Marketing

Alright, so I apologize in advance for the dramatic title. There are many successful ways to launching your events & your products. In the tech sector we’ve seen all kinds of launches. Some startups launch website products into the market with a big bang just weeks before opening up for beta. Their big bang is based on the coolness of the product itself, or on a great demo video.

If you’re not offering an event that is news worthy or a product that is revolutionary, then I’d suggest more tried and tested ways of marketing your launch.

Product and website launch tactics that have been supported by some of the most influential people in internet marketing can as easily be applied to your event launches. Try them out for your next event launch and see how well you do.

First of all, the success of your launch (read: $$$) depends immensely on how well you have connected with your potential customers in the pre-launch stage. Make sure you time your pre-launch perfectly so that your launch is introduced at a point where the hype reaches its climax. Some additional pointers:

1- Start building your lists way before launch. Get people on your lists. Build relationships with them. If you want, you can build a following on an authority blog about your industry.

2- Use social networking sites to network with people with the aim of getting them onto your lists. These lists are the backbone of your launch, so work on making it as strong as you can. Also, keep the lists and social networks connected and engaged at all times - you would want to have a constant communication going on at all times.

3- This is the best time to gauge your markets response to specific elements of the event. You can either get their opinions, ideas by discussing them firsthand, or get them to fill out surveys. You already want them to be involved in a conversation before you start the pre-launch campaign (typically, in the form of email series + blog posts).

4- Once you have your lists all set up, a pre-launch phase can typically take about 2-3 weeks starting from the initial introduction to “something new is coming up”. The way to calculate the duration is to first see how much pre-launch content you have that you can spread across in an email series. One email should lead to another and help in building your launch story. You can then see how you want to spread it out for the maximum effect.

5- If you have decided on a 6 week long pre-launch campaign, then set a target date for your event launch (e.g. April 15th) and run back 6 weeks for the pre-launch campaign to begin. You would want to have the pre-launch content emails all scheduled up in an auto-responder program to start running on set dates or follow up sequences. Make sure you get the content revised and approved before signing it off (I join my list before anyone else can - so I end up getting each email days before my list does), to avoid errors which are a bad look, although if you correct them publicly - they can also make you seem more human. Make sure your content hits the right emotional triggers at the right times based on their frustrations, aspirations, needs related to your product industry.

6- In the middle of your pre-launch campaign you need to start to build momentum and give them more and more information about your event. A nicely made video intro can be placed in this time-period to get the market talking about something pertaining to the event, or just a little more detail about the event. They need to know what to expect by the time you get close to launch. This is also a great time to answer questions that people have raised about the product through your blog posts.

7- You may also want to give away the price of your tickets a couple of days before your launch. Some people prefer to make it a surprise till the launch date, and thats perfectly OK as well - as long as the surprise isn’t coupled with “that much..?” . If it is much, you need to have subtly built a sense of value during your pre-launch campaign.

8- As the launch date draws nearer you need to have your market sensing scarcity in ticket availability as well as feeling like if they miss this, they could be the only ones. Make it clear to them exactly how to make the purchase a day before the tickets go off ons sale. You want them to be talking about the big launch amongst themselves. You want the authority blogs in that field covering the upcoming launch. You would also want interesting stories within your launch story, to make it in the news. Don’t shy off from these things - allow this excitement to rise.

9- Send emails to your list on launch day. Make it exciting and momentous. Ensure to make it clear just how much demand you’re receiving on ticket sales & inform them that once ticket sales hit a certain number the curtain comes down. Make sure everything is in order and all queries are answered as quickly as possible.

10- Depending on how many days you want to keep the launch open for, make sure you keep sending them an email a day with updates on ticket sales and reminders of your capacity. These emails can also include triggers relating to, early testimonials from purchasers, more insights about the event itself - anything to keep them in the loop. People who haven’t yet made the buy-decision will know just how much time they have left to avail the launch packages. They will play cat and mouse with you and themselves as although people want to buy, they don’t want to be sold to. If uncertain they will wait until the last minute looking for you to give them a reason or an excuse not to buy. Play it cool and hit the right triggers at the right time and they will buy.

11- Show your list social proof that the response to your launch has been dynamic. Point them to your blog where people are commenting. Of course all these strategies are dependent on you having executing the pre-launch effectively, you must have comments in your blog and ticket sales to deploy them. I don’t recommend these tactics if you have no comments in your blog or have made few ticket sales throughout the first day of a launch. People will always want to follow a buzz, its human nature for us not to want to miss out one something that we sense a majority of the tribe (like-minded people) will participate in. You just need to create the buzz and entice early adopters to commit.

12 - You can also hit the final day of a launch by offering major bonuses to all ticket purchasers that you had not previously mentioned. This ploy is two fold in its effect, it leaves ticket holders with a sense of “thats cool”, I already paid for my ticket they didn’t need to give me that, but did. It also serves as a final boost for those sitting on the edge looking for that something extra to buy. Its important that you offer these bonuses to ticket holders and anyone else who buys before a certain time today. Don’t give them a lot of time to think about it, put them under pressure to buy immediately.

13 - Soon after the bonus time period is up - close the gates. I like to put a sign on our ticketing pages that says “Sold Out”. Send a message to your list informing them tickets have sold out and that you are processing all your 3rd party distributor sales before locking the doors permanently. Make it known that depending on your final count on tickets sales that there is a chance more tickets may be made available again, for a brief period. This sets you up for a mini relaunch where you reopen the doors to sell a hand full of tickets your count has confirmed are still available. This relaunch is designed to get all the people who experienced a sense of loss when the doors close last time across the line. Make it clear the second round of tickets will sell out in a short period of time. They wont miss out this time.

13 - After your launch is over, don’t forget about your lists. Keep the conversation going. Make sure you keep your lists warm by launching a post launch campaign thats all about the event, peoples testimonies & the success that it was. Keep your list warm until you are ready to execute a relaunch (e.g. a second event or some T-shirts commemorating the event or a video series of the night as a special offer).

You should always be pre-launching, launching, post launching or re-launching an event of some kind. Its business and the way to build success.

Good luck.

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Launch Strategies

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