Employing an Affiliate Based Product Launch Formula

Employing an Affiliate Based

Product Launch Formula

About• Been online since 99.

• Full time since moving to FL in 2006.

• Today Critical Bench is a fitness publishing company. Dozens of products related to Muscle & Strength

• Have conducted four 6-figure product launches.

• Closing in on 200K email subscribers.

What Is a Product Launch?

•Not the same as an internal promotion

• It’s not a product release

•Not a rolling launch

•A product launch is when you’re going big with lots of affiliate support and it involves the following……

Components of a Successful Launch

Your Product• A Big Idea that Solves a Problem – Do not launch

for the sake of launching. Has to be different. Has to have a hook.

• Without marketing you are being selfish and holding this idea to yourself. You have to get people excited about the product in order for them to take action and change their lives. That’s why you need a hook. There are lots of good programs out there, but without the hook they don’t help anyone because nobody gets excited or cares.


Your Product Cont…

• Create the product. Make it quality. Affiliates will want to see it. Avoid refunds. Wow factor. Over-deliver. Un-announced bonuses.

• Testing internally to your in house list and perhaps a few test affiliates. Why? 1 Chance.


Build Your Goodwill Bank• Help others before asking them to help you.

• Buy their products, promote their products.

• Ask how you can help them or support them.

• Get on the radar.

• Go to conferences/events and network. Don’t go to ask people to promote…make friends naturally and people will find a way to help you later and at least respond to your emails.

• Attend and join masterminds to get to know others in your industry better.

• Takes time. I did it for 10 years although that’s extreme.


Affiliate Recruiting• Set the date months in advance and try to avoid any other major

launches going on by a few weeks that you’re aware of.

• Start an excel sheet with your target list of ideal affiliates you’re interested in acquiring support of. Make columns for confirmed….and methods of contact including email, facebook, phone, text, mail. Try to get a touch on each of these to get a response.

• Selling affiliates can be harder than selling your actual product to the customer so do not take this lightly.

• It’s what makes or breaks a launch is the affiliate support. It’s hard to do, takes a ton of work and it’s why you don’t’ see a lot of 6-figure launches.


Affiliate Recruiting – The Launch Packet• Include: Prelaunch Dates, Launch Dates, Brief Bios, Your Hook,

Stats and Results supporting need for product, overcome objections, share who is on board. Keep it short…10-15 pages including prizes.

• What’s In it For Them.

• Use 3rd party tracking for commission if possible. It’s not uncommon that people don’t pay. You’ll get more support using a system like clickbank people already trust.

• Industry standard. Pay at least 75% commission to affiliates.

• Let them know you’ll provide content on demand. Custom articles, emails, videos, interviews etc. Make it easy for affiliates. Done for You.


Affiliate Recruiting – The Launch Packet Cont.• Share your prelaunch and launch schedule and explain how a launch

works for affiliates that may not have participated before.

• Show the money. Prizes! Cash for prelaunch and launch.

• Examples: Lean Hybrid Muscle Reloaded, Vince Gironda, Fix My Shoulder Pain.

• Yes save it as pdf and email to all the affiliates you want to invite.

• Send it in the mail. Personalize. Hand written note.

• Call people and touch base, see if they got it and if they’re in.

• All necessary first time. After you’ve helped a lot of people with previous launches they’ll trust you know what you’re doing.


The Prelaunch• Before the product goes live or for sale you want to pre-sell people or

get them into the funnel.

• Create a money magnet or gift. Video, PDF or something that offers a preview of what your full product will do for them.

• Create a squeeze page that affiliates will email to using an affiliate link. Leads will optin to your “prelaunch list”. They are cookied or tagged to the affiliate that sent them in. You are now providing content to these people for your affiliates. Entertain and educate. Affiliate now has a free schedule to mail on other things.

• Must be creative here. Affiliates are not always crazy about emailing to squeeze pages. It will increase their conversions.


The Prelaunch Cont.• For FMSP we did a shoulder health quiz. At the end they can optin for

results and a gift. Try a survey. Provide emails to affiliates to mail to the squeeze page. http://www.criticalbench.com/FMSP/


The Prelaunch Cont.

• The length of prelaunch can vary. For my last launch last October I did a week.

• My products go live on Tuesdays. So start Prelaunch Monday to Monday.


The Prelaunch Cont.• Example schedule:

Monday Oct 8th-Wednesday Oct 10th: Affiliates Mail to the Money Magnet squeeze page.

Here’s what you do! By Prelaunching You‘re Basically Drip Feeding Them Your Sales Page piece by piece.

Wednesday Oct 10th: Broadcast to the prelaunch list a link to the page with your gift one more time or send them an extra gift like an mp3 interview. Creation story, bonding, getting to know you.

Thursday Oct 11th: Problem email: Viscous Pain Cycle. Send them to a special web page. Not normal blog. Optomize Press page. Ie: http://www.criticalbench.com/gains/fmsp-shoulderpaincycl


The Prelaunch Cont.Friday Oct 12th: Share a really good tip in the email. Link it to a web page. Share your hook and unique solution to the problem from yesterday’s email.

Ie: http://www.criticalbench.com/gains/fmsp-besttip

Saturday Oct 13th: Win a free copy of the program. Use your blog. Have them answer the question how would this program change their life for th the better? They are writing their own testimonial. Use comment field for entries. Show the components of what they are getting or competing for. Run contest for entire weekend.


The Prelaunch Cont.Sunday Oct 14th: Double the winners and FAQs.Let them know you are awarding more free copies and than go into the FAQs….answer questions and objections that have been coming up in the comments. One question will be….Will it work for me? Link to a success story web page showing all your testimonials and case studies.

Monday Oct 15th: Winners announced and cool surprise

Set up a web page showcasing the winning entries. Now tell them about a cool surprise that action takers will get when they order on day 1 of the launch. Going live tomorrow!

In the P.S. Put links to all the prelaunch content from last week.


Checklist for Going Live• If you have some big affiliates on board you need to contact your hosting

company about back up hosting. Too much traffic can actually crash the server.

•Double check everything is working. Get extra customer service reps.

•You should have an affiliate google group or distribution list to stay in contact with affiliates. Let them know how prelaunch is going and who won the prizes.

•Contact everyone the day before you go live. Monday throughout the day you need to be emailing and texting people to make sure they are ready. People are busy and forget sometimes.

•Make sure everything works. Get your split tests set up to compare prices and headlines and upsell flows.


Overview Affiliate email Schedule• Tuesday Oct 16th Day 1:

Email 1: Send at 12:01 AM. Get the click – curiosity based or harder sell option.Email 2: Send at 3:30 PM. Endorsement plus Day 1 Bonus + your bonus

Wed Oct 17th Day 2:

Email 1: Send at 12:01 AM. Content email. Vertical Hanging/SR3 MethodEmail 2: Send at 4 PM....send same email to unopens.

Thursday Oct 18th Day 3:

Email 1: Send at 12:01 AM. Content Video at top of sales page Deep Fascial Rotator Cuff Stretch.

Friday Oct 19th Day 4:

Email 1: Send at 12:01 AM. Last ChanceEmail 2: Send at 4 PM Another content piece Email 3: Last chance.


Keeping Affiliates Motivated During Launch• Communicate with the affiliates 1-2 times per day with the distribution list.

• Don’t give all the swipe copy all at once. Email them each day with a new swipe they can use.

• Share statistics and what’s working best. Encourage them to provide their own bonus.

• Do leaderboards in every update emails so people know how far out they are from the prize money.

• Get some friendly competition going.

• Sprint bonuses.

• Include some affiliates that didn’t commit on the email list too. People jump in when they see other big dawgs doing well.

• Offer to provide interviews, articles, videos, emails as needed.

• Follow up 1 on 1 with people and let the top guys know how they are doing in between leaderboard emails.


The End is Just the Beginning

• End the sale on Friday night at midnight.

• Find a reason to extend it over the weekend. Celebrating becoming a best seller? Don’t have affiliates advertise this. Just leave a notice the page that says “Weekend Extension”.

• Lots more sales will come in over the weekend.

• Turn it off Monday sometime when it slowsdown.


Post Launch• Make sure customers are getting taken care of and refunds are not coming

in.

• Get affiliates paid as soon as possible to keep them happy. Most will be patient and know you’re waiting to get paid by clickbank before you pay up.

• If you gross 200K plus how much do you keep?

• It’s not about the profit..it’s about the customer list.

• Most people buy customers and have to pay for those emails with PPC traffic.

• With a launch you get paid to get customers. Affiliates might make more than you but you know have jumpstarted your biz and grow from that.


Post Launch

• Survey your list.

• Be ready for the next big promotion.

• Within a week or two be ready to sell them something complimentary and you can have another big surge or revenue.

• These new customers are hungry and hot.

• If there is a complimentary launch coming up and you can be an affiliate you have a good chance of doing very well and winning prize money.

• Your first promo after the launch might be your biggest of the year.

• Treat your list good. Only recommend things you believe in. Help them reach their goals. Don’t be a sell out and promote things that are not a good fit. They trust you, don’t lose that trust.


ResourcesWhere did I learn from?

Mass Control by Frank Kern

Product Launch Formula by Jeff Walker

Joel Marion first person to do a fitness product launch.

Don’t copy. Take ideas and modify to make your own style. That’s what I did with these guys plus trial and error.


Thanks! FAQS

Download the presentation and sample launch packets here:http://www.criticalbench.com/gains/dragon

Upcoming Critical Bench Product Release:Fix My Knee Pain: March 19-22nd.

Big Launch of the Year:Fix My Back Pain: Oct 15-18th

Questions?

Employing an Affiliate Based Product Launch Formula

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