The Product Launcher.net

The Product Launch Formula is a proven strategy directly responsible for over $200 Million dollars in sales from product launches. A product launch is a carefully controlled, strategically coordinated release of a product or service specifically designed to achieve maximum sales velocity (and profitability) in the marketplace.

The goal of a product launch is to build high levels of excitement and anticipation, so that when your product becomes available, you have customers/fans waiting to buy, as well as joint venture partners and affiliates lined up to sell it.

Most Musicians are unfamiliar with this Formula but it has been used to make millions in countless markets online and offline.  A great example would be the iPhone.

On Friday evening June 29, 2007 the original Apple iPhone™ went on sale in the United States. People crowded outside AT&T store fronts and Apple’s retail stores just to attempt to be the first to get their hands on one.

“By the close of business, Apple had sold close to 700,000 iPhones. The iPhone made well over $300 million in profit during its weekend launch. Apple stock jumped over 40%. “Now THAT was a product launch.…”

And even more recently iPhone 4 reached over 600,000 units just in pre-orders!

CD Release VS. CD Launch

Most traditional CD releases rely on some sort of broadcast announcement (mainly Radio) and press releases in the hope that the target market will hear about it and somehow be pulled enough, not only to buy, but to spread the word.  That rarely happens anymore.

Unfortunately, we live in an age where people are ignoring most broadcast advertising and promotions – especially for new products they haven’t heard of. Traditional advertising methods are far less effective (and significantly less profitable) than they used to be. More people are focused on online communities and social media.

The significant difference between the traditional CD Release “bottle rocket” and the CD launch “ballistic missile” is this: In the first case, the traditional release bottle rocket approach is usually trying to get your potential customers to make a buying decision. The ballistic missile approach focuses on getting prospects to “want” to buy.

The right (well-planned and executed) launch program will create interest in your product even before it hits the market AND have potential customers waiting in anticipation to hit that “Buy” button and put your “cash register” to work.

A proper product launch can help you achieve any or all of the following:

• Create broad awareness for your product, band, artist.

• Optimize your product so that it delivers the “holy grail” that your customers may not even know they want yet.

• Build anticipation and urgency for your product by carefully orchestrating customer experiences for peak responsiveness.

• Increase excitement so that your audience becomes ravenous for your product.

• Establish credibility and trust so deep that your audience will only want to buy from you.

• Learn what your prospect’s objections are long before you create a sales letter.

• Gather testimonials and reviews even before you have a product.

• Develop new product ideas that your market is hungry for. Membership Sites, Fan Forums and other branded products.

• Convert a “warm” into a hot list and turn them into responsive buyers.

• Attract Joint Venture partners and affiliates excited to promote your offer.

Not to mention the fact that a successful product launch event can be used to attain first mover advantage in highly competitive markets.

The bottom line:

Just a semi-successful product launch in your business (or re-launch of an existing product) can make you more money in a shorter amount of time than ANY other marketing strategy.

“What Does It Take To Create a Product Launch?”

“You need a good product that is in demand by a hungry fan base.”

If you feel you might be a candidate for a CD Launch Contact us Today!

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I went into my Awebber account  and I just happened to catch this post  regarding Nine Inch Nails.  It struck me because it was about 1 week from the time I posted my original article about how an artist can build a good business without a Record Company.

This article references email marketing campaigns, list building, and how Indie musicians will need to harness this technology to build a solid business for themselves.

Nine Inch Nails are great, so I think its a big boost for Musicians to hear that Trent Reznor is and has been doing this type of Marketing. And I hope it will be an example to other Musicians to harness the strategies of online Marketing in this way. To really expand their influence and realize that they can do much more than they initially thought, and that they do not have to be restricted by the limitations of the industry.

Here is the original article, Enjoy!

How To Market Like Nine Inch Nails

Originally Posted by Amanda Gagnon

Photo: Jennifer Vecellio

Trent Reznor, frontman for industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, has earned a reputation as a marketing maverick. He engages fans, building loyalty and watching sales naturally follow.

In the Nine Inch Nails online forum, Reznor tells musicians they can be their own best marketers:

“If you are young and use the Internet, you know more about your audience than [labels] do – for sure. This is a revolution and you can be a part of it. The old guard is dying; if you have good ideas – try them.”

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Few would argue that back in the day, the Record Companies were the gatekeepers between the artists and their audience.

Now it’s very easy and relatively inexpensive for an artist to record and produce a record independently, secure independent distribution channels or distribute their music electronically online.

Because of the internet, the distribution channel is closing. Today an independent artist can go direct to the fan to sell their CD’s, DVD, T-shirts, and all other merchandise. This enables the Artist to continually market to that fan, which is the opposite of traditional distribution lines. Because with traditional distribution lines the Artist  never knew who purchased their music, and thus could never follow up with them in the future.

Today with the right marketing system in place the artist can market directly to their buyers for the lifetime of that fan or the lifetime of that particular artist.  So why is that few people have such a system in place? Even those that sell products directly from their website do not have systems set up for follow up and future marketing.

The concept of list building, auto-responders, giveaways, launch campaigns, squeeze pages, and content driven sales is a foreign language to most outside the Internet Marketing scene.

But this is the model that has been around for a long time with other businesses, it is the standard for selling information products, and now we are just starting to see it emerge with Real Estate Agents, Writers, Photographers, and now with Musicians.

Providing there is talent and a good product, this is going to create a whole new model for launching a successful music career that is far from the traditions of the industry.
Where the independent artist who embraces the internet with an open mind and determination will make a much better living than they could ever hope to make working for someone else, or by using an agent or distributing their music through traditional channels, and this includes ITunes.

So, what about continuing sources of income?

As with the release of any new product, CD sales peak around the release and then start to drop off. Then the artist does promotion and makes money on concerts and the selling of the merchandise at shows. But, what about expanding your business model to include a continual revenue stream, that is not based on CD sales or shows.

Welcome to the Members Area

Membership sites are becoming really popular for their continual income stream and can range from online fitness training, Yoga, instructional, and just about anything you could imagine.

Artists such as Kiss (the Kiss army) Green Day (Idiot club), Pearl Jam, Mathew Ebel, Terri Clark, and others have tied in “Membership Areas” into their websites, and they have been very successful. Why do they work?
Because, the thing that fans want more of is… YOU!

Lets say for example you have 1,000 fans and they each pay only $120 yr. for access to your membership site or “Exclusive Fan Club”, that’s $120,000 yr. (1,000 fans x $120 = $120,000), or 500 fans at $100 yr is $50,000. You can adjust your price point depending on what you’re offering and how many fans you have, potentially making in the hundreds of thousands.  You could make enough to fund your next record, pay back investors, or do music full-time so you do not have to work the day job anymore.

Imagine if you have more fans, you could charge less and still make a really good living. With low overhead the artist can really profit.

You could also offer your new CD for free to those who purchase a membership; this is the model that Prince used years ago where every concert ticket purchased came with a free CD and they were counted as record sales.  This applied the concept of the “giveaway” that I mentioned earlier.

The only catch with a membership site is it’s up to you to provide valuable content to engage the fans and give them something nobody else is getting that makes them feel special. You could have a behind the scenes blog, early access to discount tickets, never seen before footage, un-released tracks, interviews, special merchandise, etc…you get the idea.

When utilized correctly this direct communication line allows you to: learn what your fans need or want, become more real to them as you give them a glimpse into your life, and develops a stronger more direct communication line, something every die-hard fan desires. And in exchange you make a really good living whether you’re releasing a CD or not.

Now, here is where it really gets cool.

If you have other products like a clothing-line, make-up line, photography, guitar lessons, artwork, you can tie this in with the ability to cross-promote those other product lines directly to your fan base. And for those Musicians, who really have it together, they will form JV (Joint Venture) Partnerships and now the possibilities of having a booming sustainable business are endless.

The key to success is setting it up, understanding your fans, and being creative about how you deliver value to them. Another key is  the Musician getting out of the mind-set of how things traditionally have been done, embracing the internet, and being able to foresee where we are moving with technology, as a society, and the  benefits this will bring to them as an artist.

Established busy Musicians that are not too internet savvy, with a large fan base, will also need to consider having a “fan manager” someone to manage the database, HTML Newsletters, and more. Keeping the fans engaged and that part of your business organized will become an important role as direct marketing to them becomes a powerful income stream.

Now, obviously I have  not gone into the details of launching such a site or setting up the proper marketing system successfully, but its really not that difficult if you know what your doing and compared to the benefits  its well worth it, but that’s a whole other post.

As marketing methods become more content based and industries continue to tighten, I think were going to see much more of this from musicians who want a real business that is not solely based on them “scoring the big deal” but based more on having a good business.

The future of the music industry is online and it is in the branding. Just having a website is no longer enough, it is now about building a community within your business. The Independent Artist will need to embrace internet marketing or they will struggle to survive.

Communication lines are expanding and effective marketing methods are changing. What worked one or two years ago will not work well today.

The Music Industry is changing, our World is changing, and there will be those who watch things happen, those that make things happen, and those who wonder what happened.

Which one will you be?

Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think, especially if you’re a musician, or other artist I would really like to hear from you.

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Online videos offer  one of the best platforms for connecting with your customer and building a solid clientele.

It is becoming the newest and innovative  marketing medium allowing business owners to communicate with their viewers on many different levels using music, visual imagery and visual text.

Online video allows you to reach out to the global audience with a minimal investment, thus increasing your ROI tremendously. You are no longer restricted to demographics.

You dont have to be Steven Spielberg, but of course  knowing how to edit the video and add special effects by way of graphics, music, distribution channels,  and specialized text would give you the  edge over other businesses that use online videos for marketing.

Although there are no restrictions as to the kind of video you may produce for the purpose of marketing, remember the main aim of the video is to generate more business by keeping the customer engaged. With this in mind, it’s critical that the video should be riveting enough to hold the viewers attention and yet it should remain relevant to your area of business.

Creativity is the key to a successful video. Stay focused on creating a vehicle that delivers the right message. If the message is lost, you’ll have a successful video but it will be one that does not generate any business.

You could choose to make a video ad that features a demonstration of how the product works and all its benefits. The human face and voice are the elements that add immense value to a product description. Or you could simply do a very nice presentation using power point and other images from your web site.

However, making a video is not enough to generate increased website traffic. It’s in the marketing of the video that makes all the difference. The following ways can help you generate publicity for your web video:

• Write an interesting blog or respond to other blogs that are relevant to your business.
• Submitting your video to a multitude of video  websites including video sharing sites and Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace) as well as those sites that use voting systems to promote content.
• Article marketing is another great way to create backlinks to your website, which helps Google see that your page is important and should be ranked higher, thus increasing its Search Engine ranking

The benefits to web 2.0 marketing are many, one of which is a longer held position in the Search Engines, if the Marketing campaign is maintained, new videos posted, your website could be seeing more traffic for the long-term of your business.

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Video marketing is a relatively new trend in the area of ever-changing, innovative marketing strategies. It’s at the intersection of digital video and traditional internet marketing strategies.

Traditional internet marketing, or Web 1.0 marketing, involved  marketing through static interaction, like text based web pages.  Web 2.0 has turned this concept on its head. Potential customers are no longer restricted to reading static text about products and services. In other words, potential customers can interact with you—and the content you publish.

Enter video marketing, which plugs video into the interaction experience — giving Web 2.0 a whole new dimension. The whole face to face interaction and relationship building connection that we were missing before in Marketing and sales is now attainable, at least to some degree. This is where video marketing comes in. It allows you to blend your message and personality into the consumer’s online experience, influencing the consumer in their buying decisions.

Benefits of Web Video Marketing

Video has an inherent appeal to audiences. Many of us want to “see” something before we want to “read” something. In the context of marketing, video is used to enhance the consumer experience by educating the viewer about the product or services, putting a face on a company, and building a company brand.

A video that demonstrates how a product works, establishes rapport, and expressing personality from the business owner, sets off emotional triggers that static text simply cannot do, ultimately influencing buying decisions.

On the flip side, video can also turn away customers. How? If a video doesn’t show what a buyer needs, or doesn’t appeal emotionally, like a television station they simply click to something else. In the new world of social and interactive marketing, it’s still better to have lost a customer rather than have dissatisfied customer.
Which is why it is important to choose the right team to manage your marketing campaign. Your marketing team should be well versed with the image and message you want to communicate to your potential client.

The “on-demand” characteristic of video marketing is another great benefitVideos can be downloaded and viewed anytime. Instead of losing customers to potentially boring text, they can take your information and view it when they want, even offline.

There are many benefits to video marketing. Not the least of which is an additional marketing message outlet. The more outlets you use, the more customers you will reach.

If your interested in driving more traffic to your business, contact us for a free consultation by clicking here!

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While new products are the lifeblood of any business, launching them is a risk as well as an opportunity. Predicting consumer response can be uncertain, yet overproduction or underproduction can kill a product. Misses on marketing –whether it be in positioning, messaging, marketing mix, or the level of marketing spend –can also send a product to failure.
Yet many, if not all, of these problems can be identified in advance if the right questions are asked, and a fresh, objective, unbiased view is taken to address them.

Right before NASA launches a rocket, they go through an exhaustive pre-launch checklist to make sure the pre-work is up to snuff, all systems are ‘go’, and nothing is being left to chance. That’s the same approach we follow in working with companies prior to their launches of new products –a structured walk-through of all key issues relevant to the product to stress-test the launch plan and identify weak spots before it’s too late to change them.While the checklist can be applied at any point in the development cycle, one of the most common uses is to get answers to a number of the most critical questions right before launch.

With so many moving parts, a constantly evolving consumer target, and so much at risk, it often is valuable to get that final check to bring it all together and identify how to increase the chances of success.

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