It was inevitable, after the incredible buzz and training programs around systematically launching products over the last two years (started by Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula) and continued by many other copycats since, there are now cries of scam, high-priced rip-off’s and huge failures that ruin the reputation of some pretty big name internet marketing guru’s

But is it really that Product Launches don’t work anymore or is it something else?

First, let’s be clear – the whole concept of online marketing is relatively new – less than 10-years old really, compare that to forms of offline marketing and you see that we are still really in the baby steps phase of what works and what doesn’t selling online.

Second, the concept of “launching a product” and the associated lead generation, partner support, and warming of the market is not new, everything from technology to consumer products have had robust launch campaigns for decades.  What we really saw over the last few years is the formalization of well known sales concepts such as mirroring, reciprocity, social proof,  move with the crowd buyer pscychology concepts applied to online marketing techniques and tools.

It felt new because it is the first time anyone layed out the steps and tools that should be used on the way to releasing a new product.

These techniques have worked for centuries and will continue to work for centuries more…that is just a fact of how our human emotional brains work.

SO WHY ARE SOME PRODUCT LAUNCHES BOMBING?

In most cases product launches are failing because  they have screwed up one or more of the critical steps that make up a successful product launch.  In a few cases, some of the biggest names in marketing have figured that thier name or branding would allow them to deviate from the process only to be smacked big time.

Some common mistakes I am seeing from the bigger names are:

• Too much theory and not enough proof that applying their information will get the result people want
• In an effort to reach 3-4 product launches in a year, they move their message too wide for their subscribers, customers and partners – you get a bad message to market match and the result is people ignore the launch
• Lack of imagination – there are way too many $1997 products being launched – when the reality is there are many $47-$397 product launches that are doing very well and have a higher lifetime profit/customer ratio (though offering additional back-end and upsells than hitting them with a huge front-end price tag
• They are getting lazy! I would happily pay $1997 for a training package if they would include some truly interactive method of reaching them when I got stuck…but offering a course and some videos without giving me a way to reach them to ask questions – forget about it!
• They rely on the same core group of partners….sure there are some very influential people in the IM space, but there are also tens of thousands of list holders with 10,000-15,000 subscribers who have a very loyal following that are rarely targeted as launch partners…so what you get is 5-10 big name list holders that hawk everything going leading to list exhaustion for subscribers on those lists

So, are product launches dead?

Not by a long shot, but there are certainly some issues with the product launches I see coming out lately – by getting back to basics —

• Having a highly compelling product topic (InfoMarketer’sZone makes this much easier)
• Making the product easy to consume and apply to get the desired result – this leads to more proof which leads to sales
• Focusing on a wider array of hungrier partners instead of the same 5-10 guru’s
• Pricing the product not only for maximum profit on this launch, but over the long term
• Focus on building a core group of champions that can act as social influencers expanding your story to the masses

Now that is how you can successfully launch your products even though others are falling all around you.