When it comes to selling your digital products, there are many ways you could launch them to your market. In today's post I'm talking through some of the different types of launches including the pro's and con's of each and which you should do first.

Ultimately, what works for one market or one product type might not work for another, so the best thing you can do to ensure a successful launch is to KEEP launching! Keep trying new things, keep learning, keep evolving and above all… get to know your audience on a deep level and understand how they behave and what motivates them to buy your products.

Beta-launch

Before you jump into any other kind of launch of your product, I recommend a beta-launch of your product first.

This means getting your product to the stage where your customers can test it’s effectiveness before you commit more time and money to the final product and advertising. (i.e NOT PERFECT!) You'll move towards a far better product FASTER if you launch before you're ready using a beta-launch.

What’s great about a beta-launch is that you collect feedback as you go and if you need to pivot your product to meet the needs of your customers, you can do that on the fly.

You may have to offer a discount or extra bonuses to get customers to use your product, which might be challenging if you have no track record (but not impossible!).

By pitching your product as a beta, you give yourself room for that change without annoying your customers and iterate as you go, avoiding creating a product that might not be right for your market.

Sales Page

Potentially the least intensive of all the launch methods in this post, you could launch your products directly from a sales landing page from your social campaigns, emails and adverts.

This is a single web page detailing all the specifics of your product, including benefits, features, testimonials, pricing, FAQ’s to name but a few.

But be warned, selling direct from a sales page is a tough sell, particularly for higher ticket products, but adding a video can certainly bump up your conversions.

What’s really going to help you win with landing pages is great copy and imagery, which you'll want to outsource if you lack the skills. But above everything, remember this important point…

Publishing your sales page is just the start of the work of getting it to convert to sales. Every day you need to work on improving your page and the campaign leading into it so you can increase your conversion rate, and over time you’ll improve your results. Aim for small daily improvements and tests!

Drip-fed video launch

Made famous in the internet marketing world by Jeff Walker, and an approach I have used myself, is the process of taking your customers through what Jeff calls the “launch story”. It’s a series of videos on a landing page, which are released over time and usually someone has to opt in with their email address to get access.

This style of launch is designed to take your customers through YOUR product story so that by the time all your videos have been consumed, you have persuaded your lead that your product is the solution to their challenge / desire.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that it's just a simple case of filming 3 videos about your product, Jeff’s methodology is intertwined with positioning, authority, credibility and marketing strategy.

And the most important part… ensuring that the video content is a valuable piece of content in itself and not a spammy sales pitch. That’s where most people go wrong!

High quality production is definitely going to cost some you dollars, but you can easily get started with an iPhone and some natural lighting!

And what’s also really cool about a video series launch is that once the content is created and you’ve launched a few times with success, you can turn it into an evergreen launch.

Email launch

You could launch your product using a drip-fed email series in a similar way to the what you’d present on a sales page, in a video launch or in a video sales letter.

Personally I am NOT the best writer, so I find it hard to sell from emails, but there are some amazing copywriters out there who specialise in this area. And in fact you could combine this type of launch with any of the other launch types on this page so that you pitch the sale in a different format.

I love to do an email launch to live webinar and have had great results using this approach.

An email launch is the easiest way to get started but unless you’re a great copywriter, or have a highly engaged email list, it can yield really poor results so I personally do not recommend this for most starting out. Unless, like I personally recommend, you combine it with a more interactive element such as webinar or video to boost sales.

VSL – Video Sales Letter

Lets go wayyyyy back to the early days of modern marketing when marketers used to sell their products from direct mail in the form of a sales letter. Traditionally this would be a printed letter or leaflet and then the internet took over, and this turned into emails and web page letters to persuade people to buy.

And this brought us to the version used now the VIDEO sales letter.

These are incredibly powerful when done properly and can help you get your message across far more effectively than the written format.

And with video now being the most powerful and popular medium for communication on the internet, if you’re not using video in your sales process you are missing a huge opportunity because they do result in more sales. When I’ve used videos in my sales pages, I’ve seen double the conversions!

I started my own venture into this world by doing a voiceover of my presentations… before then venturing onto the camera for a short while. Now I can sit in front of the camera for an hour without a script and talk about my craft, but it just took baby steps to get there. When it comes to selling products though, I use a script to keep my message concise and to ensure I get all my sales points across.

If there’s a skill in business you absolutely SHOULD learn, its getting comfortable in front of the camera because it will result in more sales.

Webinar launch

There is not a lot more fun than delivering a live webinar to your customers in my opinion, even if at first they make you nervous!

As well as being fun, these are a great way to launch your products because a webinar gives you the ability to actually speak directly to your customer and nurture the relationship live on the call when you have their attention.

Your webinar should be a valuable learning event for someone to attend, and in fact most of your webinar will not be about selling… it's about value! Most people go wrong with webinars by not delivering value but the more value given… the more sales you'll get.

Holding back on giving value for fear of “freebie hunters” not buying is a common mistake and can stop your potential buyers from committing.

So give your all and make it an event worth attending and your audience will be far more likely to buy. Don't rush through the sale though! Take your time and remember this…

If your guests stick around for the pitch it's because they are genuinely interested in your product and your job is to explain everything thoroughly and demolish any objections they might have.

It takes time to create a winning webinar style, so keep working hard at these and the conversions WILL come over time.

Evergreen launch

I’ve put this one last on the list because it truly is the last type of launch you should be thinking of doing.

An evergreen launch is a style of launch that stays constantly switched on (usually from paid advertising) and directs people through a pre-recorded series of content to persuade them to buy. Most of the time there’s little work required to maintain an evergreen launch funnel, although the idea that these can ever be 100% passive is a bit of a myth. Often it will require monitoring of your ads and some customer service, but this could be outsourced.

You can turn any kind of launch into an evergreen launch, and there is a lot of software available to turn live content into evergreen such as webinars.

Evergreen launches are great once you have a launch style that is consistently performing well and that’s why this is the one you should try last.

Next, I'd love to hear from you…

What stage of the product creation process are you at, and how are you planning on launching? Drop me a comment below! I'd love to hear from you 🙂

Laura