Using the Product Launch Strategy Jeff Walker teaches in PLF is an awesome way to generate a bunch of sales quickly, while building the bond you have with your audience.

But honestly, a launch takes a LOT of work, and you don’t want to be constantly ‘launching’ stuff or your readers will end up with ‘launch fatigue’ and just stop opening your messages.

So what do you do in those times between your launches to keep up the momentum, keep your audience happy, and make more money?

Well in addition to just sending them awesome content that helps them improve their lives, or running regular Flash Sales (as we discuss here), and taking advantage of some of these 17 was to generate more sales with your autoresponder…

…one great idea that’s inexpensive and works like magic is to spend some time optimising your order forms for when somebody does buy from you (this will make your affiliates LOVE you too).

When you think about it, by the time somebody gets from somewhere else online to your website, reads your content, decides to buy and arrives at your order form, you have a prospect with a credit card already in their hot little hand, and they are in a buying frame of mind.

That means there’s a good chance if you put another related offer in front of them while they are going through your order process (the proverbial, “would you like fries with that?”), they’ll often be happy to take it.

And when you get the ‘order form bump’ or up-sell offer right, you’ll start making more money with every customer who comes to your website, or walks through your door.

So what’s the secret to creating a backend or upsell offer that gets your prospects clicking the “Yes, Add This To My Order” button on your order page?

Use this 7-Step Product Launch Strategy

1. Make Sure the Up-sell Adds To And Enhances The Main Offer

The very first thing you need to do is make sure any upsell you offer is tightly related to the main offer. The best way to do it is to make it not only closely related, but something that actually enhances the use, utility, or enjoyment of the thing they purchased in your main offer.

A classic example is McDonalds. When you order a Big Mac, any well-trained staff member will ask if you want fries and/or a drink with that. It clearly works because a lot of people say yes to this offer, because if you’re into fast food, fries and a drink enhance the enjoyment of your burger.

Now you can do the same thing regardless of what you’re selling. For example:

• If you’re selling a weight loss app, you could offer a low-fat cookbook or a collection of smoothie recipes as an up-sell on your order form
• If your main offer is an email copywriting course, you can offer a number of personal copy critiques on the backend
• If your main product is all about setting up and running a successful Accountancy Practice, You can offer tools on the backend, such as a course on generating leads, or a package of marketing campaigns that have worked successfully for others
• Say your main product is a “how to manage your debtors” course. You can offer an upsell that includes resources like a debt management checklist and workbook, and 5 personalised debt-management counselling sessions with you or one of your advisors
• If you main product is a set of weightlifting training videos, you can offer the weights themselves as an up-sell

So the idea here is not to just toss any old offer in front of your prospects and hope for the best. Make sure your up-sell and main offer go together like… well, like Big Macs and fries.

MAJOR CAVEAT: Do NOT leave anything critical to getting the results your customer expects out of your core product, and try to offer the ‘missing piece’ as an up-sell.

You’ve probably seen offers like this before. You buy a product that promises X result, and then you are offered an up-sell that basically says “Well the thing you just purchased won’t work properly unless you also buy this other thing…”

Not only will this piss your customer off and stop them buying your up-sell, you’ll probably lose the initial sale, and the customer’s future business as well. Plus they are likely to give you negative reviews and bitch about you to everyone they know.

Not good…

OK, so next up…

2. Offer an Irresistible Deal

Putting a related offer in front of your prospects is a great way to increase your sales. But turning that offer into an irresistible, no-brainer deal is even better.

Let’s look at the fast food example again. If you order a burger with a small fries and drink, the person taking your order will likely ask you if you’d like to “super-size” your order for just a small extra charge. The reason this works so well (to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars every year) is that the deal is irresistible.

You get yourself a LOT more of what you want for just a little bit more money.

And it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, you can do the same thing in your business.

For example:

“I usually charge $997 up front and $397 per month for this sort of coaching. But as a valued member of my new Stock Trading group, you’ll get a special price of just $197 per month for this same high-quality coaching, and I’ll waive the up-front setup fee entirely…”

“And you’re not locked in. Try out the program for a full month, and if you feel it isn’t for you for any reason, let me know and I’ll give you a full refund, no questions asked…”

If you are a trader and you’ve just purchased a Stock Trading product, this sort of offer would be virtually impossible to refuse…

One more example. I know a well top marketer in the supplements market who makes an irresistible offer for his core product, and then offers an up-sell consisting of more of the exact same product for an even lower per-pack price.

So people buy 2 packs of something they know they want (and will likely continue to use) for $49.00 with free shipping, and then because they’ve just made a purchase, they are offered another FOUR packs of the exact same product for just $49.00 as a reward.

And as a result, his sales are BOOMING…

Ok, next up…

3. Make Use Of Short-Form Copy

So now you’ve got an eager prospect sitting on your order page with their credit card in their hot little hand, it is NOT the time to put another long sales letter or sales video in front of them.

They’re eager and ready to buy. If you put another intimidating wall of text or video in front of your prospects, you might just have them hitting the back button and abandoning the order form, never to be seen again.

SIDEBAR: There are plenty of studies to show that the shopping cart or order page abandonment rate runs as high as 95% for some merchants. That’s why optimising your order page to improve conversions, and minimising friction as much as possible is one way to generate a whole lot of free money.

You’ve already done the hard work of getting them into the kind of emotional state needed for them to buy, so you’ve already built your credibility and established trust to some extent.

You don’t need to do any of that again.

Now all you need to do is simply focus on the benefits and results they can achieve if they take your up-sell offer. The fact is, your up-sell page copy might be nothing more than a results-driven headline, a list of the top benefits, and a action-orientated call to action (such as Yes! I Want This“).

TIP: As with everything you do in your marketing, test to find out for sure what your audience responds to the best. Split test different headlines, your bulleted list of benefits, your call to action and your order button text. You might even test to see if short-form copy beats a short sales video.

You’ll never know until you try.

Next…

4. Frame Your Price (So You Don’t Scare People Away)

You’ve already sold your prospect on purchasing the main offer, and they’ve already agreed to whatever price you’re charging. So when you offer an up-sell, you’ll want to frame the price so that it focuses on the up-sell only.

Let’s look at an example…

Suppose you’re selling a video training course for $97, with an up-sell offer for $27 for an app.

When it comes time to ask for the order, you do NOT want to say this:

“Would you like to add the app to your order, making it a total of $124 for the course and app?”

Suddenly that sounds like it’s going to cost a lot. Your prospect is likely to start second-guessing their purchase “Do I really want this thing after all…”. And in a flash you could lose the whole sale.

Instead, make sure you focus on the price of the up-sell only: “Would you like to add the app to your order for just $27 more?”

Ahhhh… that’s so much better. That sounds like it’s doable. And because the prospect is already planning on spending $97 with you, that extra $27 doesn’t sound like such a big deal, especially when they think about the added enjoyment they will get.

It’s just like when you are buying a car. If you’re like a lot of people, by the time you’ve decided on the make, model, colour and basic accessories, and taken the car for a test drive, it’s a slam dunk for the dealer to up-sell you all sorts of other accessories to ‘personalise’ your car.

And these additional items are always presented in a non-threatening way. Well you can have metallic paint for another $3.00 a month. And a sunroof for just $4.00 a month.

Before you know it, your monthly payment is $100 more than you wanted to pay, but you’ve personalised ‘your’ car to the point where in your mind you already own it, and you just want to get the deal done. You’re excited about driving away in your new vehicle, and there’s no way you’re going to back out of the deal now.

They’ve gotcha 🙂

It’s all in how you frame it for your prospects.

Next…

5. Create a Nagging Sense Of Urgency

Nothing gets people jumping all over your fancy order button like a true sense of urgency. And a great way to create this sense of urgency is by making your upsell offer genuinely scarce.

For example, you might make your up-sell a one-time offer. That means it’s something that’s only available right now while your prospect is on the page.

If she doesn’t grab it now, she won’t be able to get it in the future. Or if the product is available somewhere else, she may be forced to pay full price (yuk!).

An example might be:

“Special one-time offer: add this exercise-planning app to your order right now, and it’s yours for 60% off the normal price. If you leave this page, this special price disappears for good… grab your discount now before it’s gone!”

Next…

6. Use A Compelling Call To Action

Good copywriting rules apply to your up-sell in the same way they do to your main offer. And that means if you just drop the order link in front of your prospects and expect them to click it, you’re going to be disappointed.

Far better instead to create a strong call to action that gets people to act now. You should tell prospects what to do next, and give them a powerful reason to do it.

For example:

Click here now to add this app to your order. And remember, this special 60% off offer disappears when you leave this page, so order now!

Your up-sell page is going to have two options.

• One option is “Yes, add this to my order.”
• The option on the other link is, “No thank you, I don’t want this.”

To avoid confusing your prospects, these should be the only two options on the page. People will either add the up-sell to their order and continue with their purchase, or they’ll skip your offer and just stay with their original order.

Now here’s a sneaky but powerful trick you might consider testing…

Phrase your “yes” and “no” options in a way that helps compel people to click on the “yes” option.

For example, say you’re selling some sort of weight-loss information. Your buttons might have these two options:

“Yes, I want to be ready for the beach!”

“No thanks, I don’t want to get rid of my love handles.”

See how that works?

The “yes” option focuses on they outcome they want and provides a benefit. The “no” option asks the prospect to agree with something that they probably don’t want to agree with. That’s going to make them stop and reconsider your offer.

Here’s another example:

“Yes, I want to save money on my electricity bills!”

“No, I’m not ready to save money just yet.”

And one more…

“Yes, I’ ready to find my soulmate.”

“No, I’m ok with being on my own for now.”

And finally…

7. Make It As Easy As Possible

If you followed all the tips above, you should have a prospect who’s as ready as she’ll ever be to complete her order. Now your goal is to make it as easy as possible for her to place that order and grab your up-sell.

The last thing you want at this stage is make your prospects jump through a bunch of hoops. Don’t include unnecessary steps between them and their getting their hands on their order. And don’t put obstacles that create ‘friction’ in the way.

Because if you do, your prospect is likely to lose their enthusiasm and abandon their shopping cart (as I mentioned earlier, up to 95% of people do just that…).

Here are some dos and don’ts to follow:

• Do make it as easy as one-click. If you’re offering an upsell right after the customer has already filled in the order form, it’s critical that you make it as easy to buy the upsell as clicking one button. In other words, you do NOT want to make your prospect fill out the order form or their credit card all over again. (WARNING: Paypal often makes your customers do this)
• Don’t make them run through a mind numbing gauntlet of up-sells. You have probably been through sales funnels that three, four, five or even more up-sells (The Warrior Forum and JVZoo are notorious for doing this crap). Quite often people can’t even get to the order form without going through 4 sales videos and accepting or declining every one of these offers.

You know yourself how painful it is to run the gauntlet like this, so don’t do that to your customers! Just put one or at most two well-placed offers in front of them and leave it at that.

• And if they decline one or both up-sells, send them straight through to the order form. Don’t make them go through a bunch of additional offers. The customer experience sucks and will seriously decrease your conversions (and risk future sales as well).
• Don’t make people “register” before ordering. If you need your customers to create an account, then have this account automatically created during the purchasing process. Even if the amount of “work” you’re asking the customer to do is the same, framing is the key here. If you suddenly force a customer to “create an account” before they can finish placing an order, they may just dump their cart and disappear.

Ok, so now let’s wrap things up…

To Sum Up Your Product Launch Strategy

You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “Strike while the iron is hot.”

When it comes to making sales, the iron is never going to be as hot as when you have a prospect filling out an order form. That’s why it’s a great time to “strike” by offering an irresistible up-sell offer they simply can’t refuse. So get started on boosting your sales by creating upsells on your order forms today – and increase your conversions using the seven proven ideas you just discovered!

As I mentioned at the start of this post, the list you build during your product launch is going to become your most valuable business asset, and will give you the perfect springboard for creating a profitable, long-term, sustainable business for yourself and your family. To learn more, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

Talk soon,

Rocky

P.S. Being able to create a Perfect Product is a great start, but you also need a way to generate sales in a consistent way. Running a Product launch is a proven way to not only build your list, but generate Social Proof and make a large number of sales quickly. To learn how to launch your product successfully, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. List Warrior will show you a proven way to use free software to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here.

2. How To Create The Perfect Product 
Creating a product that is perfect for your audience does not need to be difficult. How To Create The Perfect Product shows you how to build high value products your audience will love one after the other. Click Here.

3. How To Attract Buyers To Join Your Launch List So They Can Purchase Your Perfect Product.
Once you have created your Product Launch List and your Perfect Product is ready to go, you need to attract people into your world so they can buy from you. One Minute Free Traffic gives you a proven way to attract buyers with ‘Automated Traffic Machines’ so you can send those people to your optin page, your sales page, your Facebook Group or anywhere else you choose.    To learn more Click Here.

And don’t forget to check this out 🙂

How to Earn $20 in 20 Minutes With Any Topic, Niche or Hobby

Disclaimer: If you purchase PLF through my affiliate link I may receive a referral fee from Jeff Walker, however you will pay no more to purchase the program through me than if you went directly to the Product Launch Formula website. If you would like my personal help as you create your first launch using the PLF process, check out my PLF Bonus offer here.