If you have been plugged in at ALL into marketing your business and products online you will have come across the concept of Product Launch
Truth be told, we all launch our products one way or another – the difference is how effective are those launches in bringing in immediate profit and momentum for your online business?
Product launches are certainly not new.
Steve Jobs used to be a masterful product launch expert as he would hold industry events and turn the launch of a new Apple product into a world-wide event resulting in massive buzz, mind-share, press coverage and of course, sales and profits.
When movies are made and released, the launch sequence can often begin 1-year in advance of the movie actually hitting the theaters and includes previews, targeting, associated product and merchandise offering, etc…
This same concept is now being applied to online businesses, a sales funnel is the term used to describe the process of exposing your market to your “launch” (whether that be a one-time or ongoing process) with the same purpose in mind, to warm your cold prospects to the point where your offer is much more effective (5X-10X in many cases) than if you simply released your product and sent them directly to your offer – COLD.
Key Sales Funnel Terminology
To help de-mystify the sales funnel process, here are some of the key terms you will see referred to as part of any sales funnel process:
Entry Landing Page or Squeeze Page
This is the first (or entry) page you will send prospects to from advertising, SEO, affiliate marketing campaigns with the single purpose of persuading your prospect to take initial action giving you permission to deliver value and further promote to them through the remainder of your sales funnel. Â An example of such a page for one of our products is this one: Â “Get Unstuck In Your Life – FREE Report” Â The objective of this page is give away a powerful piece of content (in this case a report, but could also be a video, worksheet, ebook or other piece of content) related to your other products and services to be marketed to these prospects in future sequences.
Phase 1 Offer – Front End Product
Your front-end product is the entry-level product you will offer to your target market. Thinking about your target market I urge our InfoMarketer’sZone members to think in terms of a Silver, Gold, Platinum type strategy for products. Â Your entry-level or front-end product will be the “Silver” tier designed to appeal to a wide swath of your target market – everyone from beginners to more advanced information seekers. Â Your “Silver” offering may be a front-end ebook, training program, paid report, limited software license, introductory tier membership access, etc… and could be priced anywhere from $7 to $97 depending on your market and range of product offerings. Â We suggest that your Thank You page shown immediately following someone subscribing on your Entry Landing page redirects to this initial front-end product offer. An example of one of our entry-level products would be this “SNAP – Get Unstuck In Your Life” ebook we published and market online here.
Email Sequence
So what happens after someone subscribes to your Squeeze page for the free up-front incentive? Â Of course, they are then subscribed to an email sequence that is specifically designed to walk them through, step-by-step, your campaign of 3-7 parts designed to offer additional content, further connect with your target market, additional description around the benefit of your unique solution (or the solution that partner products will provide if not your own product) as well as social proof (testimonials, case studies, examples) and addressing any objections you know your customer may have preventing them from ordering from you. Â Your email sequence walks them through a persuasive set of emails where you expose them to your Front End Product, Second-tier product and any additional products you want to put in front of them
Back-End Products
Back-end products are simply additional tiers of products that you will offer to your target market. Â These include your “Gold” and “Platinum” offers as well as any additional adjacent products that you will piggyback on your own initial, up-front product. Â These can be additional written info-product bundles, additional tier access to membership sites, group or personal coaching programs, private access, video courses, etc… An example of one of our back-end products (this one has just launched and the price will increase soon) is this video course building on the previous Ebook
Upsell
Upselling refers to the process involved in exposing your prospect to the higher-tiered products on the back-end. Â Upselling can be done right on the order page, as a One-Time-Offer (OTO) immediately before or after the initial sale, a day or two later with an offer via your email sequence toward the higher-end product, etc… Upsells are an extremely important part of extracting significantly higher profits out of your market. Â Perhaps the best example everyone can relate to is the “do you want fries with that” offer from a well known restaurant chain.
Downsell
In the same vein, you may choose to use a downsell, where your initial offer is your “Gold” tier product, should your prospect NOT respond to the “Gold” offer you hit them with your “Silver” offering playing on the age-old psychological construct of “relative value” . Â Once someone has been exposed to a $997 offer (for example) for your “Gold” product, seeing a $397 for your “Silver” tier product will be seen as an extraordinary deal resulting in higher conversions on the Silver tier product.
Have a question about designing your own highly effective sales funnel, post a comment.
