Today's newsletter is very special. You should pour yourself a cup of coffee (or a glass of bourbon on the rocks), dim the lights, and read — with the goal of completing the piece and learning exponentially about doing product launches to millions.

It's a masterclass on product launches from someone who has sold 10 million books.

But before that . . . Happy new year to everyone!

I hope you're excited about 2023 as much as I am. There are a lot of exciting things I have planned for this year . . . For now, most of them will remain a secret. 🤐

Today’s edition reveals the SECRET of how bestselling author James Clear sold over 10 million copies of his book. In fact, a similar strategy could be employed for B2B product launches.

For anyone who doesn’t know, James Clear is a best-selling author, an entrepreneur, as well as a keynote speaker. His book, "Atomic Habits," has become a global phenomenon, selling over 10 million copies throughout the world and being translated into over 30 languages.

Positioning is 50% of a Product's Success

Throughout the book, Clear discusses how deliberate practice can improve various aspects of one's life. As opposed to positioning the book solely as about deliberate practice, Clear framed it as a book about habits in general. 

James Clear chose the topic of habits because it is more universally understood and desired than deliberate practice, which requires more explanation. 

In positioning the book this way, Clear was able to tap into a preexisting desire people have to improve their habits, making it easier for potential readers to understand the book's value.

Takeaway: 

Product Launches Are Like Space Shuttle Launches

Almost like launching a space shuttle, James Clear views product launches as something that takes a lot of effort to get off the launch pad and into orbit, but then once it gets there it stays there on its own.

The product launch is about getting into orbit but once it's up there it's really the word of mouth that's doing its magic, and the only way to get word of mouth is what Seth Godin describes as if you want to create something remarkable, that means it's worthy of a remark. 

There has to be something so good that people want to talk about it; they have to love it so much that they feel like oh man, I need to tell somebody about it, and only creating something great can do that, something people value or find genuinely useful in their lives. 

It is crucial to position your product correctly and then to always try to outpace the price that you are asking. If you think about the value that a product creates and the cost that it takes to acquire it, you need to take into account not just money, but also time. Your goal is to create a value surplus. 

For instance, if you're an author and selling a book, it's very important to take into account how much time someone will need to read the book in order to know what value someone got from the book after subtracting the amount of money and time it took to obtain it. 

When you position your products well, launch your products properly, and make sure they are in orbit, if you can do all those things, then maybe word of mouth will take over.

Takeaway: 

Create a Concentrated Strike

Putting a space shuttle into orbit is when the most effort goes into it. This is exactly how you should think about product launches. In order to launch your product successfully, you must focus on creating a concentrated strike.

James Clear began his book launch efforts 15 months in advance. He cold-emailed over 300 relevant podcast hosts with relatively large followings to pitch the idea of being a guest on their show. Among those, he booked 100 shows. 

Approximately 75 podcasts were recorded three months before the book's launch date, and 25 afterward. With this plan, he was able to create a concentrated strike and appeared on so many podcasts simultaneously. His target audience was seeing him everywhere!

Takeaway: 

Experimenting and Building Audience

Originally, James Clear was an entrepreneur whose vision led him to create his own business, but he also ended up writing a book. For two or three years, he floundered around before he found his footing and started writing at jamesclear.com.

In fact, James received one of the best pieces of advice early on: try things until something comes easily. That doesn't mean it will be easy, just that results are coming faster than they did in other areas.

As an example, Jamesclear.com was launched two years after he had started three to five different websites and tried each one for a couple of months to see if he could build an email list, if he could sell products, or if he could get people to subscribe to a newsletter. 

When he first started writing about habits and productivity and strategy and decision making like all the stuff he kind of wrote now that for some reason resonated with people better than anything else, he was doing some web design stuff in the background, taking freelance clients to make ends meet. It was much easier to grow. Early on, it was obvious that things were going well compared to the old stuff, so you need to look for those signs of early progress. 

The email list he started with had no subscribers, but after a year he had around 33,000 subscribers, then 100,000 subscribers after two years, then 220,000 subscribers after three years, which was about the time agents and publishers started to take interest in his work. They were reaching out to him and asking if he had thought about writing a book. 

Although James never set out to become an author, as he explored the option more he realized it was something he would like to do, so he pursued it. But clearly, not before building his own audience, which was over 220,000!!

Takeaway: 

Qualifying Influencers

To create a focused strike, James Clear leveraged influencer marketing as one of his strategies for the book launch. Nevertheless, it was very cleverly done. 

James and his marketing team identified 3 core segments to target for the book launch:

• Mommy bloggers

• Venture Capitalists

• Crossfitters

When his team did the outreach to influencers in each of the niches, they qualified them for intent. 

How?

James and his team didn't just directly send the book to these influencers, hoping that they would share the book with their large social media audiences.

In fact, James personally explained why the book would be valuable to their audience in a message to the influencers. It concluded with a clear call to action for them to request a free copy.

This way they pre-qualified influencers, and anyone who requested was genuinely interested in talking about the book to their followers.

In the process, they also discovered a hidden gem. 

The Crossfitters were extremely interested in the book, as James and his team did not receive much positive response from the other two segments. 

This allowed the marketing team to focus exclusively on Crossfitters and make a big impact with a focused influencer marketing campaign. The rest is history.

Takeaway:

That’s all for today folks

This brings me to the end of this masterclass on product launches. Hopefully, it lived up to the hype I created at the beginning of the post.

Today’s edition of Fresh Salmon was inspired by James Clear’s interview on Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show.

Anyway, this concludes this edition of Fresh Salmon.

I would like to hear what you thought of today's newsletter.

Also, let’s connect on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Cheers,

Vivek

PS. I love you ❤️