If you want a stress free launch that maximizes profits…
Then you need to create your own product launch checklist.
That might sound like hard work, but I am going to share my personal product launch checklist with you later in this post.
This is the same product launch formula that I used to generate $134,171 in just 6 days.
What Will I Learn?
Before I give you a copy of my product launch checklist, it is important that you understand all 7 stages of a successful product launch-
1. Pre-Pre Launch (this is the secret sauce everyone misses)
2. Prelaunch Content Release #1
3. Prelaunch Content Release #2
4. Prelaunch Content Release #3
5. Open Cart / Sales Video Release
6. Closing The Cart
7. Post Launch Management
I am going to explain each of the stages along with real examples from my own 6 figure product launch to give you a better picture of how it all fits together.
Until you understand each stage, my product launch checklist won’t make any sense at all.
The pre-pre launch is the most important part of the entire product launch but is often overlooked entirely.
It serves a few important purposes-
That might sound difficult to do, but trust me – it is as simple as sending an email and scheduling some social media updates.
Using Jeff Walkers Shot Across the Bow technique, I sent out the email below.
Take note of how it is written and structured to gently introduce the product and start to build excitement.
That then took people to a survey which continued to build excitement but also asked 2 very important questions-
The first question is used to create a list of reasons people would not buy the product so I can tackle those issues head on later on in the product launch.
Here are some of the answers that I received-
The second question is purely to help me deliver the best final product possible.
It allows me to see where I might have holes in my teaching or how I can really knock peoples socks off with the product.
Here are some of the answers I received-
As you can see, each of those answers serve to help me to plan the rest of my launch and fine tune my product.
But it didn’t stop there, on the next page of the survey I implemented the secret sauce that Jeff Walker teaches to collect testimonials to use during the launch.
The other purpose of the pre-pre launch is to build excitement and buzz for your upcoming product.
The way I did that was by teasing people with behind the scenes tidbits of information and photos much like popular TV shows do when they are about to launch a new season.
Here is an example of how I did that-
Nothing too fancy but enough to start drumming up interest.
Take a look at another example here-
I applied the same strategy to every marketing channel I had available to me, including all social networks, emailing people I know and on the blog.
Drip feeding out that teasing content as you approach your launch will get people excited for what is about to come.
You should do the same thing with your product launch!
I talked about the importance of prelaunch content and how to structure it in my product launch formula case study.
When you release the first piece of content you want to make as much noise about it as possible.
You should write down a list of ways that you can promote that first piece of content and then use each of them to their full potential.
For example I had these opportunities-
I suggest you make your own list of promotion opportunities to work from!
Then you just need to make a plan of attack like I did with my product launch checklist which you can download below.
Launching the second piece of prelaunch content is in essence a mirror of launching the first piece.
The only difference is now you must also send an email to all of the people that opted in to receive the first piece of prelaunch content to let them know the second piece is avaialable.
Again you can see everything I did to promote it step by step in my product launch checklist below.
As with the first and second prelaunch content releases, you want to maximise exposure of the third release through all available channels.
Don’t be afraid to push your message hard.
Remember, prelaunch content in itself is highly valuable and will knock the socks off anyone that watches it.
At this point in the game, all you have delivered is pure content that helps people so don’t be afraid to push it as hard as possible.
For me, this was the most difficult part of the entire process.
Not because it was actually difficult, but because the day you put the sales video live and open the cart is the culmination of all of your hard work.
If you get it wrong – it sucks!
But if you get it right, you will make it rain.
Before you rush out to tell everyone that the final video is available and you have opened the cart, you must do one important thing.
And that is to test everything AND THEN test it all again. Here are a few examples of things you should test-
Make a list of everything you need to test ahead of time and then run through it all before you start sending traffic to your final offer.
Trust me, you don’t want to learn that lesson the hard way!
Once the cart is open you need to PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE.
Promote harder than you have ever promoted in your entire life because the cart is only open for 3-7 days depending on the Product Launch Formula you have used.
That means you have got less than 1 week to make as much bank as possible!
I have shared my entire open cart day promotion plan in the product launch checklist below.
Closing the cart might seem like a bad idea, but it’s important that you create scarcity by taking the product away from the market.
This drives sales absolutely wild, I mean take a look at how my sales were distributed below-
The last day shows $11,344 in sales but that was just to account for time differences.
In actual fact the last day made $56,369 which is over 40% of total sales.
To maximize your sales you always want to make sure that you close the cart on a weekday. Avoid closing the cart on a weekend like your life depends on it.
You can take a look at how I closed the cart in my product launch checklist below.
After everything is said and done, it’s very important that you shift your focus to the customer.
Make sure that you follow up with all of your new customers and most importantly…
Deliver first class customer service.
People will have all sorts of problems from losing their login details to questions about the product itself. Make sure you are available to answer them.
You should take all the questions you get asked and use them to build out an FAQ page that will help serve other customers without duplicating your own workload.
I can’t stress how important it is to deliver a fantastic customer experience end to end!
There are a couple of things I like to do that helps with that.
First of all I send out a little thank you post card that looks like this-
Secondly I have set up my email marketing automation system to congratulate people as they move through the course automatically.
I have also set it up to reach out to them if they haven’t started the course or stop working through it at any point-
This will ensure everyone who bought the product, actually consumes the product which will lead to happier customers and significantly less refund requests.
Take time to get your post launch right and you will transform every customer into a raving fan for the lifetime of your business.
So now you understand the 7 parts of a successful launch, I am going to share the exact product launch checklist that I created for my own 6 figure launch with you.
But before I do that, I highly suggest you check out Jeff Walkers free product launch workshop and download his blueprint.
You will learn how to take everything I have shown you above and put it all together to drive sales wild!
There is also a 22 page PDF that outlines the entire process for you that I highly recommend.
Click here to watch the product launch blueprint video and download the PDF now.
For those of you that just want to download my personal product launch checklist:
So there you have it!
The last post showed you the product launch formula I used to make $134,171 in 6 days.
And in this post I detailed my entire product launch plan by sharing my personal product launch checklist with you.
The only thing left to do is watch the free product launch workshop videos for yourself.
After all, that is precisely how I learned to put together my 6 figure product launch.
I hope you choose to do the same!
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Hi I have shared your article but got no blueprint from you so far…Regards from Mathieu
Once shared, check where you clicked the share button and the link to the blueprint will appear.
Thanks for information nice blog
No problem and thanks very much!
Dude this is awesome.I have been racking my brains for the same :PLaunching my online course on investing this month & this is going to help speed things up Massively!!!!
Awesome, really pleased to have helped out.
Thanks for the checklist. I’m looking into your product launch posts and find them really useful.
Hey Ivan, glad to hear it
Thanks for this. This came just in time when I am thinking of launching a new product. You gave me tons of new ideas that I can implement.
Glad to hear it! Best of luck with your product launch Ivan
This is such a good resource. I’ve been toying with the idea of launching an information product for a while and put much more thought in actually creating it, rather than making people want it. This is such a great blueprint to work from. Doing a survey before hand – as obvious as it seems now – is such a good way of ensuring you’re going to give you direct and give something the buyers are actually going to be satisfied with. Appreciate you taking the time to walk us through it all
Thanks very much
Thanks for sharing this amazing post
No problem Nishant
I am going to dig into this intell and let you know what I think.IF it is as good as it looks, I am going to promote this on everyplatform I can think of.Cheers,Robert Farmilo
Cheers Robert, let me know
Good stuff mate, thanks …had to open your emails more often
Haha yes you should
Awesome tips on running a successful product launch…thanks!
I hope they have helped you out somewhat
This is something I will have to follow.. 2017 is almost over and still I could still do some improvements on my websites with your guide.. thanks..
Temi, there’s only one way forward, put what you learnt to good use. Thanks
Thanks Matthew, I downloaded your checklist spreadsheet.It’s pretty detailed. Congrats once again.
Thanks very much
This is just brilliant but I have one question. I create online software or SaaS sites. Do you think it is a good idea to give 20 review copies or invite beta testers from my list for pre-launch? I’d really appreciate your reply..Thanks!
For what purpose?
Great resource Matthew, I have been on your mailing list for long and can’t Imagine I didn’t see this till now.Thanks for sharing. Will be of great resource in launching my product.Thanks
No problem, please come back if you have any questions when you launch!
I will download that Jeff’s blueprint and also give more attention studying all I need to study about product launch. I don’t want to make mistakes that should have been avoided. My year 2017 is packed up.
Sounds like you had a great 2016 too!
i like this formula
I hope you put it to use!
Great opinion, online promotion buseniss is very well
It is indeed 🙂
Hi Matthew,What an awesome walk-through. Very rarely do we get exact product launch walk-throughs that we can emulate in our own launches. I am thinking to launch an ebook, not at the scale of this but what do you suggest? I am struggling with the building buzz part, how do you build a buzz when you have no audience or better yet how to attract or promote your product when you have a different audience that what you have?Thanks for the post, hope you answer these. :)-Anil
If you don’t have an audience already you can use the seed launch that Jeff teaches and then generate buzz in online communitys like forums or facebook groups that are relevant to your product.
Thanks for sharing the exact implementation details. Very useful reference to get my head around the actual PLF steps.
No problem, I hope it serves you well 🙂
Matthew epic post! Eventually, I will launch some products and use this formula.
I hope you do 🙂
Hi Matthew,i have a question about the survey.Is there a way to make a survey and than link it to an email?For example i ask about topics or email sending frequency and than the subscribers that answer 1. receive special emails about 1. and subscribers that answer 2. will receive something different.I dont think surveymonkey does that?Is there a tool that you know of? Create a tool like this with your contacts ;-)thank you in advance
You could use Zapier to link SurveyMonkey with whatever service you want
Hey Matthew, awesome list!I liked how you mentioned the importance of scarcity and closing the cart. Do you like this earns more money as opposed to keeping it an evergreen product?Do you think you could make more than $134k if you kept it open year-round and kept the marketing materials live?
Yes I think on the initial launch that is the right way to do it, but you can always make it evergreen in the future.
Thanks Matthew. It’s daunting but exciting too!
Nice work and makes me want to go on vacation. It seems like you don’t focus to heavily on external PR or influencers, is that just because you have the audience? Or is there more method to that madness?
I’ve not really taken that approach to marketing, I prefer to just focus on providing helpful content which markets itself
Much of this should be pretty automated/template based.I’d also throw in “exclusive access” for a number of people.You can target loyal users/visitors/commentors.You can target influencers, high-visibility socialites, industry names (or near-names) etc.Both audience groups give you different benefits (and doing a 50:50 mix may work for most).Loyalty rewards gains you even more loyalty, free testers and feedback, word of mouth to other targets etc.Pro-targeting may gain you additional traffic, links and insider/in-the-know insights.Just my tupence worth 😀
Thanks for sharing your strategy…. It provided a lot of information mathew.
No problem Errol!
It looks pretty god. How can I set up all this for my launch of your software?How much does it cost to me?
I’m not sure what you are asking sorry
MatthewCan’t thank you enough for this and the last post on product launches.I have Jeff Walker’s book ‘Launch’ (itself a part of one of his launches – with the just pay P&P strategy) and have always watched his pre-launch videos.I think this time I’ll bite the bullet and buy the whole thing.I’ve spent the last 4 months creating a course for launch in the New Year and I can’t bear the thought of it flopping after the hours I’ve spent.I have at least tested the content with my list so I know I am creating a product they want, but the launch will be key.Thanks again for the posts and this checklist.Will
Yes I have his book as well for quick reference but the workshop he puts out every year always teaches me something new!Sounds like you are in the perfect position Will, good luck with your launch – ping me here if you have any questions
Hello Matthew,Your article is very helpful for internet marketer and your tutorial too.Best Wishes :)Thanks!
No worrys 🙂