Launching a product is a pretty scary thing to do.
I launched a product several weeks ago, a poetry book that I spent about five months writing and editing and compiling. A couple of nights before the launch, I wrote this in my journal: “I have to admit that I’m feeling a little nervous about releasing the book, because there’s just so much in it that’s me.”
I felt terrified. I was afraid that no one would see value in the project or that they would be disappointed with the content or that they would never buy anything from me again because of that.
Here’s the truth about launching a product: It’s super scary. Nothing is assured. We don’t know how well it will do or what people will think or whether they will even get what we were trying to do. Writing is so subjective. Not everyone “gets” our kind of writing.
My release was a poetry book, and poetry is one of those things that people either love or hate, and I knew that putting myself out there was going to be a scary thing. But the other truth is this: If we are ever going to succeed at building a thriving business, we are going to have to sell our work.
I didn’t know if I could ask people to buy. Sure, I give out a ton of free content every week, but would people really care when it came time for me to sell something? Would they even pay attention? Would they be able to see the value in what I had done? Would they even remotely care?
But I stepped over that fear tripping around my ankles, and I did it anyway.
And the book did about as well as I thought it would do.
Leading up to the launch, I studied the work of Jeff Walker, a product launch expert, so I could gather every kind of tip there was about successfully launching a product. I followed his tips and released videos about my project and talked it up on social media channels and email lists. But there were many things I should have done differently. So I thought it would be helpful if I shared my mistakes with you.
But before I tell you what mistakes I made, I have to give you this disclaimer: When we’re new to selling products, we’re going to be finding our way into it. We’re going to be testing different theories, seeing what works and what doesn’t on a project-by-project basis. It’s important for us to know that we’re sort of in an experimental stage, because if we set our expectations for that first launch too high, we’ll get so discouraged we won’t want to do it again. Mostly because launching a product is a LOT of work. But it is worthy work.
If I know anything about this business at all, I know it’s built on persistence. We have to have persistence to become the writers we want to be.
My launch strategy was this:
- About a month before the release, I started letting my newsletter people know that I was launching a poetry book.
- I recorded three videos about the book, which I started releasing once a week three weeks before the launch. Video one was about the origins of the book—what made me write it and the inspiration behind it. Video two was about what I hoped the book would do—basically show people a piece of their lives in mine. In video three I talked about the layout structure and shared a couple of poems from it.
- The day of the launch, I sent out an email to my newsletter group to let them know the book was on sale and that I was running a 48-hour special on it.
- That same day, I shared a couple of poems at different times on both Facebook and Twitter.
- When 24 hours passed, I sent another email and did another social media plug, letting people know there were only 24 hours left to get it at the introductory price.
- And again, an hour before the book went off sale I sent another email and shared something on social media.
All in all, I shared about four of the book’s poems on social media during the 48-hour window.
After the launch, my husband (who is my branding and marketing consultant because he’s really good at what he does), and I assessed how it had done. Here are some things we learned:
1. The first pre-launch video was the most viewed, and each video’s views decreased as they were released.
This told us that the pre-launch content shouldn’t just be videos and that we needed to keep them closer together, since releasing them with a week between meant that people likely forgot that I was launching a book and that another video would be coming. So for my next launch, which comes Dec. 2, we will be launching a video a day to see how that works in terms of views and sales. I’ll be reporting on that launch as well.
2. Make a landing page, share it and point to it.
This is a crucial factor. No one signed up for my release notification list for my poetry book, because they didn’t really know about it until the day of the release. I mentioned it casually to my email list in that first email about a month before the list, but I never let anyone on social media or my blog know about it. We brainstormed ways that we could do this more effectively for the next launch, and we thought creating a landing page sooner would help, because when I’m mentioning the project, I can just point people to that page. So that’s what we did. On this new launch page, I have an intro video on the landing page, giving an overview of the project, and then the pre-launch videos will come closer to the release date.
3. Create open loops with the pre-launch videos.
Open loops are part of a story that will logically lead into another story. Think about series and what they do. They leave a few open loops so that people look forward to the next installment to find out what happens. That’s the same thing that needs to be done with pre-launch content. People need to finish that first pre-launch video and say, “I can’t wait to see the next one so I can close that question in my mind.” It’s part of our human nature to want to know what happens next, and story can do this really well when we’re willing to tell a story with our video content.
The pre-launch videos for my poetry book did not contain open loops, which could be why every video released after the first one had fewer views.
4. Generally talk about it more.
I know. I feel the same way. I hate selling myself. But the truth is, if I believe my work is worth having fans gathered around it, then I HAVE TO DO IT. Otherwise no one will ever know what’s happening. People signed up for my email list for a reason: they enjoy my writing. They’re a Facebook fan for a reason: they enjoy my writing. They follow me on Twitter for a reason: They find value in what I have to say. Surely they will enjoy knowing that I have more of that writing packaged up in a book.
For the next release, my husband has advised me to share something about it at least two or three times a week. So that’s what I’ll be doing.
In next week’s blog, I’ll discuss how to get better at product launches. (That right there is all it takes to create an open loop.)
