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Lesson Info

Start a Conversation with Your Customers

Great launch conversation should feel honest, authentic and true based on your understanding of your customers and we're on page eleven in the workbook for anyone following along I should've mentioned that earlier paid eleven great launch conversation is honest, authentic and true based on your understanding of your customers it's not about manipulation it's not about convincing anyone they need something it's a bar about relating an honest, authentic and true understanding of how you are, how the product you have is of service to your customers it's based on genuine observation and personal experience observation is so important and I think it's a thing that we don't do often enough it's an activity that we don't build into our day today lives often enough you, khun observe your customers lots of different places this should not only is this the social era, but this is the area era of observation as marketers, we have the opportunity to go agony and actually see what our customers are...

doing, what they're saying on dh figure out what they're thinking and feeling on a regular basis and we could do that on facebook on twitter, on pinterest on instagram on linked in on reddit. Wherever you are, get out and make genuine observations and share your personal experience it's yesterday we talked about selling with personal stories this is an opportunity to connect the observations that you make of your clients and your customer base with your own personal experiences and a launch conversation is a great place to do that it also balance is fear and pain with desire and hope great launch conversation balance is fear and pain with desire and hope we don't want to solely market based on fear and pain, it makes people feel bad it's icky that's the penis that people feel when they feel marketing but here's the other thing it's important always to acknowledge your customers, legitimate pain and fear if you don't acknowledge that they feel bad, then they don't feel seen they don't feel heard they don't feel understood and then they're not going to trust you. So by acknowledging fear and pain, you're actually building trust and building authority in your field and then you balance that with desire and hope and you really think about what is it that people really want? What goals are they trying to achieve? What feelings are they trying to cultivate for themselves? Who are they trying to become? If you can balance those two things, you're going to create a story and a conversation that feels again honest, authentic and true and it's going to create that momenta mme create that anticipation without, uh, manipulating anyone questions about what makes a great launch conversation? Are there any or is there an ideal time frame or length of period of time in which to have this launch conversation so super great question of course the answer is it depends, but the main thing that it depends on is kind of the frequency and time frames that you use for other conversations that happen in your business. So for instance, I blogged and send out an email once a week basically, I create one piece of content a week and so when I'm approaching a launch, what I'm wanting to think about is building the a sense of anticipation in the sense of urgency by slightly upping the frequency of what I put out so I'm heading into a launch next week and so on instead of releasing my block post on wednesday, I'm going to release it on tuesday and then I have time to release another one a little sir sooner and another one a little sooner and another one a little sooner before I uh get to the climax of my launch so that's that I guess answers the frequency piece of the conversation. I think it depends also on how big the product is, how expensive the product is not always, but often the bigger a product is the higher investment a product is both from a financial and ah like an energetic a personal investment standpoint, the longer you need to be in a launch conversation the mohr anticipation you need to build also kind of the more intangible the job is that you're trying to do with the product, the more you have to build up, you have to build mohr trust you have to kind of walk people through some different steps first, before they're ready for that that bigger, um, investment of a product, but you can also do this in a very short period of time. So if even if you see your leaving the workshop on saturday afternoon and you want to release a new product on friday, you could do that. You could send a serious of three e mails over the next week and launch her product on friday. Is that ideal? Probably not, but does it work? Can it work? Can you get some results from it? Absolutely. And for a lot of us, some results are better than no results, and you know, sometimes you're in the position of either needing or wanting to make money now and that's fine and again, you can speed up this whole process, it won't be ideal, but it will work, and that could be enough to get you in a position where then the next time you could be much more thoughtful about it and that's a great place to be sasha so when you're doing this lead up conversation, do you reference what the product will be either with a link or just say, hey it's coming or do you just let it be more of a natural conversation without talking about the product? Great question. So on a very common question, different approach again, it depends on how I hate that always being me answer. But let me give you a couple different examples. Sometimes your audience knows that a particular product releases coming, or a majority of your audience knows a particular product releases coming. For instance, I am launching ten thousand feet next month and or in the coming weeks, and most of my audience knows that I released that twice a year, once in september and once in february. And so there's there's no reason for me to not acknowledge that, right? Uh, and it's probably very beneficial of me to acknowledge it. What I don't dio is link out to the sales page for it early in that conversation because they're not ready for it yet I haven't set the stage enough yet. I haven't created the platform for the conversation that needs to be had for the story that needs to be had before they would view that sales page the sales page isn't going to make sense. In the big picture of things, a lot of times what I'll recommend someone doing is referencing the product, especially if it's an old product referencing the product in terms of, you know, one of my ten thousand feet clients or one of my wet coaching clients, right? And so then you can tell a little story and you've mentioned the product and you haven't lost track of the overall conversation. Another way you can do that is to say, I've been working on building x, and this is what I've learned or one of my favorite parts of this program is this insight, and you know what? Screw waiting till the program comes out. I'm gonna tell you what this insight is right now that's a gn awesome that's an awesome way to kind of give a little sneak peek of what it is without kind of getting out of that story arc that's to me, that's what's important is that you maintain the conversation and maintain the ark maintained the flow that's probably the best way to think about it. So if you can mention the product and the mention, the fact that it's coming while maintaining that slow and making the story still make sense by all means that's a great idea um if not, I don't necessarily think you're hurting yourself by not mentioning the product that's coming another thing to consider, and we'll talk about this more in the next segment when I actually break down what thes content pieces are, but one of the content pieces is ideally, some sort of event, an event khun look like all sorts of different things that could be a webinar, a tele class, a live one in person workshop, it could be a runway show, it could be ah, house party, it there's all sorts of different ways you can craft a launch event, right? So in that case, instead of mentioning the product or leading people to the product, I would want to be leading people to be event, which, again, is right at that climax part, right? So then, you're not only maintaining flow, but you're creating a trajectory toward that climax make sense. So those air the different ways that I approach mentioning or not mentioning the program as I'm building toward a lunch. Okay, sound good, tiffany, just follow up on that for your ten thousand feet, and I know that it depends on various things. How long do you release content before you open the doors? So for that particular program, because it's, ah, higher end coaching program we do, I did print normally do about a three week launch to my main list, and then I also have a pre like a like an interest less. So these are people who have said I am interested in this program or I am interested, at least in this content, and so they get kind of mohr there's more anticipation there, um, and we can talk about that more with email marketing strategy, so but I'll just again, I'll just mention it now, one of one of the great ways you can kind of build up the conversation as you're moving into a launch is by having a group of people who have opted into an email list that says, I'm interested in this thing because then again, your exposition in the content strategy in the in this whole contents store lor launch story is you're further along, right? Because they've already said yes, or this is something I need, whether I'm going to buy it or not, whether I'm in the position to buy it or not, this is something I know I need this pertains to me, it's, relevant to me, and so then you know, when you're talking to that list, those particular prospects that you're starting the conversation, you're just much more clear on where you're starting the conversation and so for them, because I anticipate a much higher percentage of those people buying, I'm going to drip out content a little bit further ahead of time, I wantto I want to massage them even a little bit more. I want to make them feel like they are making a really good choice if they decide to buy this, invest in this and so I'm gonna that would be maybe six weeks or eight weeks and it's not there. I'm not thinking so much about urgency, but setting up the story, okay? Because they're going to get all the content they're going to get all of the things over the period of the lunch, and so I'm just trying to make them feel is comfy trouble in the story as possible, and then in that three week period, that's when I'm building up the anticipation in the mo mentum and all of that good stuff at it, and then how long do you leave the? Because I typically dio the opposite, right, which is where I open the doors and then buy whatever you want for six weeks or whatever, and so and I'm planning a lodge next month, and I'm kind of I had my timeline set out, but I'm thinking I should open it later. And so how long for your ten thousand feet, which is a big investment, energetically and financially, and what you get out of it, like, how long do you keep the sales open? So that one is two weeks? Got it so that's a fairly short period of time probably compared to what you are used to yeah for you I think great it is great why stress out about him for six weeks? Okay here's the other thing that happens remember jean marie mentioned a dip or the falling action here's the other thing after your product releases and you get that first wave of sales there's a dead period there's always a dead period so why make that dead period any longer than it has to be? Yes give people time to make decisions yes continue putting out great content, you know, addressing their objections answering their questions, giving them testimonials we're going to talk about all of that stuff but why put yourself through three, four, five weeks of thinking? Why isn't anyone buying that sounds amazing. Exactly. So yeah no, that was a lesson that I learned pretty early on is that longer is not better. Yes, my people need time to make decisions I don't think you will ever see see me do a lodge. I won't say never but I don't think you will ever see me do a launch where the cart is open the you know, the opportunity to buy is open for forty eight hours like it is in some businesses and like a set earlier that works for them doesn't work for me probably not gonna work for you uh it might there might be a bonus that's available for forty eight hours or there might be kind of like a number based bonus so like the first five people get a free session with me or something like that right, that could be available for five minutes for all I know which would be fantastic so maybe we should do that no, but but the a cart being open is for about two weeks the other thing that happens is from for that particular offer and for many of the offers that I make there's a set number of people who I will take and I can't take any more so there's even though the cart is open for two weeks if you don't act in the beginning there's a very good chance that it's not going to be available that full two weeks and so that kind of adds that little bit of extra urgency that having uneven shorter cart open period would allow youto have thank you point of clarification and money making millennials is asking about the same thing when love money making lettuce I don't know who you are great handle so I mean essentially you're saying to close the gate at a certain point but is that is that a sense of scarcity that you're creating by the deadlines and by limiting supplies? Yes, and instead of thinking about scarcity, think about urgency okay, so let me just reframe that a little bit urgency is an important part of any launch of any product release you want to give a sense that people need to by now instead of later in some businesses, it's less important than in other businesses, but I still think you want to build urgency. Think about what say, even a brand like target has done with their designer collections. There is a limited amount of those pieces made and, you know, now, maybe it didn't happen the first two times they released a collection, but now, if you don't get into a target store in the first forty eight hours, you are not getting the good stuff right? And I live an hour away from a target down, so I don't even watch when this things come out because it's just depressing, but but you do want to build that kind of urgent see into your launch. Let me give a couple more. Give a little more clarification, too, on the idea of closing a cart, because, again, not every business is going to close a cart like michelle and her jewelry business is not going to close the cart most of the time on a particular product, right? But there are different things that you could do that end, right? You could have a free shipping special when you release a new product or during the holiday buying season or during the mother's day holiday right and so free shipping is I just highly recommend free shipping promotions for anyone who has physical goods because if you're not building the price of shipping into your the cost of your items your pricing rock essentially if you can't eat that your price isn't right so you know that could be one way that over the course of the lunch you are hinting that you're going to be offering free shipping or that maybe you open the free shipping before you release the product and then you close the door on free shipping but even a product like an e book many of you guys are writers I know many of you guys are writers as well online ah product like an e book is going to sit on the shelf all the time right? But that doesn't mean there can't be an end date of something so it could be a special bonus call I've done that and had gotten really great reception on that before so if you buy buy such and such a date you can get a free bonus call with me I'll answer all of your questions on this particular topic or you know by the e book and I'll give you a three thirty minutes session with me or I'll critique your blogged or all helpyou with travel plans maybe it's a travel hacking a buck and whatever it isthe there's always a way you can build urgent see into your lunch and that urgency is going to keep that mo mentum up longer within the story of your launch makes sense any other questions I'm trying to get kind of get through the conceptual question from jonah are wilson who asked if you could talk a little bit about pre orders what do you think about offering exclusive discounts for pre orders? Yeah pre orders this is such a great thing to talk about actually because pre orders essentially allow youto have two different launch conversations you khun build one arc around pre ordering and then build another arc around actually releasing the book and that's exactly what I would dio is I'd have some sort of extra offer around the pre order or I'd have a discounted price eso that's not gonna work having a discounted price wouldn't be probably for physical products where you're talking about um jewelry or home goods or art because you're not you don't want to devalue what you're offering and price is one of the way that people value those things but again you could do free shipping you could dio you know, buy an original painting in the siri's and I'll send you a print of something else and you know so you can build in that kind of offer um and then a cz then you close the door on that particular offer. And you just have a whole nother conversation as your leading into the the actual release of the product. Maybe people get to see maur of what you're what you're creating, right? So any time you can build in extra storeys, even better are right, because it's more opportunity to create the conversation. That's going to move people to action. So that was a great example. Thank you.