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How to Increase Your Sales BEFORE You Launch Your Product, Program or Service

By Alicia Forest, MBA
The Business Shifter™

How would you like to increase your sales even BEFORE you officially launch your product, program or service? The following are some of the most effective ways to set your offer up for more success from the get-go:

1. Use Social Proof

What is “social proof”? Simply put, we are all conditioned to watch what others are doing and follow along (think teenagers). Using social proof in your marketing helps you to influence your customers to purchase your products, programs and services, gets new prospects to sign up for your list and gets people talking about you and your offering – and that’s just the start.

So, how do you use this psychological trigger in your marketing?

One way is to use results-based testimonials or case studies. Ask you current clients and customers to share with you their before-and-after experience with you, as in “Before I used this product, I was X. After I used this product, these are the great results I got.”

Sharing these types of testimonials or case studies not only provide proof positive to your offer, but also cement the idea in your potential buyer’s mind that they can do it too, which is typically the thing they are wondering the most (and is one of the first objections you have to overcome).

You see, anyone who is buying anything almost always has this objection: “Sure, you can do it, but can *I* do it?”

In addition to using yourself as an example (if appropriate) as evidence that what you are offering does what you say it will, it’s also important to make sure you get social proof from people in your client/customer’s peer group. Then your potential buyer sees people like themselves and understands that “hey, it worked for them, it can work for me too.”

2. Use Limiters

Creating a sense of urgency around your product, program or service will help move your potential buyer into action. You want people to make a decision, whether it’s a yes or a no. While there are many ways you can use limiters during your launch, the following are three of my favorites because they’re easy to implement and are always effective.

a. Time Limit

Giving a time limit on when they can purchase keeps your launch in motion as well as helps to move those people who are ready to join you into action sooner.

b. Limited Quantity

If you are selling a physical product and you are only having 100 produced, then use that format to create the same sense of urgency you would with a time limit. Or if you are selling spots in a program, limited the number of spots will move people towards making a decision sooner. Use a countdown on your web page to highlight that if your potential buyer doesn’t buy now, they may miss out.

c. Time or Quantity Limit on Bonuses

Additionally, you could offer bonuses for a certain length of time (for example, the first week only) or for a certain number of products sold. For example, the first 30 buyers would get an additional special report (valued at $XX) as a bonus.

Obviously, you can use these tactics unscrupulously, and you’ve likely seen it or experienced it yourself. But if you want your business to be truly successful, in all ways that are important and meaningful to you, then you must only use these strategies with integrity and honesty.

If you really are only going to print 100 copies of a physical product, then only print 100 copies. That doesn’t mean you can’t do another print run. It just means that you tell your market that you’re only going to print 100 now, and if you do decide to do another run, then they will have to wait another few weeks before they can get their copy.

If you really are going to raise your price after a certain date, or after a certain number of items are sold, then you must follow through. You can give your current client/customer base the chance to buy at the ‘original’ price before you raise it, but you still must raise your price if you say you will.

Using even just these few strategies, along with a strategic launch plan to put them into action, will create more sales for you than ever before.

And if you want my personal help with developing your own strategic launch plans so you get better results from your own offers now and into the future, be sure to join me for my upcoming comprehensive Launch Logistics™ Intensive!

Please share your thoughts below!

How to Make Your Email Promotions Sell More

Just like writing a sales page for your product, program or service, writing successful email promotions can be easier than you think. There’s a science to it, more than an art, and to get you started, I’d like to share a tested formula for you to follow.

Taking the time to consider and answer the questions below before you write your email promotion will make it easier to write, easier for your reader to engage with, and easier to turn your prospect into a buyer.

Here are 5 essential elements to writing email promotions that will increase your sales:

1. Who’s your audience?

It’s important to know exactly who your audience is before you start writing the copy for your email promotion. Obviously, you’ll be sending your promotion to your list. But will it be for your entire ezine subscribers list? Or are you making an offer only to the people on your list who have bought from you before, your customers? Or are you targeting your one-on-one clients only?

Getting really specific about who you are writing your email promotion to will allow you to make it as personal as possible, and the more personal you can make it, the more sales you’ll make.

2. What action do you want to your reader to take?

Decide what it is exactly that you want your reader to do. Is it to subscribe to your ezine? Is it to join one of your group programs? Do you want them to invest in a new product or take advantage of a sale you’re having on an established product?

Choose only ONE thing for your reader to do (remember, ‘a confused mind always says no’) and they are much more likely to do it!

3. What benefits will your reader get?

If your reader purchases your product, how will they benefit? If someone subscribes to your ezine, what will they get out of it? If a reader signs up to work with you one-on-one, how will that make things better, easier, more fun or whatever it is that you can do for them?

Make the benefits your reader gets crystal clear in your email promotions. If you have more than one, use bullets to make them easier to read and digest, and lead the reader smoothly to your call to action.

4. What’s your ‘take action now’ lever?

For each promotion you do, you want to choose and use a tactic for getting people to take action. We’re all procrastinators, so you want to strongly encourage your reader to take action right away.

Some tactics you can use are to offer a limited availability, a limited time, limit spots, special price, free shipping for a limited time, etc.

5. What’s your format?

Couple of notes on the format of your email promotions:

– Testing shows that HTML emails with bullets tend to generate higher response rates, and keep them short (1 page is plenty!)

– Make sure your call to action (‘Buy Now’, ‘Visit This Page for More Info’, ‘Order Today’) is near the end of your email promotion, after your list of benefits and your ‘take action’ lever.

– Include contact information at the bottom of your email promotions, with an email address and/or phone number for people who have questions.

– Don’t forget your unsubscribe information as well, to comply with CAN-SPAM laws.

– Include a PS, which is the second most read part of any sales copy. One effective use of a PS is to ask for the order again, including the link.

Use these 5 elements as a framework for your next email promotion and track your conversion rates. You should see more results and make more sales by doing so!