Content For Product Launches
Recently someone told me he was building a wonderful little widget that he wished to launch. In the same breath, he said, ‘so now what, how do I do it?’
There are, of course, a variety of ways out there to launch a product. There are web gurus, like Jeff Walker and his product launch formula, and a bunch more. If you are a big brand, and you’ve got a new product, a lot of the techniques are the same, most of which focus on getting people talking.
Whether it’s an eBook, an on-line business or a real brick and mortar store with a new service, you need to get people talking about it. However, to get people talking, you need an all important ingredient: GREAT PRODUCT CONTENT. Great content is the cornerstone of any successful product launch and can almost guarantee you a recipe for success. Content can explain the product, explain the benefits, and give your customers an idea of what it is and what it can do for them. Just announcing you have a wonderful widget isn’t enough; having the name of a product isn’t enough. Customers want information and you need to give them that information.
One example of this is the Apple iPhone. Apple needed to let people know why their iPhone was so special. After all, Motorola had phones, all these other companies had phones, so why would they need an iPhone? Apple went to work producing content in huge amounts, with people giving them pre-launch versions. By the time their iPhone came out, there was so much buzz about it, it was impossible to ignore it. Then there was the extra bonus of users discovering what a great product it was, and they in turn created content around it as well. But, what if Apple had just said, ‘hey, we’ve got a phone, here’s a picture of it, you want it?’ Why would anyone have bought one, particularly when you consider the fact that it cost a couple hundred dollars more than any other phone on the market! Great content is what built excitement around the iPhone and made people want to purchase one. People had to realize what the iPhone could do, which made them want to give up their little flip phones and spend the extra money.
The important lesson here is that good content is needed to explain your product, to show it and to create interest. Without that content, people are not going to give your product their undivided attention and most people aren’t going to spend time to do their own research. You need to put that content out in front of them so that it’s easily accessible and easy to understand.
I mentioned earlier that there are several good methods to use for product launch content. A good example can be found with one of our client’s stories. This particular client has an event coming up in a few months and it is their desire to gather a bunch of content from their executives to send out via email, podcast and blogging. They want to send this content to people who are invited to attend this event and really want to set the stage for it with some nice personalized messages from their executives. In less than two week’s time, Shortcut Blogging (the previous name of Shortcut Content) created 18 pages of content by putting these executives in front of microphones, recording their interviews and purposefully writing it in the style they wished to communicate. From a consumer’s standpoint, communication coming from high level executives, or the CEO of a company, delivers powerful messages that they want to know and hear about. Also, by creating this much content ahead of time, it allowed the client to alternate their executives delivering messages, keeping content even more upbeat and interesting.
Yet another option is to create content on a day to day basis by assigning different people a certain day of the week. We can batch all this up for a client in advance and dribble it out in the desired time frame. The whole idea is to keep it fresh, and to keep the topics varied and interesting. This content can be created for blogging, but can also be utilized in website applications or in any number of on-line or off-line communications.
One more example, among many that we could give you, stems from another of our clients. This client is doing a 15 part course and plan to give away 15 ten minute segments in this free course. Shortcut Blogging is producing those 15 minute segments by having a teacher professionally interviewed for each segment. In addition, there will be a handful of extra posts used to create content around that as well, in order to garner enthusiasm for people to sign up for the course. This client is also having us interview their own clients, turn those into written PDF files and case studies, so that those interviews can be put on their website.
So, I’ve now given you four examples of how to easily create great content for a product launch. All that is needed is for you to provide us with your ideas. Plan out your “link bait,” and your topics, as well as what kind of content you want your customers to know. If you need help with that, we have a free outlining process. From there, let our professionals guide you through a recorded interview, and then sit back while we create what you need, using your own words to communicate with your customers in an easy style and format. You can use this material in a blog, emails, or where ever you wish. Launching a product doesn’t have to be difficult and Shortcut Blogging is here to pull ideas from your head and assist you in making your launch successful.