill Brelsford is the owner of Rebar Business Builders. As an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Bill works with professional service firms and independent professionals who want to spend less time chasing business and more time serving profitable customers.
phone: 913.962.9261
email: bill@rebarbusinessbuilders.com
web: http://www.RebarBusinessBuilders.com
blog: http://blog.rebarbusinessbuilders.com

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disneylandlogo

Disneyland Isn’t Participating in the Recession, Are You?

by Carolyn Higgins on March 30, 2010

When I ask small business owners what their number one challenge in marketing is, I get a range of different answers. Lately I’ve been hearing “the economy,” “the housing market,” “high taxes,” or some other force that is beyond our control.

So where does that leave us? If our biggest marketing challenges are these insurmountable forces that are beyond our control, then how are we to ever succeed?  Doesn’t this seem defeatist to you? Wouldn’t you rather think of marketing challenges in terms of things you can control? Yeah, the economy sucks, but does that mean we should give up? Does that mean we have to sit back and fail?  Absolutely not!  What it means is that we, as small business owners, have an opportunity to re-think our marketing strategies, get creative and boldly claim our piece of the pie (yes, it is a smaller piece. But it’s still pie!).

A marketing challenge is a problem your small business is having that you CAN control. Like: not getting enough leads; not converting enough leads; diminishing customer loyalty; decreasing spend by existing customers, etc.  You’re probably scratching your head, “But all of these things have to do with a bad economy…”   Yes, people are spending less and are more mindful of the purchases they make, but guess what – they are still spending! Are you getting a piece of that, or are you sitting back with a defeatist attitude and not doing anything to capture what market share there is?

disneylandlogoThe economy is bad, there is no denying that. But has everyone stopped buying? No, they haven’t. A friend of mine just went to Disneyland on New Years and it was sold out. He asked, “Where’s this recession I keep hearing about?” Is Disneyland using the recession as an excuse to stop marketing?  Quite the opposite, they are out there more than ever, offering really great deals to those who are sick and tired of eating in every night, watching every penny and skipping more expensive vacations. Disney understands that the economy is not their number one marketing challenge –  reaching their target market with compelling messaging and offers is their challenge.

If you are one of those small business owners who think your biggest marketing challenge is some reality that is out of your control, I want to challenge your thinking: Economies are always going to boom and bust, housing markets will rise and fall, competitors will always come out with a great sale that will attract your market or even make some of your customers think — or worse yet shop. These are not marketing challenges. These are reality.

So, I’ll ask again: What is your number one marketing challenge? And what are you doing to overcome it?


ducttapemarketingbadge Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit FortuneMarketingCompany.com.

Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.631.6340.

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a-team

The 5 Steps To Planning Your Successful Product Launch

by Matt Murren on March 24, 2010

Are you launching a new product or service?

Often when I hear “how do I market my product?”  the first thing I ask about is the business owner’s pre-launch planning process.

Quick warning. There is quite a bit of work involved in a successful product launch. Be prepared to roll up the sleeves a bit. As an entrepreneur, that shouldn’t stop you.

Let’s dive in…

Here are the 5 secrets to planning your product launch:

1)    Define Your Launch Objectives – Is this an internal launch or an external launch? Are you going to launch to your existing customers first? If you have an internal list, this is usually a great way to start and test your launch before investing in a full-blown launch to a wider audience of prospects. Get clear on the type of launch, and then get clear on your objectives. Are you trying to sell a product, or are you trying to build your list. These are really two totally different approaches. Without a solid and measurable objective, your efforts won’t be directed.

2)    Take Inventory – After you are clear on what you want to accomplish in your launch, it is time to take inventory of your launch assets. Your launch assets include your mailing lists, email lists, joint venture partner lists, video, audio, and any other assets you have at your disposal for your launch. If you are launching your product online, you may need to include assets like your website, Web copy, etc.

3)    Craft The Killer Offer – Now that you have taken inventory, it is time to create the offer.  If you haven’t done this yet, now is the time to dig deep and outline the features and benefits for your prospect. Why should they buy your product or service? What guarantee are you going to offer? How are they going to pay for the product or service? How is it delivered? You need to really identify the core drivers for your prospect to move to action and purchase your product. Think about the problem your product solves and make sure your offer speaks to the solution.

a-team4)    Your “A” Team – You are going to need a team to help you with your product launch. Even if it is a small team, you are going to need help from your Web developer, copywriter, Web host, graphics designer, and fulfillment staff. Depending on the size of your launch, you might be wearing all the hats here. My advice is to identify where your strengths are, then outsource and assemble a team to help you be successful.

5)    The Launch Plan – Your launch plan is your blueprint to your entire product launch. It combines the tasks involved and, more importantly, the sequence of events in your product launch. Your launch plans should include email and print copy creation, video creation, landing page creation, and day-by-day plans for the release of content during your launch. One productive way to create the plan is to get your team together for a couple of hours to make sure you have a comprehensive plan covering all areas of your product launch.

When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I’m sure you’ve heard this before. There are so many details in a good product launch that you need a script to follow. This starts with the pre-launch tasks and goes all the way through fulfilling the orders. Don’t forget to leave some time in there to test prior to firing your first offer out. There is nothing worse than having a great offer only to find out your shopping cart doesn’t work, and prospects can’t place an order.

Product launches are a lot of fun. Don’t get stressed out, just make sure you follow these five steps and you will find it easier to get your product to market.

The good news is that after you create your first product launch, you can recycle many of the assets and planning efforts for your next successful launch.

Go Target, Attack, and Profit with your launch!

ducttapemarketingbadgeMatt Murren is the founder of MarkeFin. MarketFin is an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach and Product Launch Specialist.
Matt specializes in helping business owners manage their product launches online. Follow Matt on Twitter @marketfin!

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