The Best-Kept Secret Of Successful Product Launches

Begin your marketing BEFORE you begin creating your product.

Recently a business owner said, “I’m getting ready to launch my new program. I want to set up a consultation with you, but I’m not sure I’m ready. You focus on marketing. I’m still working out how to position this program and identify the best target market. That’s not marketing, is it?”

This business owner is not unusual.

Take a random survey and people will tell you they define marketing as advertising … and copywriting as wordsmithing.

Many of us are hard-wired to assume processes are linear.

for instance, most career change books set up a pattern of discovering yourself, finding a career that fits your “you,” and then finding a job in that career. In fact, as Herminia Ibarra points out in her book, Working Identity, career change is a process of serendipitous stumbling around.

We also see the classical storyline as a straight line.

Hero sets out on a fine day.
Hero encounters obstacles.
Hero overcomes obstacles.
Hero lives happily ever after.

Most iconic stories — such as fairy tales — follow this pattern.