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Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition by [Michael A. Stelzner]

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Michael A. Stelzner

Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition Kindle Edition

by Michael A. Stelzner (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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If you've been let down by the undelivered promises of marketing, this book is for you. Launch reveals a new way to grow your business that involves focusing on the needs of others, giving gifts, working with outsiders, and restraining your marketing messages. These principles are precisely the opposite of traditional marketing. Yet they work. And they are the future. If you follow the formula outlined in this book, you can attract countless customers and prospects, resulting in amazing business growth.

This book will show you how to:

Create highly sharable content that meets people's needs
Identify and work with outside experts, many of whom will gladly promote your content
Attract and retain raving fans that will help your business grow
Creatively market and sell to people who will gladly purchase your products and services

Launch isn't like other marketing books. Rather than making keen observations about others who’ve achieved success, the ideas and principles in this book were developed, refined, and practiced by the author to great success. Pick up a copy for yourself and one for a friend.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Wiley
Publication date

May 23, 2011
File size

3124 KB
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Michael Stelzner
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"What Stelzner shares here is proven! He's already built a community that propelled his brand not only beyond the competition, but ahead of an entire industry." Brian Solis, author of Engage! --From book

"This isn't a book about marketing; it's about human nature. Understand that and you've unlocked the key to your success." Scott Monty, Head of social media at Ford Motor Company
--from book

"Launch is your road map to success in an ever-changing world." Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment --from book

"If you're looking for a better way to reach the business heights you've only dreamed of, start reading Launch." David Meerman Scott, author of Real-Time Marketing & PR --from book

"I only believe what I've read in Launch because I've watched Michael Stelzner do it himself. It works." Chris Brogan, President, HumanBusinessWorks.com and co-author of Trust Agents --from book --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

In order to rocket your business to stellar growth and far-reaching recognition, you're going to need plenty of fuel—nuclear fuel to thrust you beyond the pull of gravity and primary fuel to keep you moving forward. And what's that fuel made out of? Content.

Launch provides a detailed recipe for the most combustible content—rich, magnetic content that attracts people and opportunities. This special content helps you access the most influential experts in your industry and earns the trust and loyalty of people—and to earn that trust, you'll need to pack away your marketing messages. Primary fuel, the regularly produced free content that meets the needs of your readers, is a gift that keeps people coming back and cultivates raving fans. Carefully designed and highly targeted nuclear fuel—content that has a big impact—leaves a lasting impression on people and rockets your industry recognition.

Launch delivers field-tested guidance on how to create the most compelling content, and then leverage that content for maximum velocity—while gaining the support of top experts in your industry. You'll find step-by-step instruction, including how to:

Develop an outward-focused mindset that inspires the content creation process
Identify role models that could become tomorrow's strategic partners
Build relationships with outside experts who'll gladly help you grow your business
Employ social proof so visitors turn into faithful fans
Implement the ten most effective types of content—the fuel of your business
Discover new ways to market that don't repel people, but actually engage them

Every marketer throws around the word "content," but few have mastered the art and science of creating useful, thought-provoking, and viral content. Launch delivers the inspiration, encouragement, examples, and know-how you need to boost your brand to new heights and send your rocket ship to undiscovered galaxies.

--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

Develop an outward-focused mindset that inspires the content creation process
Identify role models that could become tomorrow's strategic partners
Build relationships with outside experts who'll gladly help you grow your business
Employ social proof so visitors turn into faithful fans
Implement the ten most effective types of content—the fuel of your business
Discover new ways to market that don't repel people, but actually engage them

--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

Michael A. Stelzner is the founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com — a popular online magazine that helps businesses answer social media questions with useful how-to articles, in-depth case studies, expert interviews, and original research. He also authored the book Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged, and is the man behind several large professional development conferences such as the Social Media Success Summit. --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005526E30
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 1st edition (May 23, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 23, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3124 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #641,025 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,625 in Marketing (Kindle Store)
- #4,852 in Marketing (Books)

Customer Reviews:
124 ratings

About the author

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Michael A. Stelzner

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Michael Stelzner is the founder of Social Media Examiner, author of the books Launch and Writing White Papers, and the man behind large events, such as Social Media Marketing World. He is also host of the Social Media Marketing podcast, founder of the Social Media Marketing Society, and host of the weekly Morning Social Media Marketing Talk Show.

Twitter: http://Twitter.com/mike_stelzner

Facebook: http://Facebook.com/smexaminer

Customer reviews

5 star		86%
4 star		5%
3 star		2%
2 star		7%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Kimberly D. Gauthier

A Must Read if Your Building an Online Presence

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2011

Verified Purchase

I write a three blogs - photography | blogging | dogs. At first, I was writing for fun, but after receiving some success, I decided to take it seriously and turn my blog into a full time business. A Marketing/LOA coach I was working with recommended Launch to me. I bought it immediately and devoured it in no time, highlighter in hand. This is a must read if you're trying to build an online presence.

Michael Stelzner shares how he built Social Media Examiner into the powerhouse that it is today and his tips are easy to put into practice and I've already seen improvements in my blog based on what I learned in this book. Launch is an easy read, very engaging, and full of fantastic information. I've added it to my short stack of reference books that includes ProBlogger's book about monetizing your blog.

When I was reading this book I was putting new things into practice with my blogs and seeing immediate results. It's a fantastic game changer if you're serious about blogging. It doesn't matter if you're goal is to monetize your blog or just to build your audience; you'll find an amazing amount of valuable information in this book.

When I started reading Launch, I was writing one blog; today, I write three blogs that are growing steadily in thanks to many tools that I picked up in Michael Stelzner's book.

I've read the book twice and (stalker) downloaded it to my Kindle Fire to review it at my leisure.

Kimberly

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Dr. Chuck J. Rylant

Very generous offer for less than $20

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2011

Verified Purchase

Imagine taking your business from $0 to over $1,000,000 (one million) in revenue in 12 months. Imagine doing this with an online business starting from zero and growing to 40,000 e-mail subscribers and becoming one of the top ranked business blogs. This seems impossible - but it's not. Here's how.

1) Create a ton of incredible content and give it away free.

2) Get industry experts to share more free content. Experts will gladly share their message to get publicity for their own business.

This is how Michael Stelzner did it when he launched Social Media Examiner in 2009, which quickly became one of the top social media websites on the Internet. In his book Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, he explains in great detail, step-by-step, how he used free content and expert contributors to grow his business from $0 to over $1,000,000 in one year- a very generous offer for less than $20.

Social Media Examiner is a great model to follow for your online presence. In theory, you could follow the exact model set out in Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition and create a similar online business and likely get similar results, or you can follow pieces of it to create a successful web presence for your offline business.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

CK Syme

The Right Book at the Right Time

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2011

Verified Purchase

I bought this book initially because the author is a ghost mentor--a person you have never met but has impacted your personal philosophy tremendously.

Stelzner is the owner and operator of the highly successful blog, Social Media Examiner and online Success Summits. I have retweeted and posted pieces from that blog more than any other I read. I've attended two of his online summits. So when he wrote a book, which is basically a personal case study of his business methods, I snapped it up.

If you are a marketer, a communications person, a business owner or entrepreneur, this book will be an inspiration. Stelzner expertly walks the reader through an easy-to-understand process of growing a business using "un-marketing principles." In an almost apologetic fashion, he talks about how he made a goal not to sell any product on his website until he had collected 10,000 email addresses by offering relevant, helpful, free content that solved the problems of his readers. And Social Media Examiner is still doing that today along with offering some of the most popular social media/marketing webinars and content on the planet.

The book is loaded with all my favorite stuff: data, case studies and formulas. It is thought leadership with legs. Pick it up, read it, and pass it on.

Originally posted on my blog at [...]

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jeannette Koczela

Content Marketing Hero

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2015

Verified Purchase

Michael A. Stelzner’s new book “Launch” outlines an exact procedure to follow to ride the wave of content marketing. Stelzner states that the premise behind content marketing is that if you solve people’s small problems, many of them will come to you to help them solve their big problems.

Savvy solopreneurs realized early on that such was the case---you have to produce tons of content to grab people’s interest, stand out from the crowd, and build a list of followers who, hopefully are your correct target market and will eventually purchase your service. And that’s where the problem comes in---how to find the time and energy to be constantly producing content. That’s where Stelzner comes to the rescue!

His elevation principle kills two birds with one stone by building relationships with your list, and also building relationships with your colleagues for future long-term benefits and business growth.

This principle is a dramatic shift from the standard business model of “What can you sell?” to a new paradigm of how can you help potential clients by boosting others? Rather than trying to get your message out to as many places as possible, you create your own hub of information sharing, experiences, and a tribe of fans. The result is that you own a space where your peeps can go to find help, instead of using the standard ways of marketing to reach them.

The book purports two kinds of content or “fuel” to launch your rocket/business. Those two types of content are the meat of his strategy and it should be a part of any business marketing plan.

I have begun using his strategy and it has made my sales increase, and my sales conversations easier, because I have already laid the groundwork by nurturing relationships with great content that I didn’t necessarily have to create myself. Stelzner has made the entrepreneur’s job much easier, and I highly recommend that this book be a part of your library.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Tara

Great Comprehensive Advice

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2011

Verified Purchase

I absolutely loved this book. Having been a blogger for several years this book really pushes the idea about the best way to build trust and a loyal following through good content in order to eventually market your product or service. Unlike most books though it took it one step further and gives you a complete strategy on the types of content to produce, when and how much marketing you should or should not include to get the best results. It also talks about leveraging experts in your niche to mutual benefit, they provide you content your audience will love and in turn they receive extra exposure. This is a book you will want to make notes from and will definitely refer back to.

One person found this helpful

Mike

omg a business book I finally agree with!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2013

Verified Purchase

I'm normally very wary of business books, and avoid them like the plague. I love to be informed and inspired by a multitude of material. Most business books though leave me arguing with the authors concepts and thinking "could be useful, but I feel I hate it, and I think my customers will too!" Or they tell you the obvious. As I'm starting a new business I'm a bit more open to a wider range of new ideas and I saw this book mentioned somewhere so I got the Kindle version.

I've found nothing to argue about, nothing that I think my customers will hate. The book is full of great ideas. Inspirations and the grit of where Michael failed and what worked for him. Backed up by suggestions to help you find the things that will work for your customers because they are different to his. He seems to genuinely want to help you to find your own path.

I don't agree with all he says, but the book has been genuinely thought provoking and my business plan has been tweaked accordingly. Thanks Michael.

Louise Barnes-Johnston

A great guide for small online businesses

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2012

Verified Purchase

The author writes from personal experience, and details the steps taken to launch the Social Media Examiner website as well as how it became a success so quickly.

The book is divided into nine chapters, with headings including "Rockets don't fly themselves"; "Starting your mission plan"; "Making Content the Fuel of your Marketing"; and "Creating & Using Nuclear Fuel" - amongst others. In addition there are several appendices containing examples, case studies and interviews.

I found the rocket launch metaphor a little wearing after a while, but the advice and content provided by this book are very helpful. The main message is about the importance of providing plenty of valuable content, free of charge, as an online marketing strategy.

One person found this helpful

Ian Cleary

Fantastic book, have implemented suggestions and it has benefitted my business significantly

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 8, 2012

Verified Purchase

The media could not be loaded.

Check out my video review. A fantastic book, well worth the read.

One person found this helpful

f429b24823c70b1c

Waste of time

Reviewed in Canada on October 27, 2015

Verified Purchase