The advantages of writing your own e-book certainly seem attractive, when you consider the time and effort it takes to write and promote a book through traditional methods. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good novel, and even a good published business book I can buy from Amazon. With the amount of bloggers out there today, everyone can be a publisher. In Veronica Carrillo blog post “Launching your new product, Publishing an e-book” , she describes the advantages.

• Most eBooks are published as PDF files
• Overhead is minimal.
• Don’t have to worry about the publisher taking cut of the profits
• Don’t have to worry about printing and shipping.

She also states that a big sticking point is that of research, and not being able to actually get the eBook written. I agree that if you already have an idea, start writing and research the new topics as you go, this way the book gets completed.

Finally I’ll add promotion. There are a number of ways to promote your e-book online, but you want to make sure you are getting the most sales possible and making sure you are on target with your market you are selling the book to. A product launch of an e-book is a great way to have your eBook sales downloaded through a complete marketing event.

A seventeen Year old from Australia, Matthew Carpenter talks about getting offline companies interested in online business promotion with his 4 rules.

1. Start with an Email, and Keep Things Casual
2. Sell the Benefits, But Not the Website Itself
3. Arrange to Meet in Person
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail

“A large portion of offline clients simply don’t understand how valuable an online presence could be for their business. When you get turned down for a major project, it’s not a jab at your skills or your business. Instead, it’s a failure of your own marketing abilities. Focus on being able to sell the service to offline clients, and use failed pitches as a chance to refine and optimize your sales message.”

As companies are listening more to their customers from conversation and what friends are recommending, social media is having a big influence on how products are being promoted.  So how can companies reward these customers for helping to promote their product?

Affiliate Programs

Laura Lake asks us all what are we doing in our business to promote referral programs.  Read her full post and comment here.  Online marketing has used affiliate programs for some time now, and we are starting to see big companies as well.  Just look at Commission Junction at all the big company sponsored affiliate programs.

The FTC has released some new rules on how products can be promoted, but following the guidlines should enable your business to bring in bigger profits.  For more information on how affiliate programs can be incorporated into your business enter e-mail above.

Marketing has been studied in all the great universities for years and all the theories still hold up. Specifically, Scott Bishop in a recent blog post talks about the 4 P’s in marketing:

Marketing Personality

• Product
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

Scott has added a 5th P, for Personality.

Personality is the new reason people will market and buy based on conversation. Conversation is the best way to learn what your market really wants. Please continue this conversation about marketing and leave a comment. You can also look at my comments about this new marketing here.

Speak again soon,
-Marc

Just wanted to write up a quick post and tell you how you can get a product launch plan quickly done for you by a professional product launch manager.

Jeff Walker & Marc Evans Product Launch Manager Platinum Mastermind Group Tempe AZ

These consultants have gained some great momentum in the marketing industry since July 2009 When Jeff Walker set out to train 50 marketers to consult on launches exactly the way he does. Since then Jeff Walker has trained a few hundred more via a home study course. Overall the market is still scarce with these qualified product launch managers considering the demand for them.

What is stopping you from getting more sales? Let’s look at the main issues.

List building. Most people starting their own business or releasing their new product, may have it developed, but no list to sell to. If you don’t have a list, then it doesn’t matter how brilliant your product is. To solve this, working with a product launch manager doesn’t necessarily mean you need them to consult on a whole launch for you, instead work with them on the segment that needs help the most before you do a complete launch. List building is just one of the strategies that a plan can be developed for your business and will cost you a lot less then a complete launch. I want to stress in this section that in 2010 the focus will be outside of Google, PPC, and other SEO techniques that rely on Google to get you noticed. Their is 70% of the advertising market out there, that is cheap and will list build for you without worrying that Google will slap you and shut down your efforts. Product launch managers are tapping into these techniques now!

Next Problem people run into is product creation. How do I create my own product that my market and I are passionate about? Product launch managers help to consult on numerous methods to accomplish this. As a taste the most important thing is to survey your market on what they want! Don’t just create something because YOU think it will be great for them. Remember this if anything you need to get in front of your market; don’t wait for the market to come to you. You will also be surprised at how many assets you may already have that can be utilized in your product creation or launch. An example would be a simple conference you may have done and recorded between colleges that describe your market’s issues. Something this simple can be used either as part of your product, part of pre-launch material or even as a bonus in your offer.

The last objection I want to mention in this post is creating the offer. This may or may not seem simple to you, but this part is the make or break of the launch. You need to have an offer that anyone reading or listening to it would say I would be crazy NOT to buy this. Strategies that product launch managers develop for you are deliverables, guarantee, price point, and idea generation.

Product launch managers might not be for everyone- but they will certainly change your business by helping you create and execute a plan that will succeed in whichever segment you are working on. Get your Product launch help here.

We will talk soon!

-Marc