Launch: An Internet Millionaire's Secret Formula to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love and Live the Life of Your Dreams

by Jeff Walker

2. Reciprocity Reciprocity is the idea that if someone gives something to us, we will feel some obligation to give them something back in return. This is a very important mental trigger and again this is something that goes back thousands of years.

In fact, reciprocity is the very basis from which humans were able to create commerce and trade. For trade to occur, there has to be some amount of trust that when we give a product or service to someone, they will complete the trade by “holding up their end” of the agreement.

Reciprocity is a very powerf...

For example, in my family we celebrate Christmas, and a very strong part of the Christmas tradition is the idea of giving gifts. And trust me when I say that one of the worst feelings in the world is when a friend or neighbor shows up at your house with a gift for you, and you don’t have a gift for them. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I’m sure you can relate to this feeling. When someone gives you a gift, and you don’t have a way to reciprocate, that triggers...

During a PLF-style launch, you spend the entire prelaunch giving to people. That’s what the whole prelaunch is about . . . giving out great, free content. When you give out that content, you’re creating a large reciprocity imbalance. The greater the value of your Prelaunch Content, the greater that imbalance. In the end, when you ask for something back, your prospect will have a greater ten...

During a prelaunch there will be several cycles of reciprocity, of giving and receiving before you even get to asking for the order. But make no mistake—reciprocity is an extremely powerful mental trigger, and you’ll...

3. Trust Building trust is the ultimate short circuit to becoming influential in someone’s life. I’m sure you can think of many times when a trusted friend or parent or teacher told you something that you believed without question because of your relationship with that person. Something that, if a stranger had told y...

Obviously, if you want to influence someone, it’s much easier if they trust you. If you want to get someone to do something, it’s much easier if they trust you. If you want to convince someone to buy s...

One of the easiest ways to create trust is through time.

You can probably think of a time when you had a neighbor who seemed a bit different or even strange. You didn’t consider them to be a friend and probably didn’t even know them all that well. But after you lived next to them for a period of time, and after they proved themselves to be reliable and honest, you developed a sense of trust in them. Time makes it much easier to trust people.

That’s one of the luxuries that the Product Launch Formula® and the Sideways Sales Letter™ gives you . . . time. Compared to a normal “drive by” advertisement or sales pitch, these tools give you time and repeated interaction with your prospects. They make building a trust relat...

4. Anticipation Another super-powerful mental trigger is “anticipation,” and this is one of the cornerstones of the Product Launch Formula. In fact, when I first started teaching PLF, many...

Anticipation is one of the triggers that allows you to cut through the marketing fog. It lets you grab your ma...

Think back to when you were a child and you looked forward to some special day. Maybe it was your birthday. Maybe it was Christmas morning. Maybe it was your last day of school before summer vacation. Time seemed to slow down as the big, anticipated day approac...

Well, here’s a newsflash—all of us are really just big kids. We haven’t gotten over anticipating those special days. And if you do this right, your launch is almost like mixing together your prosp...

Anticipation is closely related to scarcity, which is another super-powerful trigger I’ll get to in just a minute, but basically it’s the idea that people will want something more if there’s less of it available. Anticipation is also closely tied to “events” where you’re circl...

If you use anticipation right, people will put the date on their calendar and look forward to your launch. It’s like you’re putting your prospects into your storyline. They can’t wait for the next installment, they can’t wait to se...

As with all the mental triggers, when you mix anticipation with the other mental triggers, the power is magnified and...

5. Likeability Likability is a mental trigger that you have certainly experienced in your life. The simple fact is that we enjoy doing business with people we know, like, and trust. We are more influenced by people we like than those we don’t like. So how do we become more likable? At the risk of stating the obvious, you become more likable by doing likable things. When you’re seen being gracious, kind, generous, and honest . . . well, people will like you more. And the more likable you are, the ...

If you look at what I’ve already shared with you about the magic of the Prelaunch Sequence, you’ll see that a well-constructed sequence will inherently make you more likable. You’re giving people great free content, you’re interacting with them, you’re responding to their questions and comments. All of these actions make you more likable. You’re building a strong connection with your market and your clients. And that makes you more influential.

6. Events and Ritual When you turn your marketing into an event (which is what running a well-executed PLF-style launch is all about), then you instantly make your marketing truly magnetic. People love events, and they get pulled in by them. It makes them feel as though they are part of something bigger than themselves. This is one of the reasons that sports fans get so caught up in the fate of a team. In reality, the people on “their team” are usually made up of a bunch of complete strangers. But watching their team compete becomes an important event in fans’ lives.

Dinner at Zuma with Shakti

A big part of this trigger is the idea of “ritual.” When people go through an event together, it becomes something of a ritual. Rituals pull people together and create some of the most powerful experiences we as human beings can have. In fact, ritual is a cornerstone for nearly all religion. In the modern Western world, we are somewhat starved for rituals (which, again, explains why sporting events are so important to so many), and that’s why this type of experience can be a peak experience for us.

Now, this isn’t a manual on how to start a religion or build a sports franchise, but this is powerful stuff that you can tap into quickly and easily. Turn your marketing int...

7. Community Community is a very powerful mental trigger. We act in accordance with how we think the people in ou...

If you reflect on your own life, I bet you can think of many communities you’re part of. These might be work communities, social communities, communities of friends, even online communities. And all of those communities have norms that govern how community members are supposed to act. These norms can be wildly different from community to community, but they are very powerful within the community.

Once you get people interacting with you, with your marketing, and with each other, you’re on your way to forming a community. Which means, of course, that you can create your own community norms. Those norms could include actions like helping spread the word about your Prelaunch Content, making comments on your launch blog, or “liking” your posts in social media. Or even buying your product.

8. Scarcity Scarcity is one of the most powerful mental triggers in existence, period. It’s simple—when there is less of something, we want it more.

One of the things that scarcity does is force people to make a decision. The vast majority of people will put off a decision if you give them a choice, especially when it comes to spending money.

One of the key objectives you have in your marketing is to force people to make a decision. That’s what scarcity does. If something is truly scarce, then a person needs to act quickly before the scarce resource goes away. To create a well-executed launch, you absolutely need to build scarcity into that launch.

There has to be some negative consequence if people don’t take action and buy before the end of the launch (for instance, the price might go up after the launch). If you make sure there’s always some scarcity built into your laun...

If you have programmed scarcity into your launch, plan on making a big bowl of popcorn and sitting back and watching all the orders pour in on the last evening of your launch.

9. Social Proof

Social proof is the idea that if we see other people taking action, then we will be inclined to take that action as well.

Let’s say that you want to download a piece of software or an app. You go to download.com or an app store and do a search. There are 30 different software packages that come up in your search. One of them has been downloaded 3.5 million times, one has been downloaded 17,000 times, and the rest have been downloaded just a few hundred times or less. Which one are you going to try first? Most people will start with the one that’s been downloaded 3.5 million times. All those other people must know something, right? Again, that’s social proof in action.

If you want to go deeper on the mental triggers, I’ve got a video for you at this link: http://thelaunchbook.com/triggers.

One of the important things to remember about these triggers is that they are not isolated. Many of them are closely related, and they work synergistically. When used together, the impact is compounded.

For instance, trust and authority are closely linked. It’s easier to establish authority when you have trust. And trust is something that naturally flows from having a position of authority. In fact, there is even a well-worn phrase that combines these two—”trusted authority.” Another example is scarcity and social proof. If something is scarce, it’s generally because the demand exceeds supply, which implies there is large demand. And if there’s large demand, well that’s social proof right there. So it’s almost like social proof and scarcity are two sides of the same coin. Another key point about mental triggers is that they are more powerful when you sequence them and layer them on top of each other. And that’s where the Produ...

Generally at the beginning of your prelaunch you start with a powerful piece of content that sets up the overall promise and opportunity of the launch. When you share strong compelling content at the start of your prelaunch, you instantly develop authority. That authority comes naturally when you publish that content; it’s nearly automatic. You will also develop reciprocity when you do this, because you’re giving away your great content freely. You have created a need in the receiver to give back to you, which often translates into a sale. You will also have anticipation going for you, as you talk about everything else that’s coming up in your prelaunch. As you move further through the prelaunch, you develop social proof as people make public comments about your Prelaunch Content. These comments can be on your blog or in social media—either way, you start to develop strong social proof. And hopefully your interaction throughout the prelaunch starts to build likability with your prospects (and maybe even a little trust). Then as the prelaunch nears its end, and you get close to your open cart date, you hit the event and ritual triggers as people start to anticipate your product. This is a natural time to hit the scarcity trigger, when you start talking about your offer and mention the inherently limited nature of the offer. That’s a quick example of sequencing and layering mental triggers, but I hope I’ve made it clear how powerful these triggers are. And a PLF-style launch...