Launch (Updated & Expanded Edition): How to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Lifeof Your Dreams

by Jeff Walker

7. “How can I stand out in a crowded market? How can I be different?”

Video (whether it’s live or recorded) has a number of advantages. Our society has clearly become one where most people spend more time watching video than they do reading. It’s often easier to craft a compelling video than to sit down and write a meaty PDF report, and unless you’re a truly gifted writer, it’s a lot easier for your potential clients to get to know you and feel like they have a relationship with you via video. Finally, video content often has a higher perceived value than other types of content.

there are two primary types of video: screen-capture video and full-motion video. Screen capture is a video recording of a computer screen with a voice talking over it; with it you can record a PowerPoint-style presentation or a demonstration of a website or some software. Full-motion video is like the video you see on TV; it’s shot with a camera. Neither of these types of video is better or worse than the other; each has its strengths and weaknesses. For instance, some people prefer screen-capture video because they don’t feel comfortable appearing on camera. Others prefer full-motion because there’s often less prep work involved—if you know your material and have a rough outline, you can just turn on the camera and start recording.

Show the opportunity. Show/tell your prospect how their life is going to change with your product. Position your authority. Show/tell why they should listen to you. Teach. It’s important not to just go on and on about the opportunity; you have to deliver value.

Raise objections and either answer them or promise to answer them in upcoming videos. No matter what your offer is, there will be objections. You need to face them head on. Foreshadow PLC #2. Let them know there’s another video coming, and spark their desire by revealing some of the really cool stuff they’re going to learn in PLC #2. Call to action. Ask for a comment on your Prelaunch pages or in social media.

Here’s the general recipe for a strong PLC #2: Express thanks and recap. Thank people for their comments and questions from PLC #1, then give a quick restatement of PLC #1. Recap the opportunity. You won’t spend as much time as you did in PLC #1, but you need to quickly reiterate the opportunity. Don’t ever assume that your prospect has seen or paid attention to or remembered PLC #1. They’ve got busy lives, and your launch isn’t nearly as important to them as it is to you.

Recap your positioning. You need to remind them who you are and why they should listen to you. But don’t take too long with this—do it quickly. Present a case study or do some real teaching. Deliver some real value for your viewers. Teach them one cool thing (or several) that they can put to use quickly. Crush objections. Talk about the top two or three objections and answer them. You want to go after your prospects’ big objections to the change or transformation that you’re promising. Foreshadow PLC #3. You need to let your prospects know you have another video coming soon. Build some anticipation for it by telling them a little about what you’re going to teach in that video. Call to action. Ask for a comment on your Prelaunch page or a share on social media.

PLC #1 was the “why” and PLC #2 was the “what.” Now, in PLC #3, you will start to answer the “how” question.

Here’s the recipe for PLC #3: Express thanks and excitement. Thank your viewers for their comments and questions from PLC #2. Tell them how excited you are and how excited all your viewers are. (And if you did a good job in PLC #1 and #2, then your viewers WILL be getting excited.) Quickly recap the opportunity and your positioning. Don’t assume your prospects remember (or even saw) your first two videos. Briefly describe the opportunity, and remind them who you are and why they should listen to you. Don’t take too long with this—move through it quickly.

Possibly present a short case study, if you’ve got one. If you don’t have a case study yet, that’s fine; you’ll have one for your next launch. Answer the top questions you’ve been getting. In other words, you’re going to answer the top objections. Do this even if you’ve already raised and answered those objections in your earlier PLC videos. People raise the same objections in different ways by asking different questions. Go ahead and answer those questions that keep popping up in the comments on your blog.

Explain the big view and how to make it happen. This is where you step back and look at what’s really possible. What’s the ultimate transformation or change that your prospect can have in their life if they buy your product? Look at it from all angles, and project that transformation out into their future. Pivot to your offer and create a soft landing. Do this in the last 10 percent of your PLC #3. By now your prospects have fallen in love with you, because you’ve given them huge value. And it’s time for you to start preparing them for the offer—that’s the “soft landing.” You don’t want to go from being their best friend in one video to being a used-car salesman in the next...

Seed the scarcity of your launch offer. You will want to have some type of scarcity in your launch offer, and near the end of PLC #3 you should make some mention of that scarcity. You’re not looking to hit viewers over the head with it, because they still haven’t seen your offer. But this is a good time to mention that they should be on the lookout for your next email, because this is going to be a limited offer. Call to action. Ask for a comment on your launch blog or in social media.

This is what the entire sequence looks like: PLC #1: Opportunity PLC #2: Transformation PLC #3: Ownership PLC #4 (or Open Cart): Enrollment

Okay, I just opened up registration for Product Launch Formula. We’re now live: CLICK HERE for Product Launch Formula www.productlaunchformula.com (I opened it up a bit early to avoid any bottlenecks and spread the load on the server.) Best regards, Jeff P.S. Remember . . . you don’t need to panic. I don’t expect to sell out immediately. However, if you want one of those spots at my PLF Live Workshop, then please don’t delay. They’re going to go fast. Here’s the link: CLICK HERE for Product Launch Formula

At the risk of stating the obvious, before you send that Open Cart email, make sure you’ve gone through and tested—even retested—every step. Is your sales page live? Are all the links on the page working? Is your order form set up and proofread? Have you gone through the entire order process thoroughly? Do you know firsthand what happens after an order is placed? What about the thank-you page after someone buys? The confirmation email? The fulfillment process? If everything is tested and ready to go, then get someone else to test it—it’s good to get fresh eyes to look through the entire process.

One absolute, cardinal rule for creating a successful launch is setting a definitive close for your launch. And there must be some negative consequence if people don’t buy during that limited Open Cart window. Make it clear that your prospects will miss out on something if they don’t buy before your launch ends.

The price goes up.

Bonuses are removed.

The offer goes away.

You need to continue your promotion each day during your Open Cart. You’ve put in a lot of work to get to this point, and you want to keep your launch in front of your prospects.

Early in your Open Cart, your messaging will mostly be about social proof. As you get further in, your messaging will start to shift to scarcity.

Day 1 (Launch Day): Two emails + social media. The first email is the one that opens the cart (see the email above), and the second one, about four hours later, lets your list know that everything is up and running and you’re open for business.

Day 2: One email + social media. This is the day after Launch Day. The message will typically be a social proof email, where you talk about the great response to your launch. Your email will have a link that goes to your sales page.

Day 3: One email + social media. Send a longer email that answers many of the top questions about the product. Be sure to include a link to your sales page (...

Day 4: One or two emails + social media. The message starts to shift to scarcity. You are basically giving a 24-hour warning ahead of your close. You should be absolutely clear about when you’ll close (give the date and exact time) and what your prospects ...

Day 5: Three emails + social media. The first email is sent early in the morning reiterating that you’re going to be closing that day (give the exact time). The second email goes out about six to eight hours before the cart closes. The third is a final courtesy remi...

All-Access Page—This is a page where I’ll put all of my Prelaunch Content. It makes everything super-accessible. If I’m doing a JV Launch (see Chapter 10), then I’ll let my JV partners send their people direct to this page with no opt-in required.

Additional PLC Video—I’ll sometimes add a fourth PLC video that teaches a small, bite-size piece of content. This content is designed to be stand-alone (so it doesn’t bring up a lot of questions about the earlier PLC), and it’s designed to give a soft landing for sending people to the offer.

Additional Live Training—This is similar to releasing an additional PLC video, but I do it as a live broadcast (see Chapter 11). Again, the content is designed to be stand-alone and re...

Case Studies—I love to feature case studies during Open Cart. Showing your prospects how other people have already had success using your product or service is powerful. You can do this in a number of formats, in...

FAQ Page—This is a web page (or a social post or video or email) that simply answers all the top questions your prospect might have. In one of my recent launches, my team and I created a page that answered more than 50 questions. It’s important to note that most of this Q&A should be about moving your prospect forward toward your o...

Live Question and Answer—This is similar to the FAQ page, but in this case the format changes to a live broadcast. If you’re comfortable being on camera live, this can be easier and more powerful than creating a written FAQ document. (There’s no re...

Student Panel—I love this one, because I love to show off my students and their success. I’ve done this as a live broadcast with six to eight of my students talking about what they’ve done...

Celebrity Panel—This is similar to the student panel, but in this case you feature some of the celebrities in your market or niche. It can be especially powerful if you can persuade those celebrities to offer a bonus to the people who buy your offer during the broadcast. (Personally, I’m not a big fan of this approach—it can be very effective, but I would rather focus on my students than the celebrities in the market.)

I make a huge effort to overdeliver to my new clients, and I suggest you do the same. I always have a few extra bonuses that I never mentioned during my launch, and I start sending out those bonuses shortly after the cart closes. In these days when we are so often underwhelmed by our experience after we buy a product, adding something extra makes you stand out in the market.

when you’re an expert on a topic, you often suffer from “the curse of knowledge.” You forget what it’s like to be a beginner, and you end up teaching at too high a level.

One of the critical components of any launch is your list of prospects.

In a JV Launch you have partners mail their lists and tell their people about your launch. If you make a sale to one of the people your partner sends your way, you pay your partner a commission. The way this generally works is that your JV partners will encourage their readers to visit your Prelaunch Content.

Throughout your launch, you follow up with your new prospects. You use special affiliate tracking software on your website to track which JV partner referred each prospect (see the Resource Page at thelaunchbook.com/resources). Then, when you Open Cart and start making sales, your software automatically tracks who referred each new client to you so you can pay commissions to the right partner.

more space to deliver value. Remember that the longer your broadcast is, the harder it is to keep your viewers’ attention. Most of my students are doing live broadcasts that are about an hour in length.

A typical schedule for a JV Launch might look like this: Day 1: Prelaunch Content #1 (Opportunity) Day 4: Prelaunch Content #2 (Transformation) Day 7: Prelaunch Content #3 (Ownership) Day 9: Open Cart (Enrollment)

Day 1: Prelaunch Content #1 (Opportunity) Day 2: Prelaunch Content #2 (Transformation) Day 3: Prelaunch Content #3 (Ownership) Day 4: Open Cart (Enrollment)

Here’s an example of what a hybrid sequence could look like for your Prelaunch: Day 1: Video—PLC #1 (Opportunity) Day 2: Live Broadcast—Questions and Answers Day 3: Video—PLC #2 (Transformation) Day 4: Live Broadcast—Questions and Answers Day 5: PLC #3 (Ownership) Day 6: Live Broadcast—Questions and Answers Day 7: Video—Open Cart (Enrollment)

Another hybrid approach is to use live broadcasts during your Open Cart week. Here’s an example of what that might look like: Day 1: Video—PLC #1 (Opportunity) Day 3: Video—PLC #2 (Transformation) Day 5: Video—PLC #3 (Ownership) Day 7: Video—Open Cart (Enrollment) Day 8: Live Broadcast—New Content Day 9: Live Broadcast—Case Studies Day 10: Live Broadcast—Questions and Answers Day 11: Live Broadcast—Final, Closing Broadcast

Connecting with people on social media helps you build both positioning and authority in a big way. Here’s why that’s important: When you’re selling online, you’re in what’s called the direct marketing business. You are marketing and selling your product directly to your consumer. Back in the old days, there was a big demarcation between direct marketing and brand marketing—branding was what the big companies like Coca-Cola and Apple did, and direct marketing was what the scrappy, bootstrapped, upstart businesses did. But today those lines have blurred, and as you build your business online, you’re going to be building your brand.

“In school I was one of the weird kids. When I went online I was able to find all the other weird ones; we had a place to connect and talk to each other and learn from each other.”

don’t depend on social to be your list hosting platform. Once you start to gain traction on any social media platform, you should do your best to drive your followers over to your email list. This is critical, because any given platform could shut down or change its rules, and if you haven’t moved people over to your email list, then your following is gone.

One big evolution in social media is that you can now directly target the people who are on your email list on many social platforms. In other words, if someone is on your email list, you can also reach them on social. Take the list of email addresses and upload them into Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, even Pinterest and LinkedIn and other platforms. You can use that list to retarget your future customers. The combined impact of being able to reach them in their email inbox and also on their favorite social platform is very powerful.

One way I did that with the first edition of this book was by asking my followers to vote on the cover design. I posted several possible designs and then put up a survey on social asking for feedback. This started to build interest and anticipation months before the book came out. This was just one of the little Pre-Prelaunch strategies I used that drove the book to the top of the bestseller lists. Another

Bottom line, know that the following you build on social is not truly free—there’s a real cost in time and effort. I’m not saying it can’t be a great investment of time, but it’s one that you need to be aware of. There’s no such thing as free when it comes to building your following. The final big gotcha is that the social media companies are spending millions (and maybe billions) of dollars to make their sites as addictive as they possibly can.