Your “Launch Blog” serves as a publishing portal and the information hub for the launch – this is the place your prospects will go to find out the latest information. It’s also the place for discussions and information exchange.
Note that the launch blog may be dedicated to news about your product and may not necessarily be the same as your personal blog, which addresses a much wider audience and topics well beyond the launch, so let’s be careful not to get the two confused.
So what should be in your Launch Blog, and for what purpose?
Your launch blog should deliver useful information
The Launch Blog is a great place to deliver all forms of information to your launch audience.
Today, blogs make it very easy to publish all types of information, including:
- Videos
- Text articles
- Images and Illustrations
Your launch blog should be a place for “2-way” conversation
Dispensing information is only one purpose of the Launch Blog – it’s the “starting point” for creating a conversation within your marketplace.
A more important purpose is to have 2-way conversations with people in your marketplace, as well as providing a venue for those involved in your launch to connect with each other and have meaningful conversations among themselves.
Do you agree so far? (please post comments below)
Your blog should provide transparency
Blogs also provide something else – a place for transparency.
Transparency creates trust. And trust is the foundation for building a relationship with buyers who may not know you or your company well or at all. The social proof and transparency provided via the Launch Blog can be extremely powerful. Of course, this transparency works both ways…
If your product or service isn’t quality, has flaws or doesn’t meet your market’s needs for some reason, it will become apparent. Quality issues aren’t something you can possibly hide or avoid being publicized anyway, so why not just be up front with people in the first place?
And how you respond publicly to shortcomings that are pointed out is quite telling – about you, your values and what working with you is going to be like.
So when issues do arise (they will), it’s important to remain positive and demonstrate how effective you are going to be at providing excellent support, fix the issues you can, and provide reasonable reasons for your actions (or plans to address the issues). This is all any reasonable person can expect.
Your blog is the place where people often first find out about your launch
The Launch Blog is also a great place for people to learn about your launch for the first time and then join your Launch List. The Launch List is a focused set of prospects who have expressed a specific interest in what you are launching and what you have to say about it. They are your “core” launch audience (in addition to existing customers and partners).
As you post interesting content, the search engines will index your posts. Search engines love blogs, so keep good SEO fundamentals (like keyword selection) in mind as you choose titles for your posts.
Recommendations for your launch blog
- Opt-in Form – include a simple opt-in form on upper-right or left side of blog during a launch so newcomers can join your Launch List (or at least a place for them to click through to your Launch Landing Page).
- Authenticity – use straight talk with people about yourself, your company, what you’re up to and why – and what’s in it for your audience
- Transparency – the more you can reveal about yourself, your values and what you and your company stands for in your blog entries, the more you will be trusted and respected
- Conversational – engaging in a “conversation” with your Launch Community provides many benefits, so it is important to stimulate comments (e.g., by asking for comments with an email to your Launch List or via Twitter(TM), Facebook(TM), etc.) and encourage conversations
- Video, video, video – people will take the time to watch a video when they won’t take time to read copy. Post your videos on YouTube(TM), then add them to your blog so you get double the exposure. Be sure to include your domain name and a copyright notice at the end of each video.
- Tweet Counter – one way people can easily see social proof is by how many Tweets your blog posts get via Twitter. Be sure to use a Tweet counter and make it easy for people to Retweet your posts
- Social Bookmarking – another way your blog gets noticed, brings you additional traffic and establishes more social proof is through social bookmarking sites like Digg.com, Mixx.com, Del-icio.us, StumbleUpon, FriendFeed, etc.
- LinkedIn – be sure to post an update to your status on LinkedIn each time you make a blog post so your followers can track your activity
- Facebook – similarly, post a link in Facebook to your blog posts to keep people abreast of your activities; e.g., on your Facebook fan page / account
- Twitter – be sure to post links to your blog entries occasionally in Twitter (no more often than once per 8 to 10 tweets)
Implement these tips and make you Launch Blog “the place to be” for your launch community.
Coming soon, we’ll discuss your Launch Blog’s content sequencing – what to blog about, and when, during your launch process.
To your success,
Rick Braddy/CEO
WinningWare.com
To learn more about how to get the maximum leverage from Web-based marketing methods when launching a product, website or business, visit us and see how you can plan, organize and execute your launch faster and more profitably. Also, be sure to check out our free launch report.
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{ 7 comments }
The all-important Launch Blog – Some tips for your success http://bit.ly/9jy5Mw #launch #plm #marketing #blogging
The all-important Launch Blog Some tips for your success http://bit.ly/9jy5Mw #launch #plm #marketing #blogging http://ow.ly/184kGI
The all-important Launch Blog – Some tips for your success | High … http://bit.ly/9zbK42
The all-important Launch Blog – Some tips for your success | High … http://bit.ly/bbCIJu
Do you have any suggestions on a good blogging theme to use while doing a product launch?
James,
Good question.
It’s often best to keep it simple with the launch blog theme. I have even used the default Wordpress theme with great success, for example.
I would avoid a theme that’s too flashy or chock full of product or company-oriented branding (except perhaps the company logo), as you don’t want to create “sales resistance” with the launch blog. It’s best for the blog to come across as just a blog, not an advertising venue.
Here’s an excerpt out of WinningWare QuickLaunch on this very topic:
Your blog “theme” is what controls how everything is displayed, including the background, column structure, post structure, fonts and a lot more. There are an immense number of possible themes. If you can afford it, having a customized theme for your Launch Blog is always a nice touch.
Recommended Theme Platform: the Thesis theme provides the most flexible and robust blog theme functionality and platform available. It is highly-recommended if you plan on keeping this blog and using it beyond the life of your launch. Of course, there are also over 1,000 free, basic themes available from WordPress. As with most things, you generally get what you pay for, so just decide how much you want to invest in your launch blog’s appearance and functionality, then decide accordingly.
Finally, keep in the mind that what’s most important is the quality and value of the CONTENT that’s posted to the blog, not the blog’s theme. People are after the content value, so the theme shouldn’t distract from or take away from the content itself.
Hope that’s helpful.
Best,
Rick
RT @rickbraddy The all-important Launch Blog – Some tips for your success http://bit.ly/9jy5Mw
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