Making nearly a quarter of a million dollars in 24 hours sounds incredibly insane to most people. Most might assume it's not easily achievable but Tyler Sullivan "Ty Sully", the founder of Bombtech Golf brand and co-founder of Ecom Growers broke down the code to repeatedly earn 6 figures in 24 hours through product launch days.
In this article, Sully shares his pre-launch and launch day tactics that have enabled him to generate over 6 figures in product sales on product launch days over and over again. Sully not only does these big sales on product launch days but also on back-in-stock days, so it is something that has become a bit casual to him and he is sharing the entire strategy so that other e-commerce and online marketing entrepreneurs can replicate it to see huge success.
"Now it is expected and is a repeatable part of our marketing strategy. It is my personal goal that future product launches always beat previous product launches.
Most of my product launches and even just back-in-stock launches are over 6 figures in just one day. This is not the first time and definitely not the last time we will have a six-figure product launch.", — Ty Sully says.
Product Launch Summary
Here are the results from the recent product launch.
- Over $238 790 in the first 24 hours with $400 000+ in the total number of launch period sales
- Over 1 000 orders were placed during the product launch
- The early access list grew to over 10 500 people
- Paid advertising results — 22X ROAS for launch day
That was pretty awesome, right? So below is how he did it.
The Product Launch Strategy
Sully says that having an active and engaging social media audience is a core part of a successful brand, but it is not a huge part of a successful product launch. Specifically social media pages such as your Facebook and Instagram pages. Their organic reach is just too low and any external linking is almost guaranteed to throttle your social media posts' reach.
"The best way to use social media marketing to launch a new product is to set up a private buyers-only Facebook group.
This is one of the marketing strategies that I have kept a secret for a long time, but it's time to let the world know!"
Sully sets up groups for his customer base to communicate with each other. And then he tries to impress them with every new opportunity he has including new products or the product tweaks that they ask for.
"The group is a great way to show your customers that they are the most important thing in your business. Well, because without them your business would not exist. So start treating them that way! Treat your customer base well for over a year and your brand will organically grow because you care about them."
Sully creates an invite-only group for his customers, which makes it exclusive and private. You can't join it unless you have bought his golf clubs from his BombTech Golf brand. If someone hasn’t bought, then that person is denied from joining the group.
This is one more marketing channel that you can leverage to make sure your launch is a big one.
Sully says that his social media strategy is to use his pages for engagement and his private Facebook group for launches.
Email Strategy
Launching a new product online can be exciting, but also can be underwhelming. Don't just send one email on the day of our product launch. This strategy is a surefire way to miss out on tons of revenue.
"The money is made in the hype and the follow-up. You will not have a successful product launch with one email to your entire list.", — Sully says.
Breaking Down the Strategy
Instead of talking about the different product launch strategies at a high level. Sully breaks down the exact product launch strategy he used for his online store to sell $238 740 in a single day below.
- Have real conversations with your customers to have a successful launch
Before diving too deep into the tactics, you need to have an email list that is healthy and a customer list that truly wants to hear from you. The best way to do this is to send conversational emails that ask questions and actually engage with your customers and potential customers.
Just blasting emails to the entire list that say buy buy buy doesn't work anymore. We have to earn the right to email our list. I like to refer to it as conversational email marketing. It seems obvious but changing your perspective on how you view your existing customers is critical to the tactics being effective.
- Ask simple questions to your email list
By asking real questions to your audience you can conduct market research and insights that you could never get without it. I launched one product without asking my audience and it turned out to be less successful than I had planned.
A simple email you can start using today is an A/B email. Whereby you can ask your list which product we should launch first, A or B. I guarantee you will be shocked by which product wins. This insight may seem simple to do, but it's incredibly powerful in figuring out which products your customers want.
Not to mention, Google likes it because your customers are now replying to you. This means they want to hear from you and the likelihood of your email going to your inbox is far greater than before. Stay out of the promotions tab by talking with your customers.
An effective email marketing strategy includes the following:
- Asking authentic questions you want answers to from your audience
- Sending a mix of plain text emails similar to the ones you would send to your friends
- Having a customer service team that wows customers and engages with all emails and text
- Using a conversational tone and empathy from a founder's perspective - honestly, you should want to thank your customers and actually care. (If you don't care, you shouldn't be in business.)
- Creates true urgency by having a specific launch date
- An irresistible offer
- One call to action.
- Create buzz and build hype to launch a product
This is the single most important aspect of a successful product launch. The goal is simple, we need to build pent-up demand and real excitement. It is a similar strategy that the Movie industry has used for years.
They are experts at building hype and buzz, that is the difference between a movie being a blockbuster or a failure. We just are doing the same thing online by sending conversational emails, text messages, and posts to our Facebook group.
This is a product launch event, not just a product launch (Mark your calendar!)
The key here is making the launch day an actual event. Even if it's only online, we can build the same excitement as if it were an actual real in-person event. We are going to use our owned media channels as the core marketing strategy.
These marketing channels include our email and SMS list and our Facebook owners-only group. Set a date and be extremely specific. Here is an example: New Golf Club launches on Tuesday, August 30th at 9 am eastern. Tell your customer base to mark their calendar.
Remember this isn't a one-email product launch this is an actual product launch event with a real date and time that it becomes available.
What Emails and Text Messages Did to Send to Hype the Launch?
Sully says that he sent a total of 6 hype messages over a week via email and SMS, all with the singular goal of teasing the launch and getting people to simply reply to the email to be put on the early access list.
1. Hype Campaign #1 — Email & SMS
Sully says that they teased that something new was coming but didn’t reveal what it was. This drove some initial curiosity for people to reply and be put on the early access list. This resulted in about 3 000 replies for early access.
Email Hype #1
SMS Hype #1
2. Hype Campaign #2 — Email:
In campaign number 2, Sully revealed that there are new golf clubs launching, but didn’t provide any more information beyond that. This resulted in about 1 000 more replies for the early access list.
Hype Email #2
3. Hype Campaign #3 Email & SMS:
In this message, Sully revealed some information about what was launching, that it was a new model, and that it will be released for 3 products. He reiterated the launch time and the only CTA was to reply to the early access list. This resulted in about 1 500 more replies.
Email Hype #3
SMS Hype #2
4. Hype Campaign #4 — email:
This was the last hype campaign sent the day before the early access launch. Sully reiterated the launch info, revealed we would be offering free shipping the day of, and that the website was going to be locked & without a password, you wouldn’t be able to shop.
This resulted in about 1 000 more replies for early access.
5. Early Access Launch Campaign #1: Email & SMS
This campaign was sent to 10 570 people, drove 4 648 people to the website, and resulted in $110 844 in sales.
Additional follow-up messages were sent the day of, reiterating the early access & free shipping offer, driving hundreds of thousands of dollars in more sales.
Expert Level Launch — Creating Exclusivity and Increasing Demand by Locking the Entire Website
Sully says that this sounds crazy because it is, but it is crazy awesome. A big part of his launch strategy is to lock our entire website. Once the website is actually locked, he emails everyone telling them it is locked. This gets people excited and generates a buzz and makes the product launch something special.
You literally can't buy anything from the store. The only thing you can do when the website is locked is sign up to get an email with your secret password. By needing a password you create truly wild demand.
In addition to using email lists, Sully also runs paid ads via Facebook and Google to ensure he gets as many people to the locked website as possible. Paid advertisements can only go so far as to generate buzz as the money is on the list.
He really leans on the paid ad strategies post-launch to keep the momentum from the launch going. Sully says that he spends money on ads daily during the week before to make sure the buzz stays strong.
"I don't know a marketing team that wants to lock their website and lose out on that revenue for the day it was locked. But if the hype is executed well you will make up for it and a lot more on launch day." — Sully Says.
Simple changes to the product pages can be effective.
Running effective ads, email, or any marketing for that matter requires that you have the same message from each channel to the product page you send them to.
"I don't like to overhaul my website for a launch but I want to make sure a few key areas of the website are changed so the customer experience is congruent from one channel to another.
For example, when we send out the password to our lists, we add copy on the product page that says "You have unlocked access." Simple but very effective." — Sully explains.
What Do You Do After a Product Launch?
Hopefully, you are popping champagne and celebrating a record-breaking Shopify sales day! If it didn't go as well as you hoped or if a product launch was not effective, it means your offer wasn't great.
Hype and Buzz are a core reason for your success but you must have a great product, a really irresistible offer, and an unbelievable customer experience.
Remember, ask your audience way in advance to make sure your next product launch is actually something your target audience wants.
