There are 33,000 product launches each year and over 24,500 of them fail. There are a number of reasons for this.

First of all most people don’t have the assets they need to have a successful product launch. A great proven product, a substantial warm list, strong JV relationships, and a willingness to make a substantial investment in marketing are all vital to the success of a product launch.

Business owners all too often believe in their product and get the value of what they created so they aren’t willing to fully invest in marketing efforts that can demonstrate that value to their prospects. (Just because it’s obvious to you, don’t think the benefit you provide is obvious to the prospect.) After the product is created is when the real work starts. Thousands of great products never go anywhere because no one knows about them and those who do learn about them don’t have a compelling case made to take action now.

On top of this there are also a ton of moving parts to crafting a successful product launch.

• Create a really compelling launch story
• Identify the market’s hot buttons
• Identify and overcome objections
• Create pre-launch content
• Create bonuses
• Craft emails for each piece of launch content
• Learn new skills like how to effectively use the social psychology triggers
• Survey the list
• Recruit JV partners
• Create a JV website and support system
• Set up e-commerce
• Train customer service people
• Plus tons of other jobs like — creating a high-converting website, a squeeze page, thank you pages, a blog, a sales letter etc, etc, etc!!!

Please get some help with this stuff. If you’re just starting out you probably can’t afford to hire someone to manage your launch but at least pay for some advice to keep you on track.  If that’s still out of you budget invest in marketing programs that will at least give you a head start.

The last thing people don’t have is a true understanding of where they are today. They see a product launch as an opportunity to make a ton of cash now and don’t see beyond that. Now there’s nothing wrong with a ton of cash. Personally, I’m a big fan of cash. :)  However, maybe the biggest value you get from your first few launches isn’t cash. Maybe it’s a list build so you start to create a community of rabid fans. Maybe it’s an opportunity to demonstrate your value to the marketplace so partners come on board and learn to trust and value you. Maybe it’s getting the kinks out of your system, really learning what your people want (not just what you think they want).

These are all precursors to the big product launch with the big cash grab. Don’t devalue these steps or you’ll just be one of the 24,500 business owners licking their wounds after a battle lost.