How to tease your product or service for a successful launch

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Today’s talking point:

Most people don't just wake up in the morning, with a credit card in hand ready to buy, especially if they don't yet have a relationship with you online. So we want to start the conversation early, and not just the conversation but the relationship.

Grab a notebook because in this value-packed episode, you’ll learn how to tease your product or service so that your audience is primed to buy when you launch.

Why you need to tease your product or service before you launch

When I started working in the online marketing scene, it was a thing to keep everything super-secret until the day you launch. That’s when you’d spring it on your audience.

These internet marketers were working behind the scenes on something really big, but they did not say a word about it until BOOM they've got a course, they're marketing it. People were really excited, but I don't know why there was this secrecy before it came out.

These days, it’s very, very different. The vibe online has changed: authenticity and transparency are alive and well. Those aren't just buzzwords.

People really are living up to this goal of sharing the behind-the-scenes making of their offers, and what's going on and how things look and how things are coming together. And I'm here for it. I love it. There's no need to be secretive.

I want you to be talking about your offers as you’re creating them. And of course, you can talk about it after you've launched it and when you're going to launch it again. I really encourage you to do so.

But specifically talking about this pre-launch phase where you’re building up to what your audience is going to be able to buy, there are some really cool ways that you can seed the idea of your product or service and talk about it in advance. This is what we’re focusing on today.

Because most people don't just wake up in the morning, with a credit card in hand, ready to buy. Especially if they don't yet have a relationship with you online. So we want to start the conversation early, and not just the conversation but the relationship. There's got to be some relationship building that takes place well beforehand to build that know, like, and trust factor that is the key when selling anything.

I believe that the number-one way to hit your revenue goals during a launch is to be very intentional when you're not launching. The work you do when you're not launching is going to help you generate the kind of revenue that you've set for yourself that you've put as that big, bold goal.

When you’re not in a launch you’re in pre-launch.

So what does it look like to be intentional when you are not launching? Its…

Showing up daily
Sharing behind-the-scenes stories and experiences
Letting your audience in
Honing in on your unique voice and your message because you're showing up consistently
Posting original content
Blogging or podcasting or doing a video every week
Engaging and listening more than you talk, and adding value at every turn.

How to be intentional in your pre-launch

The non-launch time or the pre-launch is your opportunity to position yourself as your audience’s guide so that when you're ready to launch, they recognize you as their go-to source and will be ready to buy.

In a broad sense, this priming period is all about how you're showing up for your audience. It’s your consistency, your engagement, your excitement about what you do, your willingness to support your audience, your willingness to answer questions and be there for your audience, all of that matters.

If you find yourself thinking, “Why am I answering all these questions on social media? Why am I getting into my DMs? I don't have time for this. I should be focusing elsewhere,” well, should you?

I'm going to tell you something that I've noticed in my own business: people remember the fact that you reached out to them in a DM on Instagram. Let’s say you’re in pre-launch, so you’re not launching yet, but you’re putting out great content, and people are talking to you in IG on a DM, and you respond back.

Your audience is hearing from you and they will remember that when your free challenge or workshop or giveaway comes out and when you start to promote your product or service. All of that starts to add up.

Remember, it’s about intention. It’s not just engaging because you think you should or when you get time.

When you're intentional, it feels like you're doing the right thing and you're moving in the right direction. You know when we create a business, a lot of time you may feel ask, “am I doing the right thing? Should I be spending my time here? Is there a better place I should be spending time?”. You are not alone if you’ve thought these things!

But if you look at engaging as a front end task, and divide it up from your back end tasks away from your audience.

Think about what being intentional looks like when you’re doing front end work (like responding to DMs, having conversations, going live, answering questions etc). Then you won’t feel like you’re wasting time. You’ve already decided it is.

And the reason for that is you subscribe to the belief that the time you're not launching, the time that you're engaging and building those relationships, is actually going to boost your revenue and impact during your launch. So it's just a mindset shift, but also the mechanics of finding the time to do some of this stuff so that you are intentional.

So I've given you a bunch of broad examples, but let's get a little bit specific. I'm going to give you three different ideas to tease your product or service before you're ready to launch.

tip 1: Use stories about your journey or a client’s journey

Okay, my first suggestion for you is to use stories about your journey or your client’s journey to seed your product or service.

This will allow you to make the struggles and the challenges and wins more real and tangible. Now, this is not the same as sharing testimonials or reviews. That's important, but testimonials are for your launch, on your sales page, on your order form.

A story is when you make it about your client or customer. A story typically focuses on where they were before they worked with or bought from you, what they struggled with, what held them back, and what they needed to do in order to move forward.

Now, you might say, “yeah, but the way they moved forward, Holly, was by buying your product or service.” Yes, but there are also some specific things you can talk about without having to talk about your product or service.

What’s the difference?

This is a testimonial: “Emma followed my step-by-step, three-part system to have a sellout launch.”

A story might look like: “Emma finally got the courage to show up and talk on stories every single day on her Instagram. That’s a strategy that I teach in my Pre-launch Planning Bootcamp.”

In the story, I just talk about what Emma did. Or I might even say even more powerful, “Emma made a mindset shift that she was no longer going to be scared to show up in front of her audience.”

So, you see the difference? The stories are real and gritty and human, and they focus on emotions and feelings, and they're powerful. And I want you to get into the habit of telling more stories.

Now, you want to tell stories and share testimonials and reviews during lunch. But the stories are really great to seed throughout your pre-launch period.

Now, of course, you're saying this person is your client or customer. So right away your audience know that you had an impact on that person. That's all you’ve got to say. “Let me tell you a story of one of my students who had multiple sell-out launches, and let me tell you what it looked like before she did and what it looks like after.” You've already said your part of that. They already get it. But now you’re making it about them.

’But What if I don’t have clients yet?’

Now, if you do not have clients or customers yet and you’re in the early stages of your business you’ve got two options.

The first is a beta test. In a beta test or a beta experience, you have a few people use it your product or go through the service before you launch it. They can do it for free or at a discounted rate and, most importantly, you go through the experience and journey with them.

The beta testers will give you feedback every step of the way. They get results; you get their story and their testimonial. That's a really great way to do it if you have the capacity to slow down and do that before a big launch. I did a beta launch for the Busy to Boss Academy and it was honestly the best thing I ever did.

But a lot of people either don't have the bandwidth or time to do the beta testing. Which I totally understand! If you can do that, great. If you can't, then you've got a second option. You can tell your story and make sure that your product or service works.

So you either got results for somebody else — you tell their story. Or you got results for yourself — you tell your story, and your story is powerful so bring it to life.

Talk about your story often when you're not launching, when you’re in pre-launch. I'd venture to say that stories are more powerful than testimonials.

Tip 2: Get specific about what people can expect from your product or service

For service-based businesses, you can talk about specific lessons, formulas, frameworks, or strategies that are included. Product-based business owners, you can talk about the benefits of specific features of your product.

You can do this before you ever launch for the first time, or you can do this after you launch. So I'm going to give you a specific example from my world. Inside the Pre-Launch Planning Bootcamp, students are going to get access to a training where I take them through my launch plan, walk them through it step by step and tell them what I did and why I did it, and why it played a part in the overall framework of the launch.

So, here’s how you seed something like that when talking about the program on Lives or in content around launching and processes. I’d say something like:

I believe the best way to promote your new product or service is to create a pre-launch plan and I teach a 4-step launch planning framework in my programme the…. where you lead the whole process step by step.

So if you want to use this framework, I’ll be opening up my doors again in September. You can get it. Until then, here are a few tips to think about…

Now, I don’t say things like “it’s module five, lesson two.” Non-students don’t care. I'm just saying, “Hey, I'm teaching something. And by the way, I teach this in-depth in my course. So doors aren't open now, but when I open up again in September, you might be interested.”

I'm not selling. I'm not pushing it. I'm just saying this is something I cover in-depth. So once your course is done, reference those lessons and frameworks and formulas in a really easy way and the same for your physical products too.

bonus tip: make it feel good for you

The thing is whenever this element feels like it's forced, then you're selling. It’s a sign you should change things up in your content. Don’t just copy me and my style. Do it how it feels good to you.

So whenever it just rolls off my tongue like, “Oh, I've got something good in my course that covers this,” that feels good to me. Now, I'll always give them a nugget, always. I never say, “Well, you’ve got to buy my course in order to figure that out.” I always give some great value around that, but I'm never going to teach as much in detail in my free stuff as I do in my paid stuff.

Tip 3: Create a sense of exclusivity

This is a very important element, and it's all about the idea that you want your non-clients and customers to want to be a part of your special insider-circle community.

So when I give a shout out to all my Busy to Boss Academy members, I do it for two reasons. Number one I want my students to know that they are top of mind, that I'm cheering them on and I'm so proud of them.

The other reason I do it is that it's such a great way to say, “Hey, I've got something special. And if you love these trainings but you want more, you want more access to me, I've got an exclusive opportunity, but you have to be a student of mine.”

Creating that exclusivity by mentioning my current students, by talking about my inner circle, makes a huge difference.

You want people to want to be a part of something special with you. They will never feel that way unless they know you have something special. But when your audience hears from and connects with your current students and when you tell their stories, well they want to be a part of that. They want to know that they get to be a part of your world, and you might even talk about them.

Now, we want to remain mindful. You don't want people to feel left out. I’m a sensitive girl, so I think of stuff like that. But you want them to think, “Ooh, I want to be a part of that. I want in that inner circle.”

Tip 4: Keep talking about your product or service

Don't be afraid to talk about your product or service multiple times in different ways. When I've said something in a podcast, and then maybe I mentioned it again in a Facebook Live, I mistakenly assume everyone has heard it. Have you ever done that before?

Don't assume that because you said it once or twice that everybody has heard it. So repeat these messages again and again and again, in different ways. Please don't be afraid to put out these different seeds of your product or service in different ways multiple times.

You think everyone's listening; they're not. Everyone's in their own little world.

Tip 5: RE-frame your messaging if it doesn’t feel natural

If you weave your stories and messages into natural conversations, it will never feel sales-y or too pushy. It should feel natural and good.

If you love the product that you've created (which I know you do) and you believe in it, you should want to share bits and pieces about it with your audience. And you know it's right for them, you know they need it, so it should feel natural. I mentioned earlier if it feels forced, you've got to change it up.

Tip 6: Make sure you launch what and when you say you will

In order to make this seeding strategy work for you, you've got to make sure that you are truly launching when you say you're going to launch. If for some reason you decide not to launch or the launch dates change, it gets a bit awkward. I know this from personal experience. So take it from me that if you're going to talk about it, be careful if you're not totally certain about when you're going to launch it. Be vaguer in your descriptions about when it’s coming.

This goes for your product or service format too. Don't come out and say you have a digital course coming out if you're not totally sure if it's going to be in that form. So, you do need to make sure that you’ve planned ahead.

That’s the beauty of looking at your calendar and planning ahead and knowing what’s coming down the pipeline so you can confidently talk about it. You might mess up as I did, and that’s okay. You can bounce back from it. But it is nice to kind of feel certain that it’s happening.

Here’s another cool thing about teasing your product or service before you launch it. If you follow a live-launch model, where you open the cart and then you close it, when you are talking about it and building anticipation people who have seen your live launches before know you're serious about the cart closing.

Final recap

So, there are a few ways you’re going to seed your product or service launch:

Using stories about your journey or your client’s journey
Talk about specific lessons or formulas or frameworks or strategies that are actually in your course, and you're going to give them a name so they can just roll off your tongue so easily
Create exclusivity, making it really special and desirable to be part of the inner circle

You could use these strategies I just gave you in your blog post, podcast episodes, videos, social-media channels, in-person networking, live video, IG stories. Just about everywhere you talk about your content, where you teach, where you add value. Those are all the places you can seed your ideas.

As long as you believe in the course you're selling and know it can change lives, create transformation, get results, then you should feel really confident that you are talking about something that can make a difference. When you believe in what you do, it becomes very easy to naturally and organically talk about it.

You don’t have to plan ahead to seed the idea of your course in all that you do. It should become a natural part of your conversation. What you do need to plan ahead with is being intentional of how you're showing up when you're not launching.

That takes us back to the very beginning of the episode where I said: be very intentional, decide on how you're showing up the front stage of your business — when you're showing up live, how often you’re posting on social media, when you're getting into the DMs, how you comment, how you answer questions. All of that front-facing front-stage kind of activity can be very intentional. So you never need to question, “Am I wasting my time?” You know why you're doing it.

As entrepreneurs, we have so much to do, so many things we think we should be doing, so it's easy to question whether you’re using time wisely. Sit down and figure it out and ask yourself, “Where do I want to spend my time when I'm not launching? What will make the biggest impact?”

You’ve got to have front-facing time on that plan because the engagement and the listening and the time spent with your audience when you’re not launching builds the trust, builds the relationship, and creates curiosity about what you’re going to sell. So when you’re ready to sell, they’re ready to buy.