Your customer list is a great starting point for launching your products. After all, who else but your tried and true customers are likely to purchase your products from you? They have already demonstrated that they know, like, and trust you.
Never forgot who helped you get to where you are.
Therefore, the next time you are launching a new product or going for a special sales launch, there are a few proven methods and techniques that you can do that will just about guarantee a higher response rate. These things include:
- split testing email headlines,
- pumping up excitement before the launch, and,
- taking advantage of the “crowd effect.”
Curious on what you need to do? Here’s some details on each of these tips.
Email Split Testing
Most list management software (think companies like AWeber, Infusionsoft) will allow you to split test headlines. Furthermore, you can segment out your list and send emails to only a portion of your list.
If you’re doing a big, important product launch, it can often pay to do something like this:
Create two different headlines, or even completely different emails. Next, segment out 25% of your list and split test those two different emails to just that 25% of your list.
Once you have the results from that initial test, send the winner out to the remaining 75% of your list.
Is this more work? It absolutely is! However, if your goal is to provide more awareness of your launch and to get more open rates, you need to be split testing your headlines for your emails.
With that said,聽 you should also be split testing landing pages and other factors throughout your campaign. I will leave that for another post at another time 馃槈
The Tease > Tease > Tease > One Time Offer Formula
You have probably seen this techniques used on many聽 successful product launches. It聽 involves really getting the excitement level about the new product up, then creating a very limited supply.
For example, you might briefly mention on your blog that something big is coming up. You might then write an email detailing the problem, hinting that there’s a solution coming up without telling your readers what it is.
Then, you do an interview with another well-known person in your industry, again talking about the problem and how amazing it would be if it were solved. You excitedly tell the audience about your new product that’s soon coming out.
You just keep building up the excitement and mystery, releasing just a little bit of new information with every post.
Finally, when you release the product, there will already be a ton of excitement around it. If you combine this with a One Time Offer to create scarcity, your conversion rate will go through the roof.
Use Social Proof To Your Advantage
Wikipedia defines ‘Social Proof’ as:
Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation. This effect is prominent in ambiguous social situations where people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior, and is driven by the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation.
In essence, this simply states that people are more likely to do something when others are doing it. In other words, if a person knows that a lot of other people are rushing to buy a product, they’re more likely to want to buy as well.
Good to know, but how can you take advantage of this?
First of all, creating an active blog, chat room or message board where people can talk about your product or post that they just bought is a great first step.
Recruiting affiliates in your space is another great way. If someone gets one email about your product launch, they may ignore it. But if they get emails for five different people, especially people they trust, then they’ll definitely have to check it out.
Contests are another great way. For example, ask everyone to post a video about why they love the new product. The winner gets all your products, video and audio, loaded on a free iPad. You’ll get a great surge of responses, creating the impression that you have many buyers.
These are just guidelines and examples. Come up with your own specific ways of creating the sense that a lot of people are rushing to buy.
These three things: scientific split testing, the tease and scarcity tactic and, using social proof聽 are all powerful methods to help increase your response in any email product launch or campaign.
What techniques do you use when you are launching a service or product? Leave a comment below and share your ways with us!
I like this! I need to split test more often.
What would you say is are the most critical aspects of your sales page that you should split test first? If you put it in an email, is that also what you would test? Thanks.
Great question, Larry! I will address this in my next post.