Why product sales die after launches and how I bring in ongoing sales for up to 10 years later
A special presentation designed to give Marlon’s Customers A BIG Advantage Others Don’t. And why MOST marketers today are getting caught in the JAWS of the Ultimate Double Find and what to do to escape it.
Hello,
Marlon here.
The problem is simple: Today, people launch products in a 7-10 day window. The sales are good. They pay out MOST of the cash to afffiliates in bonuses and prizes.
And all their blood, sweat and tears that went into creating the product dies after the launch is over, typically in 7 to 10 days.
Sound familiar?
In the old days, you could throw up a product you created in a few days and have a ton of affiliates promote it. But in today's hyper competition market (see my specail report “The hyper competition probem and how it's eating people's lunch and what to do about it”), it's not so simple.
People expect a LOT more from a product. The reason is because of the law of supply and demand (see my report “The #1 most important law in marketing most people have totally forgotten about and what you MUST know about this law to survive and thrive over the next 12 months.”).
See, when the supply of new products outstrips demand, you have hyper competition. Which means people's expectations are higher. There IS a solution to this but that's another topic.
The point is, you point a lot MORE time, energy and effort into creating a product, whether it's a course, membership site, ebook, video training program or software, than you did in years gone by.
An 10 days after the launch, you're back to SQUARE ONE: If you don't hustle up a new product, before long your sales will dry up.
Your business is a bit like a vampire that dies if it doesn't get fresh blood!
People try in vein to solve this problem via a few methods. And while people with a vested interest might say “it ain't no big thang” and “I got that covered,” chances are if you've tried this, you know all too well the falling ARE true:
False solution 1: Bang out affiliate sales to the new blood on the list
The one redeeming factor of product launches and the reason everyone does them is they bring new customers, new blood, onto your list. This is your life source.
Your business is a bit like a vampire that dies if it doesn't get fresh blood! lol. It's a bit of a gory analogy but it's true.
In marketing we call it RFM, which stands for recency, frequency and monetary value. Frequency is how often a customer buys and monetary value is how much they spend. But the FIRST letter determines the customer's worth to you right now, today.
And that letter is R or recency. The reason it comes first is it's the #1 predictor of the behavior of your customers. Do you they spend more money with you or not?
By having a launch, you get new customers or new blood.
But now you don't have a product to sell. Your OLD PRODUCTS can be sent out via auto responder but they fall flat.
So what everyone does is bang out affiliate offers to the list.
Within 30 days those new customers are pummelled to death with offers, open rates go to hades in a handbasket as do click rates.
Oh, the BIG PROBLEM with these affiliate sales is all those people email those new buyers DAILY — and some of them mail up to 5 and 6 times PER DAY. Not only that, they immediately turn around a do a launch where the list is shared among 3 or 4 launch partners.
And now all THOSE guys are BANGING your customers 1x to 4x per day also. And then those guys all do launches and often have 3 launch partners.
Before you know it, that list is NOT responsive.
THIS is the unspoken problem with promoting a lot of affiliate products. You CAN promote them but you need to know WHO you're promoting and avoid doing it too often or you're at a high risk of diluting your list into nothingness.
This is the GIST of the Ultimate Double Bind as you'll see shortly.
False solution 2: Hustle like heck to try to cram through your next launch before the burning match scorches your hand — and this is the gist of the ultimate double find
You know you have a BURNING MATCH in your hand. Because you only have income for X days from those new customers before they dry up like a GULCH.
It's the ultimate DOUBLE BIND:
You MUST bang out a new launch to sustain cash flow.
AND…
You MUST have a quality product and promotion or affiliates won't promote it and your prospective customers won't buy it.
That's a LOT of pressure to create this breakthrough product AND breakthrough promotion (goodness knows the affiliates have plenty of offers to choose from every day and you better shock them, or they'll ignore you).
As you can see, this isn't a SOLUTION.
It's actually a double find — being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
False Solution #3: Pitching a continuity program via a webby 4 days after your launch
This is one of the big methods people try in vein to use to escape this ultimate double bind.
Using JV Zoo or W+ you stick people into a webby 4-days after the launch. You pound 'em hard with emails to try to get them onto the webby.
The REASON it's 4 days after the launch is now you don't owe affiliate commissions. How cool is that? The above platforms don't include this in commissionable products since being the sly marketer you are, you didn't add it.
Thus you get to KEEP all the money.
And to tide over your cash flow, your bright idea is to pitch it on a webby.
The PROBLEM is it is'nt just you doing this.
So is everyone else. And you find it's harder than titanium steel to get people to show up on that webby, not matter what tricks you employ. You try the sms text. You try 3 emails on the day of the webby. You try it all.
They still don't show up. So if you have 1,000 sales ona very health launch, maybe 100 show up and if you close a whopping 10%, then you make 10 recurring billing sales at $50 or $100 a month. And 70% of those don't stick for longer than 3 months.
So you bought yourself a few months of modest income. That's it. Nothing to write home to mum about, other than to ask her for money to tide you over to your next launch.
And THIS is assuming you do a blockbuster closing job on the webby and people love the recurring billing product. What if it's a flop and no one buys? Or only 2 or 3?
False Solution #4: Trying to hit the BIG launch
OK, if the above don't solve the problem, what about hitting a BIG LAUNCH? Surely that will solve the Ultimate Double Bind.
Now you're into an even LONGER product creation cycle AND a more expensive one. You hire the fancy programming team and you got a 50/50 shot (if that good) they deliver the software as promised.
Usually, they peter out one way or the other or deliver a shoddy product that doesn't work according to spec.
But even if you DO get your software made, will affiliates promote it? How much cash and prizes do you have to put up for grabs? $50,000 to $100,000 like a lot of those launches? And what percent of sales do you have to offer the big affiliates to get them to promote?
As you can see, this launch is no lead pipe cinch. And if it bombs as they sometimes do, even if you spent the big bucks for the pro copywriter, pro graphic designer AND pro jv person, now you're in the hold DEEP.
Not a good place to be.
But even if you do pull off the big launch, the day it's over, you know you can STILL only bang out affiliate sales for so long before your list response plummets to the pit of hades again. And you're no better off than you were pre-launch.
False Solution #5: Pitching the BIG TICKET coaching program on the 4-day webby
You've decided that a $97 a month continuity isn't going to do it.
So instead you come up with a webinar pitch for a big ticket. And it's true, you can buy yourself extra months of time IF you can get people to show up AND you can get them to buy.
It's hit and miss.
Maybe you hit the lottery. Maybe you don't. Probably you don't. Probably you make a few sales but again, nothing to write home to mum about, other to thank her for the loan she gave you last launch, and can she please send more. lol.
Yeah, maybe it's not that bad. BUT you're still caught in the jaws of the Ultimate Double Bind.
Do you want to get OUT of the Ultimate Double Bind?
If you do, click here to read my solution