79. 6 Tips for Product Launches and Content Marketing
(Episode 2 with Shane Barker)
Welcome back to another episode with Shane Barker. In episode 1, we discussed Shane’s story to become an expert influencer marketer and some of his secrets for influencer marketing. In today’s episode, we will be discussing some of Shane’s secrets to product launches and content marketing.
Tips for Product Launches
80% of the work is done before the product launch.
Shane has had a lot of people come to him and say, “Hey, I just went live with this crowdfunding campaign, and I have 30 days to promote it. What do I need to do?” And Shane tells them they need to take it down. He says 30 days is just not enough time.
Many people don’t realize that 80% of the work is done before the product launch. In fact, the launch should be one of the easiest parts because most of the work is already done. Before the launch, most of the PR aspects such as a press release, talking to news stations, bloggers, or reviewers should be done.
Look at the History of Launches for Similar Products
The beautiful thing about the internet is we can find out pretty much anything. So, for a similar product to ours, we can look at other launches and see what they did and whether or not it was successful. We can see what kind of PPC ads they put up, what keywords they went after, who put up backlinks to their product, who interviewed them about the product, etc.
“We’ve got to figure out: what is my competition doing? What did they do successfully, or why did they fail? And how can we make things better and improve upon that?” — Shane Barker
Creating a Buzz
Product launches happen every day, so we have to establish what makes us different, why people should spend their hard-earned money on this, and why people should be excited. A lot of it is pulling on people’s heartstrings and educating them.
“It comes down to messaging and having a very clear message, understanding exactly who you’re going to go after, and then going after them aggressively.”
– Shane Barker
We must create an audience that trusts us and likes us so we have a following, then create a great, unique product, and then have scarcity and urgency, so our audience has to act quickly.
Tips for Content Marketing
Easier than Ever
Content marketing is a lot easier nowadays because there’s software and there are all kinds of technology at our fingertips to help us. This interview was only possible because of video conferencing technology. There is a lot of great technology, software, and tools that make it easier to produce content than it was just a few years ago.
Be Consistent and Patient with Ourselves
Rome wasn’t built in one night, and so it is with our businesses. When we’re doing content writing, it might take a long time. The important thing is that we are consistent and patient. We can’t put up two blog posts and expect to make history.
When someone wants to build muscle and get a six-pack, it takes time. It’s not going to happen after going to the gym twice. Content marketing is a long-term strategy.
Shane’s website has 160,000 visitors per month. While his team does do some outreach, it’s mostly inbound marketing. It often comes down to putting out consistent content, saying, “Hey, if I want to become an Instagram influencer, I’m going to take a year to do that.” Then we have to consistently put out content once a day or twice a day or however often that is. Many people start pursuing their goals to become an influencer but quit after a month or two. Therefore, if we are consistent and pursue it for long enough, we are likely to have success. There’s no substitute for hard work.
Start Somewhere and Don’t Worry About Perfection
The first videos of those who are popular on YouTube now were terrible. They often had poor video and sound quality and were probably very awkward in front of the camera. But they started where they were at and improved with time.
Shane hasn’t gone back and listened to his first podcast because he knows that it wasn’t good. He didn’t have great equipment. He just wanted to start interviewing great people and educating people, and now it’s turned into something he can monetize. And he kept going and his podcast is number 33 and climbing on iTunes’ business category.
Shane also has left his first blog post on his website even though he doesn’t think it was very good. He leaves it because it’s a reminder of his past and where he started. He also likes to show it to his students because it shows them they don’t have to start at a perfect level.
Shane thinks of his first podcast episodes and his first blog posts as before and after pictures like on a workout ad. People can see that they can do it too when they compare those first posts or those first episodes with what he’s producing now.
Repurposing Content
Another thing Shane recommended with content is the repurposing of content. When we produce a core piece of content, we can cut it up and reformat it into other pieces of content to be published on many other social and marketing channels. For example, if I do an interview, I can post the video on YouTube. I can also turn the audio into a podcast. Then I can write a blog post about it and put it on my website, along with LinkedIn and Medium. I can cut that blog into pieces and turn them into Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter posts. So, I produced one piece of content, and then I repurpose it and publish it on many different platforms.
Shane’s Home Runs
One of the home runs in Shane’s career is that he has had the opportunity to speak all over the world, such as in Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Another big win for Shane is when people come up to him and they say, “Hey, I read your content, and you helped me do this thing!” Shane is a humble individual and feels like he’s still trying to be the person that has accomplished all that he has. So, it means a lot to him when people reach out because it shows him that he’s really making a difference in people’s lives and helping them with their businesses. It’s valuable for him when he can use what he’s learned, leverage it, and then educate others with that knowledge to help them in their businesses.
“If I went to bed knowing that I wasn’t helping anybody, I don’t think I’d go to bed.”
– Shane Barker
Key Takeaways
Thank you so much Shane for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:
1. Prepare for product launches before the launch. Most of the work should be done beforehand.
2. Look at how launches have gone for similar products, and see how we can learn from them and improve upon them.
3. Focus on what makes our products different from the many products that launch every day.
4. Content marketing can take a long time, so we should be consistent and patient.
5. We must start somewhere with our content marketing, even if we’re not where we’d like to be with it. We will get better over time.
6. We can repurpose our content to be used on many different platforms to give our content much more reach.
Connect with Shane
If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Shane or connect with him, you can find him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanebarker/ or check out his website at https://shanebarker.com/.
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