Launching new products ... insights from the non IM world

[Rob Toth]

It's easy to forget that even Frank Kern's, John Reese's, Armand Morin's, Joel Comm's etc product releases are very small potatoes compared to the product launches with millions invested, being pushed out with hundreds of thousands or millions in advertising and years of development by the big multi-national corporations.

With that said, the direct response world does tend to pioneer a lot of the launch techniques. Here is a principle being discussed that is now commonly understood (I've taught it to clients for example) in the direct marketing or "internet marketing" world but is gaining popularity among select big-companies.

Worth reading...

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091001/the-bootstrappers-guide-to-launching-new-products.html

[GlennGrundberg]

Hey- Great post, Rob.

That's becoming a very popular and smart way to test a market indeed, but as the article points out, it can be very dangerous as well - you better be prepared to FINISH what you start, and in a timely fashion ;)

Especially with the FCC cracking whips these days...

Good Info!

Glenn

[Rob Toth]

Not so much...

The article talks about it a little differently.

Suppose however I posted a page right now with my XYZ offer and had a text (or graphic) Order link.

You click through.

The click takes you to "sorry, we are currently out of stock" or "sorry, not yet available" or "sorry, creating a new batch" (or whatever). But for your pateience here's a digital freebie and by the way, register for our early notification list.

You haven't spent any money with me AND I didn't force you to become a lead under a false pretense. FCC has nothing to do with this.

If you decide to optin for when the product launches... that's your choice. And certainly I didn't charge you anything.

Point is, that setup, you could run with all sorts of products and test the conversion (from visit to order button click, obviously, since you can't actually measure "purchases"). That won't be 100% accurate as some do abandon the cart, but it's definitely close enough to indicate whether the product is worth launching.

Now, consider this...

What if you also toss in an exit pop ... as they are about to exit, you have a little survey/poll asking what else they'd like to see in your XYZ offer or what they would change (ie: now you've got your market not only telling you whether they'd be willing to buy but what they'd change). And put THAT on your so-called order page.

Of course, you should also put one on the actual sales page .

I use: http://www.27am.com/oh

I used to have my own exit window software in Buy Now Wizard, I've sold that business ... but that script works great. Or find another (or create your own). Or use SurveyMonkey though I still recommend do it in an exit window.

Regardless, THAT process works great... you essentially find out if the person would be willing to buy just from a make-shift, draft salesletter (and if they'd be willing to buy as a cold-lead, with no pre-sell, from a basic salesletter.. than obviously your conversions will be a LOT higher from a top notch salesletter, well monetized sales funnel, with presell teasers in the mix) ... if they aren't clicking the order button, they can help tell you why they aren't buying (which tells you how to edit/modify the product) and if they DID click the order button and were "ready to order", you can generate an early notification leads list AND find out what else they'd like to see with the product.

All this for a few hundred dollars of PPC and some basic buzz promotions ... vs $10k+ on a salesletter, $500+ on graphics, countless hours on R&D, etc, etc.

[GlennGrundberg]

Not so much...

The article talks about it a little differently.

Suppose however I posted a page right now with my XYZ offer and had a text (or graphic) Order link.

You click through.

The click takes you to "sorry, we are currently out of stock" or "sorry, not yet available" or "sorry, creating a new batch" (or whatever). But for your pateience here's a digital freebie and by the way, register for our early notification list.

You haven't spent any money with me AND I didn't force you to become a lead under a false pretense. FCC has nothing to do with this.

If you decide to optin for when the product launches... that's your choice. And certainly I didn't charge you anything.

Point is, that setup, you could run with all sorts of products and test the conversion (from visit to order button click, obviously, since you can't actually measure "purchases"). That won't be 100% accurate as some do abandon the cart, but it's definitely close enough to indicate whether the product is worth launching.

Now, consider this...

What if you also toss in an exit pop ... as they are about to exit, you have a little survey/poll asking what else they'd like to see in your XYZ offer or what they would change (ie: now you've got your market not only telling you whether they'd be willing to buy but what they'd change). And put THAT on your so-called order page.

Of course, you should also put one on the actual sales page .

I use: http://www.27am.com/oh

I used to have my own exit window software in Buy Now Wizard, I've sold that business ... but that script works great. Or find another (or create your own). Or use SurveyMonkey though I still recommend do it in an exit window.

Regardless, THAT process works great... you essentially find out if the person would be willing to buy just from a make-shift, draft salesletter (and if they'd be willing to buy as a cold-lead, with no pre-sell, from a basic salesletter.. than obviously your conversions will be a LOT higher from a top notch salesletter, well monetized sales funnel, with presell teasers in the mix) ... if they aren't clicking the order button, they can help tell you why they aren't buying (which tells you how to edit/modify the product) and if they DID click the order button and were "ready to order", you can generate an early notification leads list AND find out what else they'd like to see with the product.

All this for a few hundred dollars of PPC and some basic buzz promotions ... vs $10k+ on a salesletter, $500+ on graphics, countless hours on R&D, etc, etc.




Hey Man, another great post, but I gotta take issue with you on a couple of things- they are highlighted in your quote above...

See, under the parameters you describe, you DID gain my personal info under false pretenses:

1) The product doesn't even exist, so saying it's "Out of stock", or "Unavailable" is disingenuous at best, if not outright fraudulent.

I work with a lot of offline brick and mortar businesses gearing up their ecommerce platforms, and one of the things my attorneys have warned ME about is to be Very Clear if an item is available or not- that's why we will usually post that right on the product page before the prospect ever gets to the cart. And that's for a physical product which DOES exist somewhere...just not in my stock. In the case of a digital product, it becomes even more important to clarify the issue, I think.

2) If you make an "Offer", which is what you are doing by posting a "Product" for sale in a public venue, then there has to be an intent to actually produce it, or it can be seen as false advertising under the statutes- here's the relevant quote from your article link:

"If a company doesn't make it clear in its advertising that it might not produce a product unless it receives sufficient market demand, "it could be considered false advertising under federal and state statutes," Kronenberger says. And if a company runs an ad campaign without any intent whatsoever to produce a product, that could be seen as fraud, he cautions."

Now one can say "Oh yeah, I am gonna produce the product if there's enough demand" and all, but personally I'd be VERY careful how I worded a "pseudo-offer" test like this.

Maybe something like "Super-Powerful SexoWidget - Now In Pre-Development!" Blah Blah Blah Feature Benefit, Blah Feature Benefit, Blah Blah... Sign Up Today To Discover MORE and be notified the Instant It's Available!

That covers your intent to gauge interest, while keeping you uncommitted to actually producing the thingamabob if it's a bust.

Just to clarify, Rob: You da man! I'm not trying to be contentious or Dis you - I always enjoy reading your highly informative and well thought out info. I'm just debating in the hope that some n00b reading this doesn't run off and get themself in major doodoo by not thinking it through first!

Peace!

Gman

[Rob Toth]

>> you DID gain my personal info under false pretenses:

I think we have a misunderstanding on how the pages are setup.

All you did was CLICK. No optin. No registration.

A salespage (market interest test page) is shown. You click through. That CLICK is what I want.

Or you don't click through and see an exit survey. THAT too is what I want.

So far, no optin.

However, if you did click and were likely ready to buy, a legitimate ... "not available", "working on revisions", "coming soon", "page under constructions" or whatever bit you want is provided. YOu are then ON THAT PAGE given the option to register for early notification.

No false pretenses at all.




>> And if a company runs an ad campaign without any intent whatsoever to produce a product, that could be seen as fraud, he cautions."

Okay, but that bit is nonsense. A company wouldn't run an ad without intent of producing a product. They'd run it as market research which means if sufficient interest is there, it WILL go to market. The reason you see legal statements like that is to make sure companies aren't out there pitching you a super widget such as "This bottle cures hair loss" just to gain your optin and then tell you "oops, we don't have any of the hair loss cures left but how about this cool shampoo"...



>> Maybe something like "Super-Powerful SexoWidget - Now In Pre-Development!" Blah Blah Blah Feature Benefit, Blah Feature Benefit, Blah Blah... Sign Up Today To Discover MORE and be notified the Instant It's Available!

Sure, you could go that route. I see no reason for it though. I mean, the arguement could still stand that if there's not enough interest in your widget then you really aren't going to develop it, therefore your "now in development" is false advertising.

The bottom line is this ...

If no transaction (whether purchase or optin) occured... you can pretty well go ahead and say whatever you want. As soon as your marketing captures senstives lead information or has someone spending money... THAT is when rules come into the game. But even there, you can let common sense and general ethics guide you and you'd be fine.




>> Just to clarify, Rob: You da man! I'm not trying to be contentious or Dis you - I always enjoy reading your highly informative and well thought out info. I'm just debating in the hope that some n00b reading this doesn't run off and get themself in major doodoo by not thinking it through first!

I don't know about "da man" statement but I'll take the kudos anyways. ;-)

And by all means, I'm doing precisely the same.. just giving my feedback, my thoughts and arguing my point. Not because it's "right or wrong" but because this is a DISCUSSION forum.. so by all means.

However, I do feel my original explanation was poorly explained and therefore misunderstood. I do NOT force an opt-in for them to find out the product isn't available. It's just a click... and since no sale and no opt-in of any sort occurred (all I want for my tracking is the click and the exit pop feedback), the "legalities" really don't come into play.

[Andy Havens]

From what I can surmise, the technique referred to here is one that has been around a while. I think Gary Halbert or John Carlton (probably both) suggested testing the market by offering a "quick and dirty" version of a product and then filling orders after the market proved worthy.

I think I read somewhere of someone actually suggesting testing markets like this before they've even produced any product. Without getting into "legal opinions" (I'm not a lawyer so all my opinions must be, by someone's definition, illegal) but... NOT a good idea.

The Inc article indeed uses a software developer who only creates a product for which a demand already exists. Well, gee, as a copywriter I only created products for which a demand already existed too.

This seems to demonstrate there is an acceptable gray area. It seems problems may crop up when products promised are not delivered in a reasonable time period. The FTC seems to prefer to answer such problems with prosecution.

I am all for testing markets and I think it's wise to learn from these techniques and implement them when they are appropriate but it's also apparent that relying on this alone may lead to more trouble than it's worth. Then again, I don't believe anyone here would suggest relying on just one method for anything.

For established companies desiring to product new produts or even expand into new markets, this seems like a lazy way of doing things. Maybe not so much for exploring new territory but even then, what's wrong with checking out popular competitors, talking to customers and uncovering what is missing? Then they can fill the void.

My two bits,

Andy

[Rob Toth]

Definitely... the technique to direct marketers isn't new. The article referenced is just showing that the big boys are finally starting to do a variation of this.

I suggest this technique to select clients thinking about developing a product.

I had a client in a non-IM niche who wanted to develop a product.

Sure we did incentive based market research via forums, Yahoo answers etc.

We tossed out a SurveyMonkey.com questionnaire to his list.

But I knew that the real answer of what users would actually buy will not come from what they SAY they'd buy...

So we took the above factors into consideration and tossed up "salespages" for 3 variations of a product. 2 were different products. 1 was simply a pitch for physical of 1 of the 2 vs. digital.

Not the most accurate or scientific of testing...

But we then tossed some promotions behind it (Twitter buzz and PPC).

And we found a clear winner as to which product users were willing to click the "order" link to. Once they clicked the order link they received "we're updating our course and adding even MORE... it's currently not availab... blah blah... if you'd like, register below and we'll notify you of this or SIMILAR OFFERS..."

That setup worked like magic.

[GlennGrundberg]

>> you DID gain my personal info under false pretenses:

I think we have a misunderstanding on how the pages are setup.

All you did was CLICK. No optin. No registration.

A salespage (market interest test page) is shown. You click through. That CLICK is what I want.

Or you don't click through and see an exit survey. THAT too is what I want.

So far, no optin.



Yeah, I understand, but what I'm pointing out is the deceptive nature of the original premise...There is nothing "behind" the click. No product exists, although you are gaining the prospect's attention and time by claiming there is an opportunity, you see my point?

It's a little disengenuous, as I said before. Now, it's a tiny little thing, and at the scale we are talking about there's not a snowballs chance in Hell that you'd ever get called out on it, but that's not my point...

Just...look before you leap into a promotion is what I'm getting at, I guess. Carefully consider the risk of being misunderstood before you go public with a promo, either a test or live.

And remember the old maxim: The road to Hell is PAVED with "good intentions" :(

You STILL da Man! ;D

G

PS - Great discussion, and it's even given me a couple of fresh ideas.