How To Launch a Product Mahalo Style
By Anna Johnson on December 24th, 2008Jason Calacanis, founder and CEO of the ‘human powered search engine’ Mahalo.com has posted another insightful article. This time he deconstructs the recent launch of Mahalo Answers (a must-see for anyone who sells information or services).
If you’ve been involved in the Internet marketing niche for very long, you’ll be familiar with Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula approach to launching products and services. Now let’s open our minds to how a hot Web 2.0 company does it…
Mahalo Answers is a ‘knowledge exchange’ where you can make money answering people’s questions. Basically, people establish an account with real money, that they can then exchange for ‘Mahalo dollars.’ Mahalo dollars can be used to buy answers to their questions. People who provide answers, in turn, get paid for those answers.
Jason Calacanis began the launch of Mahalo Answers by generating some good old-fashioned pre-launch ‘buzz.’ He did this by telling people about ‘Project A’ a month or so out from launch. This included people he met at networking events, speaking events and meetings, as well as Jason’s Twitter followers, and readers of his email newsletter.
The next step was to invite people to sign up for the beta version of Mahalo Answers.
Mahalo limited the number of beta testers it accepted but didn’t simply turn away those who didn’t make it into the beta. Instead, Mahalo kept them onside by offering them a coupon they could later use when Mahalo Answers launched. During the beta, the Mahalo team also put the system through its paces to ensure it was ready for launch.
The next step involved showing the product to a select group of bloggers and journalists. Mahalo did not, however, pound their contacts with demands for attention. They merely got in touch with the various bloggers and journalists and waited to see who was interested. Those who were interested were invited to a demo via phone and computer.
After discussing the product with the various bloggers and journalists, Mahalo then left the journalists alone to do their jobs.
Most members of the Mahalo team were present for the launch and, apart from enjoying a much-deserved reward for their hard work in getting Mahalo Answers up and running, the team were ‘on deck’ to ensure the product performed post-launch.
Jason Calacanis attributes the successful launch of Mahalo Answers to this seamless and well-executed launch process. He says his approach is not based on anything he’s learned from others, but on everything he’s learned from a decade of launching products.
If you don’t know much about Jason Calacanis, he is a serial Internet entrepreneur and Silicon Valley A-lister. He was the founder of Silicon Alley Reporter, the co-founder of Weblogs, Inc. (one of the earliest and most successful blog networks, sold in 2005 to AOL for a reported $25 million), the former General Manager of Netscape, and a partner with Michael Arrington (of TechCrunch fame) in running the TechCrunch40 event.
I think he’d know a thing or two about product launches.
Could this product launch approach be more different from the launch approach used within the Internet marketing niche? At first glance you might think so. (After all, many Internet marketers seem to regard ‘press releases’ as mere tools for getting backlinks, rather than what they were originally designed for: getting press.)
But if you think about it, the Internet marketers at the top of their game follow the SAME general approach, albeit with a few twists.
Just replace ‘bloggers and journalists’ with ‘bloggers and super-affiliates’ and you get the picture. Everything else is quite similar. The top Internet marketers invite beta testers to test their products. And they certainly prime their lists and build buzz for their impending launches.
Much of the genius of Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula lies in his process for building anticipation and desire among the target audience. A process that is largely played out in email, affiliate blogs and on forums within the given niche.
That said, I don’t see a lot of Internet marketers making much use of the more mainstream Internet/tech/business media.
This may be a natural consequence of launching products that are so narrowly focused as to have little appeal to more mainstream audiences. But I also think there are quite a few marketers – whether in the Internet marketing niche or other niches – who would benefit from becoming more media savvy.
Put it this way, while everyone else in your niche is mailing to their lists of a few thousand people… you could be getting your story across to millions.
I speak from some experience. Simon (my husband and business partner) and I have both been on television here in Australia in relation to our first Internet business. And later, when Simon wrote ‘Keep Your Kids Safe on The Internet’, he got onto the number one AND number two current affairs television shows in Australia. And that’s not to mention getting extensive press and radio attention.
Finally, let me say that if you like the idea of enlisting the media to help you launch a product… read Jason Calacanis’ article in full. I’ve only given an overview of a launch process that he describes in detail in his article. In particular, Jason gives invaluable advice about how to deal one-one-one with journalists. It’s an excellent read.
Source: Jason Calacanis, “How To Launch a New Product,” The Jason Calacanis Weblog, December 22, 2008
