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Episode 87: How to Build Hype for a Website Launch
228 Plays5 years ago
Today we are chatting about a topic that I've been wanting to tackle for quite some time now: how to build hype around a website launch, or really any launch for that matter. Vanessa Kynes joins me for the conversation and we cover a few do's and don'ts, and then discuss 13 different tactics that you can use to amplify your next launch.
For the show notes, go to https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-episode-87/
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Transcript
Confidence in Your Product
00:00:05
Speaker
Don't be the best kept secret, right? Like if you have something to offer to the world and you actually believe in that, then you need to be confident enough to tell people about that. You shouldn't come off as, oh yeah, well, you know, this is just another photography offering and I think I'm pretty good, you know, that sort of thing. Like that's not the attitude in which you should be. If you have a product, if you have a service and you're confident in it, then you need to exude that confidence onto others.
Building Launch Hype with Vanessa Kynes
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome to the Brands at Book Show, where we help creative, service-based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones.
00:00:44
Speaker
Today we are chatting about a topic that I've been wanting to tackle for quite some time now, how to build hype around a website launch, or really any launch for that matter. Vanessa Kynes joins me for the conversation and we cover a few do's and don'ts, and then discuss 13 different tactics that you can use to amplify your next launch.
00:01:03
Speaker
If you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer those in a future episode. So please send me a message on Instagram at DavyandChrista or leave a comment in the show notes. And as always, be sure to check out the show notes at DavyandChrista.com for the resources that we mentioned during the episode. Now, onto the episode.
Advantages of Launch Hype
00:01:25
Speaker
All right, so we are live again, another Brands at Book Show episode talking about how to build hype around a website launch. And this has been a topic that, well, actually, Vanessa, you have recommended this topic quite a bit. So I'm excited to dive into it.
00:01:42
Speaker
Yeah, because I think actually like I used to be really afraid of launching. I'm kind of a shy person naturally and not don't enjoy self-promotion. But I think what I realized is hype and doing some of these measures helps kind of convince you what you're doing is worth it, especially when you get your community involved and other people who want to support you. So we're going to talk a lot about that.
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that there's big question mark too, like once you rebrand or once you build a new website, it's like, okay, well, that's great. Now, how do I get people there? There is this opportunity to build some hype just around people's natural curiosity, right? Because anytime you see certainly a friend in the industry or just a friend or maybe somebody you've been following, launch something new.
00:02:21
Speaker
Usually you're curious enough to check it out, right? So how can you capitalize on that curiosity and amplify it a bit so that you get more eyes on your website or your brand, whatever you've just launched.
Challenges and Opportunities During Lockdown
00:02:33
Speaker
So excited to dive into that. We are in while we're recording. This is our first episode that we're recording while we're on lockdown.
00:02:39
Speaker
All right, so lots going on. We just had probably, at least we were supposed to get started like 30 minutes ago. So we just had a 30-minute conversation just catching up on that. And we, of course, hope that anybody at home right now listening, that you're safe, that you're healthy, that you're sane, you know, that things are just going well for you all. So we're all hopeful, of course, that all this will pass. So I feel like there's almost this little, a little bit of a cloud hanging over this conversation, which is ironic because we're supposed to be talking about getting hype.
00:03:09
Speaker
for launches. So hopefully we can overcome that and really bring the energy today. What's funny is we actually have seen a lot of really cool launching and hyping even during this process and this these weird couple weeks. So I think there are appropriate ways to do that even during this time. And yeah, I think it adds to this conversation.
Intentional Launch Planning
00:03:28
Speaker
Well, good. So I'm excited to dive into this. There are a few things I do want to mention before we dive into these 13 tactics that I've outlined here.
00:03:37
Speaker
And this will also be a blog post. So if you go to the show notes, you'll be able to access the corresponding blog post. And so everything will be laid out in a more linear fashion. And there is a lot to get to today. So we were talking a little bit before, you know, whether we should split this into two episodes. But there's a couple of things that I want to get out of the way before we talk about these tactics. The first one is that a little intentionality goes a long way. All right. So what that means is that if you are getting ready to launch a new website,
00:04:04
Speaker
or a new brand and you kind of want to make a big deal out of it, then trying to put all of this together a week before the launch, probably not enough time in advance. Now, better late than never, right? But I think that you'll probably need really the time that when you hire a website designer, when you hire a brand designer, when you start thinking about the idea for a new product, that's really when you should also start thinking about how are you going to launch this website or brand
Ideas Parking Lot
00:04:33
Speaker
or product. So a little intentionality I think goes a long way. What do you think Vanessa? Yeah, and another thing I would recommend is just having like a parking lot of ideas when you see other people launch and creating hype because those are the times to be like, hey, the way that they presented that was really awesome and you may not be in launch mode yet, but you can come back to those ideas so that you can implement them.
00:04:54
Speaker
Absolutely. And just in thinking about how you're going to launch something, even when you've just sort of conceived of the idea, it's kind of, as you suggested, something that you can think through at least and look at on paper for a couple of weeks and start defining, okay, how can you make
SEO-Friendly Pre-Launch Strategies
00:05:08
Speaker
this work? And then start putting the pieces together and start thinking about who you need to reach out to and what materials you need in order to make this launch successful.
00:05:16
Speaker
There are also two things that I want to chat about that I don't think you should do. One of them is putting up a coming soon page. A coming soon page is fine if you are a brand new business and you don't have any website at all, then a coming soon page can be helpful so that people who've heard of you that go to your website, they know that something will be there.
00:05:39
Speaker
One of the reasons that I don't like a coming soon page for somebody who is redesigning a website is just because it can impact SEO in a negative way. So if you have that coming soon page up for months, right, then you're really sort of preventing how a search engine like Google is going to go and index your site. So I really, you can mention that a redesign is happening maybe by including some sort of pop-up or bar in your website, just if you want to communicate that to people, but I really wouldn't go the coming soon route.
Beyond the Launch: Sustained Marketing
00:06:11
Speaker
And is there a lot of weird lag between like going from your old website to your new website? Is there a lag in the way that that pulls over that transforms? Oh, sure. So you mean like once you hit the proverbial launch button on your side, how long it takes to appear or propagate on kind of the user side? Yeah, sure. I mean, there's all sorts of different caching that's happening at different levels. And so once you hit launch, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be immediately apparent to everybody in the world, right?
00:06:40
Speaker
There are different things that you're going to want to account for. I mean, this is why, and we have another blog post about this, and I think we've even done a podcast episode where I've mentioned some of the stuff where you want to do something called the soft launch at some point. It allows you to get maybe a few eyes on your website before you point a massive amount of people there. They can identify mistakes. You can make sure that whatever the most current version of your website is actually resolving for users around the world. So definitely, you want to give yourself some time on that front as well. So that's a good question.
00:07:10
Speaker
There's one other thing that I want to chat about too as far as don't do's go and that is we're lying too much on the launch. Thinking that the launch is your marketing plan, right? So as we suggested, one of the big question marks for people after a new website in particular is built for them is potentially, okay, well now how do I get more people to this website? A launch is a great way to build hype around whatever it might be, a new product, a new service, and a new whatever.
00:07:40
Speaker
But it's not something that you're going to be able to sustain, right? Like you can't have that launch excitement for years, right? A different strategy has to come in and take advantage of maybe the momentum you got during
Effective CTAs and Engagement Strategies
00:07:53
Speaker
a launch. But if you just rely on the launch, you're going to see a peak over maybe the course of a week or less, and then things are going to dwindle, right? So this can't take the place of a marketing strategy. It's a piece of your marketing strategy.
00:08:07
Speaker
So you should be thinking about, okay, how am I going to capitalize on this launch through things like lead magnets or collecting email addresses, asking people to take certain actions like follow you on social media so that you can continue to connect with people after you've launched. Yeah, that's a good point. So have a CTA or a call to action already set up, whether that is email list growth or
00:08:30
Speaker
social media following because if you don't, then you're launching to crickets. They're not going to have a way to wrap around to you again as you unveil more of your services or getting hopes of getting hired.
Amplifying Launches with Tactics
00:08:42
Speaker
That's a good point.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah, and it should be encouraging on another level too because let's say you launch and the launch doesn't go well. Well, you know, that's okay. Like that happens. I mean, because what happens next is way more important, right? You can have a great launch and then your business can go under a year later, right? Because you don't have a marketing plan in place. You don't have some sort of strategy to continue selling your service or your product. And likewise, you can have a terrible launch, but your business can be fine a year later because you have a holistic marketing plan in place.
00:09:11
Speaker
So have some grace with yourself. Just want to mention that because I think sometimes we run the risk of making a little bit too much out of a launch in general. So keep that in mind as you go through this list. Something else as we dig into these 13 different tactics, you can combine different ones. I wouldn't try to do all 13.
00:09:31
Speaker
in a given launch, right? But there might be two or three of them that you can sort of combine together and use to amplify one another. And so we'll kind of chat about that as we go through each
Gaining Industry Support
00:09:42
Speaker
of these. Vanessa, anything else that we should mention before we dive in?
00:09:45
Speaker
No, except for the first one is my favorite one. Sharing with industry friends and peers. So this is my favorite. Why is this your favorite? Because I think everything is done better together. I don't know if that's a Daniel Tiger quote, but I just believe that I, as someone who's naturally timid and really doesn't enjoy being in the center of having the center of attention, it is always really encouraged me to have other people come and support me and share about my stuff and kind of speak on behalf of me.
00:10:14
Speaker
especially if it's in an authentic way just from a technical standpoint or maybe like a facebook ad standpoint obviously you're also getting in front of new audiences that you didn't currently have access to so
00:10:26
Speaker
It's both technically strategic, but then I think also emotionally strategic. Yeah, for sure. This is another reason, going back to something that we just mentioned, is why you want to prepare for this kind of stuff in advance. If you ask somebody to share the day before, it might not fit their marketing calendar, it might not fit their plans. By asking in advance, you're going to increase the likelihood that they're going to be able to make time to do this well
Intriguing Audiences with Project Teasers
00:10:48
Speaker
for you.
00:10:48
Speaker
There's a few things that you can do, I think, to just make it easier for people to share and then maybe even get better results. One of those things is when you reach out, specifically ask people exactly what it is that you want them to do and then give them the materials they need to do it. If you're asking somebody to share about a website launch, having graphics that they can share is super helpful.
00:11:10
Speaker
Even having pre-written copy, especially if we're going to get into things like giveaways, if you're doing something like a giveaway, it helps to have, if you're asking somebody to share, it helps them to have the directions to that giveaway already written out. It really takes the mental burden off of them so that they can share about it more easily. Yeah. I think some of the most successful collaborations I've done, they've been super organized with Instagram stories, even different platforms, graphics for different platforms.
00:11:38
Speaker
And even if I don't use the copy word for word, it helps me know exactly what they wanted to communicate, whether it's like they're going to be doing free training or what their services are. So I think that's key if you want people to commit and invest their time into it. Absolutely. Moving on to tactic number two, and that's showing off pieces of your website coming together.
00:12:00
Speaker
All right. And again, this can be applied to sort of really any launch, whether it be a product or brand as well, but showing off pieces of it coming together. And this can be teased on social media. This can be teased across different video platforms like YouTube, wherever it is that you show up, you can start teasing these different pieces coming together.
00:12:18
Speaker
And I think this is a good time too to do some storytelling where you talk about maybe the origin of your business or why you want to do this because that can make a really strong connection initially
Emotional Storytelling in Launches
00:12:27
Speaker
too. People don't just remember the actual image, but they remember your why, which really connects with a lot of people. So this is your time to really do that in this piece. That's an important point and something that you're going to see that thread right there throughout all of these tactics. Do people really care that you're launching a new website?
00:12:46
Speaker
Probably not. Again, it might pique their interest. They might want to see what it looks like. But at the end of the day, do they really care about that or do they care more about maybe your heart behind why you're redesigning your website? For instance, maybe you are in the wedding industry and you wanted to create a new website because you wanted to make it easier for clients to pick out their wedding dress, right?
00:13:09
Speaker
So getting a little bit, digging a little bit deeper and getting at the why behind what you're doing, I think is going to resonate with more people. Yeah. Storytelling is really powerful. And I think too, going back to the idea of having a parking lot of ideas for who to connect with and hype ideas, having a parking lot of stories to tell, because there are a lot of times you can come up with a random story. Like Davey talks a lot about his teaching experience and like communicating with the students and applying that to his business.
00:13:38
Speaker
When those stories pop up in your mind, pop them into a place that you can access easily to connect with the story of what you're sharing in your business. I think that's a great idea like creating a document of swipe copy that you can use just based on little stories that you tell maybe frequently. I really like that. But I think the key is remembering why is this important to your client or customer? All right, so why is this important to your client or customer? You need to get at that for people to really truly be interested.
00:14:04
Speaker
So moving on to number three, look at this. We were worried that we weren't going to move through this, but we are already on tactic number three here.
Giveaways to Amplify Reach
00:14:12
Speaker
It's early. It is hosting a giveaway.
00:14:15
Speaker
I've never done this. We have done this. We've learned a ton from hosting a giveaway. I remember we launched a website a few years ago. Our own website is an iteration of our own website. It was one of the more exciting website launches that we did of our own again, and we wanted to do a giveaway. We put together probably eight to 10 things to give away, which was logistically a nightmare.
00:14:38
Speaker
It was cool because we got a ton of entries. I do think that we did a good job of putting together the things that we actually gave away were relevant to our audience, right? Because here's the deal. If you say tomorrow, like, hey, I'm going to give away the newest iPhone, well, you're probably going to get your community to enter that giveaway, but you're also going to get people who just want a new iPhone, right?
00:14:59
Speaker
So it's important to include items in your giveaway that are actually relevant to your community and to a certain extent qualify them. So we gave away like a year subscription to Yoast and different stuff like that, a website template and so on.
00:15:16
Speaker
But by having like 10 giveaways, you know, and making sure everybody got what they needed, that sort of thing, it was just logistically tough. So we've learned a ton about doing giveaways. But I think one of the most important things is one picking an item that qualifies
00:15:33
Speaker
somebody, you know, it's relevant to your ideal customer or client so you don't have a bunch of randos entering your giveaway, right? And then in addition to that, really thinking through the actions that you want people to take, do they enter just by entering their email? I mean, that's pretty good. But what if they got additional entries by sharing an Instagram post or subscribing to your YouTube channel? You can bring people up sort of the value ladder, so to speak.
00:15:58
Speaker
and at the same time, get them more entries. But when somebody shares that post, you're also getting more eyes on your giveaway. So there's definitely easy ways to amplify the results that you get from hosting a
Exclusive Insider Access
00:16:10
Speaker
giveaway. I love that. I also think there's some really cool things you can do. So instead of just having them share an image, maybe they do a video of why they're interested in winning this on Instagram stories. I think you can take it even further and personalize it more.
00:16:23
Speaker
It would be super cool also if you had the winner record like an episode or a story of them receiving it or talking about how excited they are to get it. I just think this is a time to be fun and energetic and it gets other people excited about it too. Yeah, I really like that idea too because it extends kind of the excitement around the launch to see somebody sharing Instagram, them receiving their giveaway and you know, kind of the conversation that can happen around that. So I think that's a great idea as well.
00:16:50
Speaker
Moving on to tactic number four, giving insiders access to special information. So basically, rewarding people who are already on your email list or part of your community with different information or opportunities, maybe an opportunity to get more entries in that giveaway, let's say, because they're already a part of your community.
00:17:11
Speaker
So, they're able to unlock maybe different bonuses or different opportunities just by nature of having purchased from you before or having already subscribed to whatever it is that you offer.
00:17:22
Speaker
You can also tease and advance to people that insiders get special deals to get people on to the actual email list ahead of time too. Yeah, that's a great idea. Like basically telling people, hey, you can be an insider right now in this narrow time period before this actually launches and the people who are already on this list are going to, like you said, get special deals. That's a great idea. I feel like now I need to go back and rewrite some of this because you really have at each point there's like you've been giving us little nuggets that are great.
00:17:51
Speaker
I have another one actually that's super applicable. Okay.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, laying on us. So I really resonate with this because again, you guys have heard me say like I have a hard time with just being really out there. But you never want to be the best kept secret. You want to be the thing that the person the go to person. So you have to be careful that you're not like just hiding it or rock and making people like try to find you. You really need to be out there and kind of pushing yourself to kind of uncomfortable levels, promotionally to launch your product. So you don't want to be that best kept secret.
00:18:23
Speaker
Absolutely.
Enhanced Connection Through Video
00:18:24
Speaker
And you know, something that I've been thinking about a little bit lately, trying to do more with video and this is going to be actually this is probably the most comical thread of the entire podcast series is is just me from episode one through now being like I'm trying to do for the video.
00:18:39
Speaker
But one thing that I've noticed about video is that even though I feel like I'm energetic, you know, when I'm talking, when I watch myself back, I'm like, Am I like, I don't, I don't really see the same energy that I perceive in the moment. And I think the same is true when it comes to kind of like what you're saying, like, don't be the best kept secret, get out there, tell people about what it is that you do and the problem that you solve, you almost have to do it a little bit more than what you're comfortable with, right? So
00:19:05
Speaker
when you think you're doing it, take it up a notch. And so that's what I've been having to convince myself with video is like, when I think I'm energetic, I just need to take it up one more notch to actually get to that level. So I think that's good advice.
00:19:18
Speaker
And I think there's something to be said. I feel like we're kind of being a little bit like sometimes we just feel really silly on video and fun and
Fun and Relatable Brand Content
00:19:25
Speaker
silly. But I actually think for at least for me, I really associate and have a lot of fun with watching accounts that are playful and relatable and kind of using just even the things like gifts and
00:19:37
Speaker
when you think about TikTok videos and things like that. So I would just encourage you, maybe this doesn't work for everyone's brand, but that is that playfulness and that humanness is just really important in the process of videos. Yeah, for sure. Moving on to point number five, tactic number five, using a countdown timer to build anticipation.
Creating Anticipation with Countdowns
00:19:56
Speaker
I feel like this is a pretty straightforward one, so there's not a ton to say about this other than building this anticipation by showing people that something is coming. This can be done on social media through different graphics, so four days until, three days until, so on and so forth. It can also just be done on your website. If you have an existing website, I think that an even better idea than putting up a coming soon page in order to build that anticipation
00:20:19
Speaker
is putting up a countdown timer that is literally counting down the time until a new website appears. Remember to account for that buffer time. You don't want that countdown to be set for your soft launch. You want it to be set for whatever the actual launch date is. And then also remembering that point we brought up earlier, why should people care about this? It's exciting for us because we're getting a new look or whatever it might be, but why should your clients, why should your potential customers care about this?
00:20:49
Speaker
Yeah, do you have any specific countdown products or apps that you recommend on your websites? Yeah, that's a great question. In the past, we've used a few different paid ones just because we use them for all sorts of different things. So deadline funnels is the one that comes to mind and then also convert box, which is like a intelligent pop up solution. Both of those are great options, but they are paid options. Fortunately, though, there are so many different free countdown timers out there.
00:21:14
Speaker
So for show it, for instance, I believe that I can't remember the website for sure. I'll put it in the show notes though. I think it's power, but without an E P O W R dot IO has a bunch of different widgets. I believe the countdown widget is free. There's a paid version to get rid of their branding or whatever. That's one, you know, if you use show it, but I think it would actually work on most websites because you're just pasting in a little script.
00:21:39
Speaker
So, lots out there. I mean, if you Google it, if you ask for advice in any given Facebook group, you're going to get like 30 recommendations. Yeah. The two I can think of, well, one for sure is called Motion Mail that you can use on website and with an email. And then I think there's one that is called countdowntimer.com. I think that's what it is. And there's so many. There are paid versions, but I've only ever used the free versions and they've been fine.
00:22:01
Speaker
For something like this, I think you just need the free version. Deadline funnels is great if you're running pretty complicated funnels that have different timers for different people that start their evergreen, that sort of thing.
Amplifying Reach with Ads
00:22:14
Speaker
Oh, tactic number six, running ads to your new website.
00:22:18
Speaker
Hmm. Yeah. I don't have a lot of experience in this, but I think someone does here. I do. I do love talking some Facebook ads, but even if you don't typically invest in paid advertising, this is something that you can do. Even if it was just like boosting a post, you know, I'm not a huge fan in general of just boosting posts as a Facebook ad strategy, but just to get anything you share in front of more eyes, if you're doing a giveaway, then running ads to that, wherever it is that you're collecting emails.
00:22:47
Speaker
It's just a great way to get a little bit more buzz, even if you're just retargeting people who would be considered a warm audience. So people who are already on your email list or people that have gone to your website before, you can retarget them with Facebook ads. And remember, when you share something to Facebook, only organically, only a small percentage of people actually see that post. So something to keep in mind, just in your back pocket, you don't have to make it super complicated.
00:23:14
Speaker
Or super expensive, right? Or super expensive. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can even see too, like Facebook will kind of give you a gauge of based on how many people or how much money you're spending, how many people will see this post, right? And so if it really is just to get some more eyeballs on the post, you can kind of use that as a measurement.
00:23:32
Speaker
Again, if you're interested in actually running Facebook ads, boosting a post is not the strategy. But for something like this, I think it's something that doesn't hurt. And you can do it for $10, $25, $50. You can kind of set the budget, whatever makes sense for you.
00:23:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So number seven, we've talked a little bit about but I think it's a huge part of this strategy.
Engaging Audiences with Hype Videos
00:23:53
Speaker
So let's talk about creating a hype video or just using video at all. Yeah, absolutely. So as far as video goes, it just catches people's attention. You know, you don't necessarily have to do like the Tom Brady hype video before the Super Bowl sort of release.
00:24:08
Speaker
But I think that just jumping on Facebook and Instagram live and going that route is sufficient and maybe doing it a couple times leading up to your launch and sort of combining that countdown timer building anticipation mentality with jumping on video and doing something special. Again, I think the key for all of these things is why does it matter to your customer or client if you're just going to get on there and you're just going to blandly talk about, well, I'm launching a new website.
00:24:36
Speaker
Well, why is that exciting for people? Give people a little bit of access, give people, as you mentioned earlier, tell a story to get them excited for your website launch.
00:24:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think you need to think about the core motivator of what your business does. So like for mine, it could be productivity or save you time or for you, it might be like getting a luxury design experience, like really hit the core of what your service does for them and then show that
Creative Video Content for Features
00:25:04
Speaker
off. One of my favorite examples for my own launch was I happened to get this gift of my kids running around circles of a kitchen island that I'm sitting on with my laptop.
00:25:13
Speaker
My photographer caught a bunch of them and I realized this would make a really fun gift because even more relatable now with the coronavirus like we're all working with our children running around us and so that was one of the videos you can literally hear my child in the background right now running around like a maniac I think I just heard my four-year-old just how relatable that is that like hey, it's actually about Pinterest but it's really more about like you have only so much marketing time like I
00:25:39
Speaker
just connects with people and so be creative with video and make it fun and playful and creative but it doesn't have to be long or complicated that's just two pictures that I'm running as a gift back and forth yeah absolutely I remember when we launched one version of our website and it was the first time we were starting to offer website templates
00:25:58
Speaker
You know, and so one of the ways that we could build anticipation was talking about how, hey, when we launched this website, we will have been able to make it easier for anybody out there who wants to build an affordable website on their own to be able to do so because now we are offering these website templates that you could download and customize on your own. So again, trying to think through why exactly it makes sense for your client or customer.
00:26:20
Speaker
Moving on to tactic eight, creating a special offer for people who participate
Incentivizing Purchases with Offers
00:26:25
Speaker
in your launch. I think that this is one of those things that is kind of a duh. I'm not super excited about this one, but it's still important to do. Especially if you have a product or you have products offering some sort of discount or launch price on those products, I think go a long way. Maybe you know where I'm going to go with this Vanessa. I'm talking about services. What am I going to say about services?
00:26:49
Speaker
Davey says, don't discount your services ever. Don't discount. Okay, so we've had this conversation because we talked about pricing mistakes. Pricing mistakes is actually an episode that's going to go live next week. It will already been live when you listen to this episode. But one of the things we talked about or one of the things we talked about after the fact was coronavirus and this pandemic, right? And so we're kind of talking about like, okay, well,
00:27:10
Speaker
does discount as an acceptable time in which to discount your services? And are there acceptable times to discount your services? The answer is, of course, yes. There's always exceptions. In general, though, I still think that you should be very hesitant to discount your time.
00:27:28
Speaker
Instead of doing that, and I know that giving people a free engagement session whenever they book a wedding collection, like giving something in addition to what they've booked, I think is an acceptable route to go. Because you're still charging people, quote unquote, full price.
00:27:45
Speaker
Now, I know it's a little nuanced there because you could say, well, Davey, I still have to shoot the engagement session. Isn't that my time? I think yes, for sure. But it's different than discounting a package by 25% or something like that. So I think by people still paying the full amount of the collection, there's a higher perceived value there. Does that make sense?
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah. And obviously too, by having a discount. That's a very un-enthused, yeah. It was like, yeah. Well, I'm also thinking a lot about like just today and kind of the heaviness. And when I do see people out there doing good things with their services, maybe for free or maybe at a discount or maybe just because they see a need of someone who really needs help. So clearly we think that that's smart. But thinking about discounts on products, it's just a way to create urgency that at some point it's going to end. So
00:28:37
Speaker
Creating that urgency for people during a launch period gets people to buy. I mean, inevitably, we're motivated by that.
00:28:43
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. And again, also 100% agree, it is up to you and your discretion if you see somebody you need and you want to help them. Like, of course, I mean, that's a good thing, right? We're not saying that there's not a scenarios where you can't discount your time or help somebody out. That is not what I'm saying. I'm saying on a kind of a big picture scale, like stepping back, you know, you can't always be discounting your time because it's just not a
00:29:11
Speaker
profitable way to run your business, right? Agree. Yeah. So hopefully seeing through that lens, and I know there's a lot going on in the world right now. And so hopefully that doesn't come off the wrong way and kind of people people understand where I'm coming from. But moving on to tactic number nine, be bold on social media.
Confident Product Promotion
00:29:30
Speaker
This I think is going to be difficult, more difficult for some people than it is for other people.
00:29:36
Speaker
Some people are just really big on being center stage. I think that they're like, Oh, I got this. Yeah. Is that you? Are you good at like kind of being on the center stage? When was the last time you see me post Insta stories? Exactly. Okay. Well, let me tell you what I found really fun. It wasn't necessarily lunch period. You guys did this whole thing about your fish.
00:29:57
Speaker
And the disco fish. Things like that, I think, not necessarily launch period, but be bold, but be relatable. If you can't be bold and loud and do a big huge thing, be just fun and relatable and memorable. Sure. But when we talk about this point about being bold on social media, especially in the context of a launch, what we're saying is, going back to your point, don't be the best kept secret. If you have something to offer the world and you actually believe in that, then you need to be confident enough to tell people about that.
00:30:25
Speaker
You shouldn't come off as, oh, yeah, well, you know, this is just another photography offering. And I think I'm pretty good. You know, that sort of thing. Like that's not the attitude and what you should be. If you have a product, if you have a service and you're confident in it, then you need to exude that confidence on to others. And that doesn't necessarily mean making it all about you. I think to a certain extent, it's the opposite, right? So you can speak confidently about something. You can be bold about something and at the same time, not necessarily make it all about you. So I do think that just in general, I would agree.
00:30:55
Speaker
people are just, it's just easier for them to get on Instagram live, to get on Insta Stories and just talk, right? I don't mind doing it. It's more for me. Like when I'm kind of sharing that moment with Jack with the new fish and stuff like that and putting together the fish tank, I just don't think to myself like, oh, I should get my camera out and share this to Insta Stories. I try to be better about those things because I know it is
00:31:19
Speaker
You know, it's just a fun little snippet of our lives to share with people. But I just have never been able to get into the mentality that's kind of the first thing that comes to mind or even the second thing or the third thing. And so when I do end up getting on Insta Stories in the context of those types of things, it's typically because Krista is watching and she takes out her camera and then shares that with me.
00:31:40
Speaker
That's so fun. I do have an idea for people who are kind of like camera shy for this one. Yeah, absolutely. One of the ways that I think that you can allow and this ties into number one, I think people to support you is if you can get people recording testimonials and maybe you have like a pre-launch period or like a beta testers, if you can get them speaking for you and the type of results that they got from your service or from your product
00:32:02
Speaker
and have them record those snippets and share them on your Instagram stories. I think that helps, again, makes you feel more comfortable, especially if you're like me and you want to make sure the service you're providing is valuable, but then letting other people speak for you I think can be a great way to be bold without feeling so uncomfortable.
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. It answers that question that everybody's asking about your product or service, which is, you know, can that really work for somebody like me? So when they see other people that it has worked for other people, they're probably going to be more likely to book your service or buy your product. And actually, we love running video ads that are put together along those lines that feature customers or clients of companies just talking about the service. Because like you said, it's not the CEO getting up there and talking about how great his product is. Like, of course, he thinks his product is great.
00:32:49
Speaker
right? So I think that's a great idea, especially for people who don't necessarily like talking about their own stuff on social media. Yeah, which could be a lot of people out there. So I'm with you, people. Sure. Sure. Tactic 10, working with sponsors, influencers, and complimentary businesses.
Leveraging Influencers and Partnerships
00:33:06
Speaker
Of course, like working with sponsors and influencers, that sounds like a big business tactic, you know, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. I think of one company, right, who they sell a physical product,
00:33:17
Speaker
and they have sort of an agreement it might even be like an affiliate agreement with a popular youtuber who shares about her product in exchange probably gets i don't know for sure but i assume you know get some sort of affiliate income so you can set up things like that
00:33:33
Speaker
especially if you know people in your space where this would be relevant to their audience and maybe they use the product or the service themselves. And so it just makes sense for them naturally to share about it, right? At the same time, everybody has complimentary businesses that they can reach out to.
00:33:48
Speaker
This goes back to just reaching out to peers, but if you're a wedding industry person in particular, you have an ecosystem of people who you probably work with or want to work with on a monthly, quarterly, seasonal basis. Yeah. I also think too that it benefits the person who is influencing as well because they get in front of your audience and all the other audiences that the other sponsors as well.
00:34:16
Speaker
It doesn't have to be a one way street where you have to pay someone. You might have people who are willing to do it for their own exposure as well. I've done it before where I've been listed as a sponsor. I'm doing air quotes on someone's website. I didn't pay. I just thought, you know what? This is a business I want to support. And so I'm willing to be listed on their website, but I benefit from it as well. So.
00:34:35
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. 100%. If you do work out something monetary with people or you do reach out to a company and ask them to share, one thing that might help you get in the door is helping them understand exactly how many people and what kind of people they're going to get in front of. If you reach out to a company, let's say, they only have so many marketing dollars. They only have so much time on their marketing calendar as well. They're going to want to know, okay, well, if I do end up sponsoring this, exactly how many people are going to learn about me through this post.
00:35:05
Speaker
So, you know, when you do reach out to people, including those kinds of numbers, especially if it's just not a peer, I think it's going to go a long way. Yeah. Yeah. All right. 11, 11 out of 13. We're getting there.
Optimal Launch Timing
00:35:17
Speaker
Launch your website midweek.
00:35:20
Speaker
All right. And so that's more guidance than a tactic, I guess. Typically, bad times to launch a website would be like Friday, Saturday, Sunday, especially if those days fall during the summer because people are typically outside and doing stuff and not maybe in the mode to consumer information like that.
00:35:39
Speaker
So typically we see launches that get more traffic Tuesday through Thursday. This of course is going to be going to vary industry by industry, you know, and so there's certain seasons, there's certain days where people might be more engaged than other times, right? Take all of that into account as well. But one thing that you can do, I think you'll really appreciate this, Vanessa.
00:36:00
Speaker
is go back to Google Analytics and understand just naturally where and when you get the most traffic. Is that springtime and typically on Tuesdays? Well, then Tuesday is probably a pretty good time to launch. Now, if you get more traffic in the spring than the fall, you shouldn't delay your launch by months just to get
00:36:21
Speaker
just to get to the fall, but you can still go back and look at Google Analytics and understand, okay, what days of the week are typically my highest traffic days? That's when you want to launch.
00:36:31
Speaker
Also major holidays. Be careful. I mean like we know the big ones like Christmas and Thanksgiving but I've heard a lot of people say especially when they're marketing to other parents for example that when they choose three day holidays like Presidents Day it kind of flopped their launch because they weren't paying attention to some of those minor I don't call them minor some of those less obvious holidays.
00:36:52
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Like, I guess you could say maybe less celebrated to a certain extent. It's not like Christmas where everybody in the world knows that it's Christmas today, right? You know, there's certain holidays throughout the year that just slipped the mind until they're there. And maybe the kids are home from school, you know, that sort of thing. So anyways, tactic 12. This is actually one of my favorites, especially if you have a highly engaged audience.
00:37:17
Speaker
And you have to be careful about how you go about this. But that's creating a website scavenger
Engaging Scavenger Hunts
00:37:23
Speaker
hunt. I have never done this. You're just shaking your head. No, I think it's great. I think it's a great idea. I have never seen this before. So I cannot wait to like I would be into this for sure. Yeah. So this is one of those things again, it's going to be I would do this in conjunction with something else. This is something that might be a good idea, especially in if you're in sort of a pre-launch.
00:37:42
Speaker
where the new website has launched and you want to share it early with maybe some of your subscribers or some of your community but typically somebody who's just heard about you through the launch may or you know it's probably kind of up in the air whether they would go through with this.
00:37:57
Speaker
But what you can do is start by giving people a clue. Typically, you want people who have just stumbled upon your website to be able to get that clue. So maybe through a pop-up or something like that, you give the first clue. That leads to another page and another clue and so on and so forth.
00:38:12
Speaker
You can do this with your email community by sending them an email and saying, hey, this is the first clue. We've just launched our website. You know, anybody who finds or gets to the end of the scavenger hunt will find X. Typically X is like a 10% off coupon or hopefully a little bit more than that, or some sort of bonus, some sort of prize for getting to the end of the scavenger hunt.
00:38:32
Speaker
There are a few ways to really ruin this. One is making it too difficult. Even for the brands that I would be highly engaged, if it got out of hand, I'd be like, all right, enough of this. Unless the prize has to be, if the scavenger hunts really hard, the prize better be amazing.
00:38:57
Speaker
If I'm going to make you search through 10 different pages of my website and you're going to have to answer cryptic riddles, then you better be getting 90% off a website template.
00:39:06
Speaker
It's kind of like an escape room for your website. Yeah, love it. Yeah. And it's just a way to get people on your website, but different than, okay, well, they're going to go to my website because they're curious about it. Maybe click a couple pages and leave, right? It might get them a little bit more engaged and you can kind of highlight different elements of your website doing this. So for instance, like, let's say we did this back when we first launched website templates, this would have been something completely new to our website a few years ago.
00:39:31
Speaker
Well, if that's something that we want to highlight and maybe we want to highlight new products in particular or new types of products, then the scavenger hunt should include those pages because I'm definitely sending people through these areas that I want them to see. And of course, I would want to start with the more important ones, knowing that people are going to kind of fall off the more steps in the scavenger hunt.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, I love this idea. I think this is really fun. But like you said, if it's a lame prize, it could backfire. People could think you're being cheap.
00:40:01
Speaker
Exactly. It's like, hey, I'm going to make you do 10 things and give you 10 cents off. That's not going to cut it. The other thing too is you run the risk of going back to that iPhone example, offering the new iPhone like you would in a giveaway. You run the risk of just getting a bunch of random people going through it. You also want to make sure that whatever the prize is, it makes sense. Typically, some sort of discount or some sort of bonus on your services or product, that's a good way to go. I can't believe it. We're making it to number 13. We've done a good job.
00:40:28
Speaker
Yep. And we're only, we're like less than 45 minutes in. So let's finish this. Let's finish it strong competitions. Everybody loves a good competition or is it just me? I'm not as competitive. So I'm all about like everyone winning, but this is fun. Yeah.
00:40:46
Speaker
than a giveaway is for you. Or a scavenger hunt. A scavenger hunt, everybody can win the scavenger hunt. Exactly. You can get through it. So for those of you who are about having a single winner or a group of winners, hosting a competition can be a great way to engage people during a launch.
00:41:02
Speaker
And it can also be a great way to show off kind of going back to your video idea earlier, for instance, having somebody submit videos of, you know, how they use their product. I'm actually thinking about Dipsado recently did a campaign where they had people and forgive me if I get this wrong, but I think it was you would submit a video kind of showing off how you used Dipsado. And if you won, you would get a lifetime account to Dipsado, which is a great price. Huge.
00:41:29
Speaker
That's a great prize and it should be great because that's a lot of work, right? Putting together and producing a video. So that I think was something that was well done and I can't tell you how many submissions they got. I have no idea. But I assume because they had, I think they actually gave away an extra lifetime account, I assume they had a decent amount of submissions.
00:41:49
Speaker
especially, again, that's a sweet prize. But that's just one way of, I think, making the most out of a competition because you're going to be able to get access to a bunch of video testimonials or content that you can then later use for marketing collateral down the road.
00:42:07
Speaker
I also think too that that creates a great experience for the people who didn't win, but they still had like a great experience and connection with you. So again, if you make it fun and something that people are excited to put together, you've now kind of formed this instant connection with people. So there's just so many ways, again, weaving that story throughout all of these points of just developing that brand story with people.
00:42:28
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
Importance of Sustained Marketing
00:42:29
Speaker
Anything that you can ever do to get more content that you can use later, I think is a huge win. So those were our 13 tactics. Look at that. We were worried that this would take over an hour and it's under an hour. We're under 50 minutes now. So we will wrap this up.
00:42:47
Speaker
But I do want to reiterate again, launches great opportunity to build hype and build momentum. If your launch doesn't go well, that doesn't mean your business is going to fail. If your launch goes really well, that doesn't mean your business is going to succeed, right?
00:43:03
Speaker
So keeping all that in perspective as you launch a new product or launch a new service, I think is important. And then understanding how you're going to capitalize on any momentum that you get after the fact. Because the truth is that everything that happens after your launch
00:43:19
Speaker
is probably more important than the launch itself. And I think there's very few stories, I think even of the stories where you have a new product that launches in the market that is just incredible and like, oh, this is how they got their big break is because of this big launch they did. It's really, what are they doing after that big launch to keep that momentum going?
00:43:38
Speaker
The truth is, too, I've been trying to rack my brain about people or companies that had big launches that kind of fizzled afterwards, and I can't think of any. But it's likely because they didn't keep things going. And so that's been erased from my memory. So as much as you plan for all these hype opportunities, you need to be planning for what's coming afterwards. It maybe doesn't have to be as exciting. It could just be content marketing and blogging or more video marketing.
00:44:05
Speaker
You need to plan for that too so you don't lose that energy and brand kind of authority. Yeah. And if you follow the startup world at all, there are like really hot new companies that come on the scene and they make this big splash and you're like, oh, you know, people are saying they're the next unicorn company or whatever. And then slowly but surely they fizzle out and years later, yeah, they die. That's such a morbid way of putting it.
00:44:27
Speaker
they just fizzle out, right? Yeah. So we can't emphasize enough how important it is to have a larger marketing strategy and to keep this in perspective. But we do hope that was helpful. And if you have any questions, we understand that we went through a ton of content today. So if you have any questions on any one of these things, we've been talking about maybe recording a part two where we answer those questions.
00:44:47
Speaker
So you can drop those comments in the show notes, you know, when we post about it on social media, you can ask questions there, you can DM us. And really, that's how we figure out what new podcasts to create because people ask questions and we think, huh, that would be a great podcast episode.
00:45:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So anyways, we hope everybody is staying healthy, everybody staying safe at home. If there is something that you would like us to chat about, let us know. We'd be happy to do that. And Vanessa, thank you for giving me your time again to go over all of this great content. This was really fun for me. It's kind of reenergized me as I go into thinking about Q2 and what I'm going to do there. So I appreciate it. All right. Have a good one.
00:45:36
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Brands That Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review in iTunes. For show notes and other resources, head on over to dvandchrista.com.