GOAL DIGGER

Launch Secrets Inside: No Live Webinar Required

Jenna Kutcher 

posted by:

Previous Post

«

NEXT POST

»

April 27, 2022

•  

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher

I was recently at a mastermind dinner with a bunch of entrepreneurs and we had to go around the room and just say what we are good at and where we’d be willing to support others in the room and I shared about how I’m an exceptional “lazy launcher.” And when I say “lazy” here, I don’t mean it in a bad way or with a negative connotation, I just mean, I am good at getting results without having to trade a ton of my life for it. 

It’s no surprise that right now I’m in this season of life where I want to focus on the needle movers and prioritize projects that require less effort but still generate results – not just short term, but long term as well! 

That’s why in today’s episode I’m going to share something new that we experimented with last year, something I’ve coined “lazy launching” again – with lazy being a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. I’ll share how we generated over $50,000 in one week without a ton of work, how we created an evergreen campaign that makes us money with we sleep and why this method of launching might be smart for you if you’re in a busy season. 

Why We Couldn’t (or Wouldn’t) Live Launch

Some people LOVE the energy of live launching and live trainings and the high stakes feeling of laying it all on the line but for those of you who have hives just thinking about live webinars or maybe you don’t have the capacity to deal with all the moving parts of a live launch in this season of your business or life, let’s talk about another way. An easier way, a lighter lift, let’s talk about my “lazy” or soft launch strategy. 

So this past fall, before I had Quinn, we launched The Podcast Lab to my audience. The Podcast Lab is my proven, 5-step stress-busting system and process to plan, create, launch, promote, scale, and monetize your podcast in just 30 Days. I knew I wanted to approach it differently since I was about to give birth any day and I knew I didn’t have the energy or the bandwidth to host a bunch of live trainings and keep up with each phase of the launch with the energy it would require. 

I had two options: skip the launch or do it in a new way! So instead of scrapping the launch all together, I decided to try something different. I wanted to do something to get my program in front of our audience and a topic covered on our platforms without requiring all hands on deck or all of the live components a regular launch demands. 

Reviewing the Course Itself

First we took the time to update and refresh the course, the workbook and all the supplemental information. This is something I do with every program before I launch! We do a full review and overhaul of the program, make sure everything is current and up to date, and add in any new content that my students might need. 

We always take the time to comb through reviews, questions and testimonials and see if we can find any gaps  or opportunities for additions. This process always takes a bit but I seriously think it makes a massive impact in our courses and it also helps us continue to serve past students with relevant updates that can continue to serve them. 

With our full review of the program, we found a few places we could improve or streamline the content, a few spots where we could add in lessons to walk through different needs, and we even re-designed some of the freebies to make them prettier and easier to use. It’s important that doing something like this IS a part of your launch because far too often, people get so wrapped up in selling THE thing that they never make sure that what they are selling is the best possible version it could be. I love that we do this every year because it gives our past students the updates for free and when we go to launch something we can feel so confident in the product people are paying for! 

External Updates

So after the course itself was done, we updated the sales page design, we reviewed all of the evergreen copy and messaging all matched the tweaks we made in the course, we reviewed the webinar pages, the thank you pages, the course design… we just wanted to do a full-scope review to ensure that our marketing efforts all aligned with the refreshed offer and felt current. 

After we reviewed all of our pages and copy, we then updated all of our ads! So we took the time to review all of our ad copy and update all of our promotional graphics for social including our ad graphics. We did this knowing that these graphics would then become the evergreen graphics, so everything we were creating around this launch wouldn’t just be used for a week but for months to come! 

Fresh Promo Content

Next we created all the content pieces that supported the launch which included all of our long-form destinations like our podcast episodes and blog posts. With every launch we want to leverage that runway of the pre-launch into the launch and so we created supporting content that was on the topic of podcasting that allowed us to serve our audience on the topic but also invite them into the launch and the different phases of it to be released before our “cart open” period hit! 

We also wrote new emails to my email list that were sent out for each phase! For the pre-launch phase I was focused on telling stories of my early podcasting days and appealing to people who had thought about starting their own show, for the cart open phase of the launch we were inviting people to join my masterclass or training, and then for cart close we were letting them that some of the special bonuses we had just for this launch were going away, as was their chance to join the program! 

Generally speaking, we’re hitting our audience a lot more frequently in a traditional launch with the live trainings, but this time we had to approach it differently since I wasn’t showing up for a limited amount of live trainings. We decided to brand the experience as a masterclass rather than a LIVE webinar or LIVE training. And that was an intentional tweak in language and approach to the training, since I wasn’t going to be available to be live and the training was pre-recorded and ready… 

While I would have LOVED to do the trainings live and honestly they would have converted better, we chose the best option for our soft launch strategy and that was a pre-recorded masterclass that then people could sign up for. One of the reasons I loved this thought was that anyone who was joining had the ability to either watch it right when they signed up or pick a later date and time. Honestly, I thought that was pretty great because it gave people flexibility in how and when they could tune into the training, something that’s not usually possible when you’re live launching! 

Narrow Promotion Window

Next we chose one week to promote the masterclass hard. We leveraged a lot of the same tools we use for traditional launches like our pop-ups, the screamer bar on my website, and dynamic ads on the podcast to promote the masterclass for one week straight. All of these were pushing to webinar sign ups and then the following week we promoted the course via social media ads, pop-ups on the site, and the website screamer sharing that the cart was open, which gave the same effect of a live launch, just minus live webinars pushing people to the program. So same exact strategy as normal, just no live webinars, only the pre-recorded option. 

After the cart open stuff, we swapped it all to cart close and had those up on social, my website, and in emails and again, we were just following the traditional flow and sharing approach that we do for a normal launch. All in all, we ran it just like a normal launch but it was just a far lighter lift on my end! What was beautiful about this entire process was that we had an excuse to update everything from the course itself to all of the content, copy, and graphics we use to promote it, we got to talk about the program and the topic in a concentrated way, and we got to share this offer with our audience to not just sell it but to build awareness around the topic! 

Results

Let’s talk through the numbers breakdown: In one week we had 1,963 – so nearly 2,000 total webinar registrants and 144 courses sold during the launch period. In comparison, our 2020 live launch landed us with 4,163 webinar registrants and 386 courses sold. So while our live launch did about double the results, it took a ton more time and energy as well as payroll to pull off, we were able to generate over 50k the week before I gave birth without me physically or virtually showing up online! Pretty cool, right? 

Now while I don’t think we’ll do this type of soft launching all of the time, it’s nice to know that it’s an effective option for us and something that helps us not just launch for a week but a method that allows us to update all the things that will be running in automation for the months to come. 

Why I Loved It

One thing I loved is that not only did we get to refresh the course plus our evergreen funnel and assets in the process, but we also got to sell without having to be super loud about it. It genuinely felt like we were building awareness and then extending an invitation for our program and I personally love that sort of invite. We weren’t promoting super hard or loud on social, our all-list emails to the webinar were very low-key like “hey, you might dig this” versus more salesy invites, and since it occurred at a time when holiday noise was starting to get louder, it didn’t feel like we had to compete and I mean, our results speak for themselves, it still worked! 

Doing the launch in this way gave us all more time and space to do some really beautiful and important updates to the course content and marketing materials. It allowed us to improve pieces we may not have had time for if it had been a live launch and even though the promotion of it wasn’t traditional, it still got the offer out there and reignited the knowledge that this course exists and got people in the door if they’d been curious about it.

This was definitely a more methodical and less stressful way of updating and launching a digital offer – and in turn, a bit less booming in turns of numbers of turnout and conversions – but absolutely worthwhile for the season of business and life that I am in. 

The Big Picture

So would I do it again? I mean, all in all, I am someone who actually does love the adrenaline and engagement of a live launch – no surprises here – but I would 100% do this sort of soft launch again during a busy phase of business or life in order to push traffic to an offer without needing to be “on” for live trainings for a week or two straight.

I sincerely hope this helps you navigate or at least consider new and different ways to launch your offers or heck, I hope this encourages you to not be afraid to mix it up or experiment within your own business! I’m alllll about trying new things that challenge the status quo yet feel aligned with my goals and values and day-to-day life. 

Goal diggers, don’t be afraid to play with new strategies and techniques and find what works for you and serves your audience in the best way, because that’s is how you figure out what works for you and what helps you serve the world in the way that only you can!

If you want to check out my program, The Podcast Lab, it’s my proven, 5-step stress-busting system and process to plan, create, launch, promote, scale, and monetize your podcast in just 30 Days head to teachmetopodcast.com.


Thank you to our Goal Digger Sponsors

Learn more about how a HubSpot CRM platform can help connect the dots of your business

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

BINGE THE LATEST POSTS

The Latest From the Goal Digger Podcast

BINGE listens

MUST-READS

Before you get any further... Hi! I'm Jenna Kutcher!

A small town Minnesota photographer, podcaster, educator and puppy rescuer, my happiest days are spent behind my computer screen sharing my secrets with the world. I'm glad you're here.

I’m an expert at online marketing, a nerd when it comes to the numbers, and my obsession is teaching others how to make a living doing what they love (without it taking over their life). 

hey there!

SEARCH

What do you want to read today?

Except instead of a video game, this is you IRL. Let’s get laser focused on setting your goals for this month, year, and beyond so I can hand over resources specific to how YOU want to grow!

Take The Quiz!

ARE YOU READY TO LEVEL UP? 

FREE WORKSHEET

free downloads show

FREEBIES

Free downloads to elevate your game.

FREE challenge

FREE DOWNLoAD

PEN PALS PEN PALS

Screw the junk mail, I'm bringing "real" right to your inbox. Deep encouragement, tough questions, needle-moving challenges, and smart strategies to help you make your dream work. You in?

great idea alert!

Hey, Let's Be Pen Pals!

    © JENNA KUTCHER 2024

    |   ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    |    SITE CREDIT

    |    GET IN TOUCH

    |    Legal