Employing%20an%20Affiliate%20Based%20Product%20Launch%20Formula

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Employing an Affiliate Based Product Launch
Formula
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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.

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What Is a Product Launch?

• Not the same as an internal promotion
• Its not a product release
• Not a rolling launch
• A product launch is when youre going big with
  lots of affiliate support and it involves the
  following

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Components of a Successful LaunchYour 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.
  Thats why you need a hook. There are lots of
  good programs out there, but without the hook
  they dont help anyone because nobody gets
  excited or cares.

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Components of a Successful LaunchYour 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.

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Components of a Successful LaunchBuild 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. Dont go
  to ask people to promotemake 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
  thats extreme.

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Components of a Successful LaunchAffiliate
Recruiting

• Set the date months in advance and try to avoid
  any other major launches going on by a few weeks
  that youre aware of.
• Start an excel sheet with your target list of
  ideal affiliates youre 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.
• Its what makes or breaks a launch is the
  affiliate support. Its hard to do, takes a ton
  of work and its why you dont see a lot of
  6-figure launches.

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Components of a Successful LaunchAffiliate
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 short10-15 pages including
  prizes.
• Whats In it For Them.
• Use 3rd party tracking for commission if
  possible. Its not uncommon that people dont
  pay. Youll get more support using a system like
  clickbank people already trust.
• Industry standard. Pay at least 75 commission
  to affiliates.
• Let them know youll provide content on demand.
  Custom articles, emails, videos, interviews etc.
  Make it easy for affiliates. Done for You.

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Components of a Successful LaunchAffiliate
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 theyre in.
• All necessary first time. After youve helped a
  lot of people with previous launches theyll
  trust you know what youre doing.

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Components of a Successful LaunchThe 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.

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Components of a Successful LaunchThe 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/FMS
  P/

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Components of a Successful LaunchThe 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.

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Components of a Successful LaunchThe Prelaunch
Cont.

• Example schedule
• Monday Oct 8th-Wednesday Oct 10th Affiliates
  Mail to the Money Magnet squeeze page.
• Heres what you do! By Prelaunching Youre
  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-shoulderpa
  incycl

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Components of a Successful LaunchThe 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
  yesterdays email.
• Ie http//www.criticalbench.com/gains/fmsp-bestti
  p
• 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.

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Components of a Successful LaunchThe 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.

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Components of a Successful LaunchChecklist 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.

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Components of a Successful LaunchOverview
Affiliate email Schedule

• Tuesday Oct 16th Day 1Email 1  Send at 1201
  AM.  Get the click curiosity based or harder
  sell option.Email 2  Send at 330 PM.
   Endorsement plus Day 1 Bonus your bonusWed
  Oct 17th Day 2Email 1  Send at 1201 AM.
   Content email.  Vertical Hanging/SR3
  MethodEmail 2  Send at 4 PM....send same email
  to unopens.Thursday Oct 18th Day 3Email 1
   Send at 1201 AM.  Content Video at top of sales
  page  Deep Fascial Rotator Cuff Stretch.Friday
  Oct 19th Day 4Email 1  Send at 1201 AM.
   Last ChanceEmail 2  Send at 4 PM Another
  content piece Email 3  Last chance.

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Components of a Successful LaunchKeeping
Affiliates Motivated During Launch

• Communicate with the affiliates 1-2 times per day
  with the distribution list.
• Dont give all the swipe copy all at once. Email
  them each day with a new swipe they can use.
• Share statistics and whats 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 didnt 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.

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Components of a Successful LaunchThe 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? Dont 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.

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Components of a Successful LaunchPost 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 youre
  waiting to get paid by clickbank before you pay
  up.
• If you gross 200K plus how much do you keep?
• Its not about the profit..its 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.

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Components of a Successful LaunchPost 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. Dont be
  a sell out and promote things that are not a good
  fit. They trust you, dont lose that trust.

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Components of a Successful LaunchResources

• Where 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.
• Dont copy. Take ideas and modify to make your
  own style. Thats what I did with these guys
  plus trial and error.

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Components of a Successful LaunchThanks! FAQS

• Download the presentation and sample launch
  packets herehttp//www.criticalbench.com/gains/dr
  agon
• Upcoming Critical Bench Product ReleaseFix My
  Knee Pain March 19-22nd.
• Big Launch of the YearFix My Back Pain Oct
  15-18th
• Questions?