"How to Create a Profit Windfall When Launching a New Product" By Yanik Silver
Unless you’ve been in a cave, you know that Harry
Potter mania is a worldwide phenomenon. Kids and
grownups alike eagerly await the release of each
book and movie, and I'm one of them. I even
devoured the last book, "Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince," in less than a day. But even
more interesting than the stories, from a business
point of view, anyway, is the fact that 6.9 million
copies of that book were sold in just 24 hours. Wow!
Actually, I had my own “big” release just a few days
before the boy wizard – it was for the tapes of my
"Underground Online Seminar," which are now sold out.
However, I have to admit I didn’t fare anywhere near
the multi-million dollar payday J.K. Rowling had,
but it still wasn’t too shabby. I raked in over six
figures (actually $193,380 to be exact) in the first
24 hours of my release.
So what do these two releases have in common?
One word...anticipation.
Whether it’s for the next blockbuster summer movie
(think"Star Wars") or for Harry Potter or even your
product – if you really want a big, monster payday
you’ve got to create an event. I’m going to let you
step behind the curtain a little bit so you can use
some of these same strategies I used.
First of all, I need to give credit where credit is
due. My friend, Jeff Walker, helped me formulate the
plan for this release. Jeff was one of my featured
speakers during the same "Underground Online Seminar"
and his topic was on exactly this same point – "how
to create six-figures in less than seven days with a
product release." So let’s dive right in…
Secret #1: Create Anticipation
We’ve already talked about this, but let’s give a
few more specifics. I started an "early-bird" list
from my subscribers and customers. I got people to
raise their hands and say "Yes, I want to know first
when you’ll be releasing these DVDs." Then once
people were on this list we started "dripping" on
them. We used a blog to post everything from "spy
photos" of the product (which came in a very cool,
individually numbered suitcase) to actual video
clips from the event. Each communication whet the
person’s appetitie for the upcoming release. Please
keep in mind, these updates were planned out before
the start of the promotion so it wasn’t just thrown
together by the seat of our pants.
Secret #2: Secure Partners' Participation
Over the years I’ve built up a network of friends
and business associates. I don’t "hit up" my
Internet friends and associates too often to
promote products, so most of them were eager to
help with this promotion. This is the same thing
you can be doing in your own marketplace. Instead of
thinking of competitors – you should consider them
potential promotion partners. Also start "digging
your well before you are thirsty." That means
building relationships and networking with people
in your industry and marketplace who have influence
and carry weight.
Secret #3: Promotion Tools
Everybody has too much to do and too little time to
do it,so the more you can “spoon-feed” your partners
the better. Yes, some people will take the extra
effort to do their own promotions, but most people
would rather have a pre-made "cut and paste" email
or letter to send. That’s why I provided my partners
with "content" in the form of video clips from the
seminar that they could release to their list. This
put more people on the early-bird list who were
"glued" to that particular partner. Cater to
everyone’s laziness and make it "fill-in-the-blank"
or turn-key simple.
Secret #4: Get People Buying
I wanted to make sure people were really excited
about the release, so we reminded them the day
before and also one hour before the release time.
Plus, I even added a special time-limited bonus
that expired after 4 p.m. on the first day of the
launch. That gave people one more incentive to
order right away. You can’t stop with one notice
about a launch – you’ve got to remind them multiple
times when everything is happening.
Follow these 4 secrets and you'll see some big numbers
in no time flat!
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Yanik Silver is recognized as the leading expert on
creating automatic, moneymaking websites...and he still
doesn't know how to put up a website.
He is the author, co-author or creator of several best-
selling online marketing books and tools, including his
newest resource - http://www.UltimateCopywritingWorkshop.com