In the meantime, you can catch up on past ezine articles here and sign up for my free list building ecourse here.

THANK YOU!

Alba Figueroa

Launch Mentor

Mistake #1 – Non Working Links

Ugh! This is truly a pet peeve of mine. You finally decided to invest in a product and you are dying to get your hands on it and then the link doesn’t work.  WHAT! Now you have to contact the seller and ask them to re-send you a new link because one you receive is not working. Can you imagine having to answer the same email over and over again on launch day because your links aren’t working?  This can be easily avoided if you take the time to go through the whole checkout process of your own product and test the links yourself.  Catch it early and fix it! Also, get your friends or close colleagues to do the test as well. In addition from letting you know that the links are working you will also know if your check out process is easy.

Mistake #2 – Large File + Slow Downloads

There’s nothing more annoying than having to sit at your computer for thirty minutes waiting for your product to download. Those are thirty minutes that I can be using to dive in deep into your product and learn. Avoid this issue by making the file size as small as possible by compressing it in a zip file. Or, you can make downloading your product a choice rather than a required step. If you host your product in a membership site you give your customers the choice of downloading your content or just viewing them online.

Mistake #3 – No Support

There will be moments when someone will have questions regarding the product they just bought such as issues while trying to access it, problems using it, etc. Make sure to have systems in place to address any customer concerns. Create a FAQ’s page, make an instructional video, add a ticket system, give them access to a client’s only phone number or email address. You can also hire an assistant to handle all of your customer support needs. Make it as easy as possible for your customer so they stick with you and become a lifetime client.

Mistake #4 – Lack of Editing

No one makes a product perfect from the get go, so a bit of editing can really go a long way.  Be sure that your audio and video programs have high quality audio and great lighting for video. If you’re launching a print product consider getting a friend to proofread it or better yet hire an editor. No one is perfect, but the more errors you can catch and correct before your client does, the better.

Everyone makes mistakes – even the seasoned pros! Avoiding or fixing these seven common mistakes will help ensure your product launch is a success.

There are much more mistakes that are made during a launch, stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.

As promised, here is Part Two of the series I started last week on how to use content to increase your visibility while promoting your launch.

Grab a sip of water and proceed:

#4 Press Releases. This is a more traditional method, but it gets the job done. During the pre-launch phase of you launch write a press release announcing your upcoming launch and send people to the squeeze page to get their free gift. Focus on what makes it news worthy and on your audience will benefit from the program/service/product that you are launching. (Psst! I have a template that makes this super easy. Grab it inside of the List Building Master Class.)

#5 Guest Blog. Now, this is starting to become one of my favorite ways to get seen and I am just getting started! There are many blogs that are always looking for quality content from service providers like you. So start making a list (I like to do this in Evernote) and keep track of all the different places that you can submit guest posts to. Also, make sure that you can include an author bio with a link back to your squeeze page, sales page or website.

#6 Ezine Content. It’s essential to nurture your tribe with an ezine but don’t forget to send them more high quality content from time to time – especially when in launch mode. Set-up a few additional autoresponders or broadcasts that are related to what you are launching and invite your community to learn more about what you have to offer Let them know that you have a product available and tell them what benefit it offers, what problem it solves.

#7 Affiliate Content. You should definitely consider creating your own affiliate program and writing content specifically for your affiliates to use during your launches. Have your affiliates send out the content to their communities. The content can be posts, social media updates, videos, or short blurbs. Again, include a link to your free gift.

Now, whatever form of content you decide to use keep it to a minimum of 3 different forms of content. This allows you to focus on the strategies that will work best for your offer and make it easier on you at the time of creating said content. And remember, the better your content, the more valuable and useful it is, the more likely your community will be to invest in your product when it launches.

Sharing our message as entrepreneurs is our biggest asset. It helps to generate more traffic, increase our profits, and increase our credibility and community. And it is also one of the most essential tools we use to launch our programs, services and products. I mean, every single launch that happening now starts off by sharing massive amounts of high value content that serves 2 purposes: to educate and to market. Here are a few tried and true strategies to share your message and promote your launch your launch at the same time.

#1 Article Marketing. This just may be the most traditional form of sharing content but it is still quite useful. You just write a great article and then submit it to article directories that will help drive traffic back to your site. Though be sure NOT to submit the same article to more than one directory because you might get “slapped” for it. Google hates duplicate content, so take the time to write original content (or to authentically + extensively re-write about 70% of your already written articles – do this sparingly) to conserve your good standing.

Once you have the article done, be sure to include links and a call to action in your author/bio box. Doing so will ensure that when your article is read people will be redirected back to your squeeze page – this is essential in growing your list during the pre-launch and launch phase. Motivate readers to click through and sign up for your free gift that is related to what you are launching. Send them VALUEABLE + USEFUL information for free – content that people would actually pay for (without giving away them farm) and lets them know about your product that’s soon to be launched.

#2 Blogging. Sharing content on topics that are related to your launch is extremely useful + it helps boost your credibility. It also gives your readers a place to return to every time you blog helping to create a community of peeps interested in the same things – thus generating buzz. Also an exceptional way to have people comment, like, retweet, pin and whatnot on that post helping to spread the word on your pending launch.

#3 Network online. Sometimes, this can be a time killer. But, it is also a great a great way to drive more eyes to your website and sales page. Become active on sites like Twitter and Facebook and participate in industry forums and blogs. Create a plan around your social networking efforts so you’re not wasting your time and effort to promote your other launch content while still injecting your authenticity, expertise and pizazz. For example, if you publish a new blog post share it on all your social networks using Hootsuite to help save time.

That’s it for Part One today. Stay tuned to next week because I’ll be sharing 4 more tips.

This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind.

This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind.

This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind.

This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind.

This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind.

This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind.