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

by Jeff Walker

If you’re going to win in the long run as an entrepreneur, your time, energy, and focus are all you’ve got. When you step into the social media arena, you’re putting all of them at risk, and you have to protect them at all costs.

Social media is a place where you can find your people and connect with them. It’s a place to learn about their hopes, fears, dreams, and desires. It’s a place where you can build your list, and it’s a place where you can reinforce and broaden the reach of every step of your launch, from Pre-Prelaunch all the way through Open Cart.

You start by building out the best opt-in page that you can and creating a lead magnet that will be your Prelaunch Content.

“Cart Abandon” ads. In these ads you specifically target the people who have been on your sales page and your checkout page. You probably know the consumer side of that; some ad platforms have the capability to follow you very closely. This can feel pretty creepy at some level, but I will tell you from experience that advertising to people who have already been on your sales page but haven’t bought yet is generally a very good investment.

cold traffic and warm traffic are very different approaches. Cold is all about getting new people into your universe, creating awareness of your launch, and getting them to opt in to your list. Warm is about getting your prospects to consume your launch content and then moving them toward the sale.

In the midst of your first launch, you get at least one great idea for your next offer or product. That’s because of the Launch Conversation—your process creates a great deal of interaction with your prospects, and you’ll get lots of ideas and suggestions. And many offers will likely lend themselves to periodic launches (such as Ruth Buczynski’s annual summits). Often PLF Owners will do three or four launches per year and sometimes even more.

In my various businesses, I have found the sweet spot to be somewhere between two and four launches per year.

It goes like this. You have an idea for a new product, so you use a Seed Launch to help birth the product. The Seed Launch (see Chapter 9) is great for getting your first few clients, making sure there’s a demand, and creating a great product.

After the Seed Launch, you take the finished product and do an Internal Launch to your list. During your Internal Launch, you build out a full Prelaunch Sequence and really dial in your launch. By its very nature, the Internal Launch will usually bring you much greater financial results than your Seed Launch.

When I’m designing a new offer, I will actually hold back on some bonus items. I won’t put them in the offer, nor will I talk about them during the sale. Then, sometime after the purchase, I will surprise my clients with the extra bonuses. Even the most grizzled customer is delighted to get something that wasn’t promised. In fact, it’s often shockingly easy to please them—you don’t have to get crazy when you’re sending extra goodies.

taking the Product Launch Formula and stepping it up to a higher level. Instead of a single launch of a product, it’s a series of launches that create their business. Each launch builds on the success of the prior one. The list gets bigger, the offers get better, there are more past buyers to sell to, and the JV partner support gets stronger. That’s the Business Launch Formula in action.

you want to be sure you attract YOUR people into your business.

For an entrepreneur, the biggest opportunity cost is often time. When you start out, you will likely have limited capital, and since you’ll be doing most everything yourself, you’ll definitely have limited time. Picking the right opportunity is HUGELY important. Making the wrong choice can set you back weeks, months, or even years.

In my business, I’ve gotten to know a lot of super-successful business owners, and I can tell you this: Everyone at the top is a constant learner. You can’t be too cool for school.

People want to connect with people, not faceless corporations.

there is no longer any security in a paycheck. I’m sure you know of people who worked loyally for a company for many years, only to be laid off or have the business shut down. Perhaps this has even happened to you. The world has changed, and the only true security is your ability to create value and get paid for that value.

if you never have time away from your business, then you’re doing something wrong. My friend Joe Polish uses the analogy of a racehorse. If you owned a million-dollar racehorse, you would take great care in how you treated that horse. You would feed it well, make sure it was well rested, carefully monitor its workouts, give it a clean and comfortable stable, and schedule regular checkups with a vet. In your life and your business, your body is your million-dollar racehorse. Don’t you deserve the same care?

Working more hours is not the answer to your problems. You need to work better and smarter, and one of the keys to doing that is continually refreshing your mind and body. You need to sharpen the saw.

In your business, you want to work on the things you’re great at. Don’t spend your time on the stuff that’s difficult for you. Work on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Hire people to do the things that are not in your genius zone.

You should start the day by focusing on your highest-value activities before you get caught up in other people’s agendas for you. What are your highest-value activities?

Warren Buffett said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”

The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The book is thousands of years old, but that doesn’t stop every new generation of leaders from reading it. That’s because the book is about strategy, not tactics—and strategy never goes out of style.

Creating a close connection with your prospect will never go out of style. Building up anticipation for an event will never go out of style. Mental triggers such as social proof, authority, community, and reciprocity will never go out of style. Building influence by delivering massive value before you ask for the sale will never go out of style. The exact way you actually deploy those things has changed and will continue to change, but the PLF strategy keeps working.

LINKS AND RESOURCES: Your free membership site for this book: www.thelaunchbook.com/member My personal blog: www.jeffwalker.com More about the PLF Coaching Program: www.ProductLaunchFormula.com