Launching online is undoubtedly the best way to monetize your product or service, in any niche or industry.
Marco Scabia, the leading online launch expert we have in Italy-and official licensee of Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula-explains in this interview what it means to launch and why you should use this incredible and complex strategy of web marketing.
Marco will be a speaker at Authoritativeness LIVE 2019!
Useful resources:
Introduction to Marco Scabia
Marco Scabia is a very dear friend of mine and what I can call, as he once called me, my personal "mastermind." Marco and I have known each other live since 2014, we had met I think a year - a year and a half before online.
Both of us were students of Jeff Walker, him more than me because he is part of his Super Mastermind Platinum and he is the one in Italy who is the official licensee of Product Launch Formula.
In this interview, Marco tells us how he is launching Product Launch Formula in Italy (where it is called Launch Formula), and shows us some very interesting insights just about launching techniques and why you need to launch today. Sigla.
Valerio: Good morning everyone and welcome back, I am Valerio Fioretti from Valerio.it and today I have the pleasure of having my very dear friend Marco Scabia here with us. Hi Marco.
An engineer doing web marketing
Marco: Hello Valerio, hello everybody. Thank you for having me in this interview, it's a pleasure to be here.
Valerio: Perfect. So, Marco Scabia, I'll make a very short introduction, then maybe you add. Marco Scabia is an engineer who has lent himself, or rather, has now completely relied, on the web marketing, and is the "standard-bearer" in Italy for Jeff Walker of Product Launch Formula.
Mark: Exactly, exactly. Product Launch Formula or Launch Formula.
Valerio: In what does the Launch Formula, what is it?
Mark: The Launch Formula is a methodology, a strategy that was invented by the famous Jeff Walker in the United States first of all for himself. It was invented in the late 1990s, I think '96 - '97.
Jeff Walker came up with this way to sell his products; he wanted to create a business. He created his business using this strategy.
He did a bit of the typical mad scientist thing: he made it up for himself and got results, then he thought that everyone, more or less, was using this same thing to sell products and services online, but when he went to tell his acquaintances (who maybe were in marketing) what he was doing, he realized that he had actually come up with the famous six-in-seven "6-figure launch", that is, the launch in which it had generated $100,000 and more in one week.
He thought it was a normal thing, then he realized that actually, from what others were saying, it was not a normal thing, not everyone gets these kinds of results. So in 2005 Jeff started teaching this method to everyone. From there the rest became history.
Valerio: Absolutely.
Mark: A possibly more effective way, indeed, from my point of view certainly more effective than selling products and services online
Who can use Launch Formula?
Valerio: Okay. Can any kind of product, any kind of service, make use of the Launch Formula strategy?
Mark: Good question. I can say that the Launch Formula is... I go regularly... We met for the first time just in the United States....
Valerio: In 2014.
Marco: We met through Formula of Launch, through Jeff Walker, then this beautiful friendship was born. I regularly go to these Jeff events, attend Jeff's mastermind. Over the years I have met thousands of entrepreneurs in the most incredible niches.
Sometimes, really, we have found ourselves, you and I, Valerio, chatting and almost being amazed at what people can sell with the Launch Formula. Last year I had found one person selling mazes with the Launch Formula.
Valerio: What do you sell?
Mark: LABIRINTS. Meaning.
Valerio: Labyrinths? Labyrinths?
Mark: Real. I mean-and he wasn't a crazy person. Walking labyrinths is one of the simplest and most natural forms of meditation, okay?
I found that there are people who do meditation by going around the world finding labyrinths and meditating in them. So, this person, after he discovered 'this thing, went to a great master who taught him how to build labyrinths, and he made it his mission to build labyrinths around the world.
This is his message, the way he wants to change the world. He, therefore, uses the Launch Formula to sell to the various institutions, entities, places where he believes it is possible to install a labyrinth.
He sells this idea. Okay, it's an extreme case, not everyone gets into selling mazes....
Valerio: Sure.
Mark: ...however, this is to make the point. With the Launch Formula you sell anything, why?
Because it is a method of communication that allows you to create great value and bring people, in a natural way, to be convinced, persuaded, that what you are offering is really something that has value and can change the lives of people who are, of course, the targets.
It is not a brainwashing strategy; it is a way of launching. It is simply a way to communicate the true value of what you are offering to people who are interested.
Valerio: Beautiful, beautiful. I remember 2014, when we met. I met, even there, people who at that time I thought it was absurd could use Launch Formula to launch their product.
I remember I had a guy behind me who was a beekeeper and he was selling the system to have his own hive at home, and then raise bees behind the house, in the backyard.
So, there's really everything, it's not -- this is a mistake that a lot of people make, they think that Launch Formula is dedicated to internet marketers for the internet marketing industry. Actually, it is just a strategy, a tool, like any other type of advertising or otherwise promotion or communication can be, as you were saying.
It can be applied to anything we want.
Launch Formula, however, also has different modes of launching, doesn't it?
There are different ways to launch, there is no one way, one model. You, these days, are launching through live streaming: can you tell us more about that?
Launch Strategies
Mark: These days I am getting what is called a Launch Masterclass, so I have back here the where I wrote "Lesson 2."
When recording this interview ... I just gave Lesson 1 of this Launch Masterclass, which is a launch for my official Launch Formula coaching program, and next Monday we will have Lesson 2.
This is a type of launching, I am implementing this launching through live streaming, through live classes, where one of the pillars of the Launch Formula is just to say "look, I give you so much value .
I give you so much value even before you buy anything from me. I solve problems for you, I give you content that somehow changes your life.
After that, after I have given you this great content, after I have done my best to give you content, I give you the opportunity, only at that point there, to move on."
That's what I'm doing these days with these live feeds. You can do it with live feeds, with videos, with ebooks, with phone calls.
You can do it by going... I mean, when you want to get your children (which I sometimes do) to do their homework, you don't have to put a video on the web to do that...
Valerio: Sure.
Mark: ...you can use the Launch Formula to get your children to do their homework. It is a communication mechanism. This is a possible and sometimes very effective way, because people, I have seen, are really participating in these directs.
They are involved, they are enjoying the content so much.
So I take this opportunity to appeal to everyone who is following and will probably see this video before class No. 2: come and watch, because the idea is to give value.
What you get from the Launch Formula
Valerio: Sure. Sure, sure. Look, what is the promise that Jeff makes and that you make to those who then fully follow the Launch Formula strategy?
One has to study.
So, I've been in Jeff Walker's class I think since 2008 - 2009, I don't remember.
Every year I renew, every year I take the upgrade, I study it all the time, and it's challenging because still it's so much stuff that you have to assimilate and then put into practice. You definitely make mistakes.
Those who follow Launch Formula have you as a mentor, so they know they are well followed and have important support. What is the promise, however? "I study the whole strategy of Launch Formula and at that point I am able to...?"
Mark: The promise is a promise that changes a little bit depending on the type of person who is taking that Formula course. There are various types of people who may decide to use the Launch Formula.
A first type of person is the person who does not have an online business yet, is not doing online business but wants to have it. The Launch Formula allows you to go and create a real online business from scratch, where you get to have your own products, you get to launch them, you get to have created your own business.
The second type of person is one who already has an online business, who is already selling products, online services of some kind, and wants to increase, in some way, sales of their products. We talked about. six-in-seven (the "6-figure" launch in one week), and there is also the seven-in-seven, (the "7-figure" launch), that produces one million dollars, one million euros in one week.
We have seen many of these.
The promise that the Launch Formula, the use of this type of strategy, makes to people who come in to do a launch of this size is to say, "Look, I'm going to bill in a week (which is the typical length of time for a launch, of opening the cart) the revenue that you would normally generate in a year.
Valerio: Sure. Sure, sure. You were also recently the host in Brazil of a platform that hosts the products of many marketers, many digital entrepreneurs, who then use the Launch Formula to launch their products. In a way, you represented Jeff Walker, for Italy you were -- you were 3 or 4 in the world, you were really an elite.
Tell us something, how many people were there, what stuff...?
In Brazil it must be, I imagine, a space thing.
Marco: It has been a wonderful experience, first of all because in Brazil the Launch Formula and digital marketing in general are literally running rampant. They're at a level of penetration and interest by the whole population that not only exceeds the level we're at in Italy, it probably even exceeds the level they've come to be at in the United States.
I was invited by this very very interesting platform called Hotmart, which originated in Brazil and is expanding to various parts of the world.
They held this event where there were over 3,000 people in attendance, and I was invited to speak on the stage along with only the other 3 Launch Formula exponents in the world operating in the various countries, countries other than the United States.
So Jeff Walker was not there, he could not come because he was under launch, he was doing his annual launch and could not be there.
There was, however, who is a very famous Launch Formula manager in Brazil, there was, who is responsible for Brazil, and there was Luis Carlos Flores, who is responsible for the Spanish language. We were the only 4 representatives in the world of Launch Formula for our respective countries, it was beautiful.
Valerio: How many people were there?
Mark: There were more halls-there were about 1,500 people.
Valerio: 1500 people, for an event of how many people? 3000? 4000?
Mark: 3500.
Valerio: 3500 people, okay, great. So, the Launch Formula is not an American or even an Italian phenomenon, it's a planetary phenomenon.
It's a strategy used by so many people, and that has its reason. I use Launch Formula strategies myself; I use them for everything I do.
You will also be a speaker, as you are every year, at my annual Authoritativeness LIVE (which this year is in Rimini on October 25, 26 and 27), where I will bring in detail, this year, strategies and directions for creating 4 types of businesses based on online courses, membership and community, and high ticket products. High ticket products are all those products that cost -- I don't know, a high ticket, for each one, is always very subjective.
I have known people for whom high tickets were 200 euros. Let's say a high ticket is above 1000 euros, or from 2000 euros. I will also talk about how to sell and create, especially how to sell services, consulting and coaching online.
On those 4 pillars, how do you see the Launch Formula strategy, stronger or more important? How--maybe if you want to give us some advice--I think.
Look, memberships are going so much now.
Lately people have been going crazy about memberships, which are, in my opinion, the most difficult product to create and manage because they require constant and continuous effort.
Now I'm going to ask you a question (of course this interview was hardly agreed upon, so I'm taking you a little off guard).
How do you see Launch Formula applied to the sale of a membership, or community, recurring fee?
Membership Launch Formula
Marco: Interesting question. By the way, I take the opportunity to say that we saw each other, Valerio and I, just before this thing, this interview, and I asked him, "What are we talking about?"
These are point-blank questions. So, a question about membership, it's very very interesting. It's a type of product that's very much in vogue, just in Brazil (where I was just), there was a wonderful talk by Stu McLaren who is...I don't know...
Valerio: Stu McLaren. I remember WishList Member, with which I launched my first products in 2009 - 2010, something like that.
I launched them with WishList Member from WordPress, which he then sold.
Mark: He sold WishList Members because he wanted to devote himself to creating his current business, based on the very popular Tribe program. With Tribe, what Stu McLaren does is just teach, he has become the benchmark as far as membership is concerned.
He gave a wonderful talk just on membership, and one of the reasons (certainly not the only reason) why membership is becoming so popular is probably also the great success, the great penetration of Stu McLaren's message.
Stu McLaren is one of the key players in the Launch Formula world, meaning he, from a marketing perspective, was born and raised there.
It's always been there and in Jeff Walker's Platinum... It's one of the elements of the Launch Formula, so much so that if you go and look at what Stu McLaren says in his Tribe course, he says, "yes, it's true, membership is a hard sell.
It is a difficult product to sell because people don't willingly subscribe to something, they don't willingly pay for something on a recurring basis. Membership is a hard sell, so the absolute best way to sell a membership is to make a pitch.
You need a pitch when you need strength, break through, how much do you need to get to say, 'I'm going to convince a person that my offer is something really quality, that it can be a good fit for them, I'm going to let them experience firsthand how good a choice it can be for them to get to buy my offer.'"
Valerio: Sure.
Marco: There is work: making a launch, as you rightly said, Valerio, is work, you don't do it to say, "ah look, I do one thing," and in one afternoon I made my launch, no.
It's a matter of rolling up your sleeves and making a pitch, and the benefits are enormous. You can, precisely, effectively sell even a web, a membership, which then translates into saying, "Look, I've created a path."
Why is membership so fashionable, so effective? Because it is work but it is also...
The moment you start having a package of customers who have signed up for membership, we have, at that point, recurring revenue for our business.
We don't have to keep selling every month, it is enough....
Clearly, every month there will be someone who will leave the membership....
... that we import people who leave, however, we have something, a machine, that is more under control from the point of view of income and expenditure of our business.
Valerio: Excellent. Great, great, great, great. Yes, the churn rate, that is, the churn rate of subscriptions (which is there), is a fairly physiological decay, only if however, we then, increase month to month with new launches, new strategies to get people in (otherwise then you go, of course, to extinguish this thing).
Okay, thank you Marco. Look, I'm really happy, because the last interview I did with you was 4 years ago, so it was obvious that I was interviewing you, even though we talk practically every 2 or 3 days. Just a reminder, everyone, of Marco Scabia's Launch Formula Masterclass.
These days I'm going to put this interview in the PODCAST and lots of other places right away, along with the link so you can subscribe for free and see the Masterclasses these days and also the ones just passed; you can access the recordings.
Then consider, carefully, getting into the Launch Formula program, because, really, for me it made all the difference, it's what allowed me to go from a severe crisis situation to an optimal business situation.
Then, of course, see you at the end of October in Rimini with Marco, who will be one of my "influential" guests at Authoritativeness LIVE. Thank you Marco, thank you for being with us.
Marco: Thank you Valerio, thank you all for following this interview. I look forward to seeing you at the Launch Masterclass.
Valerio: A greeting, hello!