Internet and Businesses Articles

Getting ready to do a new product launch? As with anything, preparation is critical. And that includes involving your duplication and fulfillment partner in the loop early in the process.

As you plan your product launch you’ll be lining up your affiliate partners, developing your website, recording audios and/or videos, designing your product graphics and a whole lot more. Bottom line is you’ll be juggling a lot of balls and it can be easy to overlook important details if you don’t have a detailed game plan on all aspects of your launch.

Fulfillment is a critical aspect of your launch. I know first hands of two fairly recent “Million Dollar Day” product launches that were disasters on the fulfillment end (we were not involved in either launch).

What your duplication and fulfillment partner will be looking for from you regarding your product launch? Here are some of the critical things:

Make sure your CD and DVD masters are AOK. The old adage – ‘garbage in, garbage out’ – applies here. Make sure your product is professionally recorded. There are a lot of little things that can bite you in the butt when recording audio and video.

Have all your disc masters and the artwork for all your packaging done at least 30 days prior to your product launch date. Last minute jobs raise stress levels for everyone involved, increase the risk of errors, and typically raise your costs.

Test your ordering process completely ahead of time. Make sure the mechanism to transfer order information to your fulfillment house is fully functional prior to your launch.

Have a plan in place to deal with your customers in case your product launch is more successful than you anticipated. If you ask your duplication partner to produce 100 sets of a product for a launch and then you sell 300, you’ve created a problem you’ll have to deal with to keep your customers happy. Keep in mind typical minimum turnaround on a new job order is 10-12 days. So have some digital bonuses or a portion of the main product your customers can download right away to keep them as happy as possible.

Product launches can be extremely rewarding and lucrative… and frustrating. Minimize the chances of frustration by making sure your fulfillment considerations are included in your planning stages.

Bret Ridgway is co-founder of Speaker Fulfillment Services, a company specializing in duplication and fulfillment of information products for speakers, authors, and information marketers. Speaker Fulfillment Services provides CD and DVD duplication and manual printing services, as well as product distribution services. This allows information marketers to focus their time on more value product creation and marketing activities.For more information visit http://www.SpeakerFulfillmentServices.com or call 812-235-8050.