How to Create a Successful Product Launch

Modern day product launches need to be effectively distributed in order to be properly introduced to the consumer. Therefore being able to exhaust all news venues, in order to get the word out, is central when launching a new product.

Utilizing all forms of online venues, social media, and traditional media, in order to maximize coverage is the optimal way to go about launching a new product in the modern day market. So, once you have drafted a press release showcasing the new product by addressing its obvious advantages over the competition, its' innovative nature compared to your older products, and how the consumer's life will be enriched by its acquisition, you are ready to proceed onto launching the great news onto as many reputable and credible venues as you can.

Going the distance when you are distributing the news to potential venues, in which to advertise your product, will ensure top market penetration. So sending the news out to online news press release sites, and online media sources, or advertising it on popular websites (such as Google, Facebook, YouTube or Bing, etc.), and creating a home based website for the press release to connect with, will give your new product the necessary speed to take off the ground successfully.

It is further solidified through the creation of a website which is hopefully user friendly, and adorned with product details, company information, as well as online and offline purchasing details.

Learning how to use and appreciate traditional media, as well as forms of previously mentioned new media can also help double the effectiveness of a product launch. So opening up to television, radio, advertising or print venues (such as newspapers, magazines, or direct mail pamphlets and brochures), or even movie screens or theaters, will help increase the potential radius of influence of your product launch. Also, since advertising venues such as radio and television, especially, have a long standing reputation and influence over consumers, they can help up the credibility, and legitimacy, of your product launch.

Finally taking full advantage of other opportunities that may be available to you such as participating in trade shows, journalistic coverage of your press release by an influential newspaper, and or public launch events, and other forms of social media, can widen the scope and dimension of your product launch.

So, in the offline world, inviting your entire and loyal client base to attend and have some light refreshments, while becoming introduced and informed on your new product, can be of great help if it can be arranged cost effectively. It can also be a powerful way of engaging the customers on a personal, and social level, and help them to feel truly acquainted and connected with the product.

Ideally speaking, actively researching and choosing the most targeted media venues available, (ones which can cater to both the nature of your product and consumer base, and can meet your financial comfort), is the optimal way of going about launching a new product.

Successful Product Launching   

Another Tip for Maximising Sales Opportunities

Increasing cash flow in your business is the most obvious way to ensure sustainable growth, and should be at the top of your list of daily things to pay attention to. Of course everyone knows this, and some proactive companies have recently become very creative, giving incentives, reducing prices, packaging, bulk deals etc. But I cannot believe how many websites do not have an on the spot transaction facility in place...

How can a company sell more product, get paid instantly AND offer their customer a better deal into the bargain?

One way is to offer order-on-line, pay-on-line facilities to customers. This allows a company to offer the keenest prices on all their lines. Some progressive SMEs are already doing it, and reportedly are not only helping their bank balance but are also stealing the march on competitors because of it.

Benefits to the seller:

• Boosts cash in hand • Reduces admin costs • Reduces risk of error • Increases competitiveness

Benefits to Customer:

• COD price advantage • Time saving • Convenient

What is a web based order/payment system?

Web-based order/payment systems enable people to do things outside their expertise. The typical 4 step process guides a customer through the transaction, log on, select product, place order and pay.

Selecting the best system for your company can be confusing especially if you are new to selling online.I recommend clients to use a purpose built Order/Payment system, mainly because these are sooo simple to use and typically have a specified, dropdown product menu. You don't even need to have a website for this

Local buyers are now searching for bargains on the Web:

Consumers everywhere, in all sectors, are searching the web for better value. And...they are expecting to find you there with your goods on offer, together with the rest of 'the progressive business world. The modern consumer expects his supplier to have a web presence, it plants a sense of stability in his mind about a company. It makes sense then, that any business who offers a consumer a presentation of his merchandise, should also offer an opportunity for on the spot purchase.

I mean, really, who would ever ask an interested customer on the ground to 'come back later if you still want it, I can't take the payment now'.

In my opinion, Order/payment online is the next quantum leap for SME web business.

Be at the right place - at the right time, and be ready to SELL!!

The perception of a deep recession, that is gaining momentum, will change the nature of business for SMEs worldwide in the coming year. People who traditionally dealt with the local supplier will join the rally of online shoppers searching for ways to save their money. Anyone who has enjoyed the online shopping experience will agree that convenience as well as price will draw them back. So why let your customers slip away to the competitor? Look for an online order/payment for your sector today.

Successful Product Launching   

How To Develop Your New Product Launch Strategy For Massive Paydays

In your quest to launch a successful product in the marketplace, you need a new product launch strategy that will guide you to success. Launching a product requires meticulous planning, coordination and a start-to-finish strategy that will act as your guide as to what to do next. Sure, Murphy's Law will come into play and things will go wrong, and that's why having a strategy to keep you on track and focused is even more important.

Here's how you can develop your new product launch strategy to rake in paydays that you never thought possible:

Step 1 - Understand Your Market

Before even creating your product, you need to understand your market's wants and needs. If you just create a product that you 'feel' is going to be a hit, chances are it won't. You need to study what the market's problems are, what solutions they are crying out for. You need to understand their habits, their income range, their personalities, and so on. Find out which market you are targeting and study that market so you can come up with a solution to their problem/s.

Step 2 - Create Your Product

There are three options when it comes to having a product you can launch - you can create it yourself, you can outsource it or you can source it. Another consideration is the type of product you are creating. Is it an ebook, video course, software, or a physical tool? You are more likely to create and outsource an information product and source out a physical product from a supplier. Of course, you can also create your own brand new physical product that is sold under your brand. This requires more resources such as money, contacts and expertise.

Step 3 - Do A Test Launch

Before you launch your product to the general public, it is a good idea to do a small test launch first to see if your product idea is viable. In the online space, this can mean doing a launch to only your e-list of subscribers and customers, or even just a sub-list (a section of your list). In the offline world, this often entails launching your product to only a certain geographical area before you launch it statewide, countrywide or even worldwide.

Step 4 - Test, Track and Tweak

Test and track the results of your promotion in your test launch. Things to test include elements of your sales copy such as your headline, call-to-action, colors etc. You can also gather feedback from beta testers or customers from the test launch to improve your product further. Keep tweaking your product offer to improve it before you roll it to the general public.

Step 5 - Build Relationships

Relationships are almost everything in business. If you have relationships with the right people and companies, your company and brand can grow very fast. Before you can rollout your product, you will want to build relationships with potential joint venture partners through contact points like email, Facebook, Skype and even direct mail so they will be more receptive to promoting your product.

Step 6 - Roll Out Your Product

Once all the talking and planning is done, it is finally time to rollout your product. This can involve starting your large-scale advertising campaign and/or having your joint venture partners promote your product to their mailing lists, either online or offline, or even both. A rollout involves using a lot of leverage, either through media channels or through other marketers' lists. You rollout your product by leveraging on the built-in readers through these channels.

Developing your new product launch strategy is not something which you can afford to do in a hurry. Take your time, consider every angle, and your product launch can be a rip-roaring success.

Successful Product Launching   

How Do I Advertise a Product?

Here is a tip to help you deal with the diversity of customers when you advertise a product: There is a fine line between how you advertise a product and how you present yourself. Advertising should have a dual approach, because in truth there are two advertisements happening at once.

An advertising balance between you and your product is like two wings of one bird.

One wing is the product:The product can speak for itself and fly off the shelf.

The second wing is you:You can make an unknown product take flight in the mind of a potential customer.

Often, when you are not looking, an advertising tactic may appear too extreme you and not enough the product or to extreme product and not enough you.

Every good advertiser should have a dual approach to produce good results, without the dual effect the potential customer will not experience the balance that is needed to affect a successful advertisement and eventual sale of the product. The human factor can awaken the curiosity and the product will make the sale, or the product arouses curiosity and the human factor clinches the deal. But humans being what we are, we have a left side and a right side; so for one it may be the curiosity for the product, for the other you are what attracts and awakens to what you want to sell. These are two distinct factors for one product being advertised; this is a dual effect that you must be prepared for.

Two approaches, one product being advertised, so the one approach allows for more personality and less product the other approach demands more product with less personality.

The tip is to remain alert and flow with the duplicity and advertise within both sides of the spectrum, because fluctuation between you and your product can happen in the middle of the potential customers' decision process.

It is not only the direct customer contact where this dual state of mind is an instrument; it is also the different internet advertising methods that you yourself approach. You may be able to enter, for example, E-Bay with just a straight up product sales pitch, but if you are trying to draw traffic to your website through a forum then the product is pretty much a taboo subject, in a forum you must be who you are.

Self awareness along with honesty will work in either case, weather the moment dictates that you advertise a product or advertise yourself; use both wings and let your product fly into the hands of your customers.

Successful Product Launching   

Stereolithography Advances With Specially Developed Resins

Stereolithography (SL) technology, which is the oldest Additive Manufacturing technologies, is gaining momentum in the prototyping world thanks to its new materials exhibiting thermoplastic-like performances. This additive fabrication process not only allows for intricate part designs but also delivers functional prototypes, which eases concept part testing. Design engineers now save a huge amount of time when they test a design concept. Not so long ago Stereolithography SL resins were much too brittle to allow for e.g. evaluating the impact resistance of a prototype. Thanks to the many advances of Additive Manufacturing technologies, and thanks to the significant reduction of the time-to-market they bring to part designers, the also-called Rapid Prototyping industry is growing fast and reached US$ 1.1 billion in 2009. With an annual growth of more than 20% and benefiting from further technical advances on materials, the Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Manufacturing technologies will show even more in the next decades. A new wave of opportunities has already spread into this fast growing industry: the production of short runs. AM technologies in general, and Stereolithography in particular, are now more than ever used to produce a limited number of parts, even when it deals with e.g. complex design of spare parts. The injection molding of plastic parts is not competitive when only a few parts are needed because the steel mold cannot be amortized. This is one of the reasons why the AM technologies including Stereolithography technologies are well suited for the aerospace industry. For the same reason the medical sector is also widely using stereolithography and the other Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Manufacturing technologies. Because every patient is unique, dental implants and other hearing aids will always be produced on demand, and drawings will change from one patient to another.

Even though the SL technology is making progress in handling short runs and producing limited amount of spare parts, it is still mainly used in the prototyping world. Following T. Wohlers, a renowned and well-known expert in the AM technologies, there are roughly 70% of parts using AM technologies being sold as prototypes or unique models1. Despite the growing interest towards the manufacture of tailor-made parts there were also some key advances made these past years on materials to improve the performances of prototypes. It is now easy to get functional prototypes. Resin producers developed special resins for AM technologies to make them closer to the serial production resins - even if these AM resins will never be the exact offset of injection molding grades experts now talk of e.g. ABS-like properties materials. Other AM resins were also developed to increase heat resistance or improve transparency. All these improvements were conducted to allow functional testing. It is not only possible to quickly get a complex 3D shape plastic part in hand quickly. It is also possible to assess the functional design. Some of these SL resins are even USP Class VI approved, which is of great help when OEMs and device manufacturers develop medical functional prototypes. From the prototypes to the first tens of parts, which will go through severe functional testing procedures, the use of medical approved resins makes the transition very easy. These material advances help to speed-up the development phase and bring more flexibility to part designers and part development project managers.

Successful Product Launching   

Discover the New Easy Way to Complain Online About Bad Customer Service

An innovative new consumer website is set to help unhappy customers get real results with their complaints. As British Gas is fined a record £2.5 million for not dealing with customer complaints sufficiently, consumer power gets a further boost with a new, free, service to help make complaining easier.

Visit the website ComplaintsFactory now - the site will allow consumers to post online, any problems they've had with products or services, and shift the emphasis to the company at fault to fix the issue. Consumers will save time not having to chase Customer Service staff themselves.

Complaining isn't easy. It takes time out of your day and invariably costs you money. You've paid for poor service or a faulty product, and now you have to jump through hoops to get things put right.

Not any more. The ComplaintsFactory allows you to air your grievance online, and puts the responsibility of sorting out the problem with the company concerned. Let them use their time and money fixing the issue.

How often have you been unhappy with a service or product and got nowhere with the company's 'Complaints Department'? About 100 million complaints are made every year by UK consumers, but many more unhappy customers just put up with bad service. Why?

It takes time to complain You think, 'What's the point? Nothing will be done' Consumers aren't sure about their rights.

Well, now you can post your complaint online for everyone to see. The ComplaintsFactory will email the organisation concerned, inform them that they are featured on the site by an unhappy customer, and offer the company the opportunity to respond or contact you directly to help resolve the matter. Meanwhile, you just get on with your day.

Companies with genuinely good Customer Service departments will take note and sort out your problem.

It isn't easy to complain nowadays. Paul Lewis, founder of The Complaints Factory, became increasingly frustrated at how difficult it is to make a complaint to a company.

"Many make it virtually impossible to talk to a human being to resolve a complaint", says Paul. "I wanted to create a public forum where complaints about companies and organisations like local authorities, are visible for all to see".

A phone call is just between you and them, so they feel no real pressure to put things right. Posting a complaint to the global online community rather changes that company complacency.

These are tough times. Businesses are competing for customers, and they should be bending over backwards to get your trade and keep you happy.

This is the age of the consumer. We are all becoming skillful online networkers and it's never been easier to swap banks, energy suppliers or insurance companies.

Don't put up with bad service or products. Go to The ComplaintsFactory and get results!

Successful Product Launching   

Marketing a Product Online Using Information Internet Articles

Have you ever heard of online article marketing? The concept is very simple. All you do is write an informational article about a topic that you are very familiar with, in an industry where you have a lot of experience. At the bottom of this article you leave a link to your website. Those that do online article marketing often have something to sell on that website, and they reach their targeted traffic, that is to say those who are interested in those types of products, and invite them over to have a look see. Okay so let's talk about this for second shall we?

Although I've written thousands of articles online, I am retired, and I am not selling a product, but I've watched others who are, some of them are informational products, some are physical products - and there are even some who sell their services such as consulting, coaching, or professional business services in the same manner. That makes sense right? Does it work you ask? Actually, it is working for a good number of people, provided that they write only quality content, and don't produce garbage articles - or articles with very thin content stacked with keywords.

Best of all, those that do it right succeed, and those who don't fail. But isn't that how business works anyway? If you produce good products, people come back for more and they tell their friends and refer you more and more customers and clients. If you don't make good on the promise, people complain write nasty reviews, and your sales die. Which in this case would serve you right if you are writing poor quality content, and you are tricking your reader into viewing an article which had been poorly written, and contains information which is such common sense it is hardly to be considered informational.

By answering a question for reader, or explaining the ins and outs of an industry or type of product, you are establishing credibility, educating them, and they are thankful for that. Thus, they're more likely to click on your link, come to your website, and from there it is up to you to convert those clicks the sales. That is a totally fair deal, as long as you don't abuse the privilege. And like I said above, those that have abused this venue have paid the price, and have been weeded out by the users, readers, and what would have been their future customers.

Indeed, you might think this is an endorsement of online article marketing, but it's not. It's just an opportunity for those who are willing to do it right, another way to reach your potential customer. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Successful Product Launching   

New Product Channel Sales Introductions - An Accessible and Comprehensive System for Partners

Companies are experiencing New Product Introductions (NPIs) much more frequently today. Product life cycles continue to shorten and the cycle time from development to introduction is decreasing as well, even for equipment manufacturers. Product introductions used to be sequentially managed, step-by-step, from design to manufacturing to marketing. But with the constant pressure to release new products to remain competitive, the process had sped up. Technology now allows for the simultaneous development and coordination of new products, encompassing all departments, including design, engineering, manufacturing, accounting, marketing and sales. Today's reality? More sophisticated products are being launched, more frequently, with diminishing "first mover advantage" in the marketplace.

Many product launches succeed in this environment for sure. However, many fail. One research study suggests an overarching reason for this failure:

"The biggest problem we've encountered is lack of preparation: companies are so focused on designing and manufacturing new products that they postpone the hard work of getting ready to market them until too late in the game." (Why Most Product Launches Fail, Joan Schneider and Julie Hall, Harvard Business Review, April 2011)

This lack of market readiness can be intensified when a company markets its products through a dealer or channel network. If you're ready but your dealers aren't, your product launch will fail. (For simplicity, I use the term "dealer" to encompass all different kinds of channel partners including distributors, dealers, VARs, resellers, etc.)

Today, more and more companies are using Partner Relationship Management (PRM) systems to steer new product introductions to (and through) their dealer network. A PRM system is web-based channel management software that unifies all facets of managing a dealer network into a single partner portal. Using training/certification, marketing communications, collaboration, and dealer readiness tools, manufacturers can provide an accessible yet comprehensive system so their dealers are ready and excited when new products are introduced into the marketplace.

Are Your Dealers Really Trained? If people are not educated about a product, they won't believe in it, and they won't be committed to selling it. Sales people like to sell what they're used to selling - usually the old product. Launching new product training through a partner portal can offer the most effective way to quickly train and generate a sales person's interest. Once features and benefits are learned, sales people can more easily become excited and committed.

Dealer sales person training is key. Train them immediately at product launch, so they are already prepared when their customers get the news. Help the dealer principals accomplish this as efficiently and effectively as possible - don't make the exercise a time-consuming, take-forever task. Give sales people a certification goal to entice them to achieve. And provide them a reward and recognize them for their success. A PRM system can manage this sales enablement for a company and its channel partners.

Are Your Marketing Materials Readily Available? You can spend vast sums on brochures, press releases and product information bulletins, but if they cannot be found they become useless. Your dealers must be able to easily access and download the exact information they need to help you market your new product at the exact point in time that they need that information. A Content Management platform integrated into the PRM system provides an efficient process for discovery and delivery of new product marketing materials. Give your dealers what they need when they need it, thus making it easier for them to sell it, while improving your ROI.

What is the Reaction to Your Product Launch? Getting early feedback from dealers and customers is vital to gauge the success of the product and its launch, and to make mid-course directional changes if needed. Peer-to-peer, ask-the-expert, blogs and other social media platforms are now great ways to both receive important feedback, and to embed best practices across the dealer network. A PRM system that incorporates these kinds of activities can help manufacturers understand what is happening in their dealer channel, and take advantage of the excitement created by the new product launch itself.

Most companies today create a new product website for the general public to drive demand. That makes sense. Now, more and more manufacturers have learned that creating 'internal' portals using their PRM system to create a 'campus' or virtual meeting center focused on preparing and galvanizing dealers to support the product launch and drive customer demand in an integrated way leads to much greater profitable sales results. These centers focus the information and extend the awareness, preparedness to support, knowledge and excitement of the new product launch further than was possible before.

Is Your Channel Ready for Your Product Launch? You can't manage if you can't measure. When your boss asks you if your dealers are ready to effectively sell and service your product, the answer, "yes they are - trust me," is not going to cut it. These days, you must have the metrics to prove it. With a PRM solution including performance measurement tools, dealer management is easier. A company can establish a performance standard, measure against it and support their partners in achieving it. Sophisticated technology-enabled tools using dashboards and reports-on-the-fly allow a company to measure many of the critical elements of a product launch with a holistic basis of objective data. Certifications, meeting and webinar attendance, Market Development Fund (MDF) allocations, lead status, order analysis, and more can all be a part of a real-time performance standard that today's PRM systems enable.

Avoid a "Bad" Product Launch in Your Channel Most companies in today's unforgiving market cannot afford a "bad" product launch. What is the cost if your partners are not ready to market your new product? Too many managers lose sight of lost sales, wasted marketing funds, sluggish demand and channel conflict. If the new product is replacing an older, successful product that is a significant part of the company's business, product launch failure is not an option.

Companies today are using technology to extend the reach of their new product launch budget. PRM systems, built with the right tools and accompanied with the right strategy, can greatly increase the chance of marketing success of a product launch in the channel. If you make it easier for your dealers to work with you and to get the information they need, New Product Introductions can be launched smoothly and effectively.

Successful Product Launching   

Have You Created a New Info Product Lately? How to Launch Faster and Avoid Overwhelm

I am often asked, "Linda how do you create a products or launch a service without getting overwhelmed and going a bit crazy?" Well creating a product or service for your business is a pretty simple process. But like any process knowing the steps is what makes the launch successful.

Done right, your products can help you meet and possibly even exceed your business goals. Information products are an excellent business tactic to connect with and help more clients.

The one thing I hear quite often is that, "I'm in a service business and I don't want to make a product, that's not what my business model is about." Here's the deal... you are one person and no matter how you look at it, your most precious resource... time is limited. And I believe if you have the passion to help others then it's important to help as many people as you can. Let's face it there's only so many hours in a day, and so many people you can help one-on-one. So what better way to help more clients then to provide information to give them what they want?

So here are a few things you can do to make your launch easy and simple by using a few strategies you are probably already doing.

Pick a date

Now I know this may not sound like a strategy but picking a date is probably one of the most important strategies you can take. Even before you begin working on the project pick a date for the product to be complete and work backward to figure out the launch date. A helpful hint in most cases you don't want to begin the actual promotion more than 2 weeks before you are ready to launch

Blogging

Start warming up your prospects by writing a series of blog posts giving them a heads-up about your product that you will be releasing soon. Make sure you're giving useful and valuable information they can begin to use now. This will make them hungry for the actual product.

Email

If you have a list, even a small one, begin to send them a series of email solo promotions just about the new product. Don't be afraid to give them a free taste of what's included and make sure you let your list know you understand their problem. Also include the benefits and why you are giving them a solution.

Practical Freebie

Giving a freebie is a great way to generate interest on a particular topic. It also leaves your prospects craving for more. So why not provide a:

• Free report

• Checklist

• Worksheet

• Flowchart

• Mindmap

• Template

They are easy and fun to create and your prospects will love you for them.

Social Networking

While there is a multitude of social media sites out there, spend your time focusing on the most effective and well-established tools - Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Create real buzz by letting your followers know what you're doing. Leading them back to the practical freebie. The whole key to creating effective buzz is focusing on your product unique benefits - the one that make it stand out from the competition.

Now you are ready to make your product launch sizzle, and none of it has to be hard. The more practical the strategies the faster the launch and the more clients you will be able to serve.

Successful Product Launching   

Product Launch Marketing Lessons

I know you've seen the big guys to them - we've all had that series of seemingly endless emails in our inbox when it seems that just about everyone is promoting a particular product or event.

Of course, what I mean here is product launches, and I want to give my own marketing lessons from the first product launch I ran.

But why are they so big? Well, it isn't confined to internet marketing - think about the buzz around the latest apple product - product launches really do work. And the reason is really simple- they convert. The excitement and the scarcity created by the time limited nature of it means that more purchases come your way than if you had a simple 'products' tab on your website.

And the effect is just multiplied when you get a bunch of affiliate partners behind them.

So when I wanted to get my latest digital product out there I decided to use the same model. I've done a lot of training and I understand what's behind it - the idea of drip-fed videos or content over a few days, building up to a sales page or a big opt-in. But was it really as simple as just putting the content on line and letting it go live?

For me, the big learning was around video. I'm fairly new at video and I've done a few screen cast videos before but the whole to-camera stuff was new for me. And it wasn't quite as easy as I thought - getting the sound right, not too much background noise was a huge challenge!

But the big lessons for me were more about the internal stuff and how you need to manage the process. Here's my top four...

Get help right from the start. It might well be the case that you can do it all but there are a couple of reasons why you'll want to bring in someone to help you. First of all it's simple economics - while you probably can do it all, it might not be the best use of your time. Second of all, if, like most of us, you're a solopreneur, then just having someone around can make the whole process a lot more fun and a lot less stressful. Expect problems - especially technical ones! Well of course with anything new there are going to be problems. And with anything on the internet these are very likely to be technical ones. If you expect them to happen at some point then they don't seem so huge when they do happen. And if you have someone with you along the way then likelihood is that he or she can help you out or at least help you figure out where to go for help. You know that saying a problem shared is a problem halved? In this case it really does apply! Manage your energy. With all this anticipation and all the learning you're going through there will be even more highs and lows in your energy levels. It all starts off exciting and there's a real thrill in doing something new. But then it seems to take longer, or you run into roadblocks and you wonder whether it's ever going to get off the ground. It will, believe me. Expect the timescale to double. And then there's the timing. I don't know about doubling but don't tie yourself into a crazy short timescale. Have a sketch plan but then expect it to change. And at the other extreme, don't allow it to go on for too long. At some point it's got to go live - just run with it and see how it looks - you can always change it later!

These are my lessons. And I think the biggest piece of advice I could pass on entrepreneur to entrepreneur is really just go to for it. I had to start somewhere and you have to too.

So ask yourself where can you implement even a mini-launch in your business? What have you got that you can get your list or your social media contacts excited about? And then feed some content out over the course of a few days and see what happens. You will definitely learn something and you'll get the confidence to do it again with improvements!

Oh, and if you want to check out my launch version 1.0 it's over at http://momentumthinking.com

Successful Product Launching   

Why Joint Ventures?

The ideal joint venture often proves to be a useful way to acquire access to market advantages. As a result, any business considering joint ventures as a competitive strategy should know what they are and why they should be considered. Strategic alliances result in joint business ventures. Hence, becoming aware of how to go about identifying appropriate strategic alliances is inevitable. Thereafter, the strategic fit of any joint venture should be identified and established to ensure success. Joint ventures are not necessarily straight forward and by-the-rules. Each situation must be appropriately assessed on an individual basis.

So, why would a business consider undertaking a joint business venture? These are ideal for three general types of situations. Initially, a joint business venture is a good idea when it offers uneconomical opportunities or assists in facing a business risk, eliminating a business having to face that risk alone. Secondly, a joint venture becomes the appropriate move when a combination of resources and capabilities result in the business becoming a strong market contender. Finally, it is an ideal way to wet the feet, so to speak, in the foreign market. However, these common joint venture approaches are not simple ones and force a business to consider some serious implications and the effects they will have on the business.

These deals require the appropriate application of strategic alliances. The objective of a strategic alliance is to establish cooperative relationships with other businesses that complements and adds to a business' established business initiatives and competitive strengths. Hence, a strategic alliance is far more than normal company to company interactions. It is better described as being just shy of a merger or full partnership, which could prove complicated. Common examples of strategic alliance being pursued to initiate joint ventures include joint research efforts, technology sharing, joint use of production facilities; joint marketing of both business' products; or joining forces to do mass production and assembly.

When considering the effectiveness of a potential joint business venture, a strategic fit is a must. A strategic fit, generally, offers a business one or more competitive advantages. Strategic fits offer a business cost or saving opportunities that allow for the sharing of resources or the combination of activities. Some common strategic fits are technology fits, operating fits, distribution and customer related fits, and managerial fits. Briefly, different businesses have different technologies; so that when they combine, it creates a competitive advantage for both businesses. This is a technology fit. An operating fit is establishing a competitive advantage by the combination of each business' operating skills and capabilities. The same basic concept applies to the distribution and customer related fit and the managerial fit.

JV s arise out of a company's desire to establish sustainable competitive advantages. A sustainable competitive advantage is one of the most significant contributing factors of above-average profitability. Joint ventures require a tremendous amount of research hand analysis to enjoy the results that this type of strategic approach produces, which include competitive and practical business advantages.

Successful Product Launching   

This Is How You Will Dominate Any Affiliate Marketing Launch, Guaranteed!

If you're an Affiliate Marketer or would like to be, it's essential that you find a product that teaches you how to create your own bonus from scratch- which you can use when promoting product launches as an affiliate, to motivate people to buy through you.

Here's why this works:

Right now, I'm willing to bet that there are at least 5 marketers, who email you every day about internet marketing, and working from home. Am I right? Maybe for you, there's a lot more than 5. I'm on the lists of at least 30 marketers right now.

I'm also willing to bet, that at some point in the next few months, there's going to be a big product launch going on. Now, if you decide to promote it, at the same time, there will likely be another marketer who will promote it as well and probably to the same demographic that you are promoting to. Now the prospect that the both of you are promoting to has a decision to make.

Do they buy from you? Or do they buy from your competitor?

Their decision will come down to a few things. Number one, will be the relationship you have with them, vs. the relationship they have with the other guy. But also influencing their decision, will be whether either of you decides to 'sweeten the deal' and offer a free bonus.

Let's face it...everyone wants something of value for free.

If your prospect is thinking about buying a $97 dollar product, and you offer them a $497 dollar free bonus just for getting it from you (and your competitor offers nothing), there's a good chance they'll consider getting it through you, right? Well, of course!

This is exactly the same thought process that your target market goes through when you're promoting an offer to them. And it's something you really need to understand, if you want to do well in this business.

Affiliate marketing is not like it used to be. Nowadays, if you want the big check, and you want to dominate in the competitions and get all the recognition, you need to find a way to add value on top of what you promote. You really do need to offer your own bonus. Make sense?

Once you know how, it's actually quite easy to create a bonus from scratch. To be frank, If you don't offer additional value with your own bonus, having 4 and 5 figure weeks just isn't going to happen.

Successful Product Launching   

Starting An Online Business? Tutorial 1 - The Business Idea

Beginning your online business can be one of the most rewarding and difficult tasks that your business will encounter. The first step is to come up with the idea, without a good idea, a good product or service, good content and good support anything else that your business does will be surplus to requirements. Producing ecommerce solutions for your business will only be successful if the concept is commercially feasible.

If you already have a business offline, a traditional product or service business then this is a logical place to start. This may seem obvious but many businesses that launch their websites only view the internet as another place to advertise, the internet can be a whole lot more. These businesses do not utilize ecommerce solutions and only look at producing what is known as a 'brochure website'. They simply replicate their print promotions and brochures and do not use other tools that are available to promote their business online through their website. These websites are not completely ineffective as the business may not be selling products and will just need a presence on the internet for making contact; these could include traditional trades, such as electricians and plumbers.

The online market has become the busiest market in the world, however by having a website should be a whole lot more than just replicating existing advertising. Your online business should take advantage of all the networking force of the internet including ecommerce software and a Facebook store. Your website should be a showcase of your business, for people to obtain information and buy products. In the current market more people search for company information online rather than traditional methods so by having your companies details presented to your current clients, potential clients and the international market, your company will gain a higher profile.

If you are starting from scratch and do not have an existing business you should look for ideas where you already have experience and expertise. If your experience does not seem to connect to a new online business opportunity, your next step should be to research a successful online business sector. Once you are aware of how ecommerce solutions can be utilized, look for ways to create these solutions in a better way or look for a niche that has not been fully utilized. There are always ways to improve upon existing services and products online, so by having the insight will provide you with the best opportunity to produce better ecommerce solutions.

Your research should be carried out into sectors you have a real passion for as this will be ongoing research and will take time, so by having a sector that interests you will make it easier and more interesting. Many ecommerce software solutions started with serious research into trends, markets and audience so make sure that your research is extensive so that every area is covered.

There is a real focus on social networking in the current market so by having ecommerce solutions that provides networking capabilities is now a must for any online business sector. An eBay store and Facebook store can be good medium in which to start selling your products as both lend kindly to networking and getting your product seen by the public. By finding which products and markets are selling well, utilize social networks. Find out what your competition is doing and what your friends are buying, this will give you a starting point for an online business that has the opportunity to become successful.

Successful Product Launching   

New Product Launch Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

New product launches are a great way to grow your online business, leverage your knowledge and create passive income for your business. They also require no learning curve - all that is required is the knowledge and expertise that you already possess, to be put together in a reliable content delivery format and promoted well so that it reaches the maximum number of people.

Launching a new product can be a highly profitable venture and the beginning of new income streams, but if they are not executed properly they can be a complete failure and a waste of time. So it is important to know what makes up a successful product launch and what mistakes to look out for that could make or break the new product launch.

Launching your new product does not have to be difficult, but you do need a clear road map and an understanding of what some of the pitfalls are that you should avoid!

The top 5 mistakes that people make when launching new products are:

1. Insufficient planning Your product launch requires a great deal of planning in advance, and if this is not done right, with enough support, it can make for a very dismal launch, or no launch at all of the deadlines just cannot be met.

The best way to avoid this problem is to have each stage of the launch process well planned out, documented, with deadlines, checklists and accountability within your team.

Making sure that everyone on the team knows what their tasks are, the deadline dates and staying on top of all the new developments within the product creation and launch process is crucial.

Planning out a launch timeline with set dates for deadlines, together with checklists and templates to follow should all be part of the pre-planning process.

2. The second mistake during a launch is not asking for help. when creating and promoting a new product, it is highly beneficial to have a whole team working together on various parts of the process. Don't do this alone. You don't need to do this alone. There's so much help available if you just ask for it. If there are things that you are not particularly good at, make sure you build a team in advance and delegate out the tasks that would be done faster and better by someone else. There is a lot of work that goes on in a product launch, so it is essential to have a whole team working on it and to ask for support wherever needed.

3. The third mistake is not getting joint venture partners early enough. Try to get your joint venture partners and other people who are going to help you promote this early on because what happens is people have busy schedules. And if you are asking them a week before your launch, "Hey can you help me promote this?" they're probably going to say no because they have a busy schedule, a lot of things to do and you're going to be really disappointed as well as losing out on a lot of great leads for your launch.

So ask them early on so they can plan it in advance. That goes back to the whole planning issue, but you do need joint venture partners. You do need other people's help to promote this especially people in your field, similar, related fields. That's a really great way to promote and get the word out there.

4. Mistake number 4 is not doing enough promotional and marketing work. Make sure that you set aside at least a few comfortable weeks where the sole focus in on generating buzz, promoting the product and getting the word out as much as possible. You do not want to rush this part because it can take a while to spread the word about your launch and you want as many people to know about it as possible before you go live.

5. Mistake number 5 is expecting a cash influx miracle. While it is quite possible that you can make a decent amount of money from your launch, quite often most of the profits come after the launch, when you are more established, have more testimonials and social proof. So don't focus on the instant money too much, but shift your focus onto creating a great product, promoting it with high professionalism and setting yourself up as the leader and authority in your market.

Successful Product Launching   

Choosing the Right JV Brokers for Affiliate Marketing Ventures

Joint ventures are properly defined as a business agreement where the contracting parties agree to develop a new product and a new asset by sharing and pooling together equity. This means that they will be able to cooperate with regards to the policies and, conversely, share profits. Many successful products today are a result of joint ventures; a very good example here is Sony Ericsson, which has claimed a very significant portion of the telecommunications and technology market. Sony Ericsson, in fact, has been very beneficial to these companies, since their profits in the joint venture exceeded the ones they have when they were competing.

Joint ventures are also an attractive way to have an effective affiliate marketing program. The most obvious reason is the fact that both partners will have the capacity to take advantage of each other's clout and consolidate your target niche. Having a larger audience is a very important aspect of affiliate marketing, since profits are determined through referrals and commissions. Paradoxically, this is most effective when you collaborate with those who directly compete with you in your target market. This allows each other to harness the particular strength of the other partner in your niche, preempting other competitors.

A good example here is affiliate marketing in the software industry. One firm may offer a software focusing on security and privacy,while the other focuses on low prices (i.e. freeware). Both firms can benefit from a good affiliate marketing campaign since their strengths complement each other. The freeware company gets revenues from advertising and is also positioning their product to the level of security and privacy that the other offers. On the other hand, the more expensive firm gets the publicity needed and may also benefit from a good public image, being a collaborator with other firms to ensure higher quality products.

Joint venture brokers are often necessary in order to make these deals work. They are people who look for interested and prospective partners and do the legwork in terms of marketing the joint enterprise. In exchange, the broker gets a predefined commission and other benefits that may result from a successful deal. Joint venture brokers should be able to balance out the interests of the companies concerned and the market to produce a win-win situation. It is also helpful if they have extensive social contacts, particularly with other brokers, to find a double coincidence of want.

In affiliate marketing, joint venture brokers will be able to help you by analyzing your current positioning in the niche and look for other services which can complement or add value to your current product or service. This also has the advantage of being able to tap previously foreign segments of the market niche, particularly in the international scene. In the web, people promoting goods and services often pair up with those which deliver a large audience base to make a more effective and valuable marketing campaign. Joint ventures in affiliate marketing are definitely the way to go. And a good JV Broker can make the difference in your success.

Successful Product Launching