Create Market Demand And Visibility

If you're about to launch a new product, book, website, or whatever and don't know where to begin - then you MUST read this...

After launching multiple products, websites and creating the marketing launch plans for several books that hit Amazon #1 best seller status in record time -- such as books by Michael Masterson, Bob Bly, and my own book, Content Is Cash -- there's a proven formula that works every time no matter what the actual "thing" is you're launching. Even better, many of these tactics are low to no cost. It's coordination and synchronization of online marketing efforts all culminating around a specific time period (i.e. certain a day of the week).

These efforts include:

--Staggered messages. These will go to your list and other external, synergistic lists such as affiliates, JV partners, friends, and industry contacts and include solo emails, ezine ads, editorial contributions (with ed. note) and social marketing efforts. The goal is to build anticipation and create a pent up demand about the "thing" that is going to be launched. Efforts should start 2-3 weeks out and pick up intensity and frequency on the designated launch date. Qualified people that demonstrated an interest during your pre-launch "teaser" efforts can be added to you hot list can also be the first to know about future new releases, beta testing and similar "insider" privileges. In addition to your regular bonding efforts and auto responder series, these names will then have potential to also be your top buyers new products.

--Social media. Start seeding relevant blogs, message boards, chat rooms and forums with information about your soon-to-be-released "thing". Record a video of yourself and your product on YouTube. Push out relevant, useful and actionable editorial that ties to your "thing" on top social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Ultimately, create messages that have the potential to go viral and create buzz around your launch.

--Content Marketing. Write a few keyword rich articles that tie into the theme of your launch and upload to top tiered article directory sites. Link all to your launch promo page (or wherever you want to drive traffic to for consumer to take action). Make sure you start your efforts a few weeks prior to launch so can gain momentum and exposure in search engine results pages.

--Pay per click. If you have the budget, bid on your relevant keywords to your launch theme and have a pre launch page that collects names to build your hot list. Offer a free report that also ties into your theme to help start the buy in and create demand. This is a great way to gauge general market interest in your product, but note, that this is a lead gen effort and not an immediate sale. So be prepared to pay for the lead. The sale should happen within 30 days of your launch, after proper bonding efforts are established and your normal sales funnel commences.

--Online PR. Get your message out quickly and cost effectively through free online press release distribution services. Make sure your release is truly newsworthy and not just fluff, if you want it to be credible. These efforts should occur the day of your release. If you have a budget, you can compliment free online PR efforts with a paid service, such as PRWeb.com, for a nominal one-time fee, and it will greatly increase your reach and exposure. Either distribution channel, the release will get picked up by bloggers, media websites, industry websites, and online news aggregators (such as Yahoo and Google) and not only increase awareness, but also give you back-links (SEO!) as well as have the potential to go viral.

--Online Classifieds. Increase your launch exposure by placing free text ads on sites such as CraigsList. The ad can be about your "thing" and link preferably to your promo webpage. Just make sure you select the right (relevant) category to put your add under in order to ensure you capture the right audience.

--Webinar/Teleseminar. Have a post-launch date free event to help increase visibility, leads and sales. Promote it through social media, internal lists and external partners. Again, the theme must tie into the "thing" you've launched as well as include an added value such as free Q&A session or workshop where participants can text in questions either real time or before the event (depending on how you set up your event). This also helps with bonding and credibility.

All of these efforts together tend to create an "avalanche" effect by picking up speed and getting bigger the more the efforts roll out. This helps create momentum and online traction. In a nutshell, you're creating market demand and interest poising yourself for optimum results.