What do you think is the reason for the success of Apple?

Is it their products?

Or, is it their marketing?

You might be surprised to know that a lot of their success is due to their brilliant strategy for marketing their products.

If you had the chance, would you like to learn their strategies?

Steve Chazin, a former employee of Apple, has put together a free ebook that gives you 5 of Apple’s most powerful marketing ideas.

You can download it here: www.MarketingApple.com

Don’t be daft and think it has no relevance to your product or service.

It does. And if you don’t read it and apply the lessons you’re missing out on something phenomenal.

WIth all the hype surrounding product launches lately, and so many people complaining how evil launches are I thought the best thing to do was to get the Devil himself to tell us how to run a truly evil launch.

This is what he had to say:

1- Have at least one forced continuity ‘offer’. Don’t worry about the fine print telling people exactly how to cancel, nobody reads it anyway.

2 – Have all your guru mates spam, er I mean email, their list with the exact same email copy. People aren’t on more than one email list so they will never know.

3 – Don’t forget to manufacture some scarcity. Everyone knows that you can only view a PDF 2000 times before it blows up right?

4 – Be ‘honest’ and ‘upfront’ and admit that yes you’re going to be selling something. People will feel a real connection with you for being honest and than be more likely to buy from you.

5 – Always have a server crash on launch day. Of course you don’t actually have a server crash, just create an error page and upload it.

6 – Manufacture demand for your product by telling people how much more their lives will suck if they don’t buy it. Don’t rely on people actually wanting your product, most people don’t know what they really want anyway

7 – Create anticipation by telling people you will be solving all their problems if they just buy your shiny new pill. No one will actually swallow the pill so they’ll never know it didn’t actually work.

8 – You don’t need to be well known or have an established presence in the market before the launch. Start a blog the week before and become buddies with the real market leaders by inviting them to an all expenses paid trip to Vegas. After that they’ll recommend you to God himself.

9 – If you’re promoting someone else’s launch be sure to giveaway your most expensive product that other’s have paid many thousands of dollars for as a bonus. People like this, they see it as getting a ‘great deal’.

You might not know who Justin Bieber is, or you might be his number fan. Love him or hate him, it doesn’t matter. This article isn’t about him. It’s about you and how you can be the Justin Bieber of your market.

Why would you want that?

Justin Bieber is currently the hottest pop star on the planet. With 167,138,582 views of his videos on YouTube, over 1.9 million followers on Twitter and 2,799,344 fans on Facebook (that’s more than Britney Spears has, remember who she is?) he was a guest on Saturday Night Live last weekend and he is only 16.

Maybe you don’t want a billion teenage girls to friend you on Facebook, but becoming the celebrity in your market is definitely something you want to aspire to. So here are 7 ways you can become like Justin.

1. Target the right market. Do you think Justin would have any success if he recorded an album targeted at Metallica fans? Think about what you’re offering and who really wants it.

2. Connect with your audience. Don’t sit in your ivory tower and look down on your subjects. These days it’s not hard to do build a relationship with your fans. Get a Twitter account and start tweeting.

3. Give your audience some of your content without having to buy. If you’re a writer, giveaway a free chapter of your book. If you’re a band put some of your music on your website for your fans to enjoy. People appreciate it and it builds reciprocity, so when they come to actually spending money they will go with your product.

4. Name your gang. On social media sites people are referring to Justin’s fans as ‘Biebers’. Is there a term you can coin that gives your followers a title or a group name?

5. Create some fan merchandise. Create an accessory, t-shirt or social badge that all your loyal fans can wear or place on their networking site so they can show the world they are a fan.

6. Encourage your fans to interact with each other. People love to communicate with others who with the same interests as them. It shows them they’re not alone if their love for wearing lederhosen, or whatever it is you sell. Start a forum or a Facebook page so your fans can get together.

7. Be seen with other market leaders. Having Usher as his BFF (best friend forever) certainly helped propel Justin to where he is today. Who can you align with in your marketplace to increase your authority, or cool factor?

Follow these steps and maybe one day you too will have be on the cover of People magazine. Or Miniature Donkey Talk magazine.