What are the best incentives to offer in a product launch?

I'm interested to hear what other marketers would consider to be compelling incentives in a launch program.

I've seen electronic gizmos and cash prizes offered, but what in a new product launch would it take to get you on board as a promoter?

I'm interested to hear the views of people who've done a lot of launches (and probably have all the prizes already) and those who are new to launches.

What's something of real value that could be offered ... or does it just boil down to cash :-)

Thanks, Paul

Hi Paul,

I think this will highly depend on your niche. In some niches, it is still as valuable to offer information products or low cost products on a product launch. You can also partner with some people with websites that welcomes contests. That way, you can lower down your costs.

But of course, sticking with gadgets has always been a compelling offer for many. A simple advertisement on Twitter can get you a lot of clicks on your first day of promotion.

Aira Bongco

if you're thinking to launch your own product through launching strategy i highly recommend launch it on internet marketing or getting traffic.

It's weird: you'd think all your top JVs would have enough cash already, and yet, large cash prizes are usually very effective.

Fancy toys (xBox 360, Wii, iCrap [erm...I mean iStuff], laptops, etc.) work alright in the IM space, but after a time, you'd expect everyone to already have most of these things. And outside of the IM space, such prizes are not always appropriate.

Prizes that often work very well are the ones with cool factor or the ones that elicit a "holy freaking crap" reaction. These are prizes that people would probably not think of buying for themselves, even if they can (easily) afford these things. For example, most people would never consider getting things like rides in fighter jets, vintage muscle cars, premium wines, diver propulsion vehicles, or expensive cameras (DSLR, video, or whatever).

But yeah, cash works too :P

To my opinion the most effective incetive is money.
Give them extra money and they will not complain,
plus it's easiest for you.

In a product launch it best to give cash incentives. An extra cash incentive could push a JV partner to do more.

Interesting that money and gadgets are still a big driver, but Curtis I think your idea of offering 'once in a lifetime' incentives is a great one - anyone every tried anything like that before?

In a recent semi-internal launch (with only a handful hand-picked affiliates) we offered a cruise to the Bahamas in a surprise, limited opt-in contest. The affiliates went nuts, and we built over 50% of the launch list in this 2-day opt-in contest.

To paraphrase Frank Kern: "Give them cool stuff that they wouldn't buy themselves..."

Cheers,
Thomas

a BMW?

i started giving out apple products

but how do you guys figure out or what formula do you use to say X amount of leads will equal an imac pro?

I see some launches where the the lead base over towers a physical product.

for example 1000 leads for a macbook pro

do you say if I reach 5 times the actual physical product (after affiliate payout) that is the amount I should calculate per lead?

Cash always works well for me, as for things that you would expect people to already have, I could always use a spare laptop or 2 lol (I've already got 2). And things people would never buy for themselves is a great idea, but should have a cash option if the person isn't interested in a particular activity (ie sky diving or something else crazy like Yanik does - race car driving on the speedway), I'm a little too nervous about skydiving so it wouldn't interest me. Plus you have to take into consideration that some things may not be available to people due to where they live as well.

Someone's giving away their car right now and if the winner doesn't live in the U.S. they've offered a cash option.

In my opinion.... Cash will definitely ring a bell...... lol.....

Hi Paul
I think that cash prizes in USD is probably easier all round...arranging to get goods to folk is probably a little time consuming. It is very likely that people have already got what they want when it comes to Laptops, Blackberry and Apple products etc etc. I like the idea of adventure type products that you would not normally buy yourself, but these are usually restricted to the country form where you purchase the event which may make it rather difficult for the winners to take up.
All in all cash is probably the preferred option
Paul

Judging by the posts it seems to appear that cash is the winner.

Does anyone have a formula? How much per number of leads or number of sales? Just wondering what has been tried and tested out there.

Also, I did hear from a dinner table conversation from a top marketer that he likes to surprise his top affiliates in a launch with a fancy plaque or laser engraved crystal trophy in addition to the cash prize he send them. This is totally unannounced and the affiliates are delighted to get behind his promotions the next time.

Seems like a nice touch to go "above and beyond" although I'm not sure how many people are actually using this affiliate motivation technique.

Hi Paul,

The trick here is to get the balance right....

You could go all out offering vacations and such like, but you dont want to be out of pocket if the launch doesnt meet your expectations. You could always impose a minimum number of sales required for each tier in order to cover yourself.

If you're creative with your prizes I think that will work a lot better - but too many people are short of time, and usuallly just offer the cash instead. Still great incentive, but depends on what buzz you want to create.

1st option is cash and it almost always works best. IMO laptops and these gadgets are too common and people already have that unless its something very very good.

Something I've seen a few times since last year and that I think works pretty well are the point based prizes because it serves 2 purposes.

First if the expected sales aren't met then the affiliates don't have enough points for the big prizes.

Second all affiliates have a chance for a cool prize, so it's not the same big guy(s) getting the first places all the time.

I do favor the "prize" model rather than cash because some times it's fun to send out that extra email and win something you think is cool but you regularly wouldn't purchase for yourself.
...and in the end the affiliate can chose for the prize or it's cash equivalent

my 2 cents

Cheers,

Richard