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The Definitive Guide to 7 Figure Product Launches
INDEPTH GUIDE BY SEAN VOSLER
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
If you’re in sales or marketing, which if you own a business, you are, this saying should spark a few ideas. It’s a leadership quote, but it also is a sales and marketing quote, because whether you like it or not, if you’re selling, you’re also a leader. You need to lead your customers, not just into buying, but in giving them value and helping them traverse the waters of your industry. Let’s rephrase that quote from a more literal sales and marketing perspective… “If you want to sell something, don’t beat people over the head with features and benefits, don’t try and force the sale through facts and figures, teach them about the unexpected positive results and the invisible possibilities and how they will affect their lives.”
In this article we’re going to explore the elements of what makes sales and marketing actually work, and we’re going to look at the principles behind a “Video Product Launch” to help us understand these elements. If you’re not familiar with the “Four Part Video Series Product Launch,” it’s used by many companies and online marketers to build momentum for a product launch, and is an extremely effective way to sell a high ticket product online.
Here’s the basics of what an online, Four Part Video Launch Looks like: The first three videos “pre-sell” the product, by giving actionable tips, actionable tools and tidbits that are extremely important in pre selling. These three videos are almost pure content, with a hook at the end of each to give some excitement about the next video. We then send traffic (affiliates, paid ads, etc) to these videos in what’s called the “Pre Launch.” The goal here is to engage your audience and build momentum for the final sales video.
Assuming you’re targeting the right type of people, this can be one of the most effective methods for selling on a per visitor basis. After the first three videos are released, the final video is released, which is part content, part sales video. If you’ve effectively pre-sold in the first three videos, you can expect the final video to convert a large segment of your audience, generally in the $1000 to $4000 price, point depending upon how large your market is. The best thing is, you can do the same thing in your own business. As soon as you understand the principles behind a product launch.
About the Author: Sean Vosler is a course creator for Amazing.com and a full time launch consultant for some of the biggest names in internet marketing. With over 18 million in revenue through funnels he’s helped design and execute. If you’re just getting started in online marketing check out his “Business Marketing 101” Course Online Jumpstart on Amazing.com
Principle One – Getting people to Know, Like & Trust You is the foundation of a sale.
You’ve probably heard this sales terminology before, and it’s an extremely important step in making a sale. There’s simply no better way to get someone to know, like and trust you than to teach them something that helps them to get a desired result. Video is perfect for this! They get to see you, hear you, and get to experience the results you share.
Some way’s to get them to… Know You: It’s clear that people don’t just buy based on the facts and figures. There is a lot of emotion involved in a purchase, especially as the price gets higher. Your story is actually important to WHY you’re selling what you’re selling – if you or your product can connect on a personal level with the customer, you win.
Like You: Don’t be afraid to show a little humor. We’re naturally drawn to the right kind of humor, and it never hurts to keep things entertaining while you’re teaching. Also, sharing personal stories that you can wrap into the teaching, is a perfect way to find a common ground with your audience.
Trust You: Don’t be afraid to share your successes. If you’d rather have others share them for you, video testimonials are a fantastic way to do this. If you accomplish this by the end of the first set of launch video’s, or each individual video for that matter, you’re halfway to the sale. The second half is the most important, and often not given enough attention in the sales process. Action Item: When you put together a marketing piece, ask yourself, “Am I providing any information that would draw my customer closer to my brand or myself?”
Principle Two – Challenge And Convert.
Harvard Business Review did a study of top sales reps, and they found out something interesting. You might think the best of the best are those who have a close personal relationship with the customer. Logically it makes sense that the better the relationship we have with the customer, the more likely we are to make a sale. While this is true to a certain point, they found that the best of the best are those who CHALLENGE their prospects perspective on the problem, and offered an alternative problem and solution to the REAL problem. For example, let’s say you want to hire someone to build a website for your business.
You have a pretty good idea of what you want on your website, a home page with a mission statement, an about page, a contact page – you know, all the traditional pages you see on business websites. You talk to a few vendors who tell you some price points, and their impeccable record with customers. Ok great, they’re on the list of possible hires. Then someone comes in and says; “You don’t need a website, you need an online lead generation funnel!”.
They go on to teach you what a lead generation funnel is, how it works, and how it can add X amount of leads per month to your business, increasing potential revenues $Y amount per month. You see, you thought you needed a traditional website, and the “solution” providers catered to what you thought you needed, where as the “challenger” actually taught you what you really needed and sold you the results.
We need to be the last vendor, challenging leads on what they THINK they need, and selling them the right solution to the right problem. This mindset change is called a “eureka moment,” and almost always results in a closed deal. Action Item: When you put together a marketing piece, ask yourself, am I challenging my customer to think differently about their problem?
Principle Three – Sell Insights, Not Solutions – “The Benefit of The Benefit”
This builds on the challenge and convert principle. As noted above, customers are generally wrong with what they think they need. Our job as a “solutions provider” is to convince them that our product or service is actually what they need. Once we’ve challenged them on what they think, and provided a eureka moment, it’s time to close the deal with the ‘benefit of the benefit’. Going back to the “lead generation funnel” sales vendor example above, he first provided an alternative path to the results the business actually needs. They don’t need a home, about, or contact website – they need a website that generates real leads. Then he explained the benefits, more leads and revenue for the business.
We can take this one step further with ‘the benefit of the benefit’. Infomercials do this almost comically: “Tired of being rejected at the bar because of your bad hairline!? It’s time you got the attention you deserved by buying XYZ hair growing product!”. The benefit of the benefit here, is stopping rejection at the bar. They’re not selling a hair product, they’re selling a confidence product.
Answer this question: What are you really selling? Sell that, not your solution. We don’t have to be so over the top – but back to our example – all the vendor has to do now, is plant the idea of what extra leads could do for a business and the owner. You don’t have to say, “Imagine having more leads so that you could have more money and more time to spend with your family.”
The customer’s imagination will do that for you, all by saying a few magic words – “Imagine what more leads could mean for you and your business.” “Teach to Transform to Transact.” Our video launch series is riddled with these subtle imagination triggers, whether it’s through testimonials sharing their results and the results of those results, or directly asking people to imagine the results, we draw our audience into an emotional state that’s going to help close the deal. People don’t buy because of facts and figures, they buy because of emotion.
How to apply these principles in your business. You may not go and build a seven figure, four video launch sequence for your product or service, but you can take these principles and apply them into your sales presentations, your pitches, and your online marketing. If you add these principles into your sales pages and videos you will see an increase in conversions. Armed with this knowledge, go look at what sales tools you currently have in your business.
Chances are most of them are missing elements of the above principles.
Understanding the Process of Building a Four Part Video Launch
Let’s explore the “Four Video Launch” model used by most high level internet marketers today. This method is extremely effective for $500+ products because it teaches and brings measurable results to your audience before it sells the product. However, video launches can be great for any priced physical product you are selling.
You can take this guide and build out your own four video launch sequence for your specific product or service, giving you an extremely powerful tool that can dramatically increase your bottom line. This guide is based on the assumption you understand the basic idea of a Four Part Video Series (talked about the concept in the article previous to this), and will give you a nice set of tools to get started!
Getting Everything Organized
First step in any successful launch, is collecting the assets we’ll need to build out all the launch elements. This process can seem a bit technical, but it also can’t be skipped! Best to get as organized as possible before we get into the nitty gritty.
INFORMATION TO COLLECT
PROJECT MANAGEMENT Once we have our data collected we’ll want to organize it in a way that we can easily share it with members of our team, or vendors, that we’re working with. Here are some simple tools and techniques you can use to keep things easily accessible:
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SUGGESTED TECHNOLOGY
Next we need to make sure we have all the proper technology in place, listed are the items we discussed to be used:
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The Launch Timeline
| Once we have our content and process organized, we need to start prepping for launch. This timeline will give you a rough idea of what needs to be done a month before you go live with your video series. This can all be done by the right people in a few days, but most of the time we underestimate the amount of work that needs to be complete before we take our first video live. Below you will find a breakdown of the steps that need to be complete before you begin your launch: 
LAUNCH BUILD STEPS 1. Set up redundant server 2. Set up WP with cache system 3. Set up coming soon opt in page 4. Develop base set of video landing pages & opt in pages 5. Integrate AR system 6. Set up follow up sequences 7. Start production of JV blog 8. Start production of membership site 9. Test integration with checkout system 10. Build VSL Page |
Use the steps above to help keep track of where you are in this process!
Week One: Data collection (images, content, video) and planning, and create a full project outline in your selected project management system. Build checklist of all items needing produced and all details that need to be verified. Build quality control checklists.
Week Two: Initial sales funnel build. Testing of gateway system. Filler content added if needed, but all basic functionality of launch property built and ready.
Week Three: implementation of follow up sequences and connecting all technologies (Get response, Jvzoo, Retargeting, etc). Build a membership platform and content integration.
Week Four: Full blown test day – all systems, stress test server, membership user setup, customer support integration. Final content check – all videos added, all systems working, final launch countdown. During the final phases of the pre launch production it’s extremely important to check all details (FB meta data, retargeting pixels, thank you page pixels, membership management, email capture functionality, auto responder links, analytic tracking, Visual Website Optimizer setup, cart tracking integrated, affiliate tracking working, gateway system set up). Are all pages linking correctly, are the systems in place to switch pages based on when videos are going live, does the server generate static versions of the pages, do all pages have proper thumbnails and titles? Make sure and ask yourself these questions as you go along! Finalize VSL Page production – agree upon layout elements.
7 FIgure Launch Tips & Tricks
- Do not close the doors on the program on the last day of the launch, instead, frame the launch as a grand opening and offer special bonuses & special pricing only during the launch’s grand opening. At the end of the grand opening, remove the ability for new buyers to gain access to the bonuses, but do not remove the product.
- Build an “Affiliates Only” FB group to announce new mailing opportunities. Work directly with affiliates and download the app Voxer for quick communications with top affiliates.
- Make affiliates mail for ALL parts of the launch to qualify for the JV contest.
- Offer incentives for affiliates to offer bonuses of their own – perhaps throw in an extra $2,000 / $1,000 / $500 / $300 to the top affiliates who offer bonuses, and $100 for each other affiliate who offers any kind of bonus offer. You can offer different kinds of bonuses, doesn’t have to be a high amount of money!
- Use one single Facebook comment thread for all pages, but on the “Thank You” page, provide a testimonial thank you thread that you can show on the sales page (real time testimonials)…
- Consider using YouTube for the launch videos – can help keep costs lower and is a easy to use video platform.
- Have an “Affiliate Appreciation Mastermind” for those in top 10.
- Daily updates and good natured taunts to affiliates, letting them know what place they rank. Makes it a good natured competition!
- Enable AR for cart abandon – (capture email before they continue to the cart) trust me will add at least 10% to the final sales.
- Enable time delay on pricing display for your product one day after cart open- worth testing, BUT we found at a high price point ($997 – above what most of your products would be) after the cart open day, people get scared if they don’t consume your VSL. Test this on your product and different price points for your business specifically! Your results may be even better, or this might not be the selling point that works best for you. Test, test, test!
- Test all VSL elements over the time the cart is open.
- Get a small beta group in members area to catch any membership bugs.
The Launch Timeline
DAY ONE
This is the most stressful day you’ll experience in the launch – well maybe besides the last day. Hope for the best, plan for the worse, but it WILL be ok – just keep some baby aspirin near by.
- 12pm EST (or agreed upon time) flip “Coming Soon” page to “Video One Opt In” page. Re-verify everything works – AR connected, new leads being added, emails are sending, video works, Facebook comments can be moderated, retargeting audience is being built.
- Enable first set of split tests on opt in headline.
- Enable tests for a call to action to leave a comment – most wanted response on the video is to leave a comment.
- Check video stats – at what point are most visitors leaving the video? Add an annotation to the video 30 seconds before this point with an open loop headline – “Coming up in a few minutes: (benefit to them).”
- Continue headline tests over next few days, also testing call to actions of opt in and other elements on the opt in page.
- Implement Facebook comment moderation with everyone on team.
VIDEO TWO
Once you’ve made it through video one, there’s still much work to be done. Video two dropping will seem easy, but don’t be fooled, if something can break it will during this step… unless you know all the things that can break!
- 12pm EST (or agreed upon time) flip “Video One Opt In” page to “Video Two Opt In” page. Re-verify everything works – AR connected, new leads being added, emails are sending, video works, Facebook comments can be moderated, retargeting audience is being built.
- Enable first set of split tests on opt in headline.
- Enable tests for a call to action to leave a comment, your most wanted response on the video is to leave a comment.
- Check video stats – at what point are most visitors leaving the video? Add an annotation to the video 30 seconds before this point with an open loop headline – “Coming up in a few minutes: (benefit to them).”
- Continue headline tests over next few days, also testing call to actions of opt in and other elements on the opt in page.
VIDEO THREE
Ok, made it this far – affiliates are getting excited, it’s not time to slow down just yet. Best bet is to keep hounding affiliates to mail, make sure they know they NEED to mail to qualify for your awesome JV contest.
- 12pm EST (or agreed upon time) flip “Video Two Opt In” page to “Video Three Opt In” page. Re-verify everything works – AR connected, new leads being added, emails are sending, video works, Facebook comments can be moderated, retargeting audience is being built.
- Enable first set of split tests on opt in headline.
- Enable tests for a call to action to leave a comment, your most wanted response on the video is to leave a comment.
- Check video stats – at what point are most visitors leaving the video? Add an annotation to the video 30 seconds before this point with an open loop headline – “Coming up in a few minutes: (benefit to them).”
- Continue headline tests over next few days, also testing call to actions of opt in and other elements on the opt in page.
CART OPEN DAY
- 12pm EST (or agreed upon time) flip “Video Three Opt In” page to “VSL” page. Re- verify everything works – AR connected, new leads being added, emails are sending, video works, facebook comments can be moderated, retargeting audience is being built.
- Enable first set of split tests on sales page.
- Test all call to actions.
- Check video stats – at what point are most visitors leaving the video? Add an annotation to the video 30 seconds before this point with an open loop headline – “Coming up in a few minutes: (benefit to them).”
- Continue headline tests over next few days, also testing call to actions of opt in and other elements on the opt in page.
CART OPEN WEEK/WEEKS
- Cart Day 2 – Enable VSL with TIME delayed call to action (purchase button)
- Consider re-edit of video if conversion are not at the level expected.
- Enable count down timer in last 7 days
- Consider alternate full redesign of VSL – outside designer creates an alternative for a test. Even a 1% boost in conversions at this point could mean a big difference!
- Full fledge kick ass retargeting campaign MUST be regulated and tested.
- Daily communication needed with affiliates.
CART CLOSE No need to stop people from buying – just remove the launch bonuses.
- Change VSL to reflect promised changes at end of launch.
- Leaving the cart open will allow for residual traffic over the coming weeks.
- Start working on building evergreen funnel.
POST LAUNCH AFTER THE LAUNCH Going Evergreen – 7 day process.
- Create entry point for lead generation through ads/affiliates
- Automate email follow up sequence to all videos
- Integrate Facebook ads tracking for leads and sales
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How To Write Copy That ACTUALLY Sells... Tap Here 🔐
✅ ATTENTION In the first 4 methods I’ll break down several insane ways to brainstorm attention-grabbing content that pulls your reader into your orbit
✅ BANNER BLINDNESS BUSTER Keywords you can use to take a browser out of their hypnotic state so they can actively pay attention to your message.
✅ SOCIAL STRATEGY A caveman strategy you can use to place yourself at the head of the pack when it comes to authority and social proof.
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2 Comments
Sean I see you passion in your presentations. Financial freedom has freed you to do something you love.
Top class article, thanks for sharing Sean. I see you were in Hawaii with Damian Coughlan, a top lad!