Make Sure Your Stuff Sells Even Before You Make It

Pre-launch Email Template

Video Transcript:

How to make sure your stuff ALWAYS sells – even before you write a single line

Imagine if you could have people virtually crying out and begging to buy your product, even before you’ve made it, or you’ve started writing a single word of text?

Wouldn’t that be of outstanding benefit to you, so you only create products that you KNOW are absolutely guaranteed to sell? In fact, I’ll show you how to create a product that will sell itself.

You won’t believe how simple this is, yet most people don’t think about it. I’m going to give you a seven step process you can use to know WHAT people want to buy, even BEFORE you create a product.

This is the holy grail of product creation because it’s the smartest possible way to manage your time and money, for the biggest return on investment.

Here, you’re going to use a survey to uncover vital information from your subscribers, now the questions you ask are not THAT important.. apart from the first one. I’ll explain more about that in a second.

But first, I’m sure you already know that one of the most successful ways a business can launch itself.. or a product.. a mobile app or website, is through a pre-launch sequence.

Pre-launches are often a misunderstood element of a marketing campaign.

Just what is a pre-launch sequence?

You see, everything you do with your business is one step inside a much larger sequence… everything you do has to be geared towards increasing revenue, right? It’s the only reason a business exists.

So it makes sense that your pre-launch has to naturally slide into the rest of sequence.. especially the actual launch itself.

But most people mess this up.. and I’ve frequently screwed this up too. I often forget to pre-launch the smaller things like new videos, free reports or articles.

And I know from experience.. this means you miss a great opportunity to bring more people over to your side and you miss out on the chance to create some buzz around your stuff.

You see, the pre-launch does a lot more than just warm people up and get them to expect an offer.. it gets them involved with your brand, it gets them excited to be part of it.. and it makes them feel valued.

So, if you can do better than I’m doing lately, and actually remember to apply this formula to.. well, pretty much everything you do online, and then you’re going to see much better results in the long term.

Now, the business model doesn’t matter, your niche doesn’t matter and it doesn’t matter what kind of following you have.

For the sake of this post I’m going to assume that you do some level of affiliate marketing.

Don’t make a move until you know it’s going to sell

If you’re familiar with my stuff, then you know that I always recommend entering a new niche as an affiliate because you can test the waters, test how profitable a niche is, before you decide to commit.

I use this approach to test multiple niches, and then choose a winner based on what my subscribers respond to. So let’s imagine that you do the same.

Now, when you’ve chosen a winner, the one that makes the most profit… the logical thing to do is to scale up inside that niche. The next step is to create your own product, and sell that instead of other people’s.

But with that approach there’s an element of risk involved. And humans, we’re programmed to avoid taking risks, so a lot people don’t bother with this.. and you can’t blame them.. There’s nothing worse than spending your time or money, whichever resource is more abundant to you, on creating a product that nobody wants.

It’s disheartening, almost soul destroying. So let’s remove that risk and make sure we only invest resources into the stuff that people actually want.

I’ve got seven steps that will give you a clear roadmap of how to effectively pre-launch anything to your subscribers.

In addition to the seven steps, I’ll also give you a template you can use, but don’t worry, it’s only a few sentences – you’re going to keep things short and to the point.

The 7 steps that TELL you what people want

Here are the seven steps you need to think about, ask yourself:

• How can you pre-launch without being salesy? 
• How can you create curiosity and anticipation? 
• How can you make it collaborative? 
• How can you find objections? 
• How can you make it conversational? 
• How can you set yourself apart from the competition? 
• How can you find the exact offer your subscribers want to buy? 

Now, to get the answers to these questions, that’s where your survey comes in.

Your subscribers only have to tell you a couple of things on the survey; their top two questions that your product absolutely NEEDS to answer.

It’s that simple.

Right, let’s go through each of these steps in more detail.

How can you pre-launch without being salesy? 

Well, this is important because people don’t like being sold to, it makes them guarded, their barriers go up.

And you can’t blame them with all the unethical marketers and charlatans around at the moment, so if you can, do separate yourself from those guys.

An easy way to tell people that something is launching, without sounding like you’re trying to pitch them something, is to ask for their help.

Let’s imagine that you’re in the weight loss niche.. you could ask them to take part in the survey, tell them you’re working on a new product and you want to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything, so just ask them what they need help with.

We keep things open, honest and direct.

In fact, asking them to take part in a survey is exactly the right kind of research, and it will help you to uncover the information you need for the rest of this seven step process.

And running a survey is a great way to lower defences because it won’t feel like you’re trying to sell anything.

When you do this, your subscribers know that you plan on selling something, but they won’t feel uncomfortable about it.

How can you create curiosity and anticipation? 

Curiosity is a very powerful trigger, and it’s very close to anticipation.. and if you can make your subscribers feel curious at the start of your campaign, they’ll be hooked for the rest of the duration because once curiosity grabs people, it doesn’t let go.

So how can you tease their curiosity? Well thankfully it doesn’t take much effort, all we have to do is tell them that something of interest to them is coming, that they CAN’T get their hands on just yet.

How you phrase it is important. You should hint that other people are also anticipating the release of your product. This helps to create buzz… you see, curiosity, anticipation and buzz are all linked together.

If you start dropping hints about your launch early enough, telling your subscribers that your product has been ‘long awaited’ is an effective way to create anticipation. Of course, your opinion and what you consider ‘long awaited’ is entirely subjective.

How can you make it collaborative? 

This is something most marketers ignore because they don’t realise how powerful it is.

You see, people tend to support the things they help to create. When they feel involved, they feel engaged, and that’s one of the ways that you can turn subscribers into fans.

So how can you add this in your pre-launch sequence? Well you’ve already made sure of this in step one.

Ok, remember we mentioned using a survey? Well, how you phrase it is important. How you ask them to get involved should be straight to the point, so tell them up front that you need their help.

The reality is that you’re asking them for a favour. This actually makes your subscribers feel a sense of duty and almost forces them to reciprocate, so they comply with your request.

What’s happening here is.. because you’ve asked them to help you, you’ve shifted attention away from yourself and onto them, you’re giving THEM attention and you’ve made THEM feel important in the process.

How can you find objections? 

Now, you might THINK you already know what your subscribers objections are, but until you engage with them directly, you won’t know for sure. Most products are launched on a hunch and without the proper research.

This is why running a survey is important. People will actually tell you what their objections are right inside the survey by telling you what their two biggest questions are.

You’ll be able to uncover their objections by looking through the answers and finding recurring themes.

You’ll see maybe three or four common themes, and within those you’ll find the main objections of your market.

How can you make it conversational? 

Well listen, a lot of marketers.. and I’ve been guilty of this too, a lot of us, we occasionally use monologue instead of dialogue.

Corporations, the big industry leaders, they tend to use monologues… and sometimes marketers try to mimic this because, they figure, if it works for those massive companies, then surely it will work for me too, right?

Well, that’s counter-productive.

For us, as individuals, to market effectively, we need to drop the corporate speak and speak to our subscribers in the way that we like being spoken to.

So instead of corporate speak, we change the type of language we use and as a result we invite them to become part of the conversation.

When we drop the corporate speak, we create dialogue.

Now.. how I achieve this.. what I do is, I imagine that I’m speaking to my best friend. When I’m writing an email, or a blog post, or even like right now, in my mind, I’m imagining that I’m talking to a really close friend.

So when you do this, and combine it with using the survey I mentioned earlier, you’re actively inviting your subscribers to become part of the conversation with you.

How can you set yourself apart from the competition? 

This is a biggie. And it might take some time to find your unique voice, because that’s what sets you apart.

You have a unique world view, a perspective that isn’t EXACTLY the same as anybody else’s, so by tapping into how you see things, and sharing your unique insights, you will set yourself apart from the competition.

Now that’s big picture thinking, and it might take some time to bring your unique voice to the front, so what can you do for a quick shortcut?

Well, looking at the survey answers, you’re going to find a whole heap of information about what people want, but can’t get.

So they’ll actually tell you what the void is, they’ll tell you what problems they need help with that they can’t find anywhere else.

How can you find the exact offer your subscribers want to buy? 

Well, once you gather all the information that you’ve obtained through this sequence, you will have in front of you a valuable roadmap of what people want to buy.

Ok, hang on, you might be thinking that most people DON’T want to buy things… and you’re right. Most people don’t sit around waiting for a salesperson to show up.. but they DO have problems that keep them awake at night.. they DO have worries and fears, they DO have hopes and dreams.

So when you offer them something that puts their mind at ease, that stops their fears, that gives them hope, and allows them to dream of a life beyond their current situation, you bet they will WANT to buy it from you.

So now you have everything you need to know before creating a product, because you know it’s exactly the thing that people want.

Ok, good, now you know how to pre-launch pretty much anything you like without sounding salesy.

You’ve learnt how to trigger curiosity, and make the process a collaboration between you and your customers. You’ve learnt how to find and overcome objections and potential hurdles that stop people from buying. You’ve also learnt how to make the sequence conversational.. and how to stand out from your competition.. and you’ve also discovered the exact offer that your subscribers want to buy.

Use this information to build momentum for your product launch, so it goes off with a bang.