A live launch without any excitement never generates the same big results as those who make their launches an experience. And that's exactly what the marketing team of the hit TV show The Traitors were able to do (I’m OBSESSED).
If you've seen the hit TV show the Traitors, or even just heard about it, you'll probably have known it was coming way before the new season launched. If you've not seen it, I urge you to get on it if you love mind games and social experiments. It's a lot of fun.
But as amazing as the show is, I'm here to talk about how great the marketing for the UK version was this year. They had me so excited, I was literally counting down the days until episode one this year.
So how did they do it?
And what can you do to replicate that level of excitement for launches in your online business?
Keep reading for my top tips.
Prefer to watch this instead? Watch it on YouTube here.
Put out branded teasers
The first thing they did was put out super short branded teasers to show that it was coming. This works because anyone who saw the show last year would have instantly recognized the little branded teaser of someone wearing the Traitors robe, and started talking about it sending it to their friends who love the show, adding to that viral element.
My mum sent it to me immediately. And I can tell you now I was excited. So this is the kind of thing we want to get going for your launches.
Media outlets then started writing articles and speculating when season two would be available as soon as that started happening, which continued the conversation. So how can you apply that to your online business? Because let's be honest, most people aren't gonna get quite as excited about your business as they would a TV show….
This tactic works best when you have an offer or something you're known for already. If you have a big audience, or at least an engaged audience, and a really strong brand, something that's instantly recognizable and instantly synonymous with you and what you offer. That's the kind of thing you want to put out to your audience before you even hint at the fact that you're launching.
This could be something like a cryptic social post saying something like coming soon, or it could even be just a countdown post without much other context. But maybe with some branding that's specific to your offer.
Or if email is your preferred marketing platform, then it could just be an email with a big hint and the PS line telling them that something secret or something exciting is coming and then give them an actual hint so they can get excited for the specific thing that's coming.
Whatever you do, the key is not selling at all. Remember, we just want to tease that idea. Keep it on brand and make sure it gets in front of your hottest audience.
Find the biggest captive audience you can
The second thing they did was putting all their biggest ads in front of the largest possible captive audience. They started promoting while Strictly Come Dancing, (the UK version of Dancing with the Stars, for all my US friends) while that was on the TV, and it has an average of 6.6 million viewers.
That's a lot of eyeballs.
They knew that if they wanted to have enough people see the trailors for The Traitors, they needed to put it in front of the people who would probably watch it - the people who already watched the channel’s other hits shows.
This is a smart tactic. The more eyes you can get on something, the more people are likely to pay attention, and also to sign up and take notice.
Now you may not have a strictly sized audience, but how can you leverage a captive audience of your ideal clients? Think about where they show up online and think about the places where they hang out in big groups.
Is there one specific industry podcast they all listen to, for example? Or are there YouTube channels or other influencers you can partner with in some way to get their eyes on your offer? This could be things like speaking at an event, or if there's any big publications that you know your audience read regularly, could you write a post or put an ad in there?
Or if you have a budget, use paid advertising on Facebook or Google or whatever that might look like?
Just experiment in some way here. Think about where the biggest pool of people that's going to be and target them there. These are just a few examples of how you can get more eyes on your offer before you launch. There are so many more ways you can do it. So have fun with it. Play around with it and get creative.
Give ‘em something to binge
One other thing I've really loved about The Traitors’ marketing strategy is that they brought out three episodes in one go so that people could binge them. People didn't want to wait one year for the new series to come around and then only be able to watch it for one hour. They wanted to sit there and they wanted to talk about it. They wanted to EXPERIENCE it.
So how can you do that with your offer? How can you show people that they're getting immediate value, as soon as they sign up, or as soon as they buy from you?
Once they start consuming information, you want them to continue to consume from you and learn from you. And most importantly, to get results so that they talk about you to other people as well, because this is the beauty of the show. It's an enjoyable watch. And everyone has different opinions about it, and everyone is talking about it. And so it creates this feeling of community and this feeling of being a part of something.
That's what you want to try and recreate with your offers.
So what can you offer to them? And what can you give them as soon as they sign up, that's going to create a similar level of buzz.
Could you:
Give them instant access to a course or program or certain lessons or resources.
Host a separate live call that they're able to attend with you where you're providing a whole different level of value.
Consider delivering a private podcast feed if they sign up immediately so that they can listen to your voice and get to know you
Set them up with a community or something where they can actually start those conversations
This all works because it’s something that they can talk about with their peers and other people who have joined the offer. These are all the things you need to be thinking about if you want to get people excited both before they join, and after they join as well.
Leave a trail of breadcrumbs
The final marketing tactic that I wanted to touch on here is that they didn't give all the information in one go. It started with those small teasers back in September, October last year. And every month more information was released, and slightly bigger teasers were released, and then a full trailer, and then the details about the cast.
So they didn't give everyone everything they wanted at once they kind of kept them guessing. We didn't even know exactly what date it was going to be released in the UK until really quite late in the game, so that kept the tension going and made sure that people were talking about it and checking in with their friends to see if anyone had any more information.
Now, you're probably not going to be able to recreate that in exactly the same way. But what I would suggest doing is think about what information they need at any one point before the cart opens in your launch, so that they have just enough information to get excited.
And then they get a bit more information. And then they get excited.
Think of it like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for them You want to give them just enough to keep them hooked. Every time you share something, you want to hook them in with something else and hook them in with something else.
So to start with, you want to keep them guessing about what offer is coming, or you want them to know, but you want them to have to try and figure it out. You don't want to tell them everything.
The next thing you might do is tell them the date that it's coming, and then get them to mark it in their calendars.
And then after that, finally, you could release some information about bonuses or content that you're going to be giving them if they sign up within the first few days of you launching.
Just having simple ideas like this, like two or three things that you can drop will help keep your audience a little bit more engaged during that process and have them guessing and engaging in the comments and asking you questions, which is what you want.
All of that stuff is going to help either your social media algorithms, or it's going to help you just kind of feed off that excitement and get a sense that people want what you're offering.
If you want more information on how to implement a marketing strategy that's going to generate wild amount of buzz, just like The Traitors, one of my favorite ways to generate buzz and interest and excitement for launch is to use a waitlist strategy.
If you want to know the ins and outs of how to do that, get all the details here.