Working in the realm of business automation, the term “launch” finds its way into our daily vernacular — and it’s no surprise as to why. A launch is an entrepreneur’s Super Bowl: a calculated exhibition predicated on abundance; the more you give away, the more you get back.
Up until very recently, I thought I had it all figured out: the tech involved, the logistics, the endless glasses of red wine.
But there’s way more to launching than opening a shopping cart and blasting your list to buy your newest thing. It took a sit-down with Product Launch Formula poster boy, John Gallagher, to uncloud my myopic understanding of what I thought was much more of a hands-off process.
Founder and owner of LearningHerbs, John carved out a niche in which he’s thrived for the better part of a decade. He’s crushing it in his space and has been running the entire operation out of his home in northern Washington. Sandwiched between two momentous product launches of his own, he found some time to join me for a Skype interview where I picked his brain on what entrepreneurs can expect heading into 2016.
We talked launching, technology, the secrets to a growing list, longevity in today’s crowded marketplace and why the Richards of the world (see HBO’s Silicon Valley) will be the last ones standing.
Martin: How has the launch process changed in the last five years and even ten years?
John: I’ve been studying and doing launches for eight years with the Product Launch Formula as my main foundation. The word launch can mean a lot of things to different people. A launch can be interpreted as releasing your product or releasing your site to the world, minus the art and the sequencing that’s involved. Some people think a launch is a free squeeze page with some free videos on it. I’ve seen a lot of launches that look like launches that aren’t actually launches; there’s actually a lot more that goes on under the hood.
But while the technology has evolved in the last five or ten years, the underlying tenets of launching haven’t changed. It’s still about establishing and maintaining a great relationship with your list. It’s still about the intentional sequencing of events online to maximize your sales. It’s still about the launch narrative and the art of what goes on behind the technology. Videos, podcasts, video sales letters, long form sales letters, even direct mail can be used. What’s cool about this foundational way of marketing is that even with the changes in technology, it stands the test of time.
M: What are some standout dos and don’ts of launching? Both obvious and not so obvious?
J: Some people like to hear the do-nots first. Do not disrespect your customers. We don’t send email blasts… and whenever I hear that word I cringe because you don’t blast your customers; you don’t blast your friends. You also do not manipulate or lie to people. You do not talk bad about people behind their backs. You don’t try to trick people or use vast studies of behavioral marketing in an evil way.
Instead here’s what you should be doing all the time: Be really cool and generous and abundant! You give, you’re nice, you share that love. Create an excellent product that is so amazing you would buy it yourself. Love it and believe in it, and then sell great products to those amazing people on your list at an amazing price with amazing bonuses and a forever-awesome guarantee — and that’s how you stay in business for ten years like I have. There’s not one thing I sell that I don’t think is the best product that we have. I find myself saying that all time.
M: What are the reasons a launch may not go as planned, and how would you course correct?
J: I’ve done dozens of launches with many new products, and I think every single one that launched has had something go wrong technically for one reason or another: everything from server crashing in the middle of my cart opening to me emailing the wrong list to the email not going out on time. And that’s to be expected because there’s so many facets to a launch and so many moving parts and pieces.
During one launch three or four years ago, the main service I used to host my sources, Amazon, crashed for three days ruining my whole launch. Yet I was able to pick back up and have a great launch the last two days of the launch because people knew I had a great product: They knew me; they trusted me because I wasn’t fly-by-night. People have to know that you’re here to stay and that’s why you’re always providing value, a part of their lives and remaining great. When your emails come, your customers open them because they like you and look forward to hearing from you.
By using the foundations and sequences of a launch and having a great list, I have always been able to pick back up midstream, no matter what happens, and use those technological disadvantages to my advantage.
M: As long as you’re true to your audience and deliver value, you’re going to go far. What type of content do you consider valuable? What value do you deliver to your customers that is guaranteed to get engagement?
J: People don’t want to feel like you’re selling to them all the time. I don’t think they mind that you’re selling to them sometimes as long as you’re providing some kind of value to them that they connect with. We’re used to radio and television and have this unwritten cultural understanding that you’re going to have to watch a few ads if you want to see the show, you know? So, you’ve got to pay somehow. But when you are in touch with your community and what they really like and what they want, and when that’s aligned with what you’re passionate about, you can’t go wrong.
Anything that you’re passionate about that you’re sharing, they’re going to like because that’s your tribe — that’s your community. If they’re not into what you’re sharing, then they’re not going to be attracted to you or on your list in the first place. There’s always going to be people getting onto your list who aren’t going to like your stuff and opt out. That’s just part of the game. You can tell, when you get a really good open rate regularly and good comments on your free posts that you’re in touch with people that you’re delivering value. So, I very infrequently — five percent of the time — send emails saying, “Hey, go buy this.” And then other times I’ll say go to this webinar even though I’m going to sell something at the end of the webinar and offer a free DVD which I’ll upsell to something else. The point is that I’m giving out free stuff to really help people. I put just as much time into developing free content as I do paid content.
M: I think that’ll resonate well with our blog audience. It’s easy to lose sight of what you were initially trying to work on. How do you keep a launch in line with your big picture vision?
J: My business has a story. It is what a lot of people will call my big “why” as in “W-H-Y.” If you go to our website you’ll see what I mean — I position that whole website to be the story of who we are and what we’re trying to do. Every product itself has a story. And that story and product has to fit into the narrative of the larger picture because a launch is for a product.
For example, we empower people to safely use healing herbs. We make herbs as simple as following a recipe. That’s our basic big why. I’m not going to make a product that’s not an herbal education product or a product that’s not simple. Otherwise it’s not congruent with the big picture vision that you’re talking about.
We don’t sell complicated programs; everything that we do is accessible. We don’t sell things that require people to buy someone else’s finished herbal product. The only thing we’ve ever shared is how to do it yourself, because that is what we do. That’s our big picture vision.
M: Right. Can you give us a basic run through of what your launch calendar looks like for any given product?
J: What people don’t often understand is that a launch begins way before a cart opens. That’s almost the end of a launch. There’s a lot of work to do before your cart opens: You have to get your partners interested, you have to finish the product, you have to program ONTRAPORT [your CRM], and you have to create the prelaunch content. It can take two or three months of solid work just to get to prelaunch week. Then after you release the prelaunch content and open your cart, the sale typically lasts five to seven days, at least for me.
And then the launch continues in a way because marketing is all about customer service and relations. If it’s not an awesome experience, customers won’t buy the next thing. When you see someone who just made $200,000 in five days of their launch, you have to take into consideration that that was like four months of work or maybe even more. A new product will take a third of my year of full-on work. This is not a part time thing. You’re all in it or forget it. A launch calendar is much much larger and deeper than the scheduled dates and duration of your launch.
As we are speaking, I am finishing up a launch. It hasn’t looked like my other launches but when you know the rules and the foundation, you can improvise. Not break the rules, but improvise. Jazz might sound like it’s going all over the place for some people, but those musicians have a foundation in classical and traditional music that allows them to improvise.
M: Wow. That’s eye-opening.
J: Your launch is not an afterthought. I’ll plan the launch while I’m producing the product. I don’t make my product and go home and figure out the launch. There have even been instances where I’ve thought of the launch before I’ve thought of the product or new launches. I’ll probably put more time into the launch and the prelaunch and the production of the launch experience than I do the product sometimes.
Another important part of your launch calendar is the part where you need to take care of yourself. Make sure you keep exercising, taking walks, eating well, spending time with your family, because then it’s not sustainable and that won’t work.
M: Your launch calendar again plays into the theme of the launch narrative and how storytelling wins people over. What’s your secret to telling a good story?
J: Narratives are a huge part of product launches. Humans have been telling stories and learning from stories since the dawn of humanity — it’s hardwired in us.
You have to tap into people’s personal transformations and promise a transformation. I don’t think that there’s a learning product out there that doesn’t offer a transformation. People think that a transformation has to be an enlightenment moment like a Buddha thing. But really it’s about how we feel about ourselves and how we transform from day to day. It’s the little transformations that matter, that are more sustainable and realistic. That’s life, you know. That’s what connects with our spirit.
M: It shows in all your content. Especially in video. They say 2015 is the year of video marketing. Would you agree, and do you think video is still a hot ticket for successful launches?
J: I think that video is never on its way out. If it were, then television still wouldn’t be here. One thing I’ve picked up on is that the age of the blurry cameras and shooting something real quick in your kitchen like something I used to do won’t work anymore.
You certainly can start out with your iphone pointed at you from a tripod but in reality you need to have a great mic because audio is the most important part of the video. You need to have a decent camera that a mic can plug into. You need to know a little bit about lighting. You need to know about scripting. You need to know how to have a good memory or read off the teleprompter or perhaps you hire someone to help you with all that stuff so you have that ability.
The change I see is that videos need to be engaging to keep people’s attention. You can make a pretty video but if nobody’s watching, it won’t matter. So in the context of Product Launch Formula — with your own audience — you’ll get those views to help sell your product. That’s the thing about having that list and having that community: When you have something to say, they’ll open your email and watch some or all of your videos.
M: What’s your recipe for making videos engaging?
J: There are a lot of different kinds of videos. Sometimes you’re making one for a product and sometimes you’re making one for a launch, and sometimes you have to tell somebody something real quick or perhaps you’re making a free how-to guide that you’re putting up. I spend a lot of time in pre-production. I don’t just turn the camera on and start talking. I think it through, I write a script most of the time, I don’t ad lib too much. I want to be punchy and have thought about it. I storyboard — not always graphically — usually my things are simple and I know what I want to do in my head. But I’ll think it through.
M: So you meet the short attention span of today’s audience by being succinct?
J: Remember it’s infotainment. I like to infuse my sense of humor to connect with people. I’m in this launch right now where I toiled over a three-minute video for this promotion; it took me so long to get that script and I must have recorded it 30 times to get the right take because I knew it mattered and I knew I only had a minute of screen time. I wanted the picture to look good and I wanted my enthusiasm to show because this is the first impression of me (and my business) they’ll get and I want them to opt in and be a part of this promotion. So I put a lot of energy into it, and that’s what you gotta do if you want to do a good job. Don’t bother if it’s not great.
M: Along with video, how does content marketing bake into your launches with your business. Do you release content up front?
J: You know it’s all content marketing if you’re in the infomarketing business. I consider our monthly newsletter and webinars content marketing, and a launch is your audience opting in and watching your product content. Case in point: It’s all content. Everything I do is content marketing. I’ve never advertised. We do some Facebook ads now, but those just lead people to our content.
M: What are your go-to methods for generating traffic for your launches and launches in general? Is it ads, partners, social media, affiliates?
J: What’s cool about launches is that you can release something to a list of your most forgiving, awesome people and run your tests on them to make sure that everything will work out perfectly. Then you can relaunch the product or put it up as evergreen content and then run Facebook ads. It’s easy to send social media to that.
What’s important to understand is that when you do a product launch with free content, it’s very shareable. My list size shoots up whenever I do a launch or host webinars because they’re so shareable. Also your affiliates and partners prefer to send their email lists and Facebook fans to free content that they think their people will find valuable. I just did a webinar last week that 9,500 people registered for in a day and a half. Half of them are new people on my list. If you have a business and a list, you’re only going to increase it by multitudes every time you do a webinar.
M: You’re, without a doubt, an early adopter in both marketing and technology. What would you say is the next big game changer in regards to marketing and launches?
J: It’s true, I’m always an adopter in technology because I’ve been a computer geek since I was 11 so I’m always fascinated by new things people are trying.
Video is definitely a game changer in some ways. Webinars too — improving the way we can communicate with people. There are also ways in which social media and mobile have become game changers; if someone’s in line at the bank they can watch your video and consume your content.
But email is still king — the place where you can get someone’s individual attention. Everyone has an email address and nobody like Facebook or Twitter can own your list. You own your list; you own your fans.
But you know I started LearningHerbs, before there was Facebook. Blogs were new — kind of. I was even launching before there was a Facebook or YouTube — before people even used video which at the time was really hard to use. It’s always hard to know what the next big thing or gamechanger is going to be, but what I love is that it doesn’t matter. I could be doing the same exact thing I did eight years ago and I’d still thrive without adopting a lot of new technology. I think right now we’re in the middle of a funnel revolution — everyone in the marketplace is using sales funnels. That’s one thing to focus on.
M: How do you keep up with the pace of innovation to stay relevant? What advice do you have to give to entrepreneurs on that front?
J: I don’t think people need to worry about that. If you are going back to the basics of providing great value and you’re making great products and giving people a great deal on those products… that’s never going to go out of style. I use landing pages and Facebook these days and that’s made things cooler, but the relevance is really in the heart of your business and your big why. You have to accept that things are constantly going to be changing. That you’re going to have to reformat things. That you’re going to probably have a different video server in two years. And so on…
Don’t reject change — you’ve just got know it’s part of life. If you’re a doctor, you’ve got to keep up with the latest techniques and if you’re a heart surgeon you attend conferences and read the American Medical Association Journal. It’s part of your job. It’s expected. In the same vein, if you’re an Internet entrepreneur, you’re expected to just roll with it and change stuff as it goes on.
Just don’t lose focus on the main part: Your big why in the community.
M: You said it. So the only way to really make it these days — aside from having a good product — is to really stand out. What does an entrepreneur need to do these days to do that?
J: I think it comes back again to be yourself and make great products and be good to your community. Do what you love. Exude your passions. You’ll stand out.
I dont think you need to be gimmicky or let your intention come from the place of “I’ve got to stand out!” Usually the people that try hard and focus on being famous fizzle out. Your one viral video may get two million views, but you can’t rely on that. You’ve got to have something behind it.
M: That’s a lightning strike as they say.
J: Do you watch that show Silicon Valley? I love that show because it depicts a sea of shallowness in Silicon Valley and then there’s Richard. He does this algorithm for compressing data and it has the potential to be something great. So he believes in it so much and he’s such a good guy. He’s passionate about it, he’s honest. It’s genuine.
Of course, they wouldn’t have a show unless it’s not working out for him every episode but you know deep down that his business is going to thrive. He’s going to be the last one standing. And that’s because he’s so genuine while these other people around him act like they’re making the world a better place, but only within this shallow corporate environment.
M: In the middle of all this content creation madness, how do you find your tribe? How do you find a market for your product? What did you do to really to sharpen your sights on those who’ll follow you?
J: Look in the mirror. Chances are if you have a great idea, if it connects with you, and if you’d buy it, others will, too. And that’s the truth with me because my very first product that I still sell to this day is the herbal remedy kit and there was a time when I was walking around at these herbal conferences looking for someone who sold that product. There had to be a starter kit out there just to get me everything I needed to get going, and it hit me one day that I should make a product because if I wanted it, other people would want it.
I was just thinking I’d sell five or 10 of them a month — maybe make a few extra hundred bucks a month. I had no idea it would turn into this company. I just looked in the mirror and tried to create something that would make me excited. But you know it’s a big world out there. That business of selling an herbal kit wouldn’t survive if it was a storefront in my hometown because there’d be like two people who’d want that kit. But with the internet you have the whole world so you only need like 500 people paying you 20 bucks a month for a killer membership site to make a decent living. It’s not that hard.
By going to a conference or event you’ll likely meet some really incredible people and leave with a launch plan that will take that idea you had and use it to build your business.
I’m always learning new stuff. That’s what really sustains my business.
M: Is there anything you’d like to say to the entrepreneurs reading this article?
J: A lot of people who are reading information like this on blogs are still at a place where they’re feeling a bit overwhelmed. So keep it simple and don’t look at everything at once. You only need a WordPress site and OptimizePress, PayPal, a digital product or a membership site, and you can launch. Everything I’ve just said so far is really cheap or free.
Make sure you invest in a good mail list program such as ONTRAPORT. If you don’t have money, you can use your iPhone for your video, use iMovie to edit and then post it on YouTube, and invest in more as you grow. Just publish.
You don’t have to be able to do it all. Choose your favorite medium (blog, podcast, video, etc.) and start working.
Start online relationships, go to conferences in your industry, make friends, and start your conversation with your list. Take what they’re asking for and create your product. Then launch!
The post Crush Your Launch in 2016 the John Gallagher Way appeared first on The ONTRAPORT Blog.