Life has phases.

Like night and day. Like the seasons.

There is a natural flow of activity and then rest.

Every day our circadian rhythm takes us up and down. The hours of the day are not equal!

Our attention and creative energy varies.

We cannot function at 100%, 24/7, no matter the high dreaming of industrialized capitalism.

It is the same with your marketing.

With your efforts to make a difference, to make your impact.

Use launching to create rhythm not only because YOU will do better with rest periods.

But because your audience needs time to breathe in and breathe out.

People cannot pay attention continuously

Our brains are very clever at ignoring old news. We screen out what we’ve already seen and assessed, unless it is immediately relevant or useful.

But we respond to things which are new or surprising. We must check it out! Is this a risk or an opportunity?

Novelty is a powerful brain stimulus – we are wired to notice the new, the different, the surprising. It is a powerful way to catch your person’s attention.

Launching takes advantage of the power of novelty.

Launching lets you create novelty and rhythm

Launching is a condensed, contained period of time, where you give all your energy and attention to getting the word out there, around a particular, specific focus.

Marketing launches give you a way to create excitement, intensity, and the all important, ‘you have to check this out’ vibe.

Launching is way to use novelty and create marketing rhythm. It allows you to harness the power of focus to build intensity and break through the noise.

It is a way to create an IN and OUT breath for your marketing.

Launching activates two powerful forces:

Anticipation … something good is coming.

Scarcity … it won’t be around forever. Act now.

Launching creates a sense of momentum, excitement, and energy because it happens for a limited period of time. It gives you a focus and a container which lets you create intensity.

It is about the buzz.

And for you, the marketer, it is a vital technique for your own sustainability.

You cannot be promoting your work constantly! You can’t be ON all the time. We enjoy intensity when we also get relaxation.

Launching is a strategy to avoid burnout.

Launching gives you escape velocity

You launch by giving generously of your time, energy, attention and knowledge.

You put it all out there. You show up as the guide, as the host with the most.

Think rocket ship breaking out of the earth’s gravitational field.

You launch in order break out of the inertia and gravitational pull of daily life.

Your launch is designed carry your person beyond the gravity field of their ordinary identity and into a world of transformational possibility.

Remember, your real competition is not anyone in the market that competing for your audience. Your real competition is inertia.
Your real competition is your person’s ordinary identity.
The part that doesn’t believe change is possible.

You are competing with the power of a thousand critical figures.

Our ordinary identity is expert and experienced at strategies for maintaining the status quo: ignore, deny, dismiss, suppress, marginalize, distract, obsess, derail. To name just a few of the ways we defend ourselves from change.

All marketers are all competing against the inertial and gravitational forces of our ordinary identities, of our culture and context, of the status quo.

So use the magic trick of a launch to focus enough energy to reach escape velocity.

Break through to your audience and you will grow your practice.

But hang on a minute.

If marketing is about relationship, isn’t launching a bit rude, a bit ‘too much’, a bit OVER THE TOP?

Actually, launching recognizes that in relationship, you have to give first.

• Give generously because you love your person.
• Because you are FOR them.
• Because it matters.

One final tip

Make sure your launch offers a time-limited opportunity.

Scarcity is a vital part of launching and essential for creating a rhythm.
A launch must have a start and a finish. There must be pause between beats.

We need to take a rest before we can breathe in again.

Remember that constancy is the enemy of novelty.

Take your launch offer away, so you can bring it back later and create delight instead of boredom.

You’ve got this.

P.S. Intrigued by launching? I highly recommend you check out Jeff Walker, who established the Product Launch Formula (PLF) as a best practice for internet marketing. Watch out for my full review of PLF in a blog post to come.

Practice! Next Steps

Invite yourself to observe and study.

What kind of launches do you notice?

Launching techniques are everywhere. Think Hollywood blockbuster movies, think Apple product releases.

Launching has become a kind of gold standard in digital marketing.
Notice what catches your attention. What you like. What you quickly ignore.

Take notes about the tactics and strategies that you see marketers using. Video, affiliates (other people promoting the launch), live webinars, guest blogging, podcasting … there is always something new. Find the ones that you really like and study how they work.

Give yourself some time to brainstorm.

• What kind of focus could you enjoy creating a buzz around?
• What mediums and what material would suit you, your offer, and your audience, the best?

Create a launch calendar to unleash your inner marketer and grow your practice.

You cannot be constantly launching, so take a look at the next year and decide when you will launch.

There is no perfect number. No perfect rhythm in the abstract.

There is finding the right pace for you and your audience.

But as a rule of thumb, plan no more than 2-4 launches in a year.

All yourself to dream and let your creativity and unique process lead you.

Your goal is to find something new, something different, something interesting, entertaining, or surprising to catch your person’s attention.