🔌 Your launch plan needs a pre-launch plan

In partnership with

👋🏾 Hey Hey y’all, you’re gonna need to take notes for this one! Grab ya pen!

• The secret to not launching to crickets 🔑 

• Kendrick had a launch plan this whole time 📓

• How Oprah really got rich 🔥 

• I’ve got Kendrick’s latest album right here for ya 🎵

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📣 THE MANIFESTO 📣

These are the House Rules! Get into it.
And when you’re ready…memorize it so you know its real!

I AM A STRAIGHT UP ORIGINAL™.

I am unapologetic in my beliefs and obedient to my gifts.

I do everything with intention because I am passionate about my assignment.

I cannot stand cookie cutter…I value MY story. 

And I do not ask permission.

I control my own narrative.

🔑 MAJOR KEYS 🔑 

Some folks are gonna see Kendrick Lamar’s album drop yesterday and swear it’s evidence that you can just drop your next project and it’ll work. Easy peasy.

If that’s you, please keep reading because I’m about to break down Kendrick’s pre-launch plan 👀

If you’ve got a new book or movie coming out, that would look like a press run.

If you’ve got new music coming out, that might look like radio singles and behind-the-scenes content.

If you sell courses or programs, that could look like a free quiz or low ticket funnel for lead generation.

And if you’re Kendrick Lamar, that would look like six months of brand awareness.

YES, a pre-launch plan improves your brand awareness. But it also leads right into your offer. They work together.

It’s a way to keep you top of mind.

A way to ensure you don’t launch to crickets.

A way to have people waiting at the gate the way we used to wait at Walmart on Black Friday.

And the cool thing is, a pre-launch grows your audience, so even the folks who don’t buy from you will still be around to be nurtured for the next time around! 

Let’s break down what we learned from Kendrick’s launch playbook this year.

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📓 THE KENDRICK LAMAR PLAYBOOK 📓

1) Be polarizing.
In March, Kendrick picked a fight that arguably had been a long time coming. What we can take from that is this : Your message is YOURS and it’s only for your audience. If it pushes some people away? Good. In fact, it should.

Every message ain’t for everybody, and that’s exactly why it’s gonna piss some folks off.

Let it. 

2) Do your (market) research.
He studied his opponent, and knew what he would say and when he would say it. He was able to use that info to create more calculated lyrics and drop music at strategically planned times (such as dropping “Meet The Grahams” just an hour after Drake’s “Family Matters”, immediately stepping on Drake’s best song from the beef).

This tells us that you can plan strategic moves based on the actions of your “competitors”. But let’s go even deeper.

When we use the Dope + Different® Brand Method, we study our peers only to determine what they don’t do…so we can find the gap and make it our own!

Who aren’t they serving? What is their audience not getting? 

Kendrick knew his audience was into breaking down his lyrics and finding the double- and triple-entendres…so he gave them to us. 

When your audience is truly satisfied they become your brand ambassadors. Which brings us to my next observation…

3) Drop an intentional freebie.
For instance, if you’re selling a book, give out the first chapter for free, in exchange for their email address. That way, your new subscriber gets nurtured by the exact offer you’ll be selling them! 

Or, if you really wanna to leave an impression, make your freebie a quiz, but give them a deliverable for their result, instead of just a paragraph on a webpage 👀 It’s two freebies in one! (I go more into this in my proprietary Quiz Booster Blueprint…the course is on sale now!)

Kendrick’s freebie was the snippet of a new song he included at the beginning of his “Not Like Us” video. Fans affectionately named it “Broccoli” but turns out, it’s from the song “Squabble Up” off of the album GNX, released yesterday.

Fans have been waiting for this one you hear me?! He opened a loop on July 4th when we first saw the snippet and closed it yesterday.

(Check out last week’s article for more on opening and closing loops in your content).

Moral of the story? Do different shit during your pre-launch and do it for free.

4) Use affiliates.
Kendrick also left it to his audience to be his mouth piece. There were no post and deletes on Twitter…no vague IG stories to state his case. 

It was all in the music.

Every piece of your funnel has one job. That means that your offer must serve its purpose, or the entire funnel won’t work. 

And when the offer works, people will sell it for you.

The problem here for Kendrick? He had nothing to sell.

Or did he 🧐

(Turns out he did. GNX would drop 8 months later to the day from his Like That feature.) 

5) Nostalgia wins again.
GNX is an ode to the old school.

From the GNX car (a 1987 classic) to samples from Debbie Deb, Whodini, Nas, 2Pac, Luther Vandross and SWV.

It’s literally a 45-minute ride through the ‘80s with your favorite mixtape in the tape deck.

And as we’ve discussed before, nostalgia is an instant hack to make your brand more memorable.

Try it!

6) Drop seeds for your other offers.
Next up for Kendrick is Super Bowl LIX in February 2025, which we already know because of the commercial that has already dropped.

So yes, we have a little over 2 months to live with the music before the big event, and we’re already pumped about it, because that’s what happens when your audience has something to look forward to!

We plan. We question. We TikTok lol.

It’s very much like the follow-up email sequence you receive after you register for your webinar but before the actual event. 

Having a seed to hold onto ensures you show up for the real thing. 

Even this album is a part of Kendrick’s follow-up sequence 🤯

This can be a bit advanced for some, because the goal is definitely not to sell more than one thing at once…but dropping seeds in your content makes inquiring minds wonder, and that curiosity is a good thing!

Normally during a launch, you’ll find that your other services and products sell more too, simply because they live in the same ecosystem.

Think of your offer suite like a store.

Your focus product(s) go up front in the window, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the store can’t be bought 😉

Your folks are milling around the store, looking for something else to go with what they’re buying. Some folks can’t buy what’s out front, but they can find something on the clearance rack that’ll satisfy them. Upsell, anyone??

Now, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be expecting Kendrick to get even more advanced and wrap all this up with another project on the heels of the Super Bowl halftime show, like Beyonce did effortlessly in 2016 👀

What will it be?? Another album? (the streets say yep!)

A tour announcement?

Something to do with his new movie?

For now, we enjoy the music and we wait. And should there be another project, meet me back here so we can discuss all the launch details. I’ll be waiting!

🔥 YOU’VE GOTTA SEE THIS 🔥

A clip that made the rounds this week that you must take with you on your journey.

Oprah loves being underestimated. Get like Oprah 😊

vsgent

View more on Instagram

TLDR : Make your weakness your strength.

🎵 ISSA VIBE 🎵

If you’re gonna be coming up with dope ass ideas and strategies, you’re gonna need some dope ass music to inspire you! Here’s a tune that I’ve got on replay this week.

No other words necessary. Hit the link below to hear Kendrick’s new album 👇🏾

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