Although his conception of growth/users/monetization is highly to big for any mortal (he is working on facebook), he gives very interesting insights.

Great Quotes

“[The] number one problem I’ve seen for startups I’ve advised has been [that] they don’t actually have product/market fit when they think they do.”

“If you don’t have a great product there’s no point in executing well on growing it because it won’t grow.”

“The way we look at, whether a product has great retention or not, is whether or not the users who install it, actually stay on it long-term, when you normalize on a cohort basis, and I think that’s a really good methodology for looking at your product and say ‘okay the first 100, the first 1,000, the first 10,000 people I get on this, will they be retained in the long-run?”

“If you’re a startup, you shouldn’t have a growth team. Startups should not have growth teams. The whole company should be the growth team. The CEO should be the head of growth.”

“If you can run more experiments than the next guy, if you can be hungry for growth, if you can fight and die for every extra user and you stay up late at night to get those extra users, to run those experiments, to get the data, and do it over and over and over again, you will grow faster. Mark has said he thinks we won because we wanted it more, and I really believe that. We just worked really hard. It’s not like we’re crazy smart, or we’ve all done these crazy things before. We just worked really really hard, and we executed fast. I strongly encourage you to do that. Growth is optional.”

Some of them:

*Digital Marketer Custom Value Optimization: Content - Lead Magnet - TripWire - CoreOffer - Profit Maximizer
*Ryan Levesque Ask Method
*Todd Brown Descending Funnel

But the father of them, and mostly the father of all the direct marketing web is: Jeff Walker.

He invented the first funnel of all: The product Launch Formula.

This formula has been successful since the mid 2000, and is maybe the most common funnel in the whole web.

So my idea is to review it, and explain the main concepts.

What is the product launch formula?

Product Launch Formula (PLF) is a Step-by-Step Guide for entrepreneurs who want to launch their product online in most effective and successful way. PLF was designed by Jeff Walker who is well established online marketing coach for the last 20 years. Jeff Walker believes that he can help anyone achieve their goals by creating successful online business.

Core Elements

Jeff Walker’s primary focus in PLF is on pre-launch stage where you will have to deliver really good content to your audience. Pre-launch Content (PLC) is called: “Sideway Sales Letter” which is a series of 3 videos rich in very powerful content preparing your customers to buy a product:

PLC 1 – Talks about passion, things people want in life the most, their desire to do something exciting
PLC 2 – Transformation – how these dreams can become a reality. Includes a series of case studies
PLC 3 – Ownership experience – what is it like to be financially free and enjoy your freedom. Includes more case studies

Pre-launch content is very important as it suppose to establish these key “Mental Triggers” in your customers:

Authority – You deliver a powerful message in yor videos building an authority
Anticipation – Your customers want to hear more about this product and how it can help achieve their goals
Conversation – Your customers start talking to other people about your product and how good it is
Social Proof – Your customers talk to other people and find common points creating a buzz for this product
Community – Your customers talk in groups about this product which builds more authority
These are only few mental triggers, there are total 20 which PLF talks about. Pre-launch stage is a key element as it gets the audience ready to buy your product and creates anticipation when the product actually launches.

Other Types of Launches in PLF

*Jeff Walker also talks about JV Launch which is promoting your product to other people’s mailing list. You will learn how to get buyers mailing list where people have proven track record of buying products.
*Another type of launch is called: Launch Stalking which is essentially leveraging from one launch to the next launch, promoting to the same mailing list. This certainly requires to have a very good product which would establish your credibility and will allow you further promote to the same list.
*Seed Launch – when you have no business and have no idea where to start Jeff Walker will give you good ideas on the starting point.

Who is PLF For?

Jeff Walker outlines 3 categories of people who can successfully use PLF:

*People who already have an online business but want to take it to a higher level. PLF can be used to launch new promotions, create new bonuses, basically re-launch business again.
*For people who have service based business where they help others, for example: practitioners, accountants, plumbers etc.. For this category the only natural growth is by working more hours, however PLF can help launch an online product which will create powerful residual online income.
*People who don’t have any business and don’t even have any business idea. This is where Seed Launch comes in the picture.

Is Product Launch Formula For Everyone?

Here is what you really need to know: If you are just starting out online I would not recommend PLF as you will find it completely overwhelming.

To understand better PLF is more for people who fall in these 3 categories:

*People who have a business and want to take it a step further
*People who have idea in mind but need a full fledged solution on how to launch their idea
*People who understand online marketing concepts and want to launch their own product but don’t have any idea on what product to launch

Another key element of PLF is that Jeff Walker uses Email List to promote products to. He teaches you how to build your list through social networks or how to buy a list from reputable places. He believes that you should not heavily rely on social media or SEO to promote your product as they can shut you down any moment. Email list that you build is an asset which you own and can promote to any time.

This is absolutely true and Email Marketing is super powerful, however this is specific approach Jeff Walker uses. If you build your blog focusing on good clear content then SEO is the most powerful source of Free traffic that you don’t have to pay for.

Email list also has disadvantages when there are not many buyers and it simply saturates. You need to keep on building new list all the time.

If you want to see this funnel in action, I suggest you entering his web:

http://productlaunchformula.com/

Where you can see the funnel in action, where he actually uses to sell you the training.

Google Analytics

The leading, totally free, Web analytics software gives you an in-depth look at your site, top to bottom.

Stand-out Features

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*Multi-channel funnels show you which marketing efforts contributed to driving visitors to you, regardless of the final source that landed them at your site.
*Real-time analytics are beginning to scratch the surface of the real time data at your finger tips about who is on your site and what they’re looking at, right now.

MixPanel

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KISS Metrics

Very similar to MixPanel

Stand-out Features

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CrazyEgg

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UserFly

Recorded videos of user sessions on your site gives you real insight to your site’s usability, and identify areas of friction for your visitors.

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Optimizely

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Pingdom

Instantly lets you know when your site goes down, saving you crucial downtime – and lost revenue.

Stand-out Features

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ChartBeat

Real time analytics dashboard for your website.

Stand-out Features

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Geckoboard

The real-time dashboard that measures the business analytics you care about.

Stand-out Features

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