How I Do Launches: (Painful) Lessons Learned Bringing

My Own Products to Market

Mike Roberts

President, SpyFu, Inc.

@mrspy

What I’m Gonna Cover

• Embarrassing Mistakes I’ve Made.

• Cool Stuff I’ve Learned Lately

• Detailed Launch Plan for RECON Files

Spring, 2002 : Skills Assessment

• 6 months into dev of first

product

• Average developer

• Above average at interviewing

(for a geek)

• ZERO marketing experience

Why Does This Matter?

• Reasonably smart at times.

• Totally stupid at times.

• (Still am.)

• 2002: Pre-a-lot-of-things.

Spring 2002: My Finances

• No savings.

This Can’t Possibly Matter.

• Spending $100 means

it *better* f’ing work.

– Or else I gotta get a job.

On Track: My Very First Launch

• 14 months of work (nights and weekends)

• Put up a website.

• Posted the product to Download.com.

• …

• Waited for the sales to roll in.

Lesson 1: Kevin Costner is a Lying Douchebag

How’d That Work Out?

• 5 sales of $849 in 6 months.

• Had to get a job – actually a

couple – ugh.

Lesson 2: Never Do Your Own Creatives

Local Designer: ~$1000

Excuse: I can’t afford a designer

Excuse: I don’t suck like you, Mike.

• Shut up.

• Design is one of the cheapest skills you

have to replace.

– you have a product to launch.

• Spend your time on:

– User experience (UX) design, development,

conversion tactics, strategic marketing…

Resources:

• Vworker.com (aka Rentacoder) – cheap.

• Guru.com – good.

• Elance, oDesk – heard good things.

Lesson 3: Don’t Name Your Product Something

That Sounds Like a Venereal Disease

Providus

Lesson 3 Restated: Choose a Name That…

• Is as descriptive as possible.

– Gets a lot of searches

• Providus vs. Web Scraper Plus

You Don’t Necessarily Need the

Domain Name.

“Cool” Names are Overrated

• Unless you can afford to build a brand

– Then, cool = more memorable

• Suggestion: CoolCompanyName.com +

Descriptive Product Name

Descriptive Name = Good SEO

• Also, good communication

• Elevator Pitch Bullet Point Product

Name

I try to follow this advice:

How’d All That Work Out?

• 3 Employees.

• Solutions business = Product + Consulting

• No need for me to work “in” the business.

GoogSpy SpyFu

• Learning Adwords

• GoogSpy.com

Lesson 4: It Really Helps a Launch

if You Tell Someone About It

• This is embarrassing…

• It’s not complicated.

Lesson 4 Restated: People Want to Hear

About Your New Thing

• Bloggers need something to write about.

• Everybody wants to be first.

• People actually care.

Big Follows Small

• Tweet Blog Trade Pub WSJ

15 Months Later…

Late 2006: My Biggest Launch Ever (until now):

• 3-month Free Beta Period

• Tell a few bloggers a couple days in advance

• Issue a press release the day of the launch

(PRNewswire)

• Send out an email on the day of the launch

• Onsite promotion (subscribe now button)

• Went to happy hour…

My Hype Cycle: Equivalent of Cult

Movie DVD Sales

*Real* Launches Last Weeks,

Months, or Years

Why did we succeed?

• Partially free.

• Latent need.

• Innovative.

Lesson 5: Make Something that is Free

• Nobody writes / speaks

about paid stuff.

Why did we succeed?

• Partially free.

• Latent need.

• Innovative.

Non-Lesson: My One Saving

Grace as a Human…

• Finding the Latent Need

Easier Ways to Make Money

• Extreeemely Risky

• Very Hard to Predict

My Advice:

if (competitors = 0) then

RUN AWAY!!!

My Actions:

…Like Kevin Garnett, Anything is Possible…

Record:

If You Get Off on This Sort of Thing…

• Trust your instinct

• Choose projects that:

– You can test quickly

– Scale well

Why did we succeed?

• Partially free.

• Latent need.

• Innovative.

Innovative

• Hire and Grow Brilliant People.

• Tolerate Failure.

Latent + Innovative + Free =

Blogger Love

• Blogger Love = Pretty Good

SEO = Strong Brand

Blogger Love = SpyFu Success

Today…

Student of the Launch

Good vs. Bad Launches

Good • Apple

• Movies (Blair Witch)

• Star Craft 2

• Clickbank IM

Launches

• Politicians (AZIMA

9/14)

Bad • Google

• Banks

• Microsoft

Internet Launch in Action

Back to the Hype Cycle

Tease

Core Audience

• Existing Customers

• Twitter, LinkedIn,

Facebook Followers

• Tradeshow Visitors

Tools

• Teasers

• Sneak Peaks

• “Leaks”

• Secret Demos

Pre-Launch

Visitors

• Everybody in our

email list

• All website visitors

• Personal Twitter

Accounts

Tools • Launch Story

• Free Stuff

• Demo Videos

• Marketing Copy

• Feature Emails and Autoresponders

• Webinars

Pre-Launch: Telling the Story

Identify (I’m a lot like you)

• Persona.

• Identity implied – be

real.

• JIF

• Old Spice

Common Frustrations

• Clients can’t understand value proposition

of SEO.

• Very high “baseline” and research cost

when onboarding a client.

• Month-end reports are tedious and time

consuming.

Pre-Launch: Telling the Story

What If?

• Make it as easy for clients to understand

SEO as it is PPC?

• Eliminate baselining?

• Automatically create month-end reports

that make clients want to buy more

services?

Pre-Launch: Telling the Story

How I Found the Solution

• Top 50 organic positions, 20M keywords, 3

years.

• No more page load times.

• Answer real questions.

• Sizzle sells.

And now it’s ready to share…

Well, not really.

To be continued…

Our Launch Plan: Tease

Our Launch Plan: Pre-Launch

On to the Launch…

mike@spyfu.com @mrspy, @spyfu

youtube.com/spyfuteam spyfu.com/recon

We’d Love Your Feedback...

Thank You

mike@spyfu.com

@mrspy

spyfu.com/facebook

Launch

Targeted Universe

• Other Peoples’ Email

Lists

• Industry Website

Visitors

• Demographically

Targeted Web Users

Tools

• Banner Ads

• Text Ads

• Emails

• Interviews

Retention

Customers

• People who bought

• People in the

conversion funnel

Tools

• Instructional Content

(Videos and Articles)

• Auto-Responders

• Webinars

• Support