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I sold a book (https://howtoopensource.dev/ https://howtoopensource.dev/) and did a *very* soft launch which performed so poorly I spent the next 6-9months buil
by schneems 2y ago
I sold a book (https://howtoopensource.dev/ https://howtoopensource.dev/) and did a *very* soft launch which performed so poorly I spent the next 6-9months building out full blown launch strategy.
FOMO is used a lot as the term du-jour but it goes deeper than that: a sense of urgency. We relate FOMO to urgency because a lot of FOMO happens around events (missing a concert or conference, for example) but to me the key isn’t the fear, it’s the urgency.
For my eventual launch I read a book aptly titled “Launch” which talks at length about building a sense of urgency, turning the sale into an event, and generating excitement. I offered a limited time, exclusive incentive with a hard deadline and it worked very well. That hits the fear and the urgency.
From Kent:
> How can I communicate what the company is missing out on
While framed as FOMO, to me it’s good old value-proposition marketing. The book I linked above recommends focusing on a customer “transformation” story. Try to get potential customers to imagine what life would be like if ONLY they had your product. From this lens the FOMO is fear of missing out on being your best/better self.
This part of my launch was really difficult. I wanted to talk about what the book teaches, how it stacks up against other books, why my petagogy is useful. It didn’t seem like my book would “turn a coder into a contributor” (by itself). But that’s exactly the outcome I wanted, and it’s the outcome my customers wanted. So, that’s how I sold it.
- dahart 2y ago> While framed as FOMO, to me it’s good old value-propositioned marketing. Right! Exactly, the value proposition is stating what you think the value is to the consumer, and when it aligns with what they really value then sales occur. The author made a clear distinction saying, “I naively assumed that people transacted when value exceeded price. I blindly pursued adding more value to this newsletter.” He’s talking about value from his own perspective rather than value from the customer’s perspective, like you did with listing the subjects and teaching methods in your book. I’ve made the same mistake trying to add what I think is valuable and talk about what I think is valuable, and have it lead to low sales, so I know from experience that good marketing is necessary and that good marketing can be difficult for engineers to learn, and that building it does not mean that they will come and buy it. Part of what I’m saying is you have to really understand the eww of advertising, why it’s there, where it comes from, and how to use it properly, and you have to be careful and figure out what the difference is between showing someone the value and lying to them, because sometimes the line is very gray and/or very thin.
- HWR_14 2y ago> It didn’t seem like my book would “turn a coder into a contributor” (by itself). But that’s exactly the outcome I wanted, and it’s the outcome my customers wanted. So, that’s how I sold it. Am I misreading your post or are bragging about selling your product by lying about what it can can do.
- blitzar 2y ago> bragging about selling your product by lying about what it can can do Is there a billionaire past or present who didn't use this strategy?
- jononor 2y ago(general perspective here, not specific of the exact case). It could be that _no_ book will be sufficient for that outcome. Because a book might not be the right tool. One might need to practice, get out there and actually do things. If so, it can be ethical to sell that it is a part of getting to the outcome wanted. Especially if one provides tips&tricks for the beyond-the-book part. Those kinds of things will be be great candidates for content marketing, or even small giveaways (commoditize your compliment), or partnering to offer the other parts of the package.
- meiraleal 2y agoThat's far from lying. The book needs the reader engagement to be effective.