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

[Paul Teague]

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

[Aira]

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

[akitmane]

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

[citrus]

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

[Alminc]

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

[Raphael]

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

[Paul Teague]

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?

[jvlaunchsecrets]

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

[Desmond Chen]

a BMW?

[ianternet]

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?