How Do I Roll It Out?

Once you create something and have a place to sell it you need to put some serious thought into how to roll it out. Just because you put out the 'for sale' sign doesn't mean people are going to buy. You need to come up with a plan for how to roll out your idea.

Launch
First things first, you need a launch plan. You need to make a big splash with your product and generate as much attention as you can. There are a lot of resources out there to help you think through a launch, but we'll offer a few tips:

• This is a good time to call in favors. Reach out to some of your trusted contacts and cash in your chips. Give them an easy way to help you promote your launch and beg them to do it.
• Build some buzz beforehand. You don't want to put too much effort into the pre-launch or have it drag on too long, but you do want to build some anticipation.
• Consider a short-term deal during the launch. Offer your product at a generous discount for the first few days. Give it a specific time limit to create a sense of urgency.
• Reach out to your list multiple times during the launch. Let them know it's coming, announce the launch, give a reminder and warn them when the deal is about to expire. You'll have to find the right balance so you don't overwhelm your list, but remember that you're also offering them a great deal. You're not just trying to sell them, you're trying to save them money.
• Consider throwing in some free extras. The Smart Passive Income blog has some good tips on how to offer bonuses.

There are lots of great stories about how to launch a product out there. Some of them can be a bit overwhelming, like Darren Rowse and his $72,000 launch. Or Nathan Barry's $36,000 in 24 hours. Keep in mind that these guys have huge audiences. Don't expect to match their results, but you can learn what worked for them.

Be Persistent
Also remember that these things take persistence. Darren Rowse didn't launch his blogging book from nothing. He'd been building an audience for five years before he had that incredibly successful launch.

You might not be able to launch to incredible sales and huge success. That's OK. Your product might require a slow build, racking up sales over time and accumulating significant sales in its own right. That's pretty great too.

Just remember that doing ecommerce doesn't have to be an overnight success. It's not your main source of income, so don't worry about it. Let it build up slowly, be patient and watch your income grow.

Remember this when you feel like giving up. This is going to be hard work and some days it's going to look like a failure. You'll have to work hard at it, keep it up and not give in. We never said this would be easy.

Post-Launch
Once you've got your product launched and you're in to the normal rollout, you need to make sure you're doing everything you can to keep your product selling. You can't keep up the frantic pace of the launch forever, but you do need to make sure you're encouraging additional sales.

• Reviews: Ask for reviews and feedback about your product and add choice quotes to your sales page. Reviews and ratings have a huge impact on Amazon and the same principle applies on your site.
• Give a Sample: Give a taste of whatever it is you're selling. Maybe it's a free sample chapter or a trial offer or a free song. Give your customers a glimpse of what you're selling so they can judge the quality and will be sold on the whole thing. Nathan Barry has a great post on the best way to make that free offer.
• Make It Visible: Make sure it's highly visible on your site. You can't just bury it in the menu or expect people to visit your store. Put it in the sidebar on every page. Or create a pop up modal window reminding people about it. You can set iThemes' BoomBar to only show up for first-time visitors or to reappear after a month, so it can be highly-targeted and avoid being annoying but still make sure people don't miss it.
• Repeat, Repeat, Repeat: It's easy to miss a single tweet, so make sure you keep a steady stream of updates going about your product. Several a day might be overkill, but you should be able to mix them into your content stream without being overwhelming. A lot of these tweets can be scheduled at once and reused. As long as the reused tweets are mixed in with new content and you don't overdo it, most people won't notice you repeated a tweet from a few months ago.
• Offer Value: Be sure to add value when you're pitching your product. Don't just continually ask people to buy. Throw out something valuable, whether a quote or insight from the book or something to hook people.
  
  A tweet with a good quote is much more likely to be retweeted than a quote asking people to buy the book.
• Get People Talking: Ask people to talk about your product. Hit up some bloggers or steady social media users and ask them to write about your product. Ask them to review it, offer free copies for a giveaway or offer yourself up for an interview. This can be a good way to introduce your product to a new audience, increase your SEO and keep your product selling over time.

Launch for Services
If you're a freelancer or professional pushing your payments online and not creating a store, then much of this launch advice obviously doesn't apply. Unless you're turning your service into a product, you don't have something to sell (though maybe you should!).

But you do have a new payment process and that's something you should think about when you roll it out to your clients. Change can be scary so don't just spring it on them.

• Let Them Know What's Coming: Give them a heads up that you have a new system starting and when you expect it to go live. This can be as simple as an email explaining what you're rolling out.
• Answer Questions: Anticipate questions and problems and lay out the answers. You should probably have an FAQ page linked from your payment page or even your invoice.
• Be Flexible: While online payments are a great new solution, not everybody likes new solutions. You might need to allow people to still pay their invoices offline.
  
  If you have some hold outs and don't like dealing with paper checks, you could encourage them with a discount for paying online. If you must force them into online payment, at least give them a transition period and ease them into it.