As you know, using a well planned product launch where you use pre-launch content, a sideways salesletter, and an event with a deadline to launch a new product or service is a proven way to hit the ground running with a new business.

And it’s orders of magnitude better than simply opening your doors and using what Jeff Walker calls ‘hope marketing’ to see what happens.

Unfortunately not everyone knows what we know about starting a business with a product launch as this case study shows…

And a few weeks ago, a small flyer turned up in our mailbox advertising a new Nail Salon that was opening at the local shopping centre.

It stood out among the pile of junk mail because I’d just been talking with my daughter about how great her nails looked after having them professionally done.

Now with two Nail Salon’s already in the centre, any new entrant is going to have to come up with an irresistible offer if they are going to steal a good number of customers away from those businesses.

The sad thing for this new Nail Salon was that despite spending a fortune on store fit-out, stock, equipment, rent and staff, the ‘Grand Opening Offer’ they had put together wasn’t going to do that.

In fact, their offer SUCKED…

The ’irresistible offer’ they came up with, in the face of launching a new business in an area with strong existing competition, was…

20% Off All Services

Seriously?

My first thought was that the other Salons would just match (or beat) this offer and destroy their ‘Grand Opening’…

And that’s exactly what happened.

On the new Salon’s opening day, signs went up at the other Salon’s offering 20% and 25% off.

And because lots of people had to walk right past the existing Salon’s to get to the new one, there was no compelling reason to change old habits and risk using somebody new.

What SHOULD they have done?

There are two ways to launch a new business.

The slow, expensive and usually painful way, which is trying to outspend your competitors and ‘get your brand out there’ in the hope you can overcome the natural inertia people have to changing their habits, or…

The fast, usually much less expensive and easier way, which is to remove all of the new customer’s risk and come up with an irresistible offer.

So what would be an irresistible offer I would have tested?

Maybe something like…

All Services $5 Each For 2 The Next Weeks

I would have also created a Facebook Competition offering a 1st prize of Free Nails Once Each Month For 12 Months (or even longer), and have 25 2nd prizes of 50% off vouchers or whatever.

Plus I’d give every Facebook Competition participant the ‘All services for $5’ offer, have cool free giveaways in store, a Premium Coffee cart giving away free coffee, and lots of other goodies.

Bottom Line: they should have turned the store’s opening into AN EVENT!

Creating an event does a number of important things.

• It ensures your Salon is FULL of excited customers for at least 2 weeks.
• It gives you a chance to introduce yourself to new clients who normally go elsewhere.
• It hits a bunch of important mental triggers including reciprocity, liking, social proof, grabbing a bargain, urgency and scarcity, which make people LIKE you and want to come back to your store.
• And it starts to change people’s habits if they are get great service and an enjoyable experience when they visit.

Now to capitalise on the goodwill you are creating during your ‘launch’, you could give everybody who books the $5 service a discount coupon for their next visit so they come back again.

And on their second visit, give them another (slightly lower) discount coupon to get them back a third time.

It’s statistically proven that once people have visited your new store 3 times, there’s a great chance they will come back over and over again unless you do something to damage the relationship.

And THAT’S how you ‘launch’ a new brick and mortar business quickly, in a competitive market, without going broke spending a fortune on marketing, and waiting for customers to slowly ‘bleed’ over to you from the existing competitors.

 But what if you’re not starting a brand new business?

That’s great!

You can use this same process to launch a new product or service, or re-launch an existing product, or hold a sale, or whatever you want to use it for to get more sales.

And the easiest way to know what to launch or re-launch is to ASK your existing customers what they’d most like to buy from you

That’s why Step 1 in the process we talked about in the How To Create A Profitable Product Launch Guide is to Survey Your Customers And Ask Them Exactly What They Want.

If you’d like instructions for creating your survey, along with an example of the exact survey I’ve used over and over again in different markets for myself and clients to find out what people want to buy, you can do that by visiting this page.

And to learn more about launching your product or service in the most profitable way possible, register to watch these these product launch videos.

And don’t forget to go through Jeff Walkers free Product Launch Masterclass where he discusses lots of different ways to start or grow your business using the power of an online product launch.

Chat soon,

Rocky

P.S. Being able to create irresistible offers is so important to the success of your launch and your business that I’ve put together a Free Cheat Sheet that shows you the 3 Steps to creating the perfect offer. To make sure you don’t miss anything as you develop your offer, Click 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. My 1-2-3 List Building Cheat Sheet will give you the steps to building a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here

2. How To Create A Signature Product Out Of Thin Air In 72 Hours Or Less
Creating your product does not need to take weeks or months. My 72 Hour Product Creation Guide shows you how to build high value products one after the other in 72 hours or less. Click Here

3. How To Outsource Your Product Creation And Make It Hands Free.
Outsourcing the creation of some or all of your products and bonuses is a great way to save your time for the more important (and more fun) things you’d rather be doing. Grab my Hands Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet to learn more. Click Here

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

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.