If you told me that I would do nearly a quarter of a million dollars in 24 hours when I first started my online store in 2012, I would have laughed.
How could I possibly sell that much from an online product launch in a single day? It doesn't seem possible.
Now it is expected and is a repeatable part of our marketing strategy. It is my personal goal that future product launches always beat previous product launches.
That is not always the case, but most of my product launches and even just back-in-stock launches are over 6 figures in just one day. This is not the first time and definitely not the last time we will have a six-figure product launch.
Here is how to launch a product online and make a HUGE impact
Here are the results from our recent product launch 😎
Over $238,790 in the first 24 hours (w/ $400,000+ in total launch sales)
Over 1,500 orders were placed during the product launch
Early access list growth to over 10,500 people
Paid advertising results - 22X return on ad spend for launch day
Pretty awesome right? I think so too, here is how we did it.
Do you need social media for successful product launches?
Having an active and engaging social media audience is a core part of a successful brand, but it is not a huge part of a successful product launch. I specifically am talking about social media pages such as your Facebook and Instagram pages.
The organic reach is just too low and any external linking is almost guaranteed to throttle your social media posts reach.
One of my biggest secrets...🤫
The best way to use social media marketing to launch a new product is to set up a private owners only facebook group
This is one of my marketing strategies that I have kept secret for a long time, but its time to let the world know! I originally set the group up for my customer base to communicate with other owners.
I like to to always put my customers first and truly try to wow them with every opportunity I have.
The group is a great way to show your customers that they are the most important thing in your business. Well, because without them your business would not exist. So start treating them that way!
Treat your customer base well for year over year and your brand will organically grow, because you actually give a shit about them.
This group is invite only to our customers, which makes it exclusive and private. You can't join it unless you have bought our golf clubs. You will be denied, so don't try it! This is one more marketing channel that you can leverage to make sure your launch is a big one.
To sum up my social media strategy it is to use my pages for engagement and my private owners only Facebook group for launches.
Do not send one email and expect a major launch
Launching a new product online can be exciting, but also can be underwhelming. Don't just send one email the day of our product launch. This strategy is a sure fire way to miss out on tons of revenue.
The money is made in the hype and the follow up. You will not have a successful product launch with one email to your entire list. I can promise you that.
Instead of talking about the different product launch strategies at a high level. I want to show you in detail the exact product launch strategy I used for my own online store to sell $238,740 in a single day.
Have real conversations with your customers to have a successful launch
Before I dive too deep into the tactics, you need to have an email list that is healthy and a customer list that truly wants to hear from you. The best way to do this is to send conversational emails that ask questions and actually engage with your customers and potential customers.
Just blasting emails to the entire list that say buy buy buy doesn't work anymore. We have to earn the right to email our list. I like to refer to it as conversational email marketing. It seems obvious but changing your perspective on how you view your existing customers is critical to the tactics being effective.
Ask simple questions to your email list (Their answers may surprise you)
By asking real questions to your audience you can conduct market research and insights that you could never get without it. I launched one product without asking my audience and it turned out to be less successful than I had planned.
A simple email you can start using today is an A/B email. Where you ask your list which product we should launch first, A or B. I guarantee you will be shocked by which product wins. This insight may seem simple to do, but it's incredibly powerful in figuring out which products your customers want.
Not to mention, Google likes it because your customers are now replying to you. This means they want to hear from you and the likelihood of your email going to your inbox is far greater than before. Stay out of the promotions tab by talking with your customers.
An effective email marketing strategy includes the following:
Asking authentic questions you want answers to from your audience
Sending a mix of plain text emails similar to the ones you would send to your friends
Having a customer service team that wows customers and engages with all emails and text
Using a conversational tone and empathy from a founder's perspective - honestly, you should want to thank your customers and actually care. (If you don't care, you shouldn't be in business.)
Creates true urgency by having a specific launch date
An irresistible offer
One call to action
Create buzz and build hype to launch a product (Like the movies 🎥)
This is the single most important aspect of a successful product launch. The goal is simple, we need to build pent-up demand and real excitement. It is a similar strategy that the Movie industry has used for years.
They are experts at building hype and buzz, that is the difference between a movie being a blockbuster or a failure. We just are doing the same thing online by sending conversational emails, text messages, and posts to our Facebook group.
This is a product launch event, not just a product launch (Mark your calendar!)
The key here is making the launch day a true event. Even if it's only online, we can build the same excitement as if it was a real in-person event. We are going to use our owned media channels as the core marketing strategy.
These marketing channels include our email and SMS list and our Facebook owners-only group. Set a date and be extremely specific. Here is an example: New Golf Club launches on Tuesday, August 30th at 9 am eastern. Tell your customer base to mark their calendar.
Remember this isn't a one-email product launch this is an actual product launch event with a real date and time that it becomes available.
What emails and text messages did we send to hype the launch? ✉
We sent a total of 6 hype messages over the course of a week via email & sms - all with the singular goal of teasing the launch and getting people to simply reply back to the email to be put on the early access list.
Hype Campaign - #1 - Email & SMS: We teased that something new was coming but didn’t reveal what it was.
This drove some initial curiosity for people to reply and be put on the early access list. This resulted in about 3,000 replies for early access.
Email Hype #1
SMS Hype #1
Hype Campaign - #2 - Email: We revealed that there are in fact new clubs launching, but didn’t provide any more information beyond that.
This resulted in about 1,000 more replies for the early access list.
Hype Email #2
Hype Campaign #3 Email & SMS: In this message, we revealed some information about what was launching, that it was a new model, and that it will be released for 3 products.
We reiterated the launch time and the only CTA was to reply to the early access list. This resulted in about 1,500 more replies.
Email Hype #3
SMS Hype #2
Hype Campaign - #4 - email: This was the last hype campaign sent the day before the early access launch.
We reiterated the launch info, revealed we would be offering free shipping the day of, and that the website was going to be locked & without a password, you wouldn’t be able to shop.
This resulted in about 1,000 more replies for early access.
EARLY ACCESS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN #1: Email & SMS: This campaign was sent to 10,570 people, drove 4,648 people to the website, and resulted in $110,844 in sales.
Additional follow-up messages were sent the day of, reiterating the early access & free shipping offer, driving hundreds of thousands of dollars in more sales.
To create exclusivity and increase demand we locked our entire website (expert level product launch) 🔒
This sounds crazy because it is, but it is crazy awesome I promise. A big part of our launch plan is to lock our entire website. Once the website is actually locked we email everyone telling them it is locked.
This gets people excited and generates a buzz and makes the product launch something special.
You literally can't buy anything from the store.
The only thing you can do when the website is locked is sign up to get an email with your secret password. By needing a password you create truly wild demand.
In addition to using our lists, we also run paid ads via Facebook and Google to ensure we get as many people to the locked website as possible. Paid advertisements can only go so far as to generate buzz as the money is in the list.
We really lean on our paid ad strategies post-launch to keep the momentum from our launch going. We spend money on ads daily, so we just amp it up for the week before to make sure the buzz stays strong.
Website Lock Screen
Pop Up Would Ask For Email To Get VIP Password
I don't know a marketing team that wants to lock their website and lose out on that revenue for the day it was locked. But if the hype is executed well you will make up for it and a lot more on launch day.
Keep it simple
Running effective ads, email or any marketing for that matter requires that you have the same message from each channel to the product page you send them to. I don't like to overhaul my website for a launch but I want to make sure a few key areas of the website are changed so the customer experience is congruent from one channel to another.
For example: When we send out the password to our lists, we add copy on the product page that says "You have unlocked access." Simple but very effective.
What do you do after a product launch? 🍾
Hopefully, you are popping champagne and celebrating a record-breaking Shopify sales day! If it didn't go as well as you hoped, I still would drink the champagne. You can't let the bubbly go to waste. But, usually, if a product launch was not effective it means your offer wasn't great.
Hype and Buzz are a core reason for your success but you must have a great product, a really irresistible offer, and an unbelievable customer experience.
Remember, ask your audience way in advance to make sure your next product launch is actually something your target audience wants.
Want help with your product launch?
If you made it this far! Thank you, you are awesome.
Let's go HUGE together.
Sully Tyler