Maybe you’ve seen it on Instagram or in an email from your favorite influencer. You very well could’ve read it in some of my own resources! The word “launch” comes across as this mysterious, intimidating word in business that holds a whole lot of weight, intrigue, and build-up…but to what?
When someone says they’re in launch mode, it might mean they’re preparing and about to open up the sales window for a new product or service, like a new digital course, for example. Whether or not you’ve used the term, if you sell something, then you’ve been in a launch!
A lot of digital entrepreneurs throw the word around and create some pretty big buzz and splash around it, which makes it seem like this unattainable, not-quite-clear area of business ownership, but today, I want to break down all the secrets behind a killer launch — and how you can effortlessly do it, too.
My 5 secrets to a wildly successful launch
- Prep, prime, and leave tasty breadcrumbs along the way.
Whether you’re getting ready to open up spots in your coaching group, sell a course, create a mastermind, or kick off a new product line, the beset time to be priming your audience for a launch is months in advance. Not just one, not two…ideally, you’ll be sharing small nuggets and tastes of this big new thing three to six months ahead of launch. If you’re working on something (even if it’s not being launched for awhile) why not talk about it now? Warm your audience up to the idea, paint yourself as the expert and build anticipation while you’re working hard behind the scenes.
Why, though? The more time you can intentionally serve an audience on your topic, the better. Leave breadcrumbs, share your process, give tips away for free, and show small pieces of the bigger puzzle you’re going to offer down the line. If people see your passion long before the launch, they will be far more likely to buy into what you’re doing, and it will make sense to them. The more you share and talk about it now, the better. And keep sharing it consistently. Don’t get so lost in creating that you forget to warm people up!
- Nurturing the audience is just as important as making the launch materials.
People tend to spend 80% of their time on creating the course or program or product and 20% of their time working on the launch: generating buzz, checking in with the audience, and creating community and camaraderie. This is WHACK, y’all. If you don’t get your course in front of people who trust you and convince them to buy, they will never, ever, ever see what you worked so hard to build. Don’t believe the lie that if you build it, they will come — because they won’t come if you don’t have a solid launch plan in place.
Prioritize attracting an audience through free resources that are aligned with your offer, and give them valuable tools they can use today. Even if you’re providing small wins, takeaways, or results, they’ll be more likely to trust you and buy from you to get the big results later. Just start right now with who you’ve got and what you’ve got. Never forget the power of one person whose life you could impact, and how that can spread like wildfire.
- Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.
So many people have come to me asking where to start with building a digital course, and the thought of going from course idea to creation to launch overwhelms them. But when it comes to digital courses, creating the course content is actually so much easier than most people make it out to be, and I’ll tell ya why. Your digital course should only cover content you know like the back of your hand, is fun for you to teach and learn about, and comes easily to you.
Don’t get stuck in trying to make it fancy or complicated. It doesn’t need to answer a million questions decently, just a few questions that you already have the fully vetted answers to. Get help in the creation process. Heck, you can even take my own pal Amy Porterfield’s new quiz all about creating courses and she’ll send you the action you specifically should take first to bring your first course to life.
And remember, you can always go back and tweak things down the road. I’ve rewritten, upgraded, and added to my courses monthly, and knowing they are adaptable in this way has allowed my launches to be much smoother and me to be much more confident.
- Focus mainly on the end result and big-picture takeaways.
I know from building MANY of my own courses and other resources that it’s crazy-easy to get so close to the materials that we start overcomplicating it. We start guessing what people want from us and harping on details that really, in the grand scheme of things, are unimportant when it comes to the end goal of your product or service. Sometimes, what we THINK people want to learn from us and what they actually want to learn are two very different things.
The most important thing you can do leading up to a launch is to survey your audience: What do they want to gain from you? Use their responses to craft that perfect offer, that cord that will strike them into action when they see your program offers [insert incredible result or promise here]. When it comes to launching, it is so, so vital to continue painting this picture of the possibility of results and that final promise for the audience. You want people to imagine themselves as the next success story, rather than getting stuck in the details and features and information they just don’t need to know yet.
- Put on your selling pants, my friends, and offer your product to the world confidently.
You have something inside of you that can impact the world, and something tells me you sell your favorite pair of shoes better than you would be willing to sell your knowledge. Don’t let your fear of selling keep you from creating an offer that can help others. If you’re passionate about what you do and the information you have to offer, you will make a massive impact in the lives of those who buy from you.
Online learning from people actually DOING what we want to learn successfully is the way of the future. I truly believe that. Don’t keep your expertise from them. Really consider the difference you can make and the lives you can change by launching (and selling) with confidence that you can deliver results to others.
That’s it, my people! Those are my 5 biggest launch secrets that take the scary out of launching and make it doable for anyone and everyone who has keen knowledge about something. (Psst…that means you!) You don’t need 200K followers. You don’t need a launch team of 17 people. You just need that noggin of yours, some commitment to showing up for your audience, and the wherewithal to paint a stinkin’ beautiful picture of the promise your knowledge will impart on your peeps. Let’s change the world, yeah?