HOW TO DO A PRODUCT LAUNCH THE RIGHT WAY (BY AVOIDING THIS #1 MISTAKE)
If I’d only launched my best-selling digital programme once, I would’ve made a grand total of £1,175.
Thank goodness I didn’t stop at that first product launch, because 6 months later? It’s bringing me nearly £5,000 in monthly recurring revenue every single month.
I’ll just let that one sink in.
Most people would’ve looked at that first product launch, declared the offer a failure and given up on it altogether. But the truth is, there is so much more to your launch than just the product itself. And these things can make or break your launch.
Just because your first launch was a “failure” or a “one-hit-wonder”, doesn’t mean your product is rubbish. It doesn’t mean you need to give up on it altogether and it doesn’t mean your product isn’t good enough.
The biggest mistake you can make is only launching once. Which is why I’m going to share why you SHOULDN’T only launch once and the three biggest things that you need to nail in your launch strategy to make sure that you can have repeatable successful product launches again, and again, and again.
And if you’re not sure what you should do in the days and weeks leading up to your launch (aka your pre-launch period), stay tuned because I’m going to share my pre-launch framework with you AND some bonus tips.
why you shouldn’t only launch once
I get that it sounds counterintuitive - you have a new product, you launch it, you move onto the next product, you launch that, right? Wrong!
I don’t believe in launching more, more, more. Not only is it a really stressful way to run your business, but I also believe that you don’t get the most value out of your product if you’re only launching it once.
Let me give you an example. When one of my clients started working with me, she thought she was a failure because only 5 people had purchased her course.
So let’s look at this. 5 people purchased. When I first launched my 1:1 coaching programme, I charged way less than £1,000 and now? For my 6 month programme, I definitely charge more than that.
And here’s the thing - I launched my 1:1 coaching programme multiple times but the first few launches didn’t get me that much. It wasn’t until I started doubling down on what was working and re-launching it that it scaled. I could’ve given up after that first launch because it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped and never launched it again. But it was by launching it over and over and over that I could refine the launch strategy.
Essential elements For Your Launch Strategy
When I talk about your launch strategy, here are some of the key things that affect your launch. Spoiler alert: there’s a lot more to it than just the product or service itself.
Your Messaging
How are you actually positioning the product? What is the wording you use around it? How are you talking about it? The messaging of your product is probably more important than than the actual product itself. Your audience might want the product, but they don’t realise that they want the product. Or they might need the product, but they don’t realise that they need the product because of how you’ve communicated it or how you’ve positioned it - and that just isn’t resonating with them. If there’s a disconnect with your messaging, your product won’t sell. Period.
Your Audience
Maybe your audience isn’t very big yet which is completely fine - you’ll just need to adjust your expectations accordingly. If you have 100 subscribers, you’re not going to have a £100,000 launch straight off the bat and that’s fine. All you need is a small but profitable launch and to grow your audience inbetween those launches so that next time, you’re launching to more people and you can repeat that process over and over again.
Pre-Launch Content
This is another part of your strategy that can really affect your launch and basically everything else that you do in the lead up to the launch itself.
By having a solid pre-launch strategy, you’ll have all your content taken care of well before your offer is available, AND you’ll have primed your audience so they know an offer is coming. Plus, they’ll be WAY more likely to jump on it on once it’s finally available. I have 4 essential pieces for a successful pre-launch that I want you to consider for your future launches!
#1 | Breadcrumbs
The first thing I want you to start thinking before you even start planning the rest of your launch strategy is breadcrumbing. You can do this as early as possible and it truly is one of the MOST important aspects of launching ANYTHING.
It doesn’t matter what product or service you’re offering - nobody is going to want to buy from you if you haven’t mentioned a thing about it and then suddenly you’re shouting from the rooftops that you have something for sale. We crave the stories behind what someone is offering so let people in behind-the-scenes.
Like I said, you can start this as early as possible, but definitely get focused in on this 3 to 6 weeks before the cart opens or your product is available. You want to be talking about the thing you’ve been creating! You want to be sharing insights on the topic and helping people start to warm up to the idea. You can even come straight out and say, “Hey, I’m launching this thing in a few weeks and this is what it’s all about!”
This more open and direct approach can actually work really well. It’s not like tiptoeing around your offer; you’re sharing it with pride and this infectious energy of getting people as excited about it as you are!
#2 | Frame Content
The next thing you can do in the lead up to a launch is to create and frame content around the biggest questions someone has to help them qualify themselves as a potential fit for your offer, without you even doing any selling. So, what problems does your product or service solve for others? Answer those questions in your content.
An example from my Busy To Boss Academy launch is how I created content and even framed my free challenge around how to know what tasks to focus on in your business so you don’t have to work 24/7. I published social posts and podcast episodes in the pre-launch period around how to prioritise your tasks and create a sustainable business model, and how this can work for ANY business type.
I published so much content around this topic and intentionally drove home the fact that you do not have to work 24/7 in order to see success and you DO NOT have to be on all the platforms in order to see success, which is what the vast majority of us believe.
I took a simple question - How do I know what tasks to focus on? - and provided plenty of opportunities and entryways to discover HOW many different business owners can do this successful, and that paved the path to talking about how they can learn to do exactly that inside the Busy To Boss Academy.
#3 | Tease, Tease, And Tease Some More
This third piece is similar to breadcrumbing, but it’s even more direct. Rather than talking ABOUT the topic of your product/service and warming people up to the IDEA of your offer, I want you to start hinting and teasing about what you’re creating at least 2-4 weeks ahead of launch.
Why do you think reality TV is so popular? We don’t just want to see the pretty filtered Instagram photo at the end. We LOVE to see the messy, behind-the-scenes and what it REALLY takes for people to get to where they’re going.
So give us the messy! Take us behind-the-scenes! Document your journey. Talk about the process and what’s going on as you lead up to your launch so we’re on the radar that you’re creating and launching something new. The best bit about this is that you’re being REAL about it, which is one of the quickest and best ways to get people on your side, cheering you on, empathising with you, and fully trusting you.
#4 | Get Feedback
Another important part of pre-launch content is to share feedback and testimonials, so start collecting those ASAP! This allows you to make sure that your offer is crystal clear, your messaging converts, and you are certain your offer is the RIGHT offer for your audience.
Get some people you trust to look at your sales page, your emails, even the offer itself - this is especially a great idea if you need to get some social proof that you can use in your marketing materials. At the very least, you’ll get some valuable insights on anything that might need tweaking to be made more clear, and at the very best, you’ll have amazing testimonials that you can use throughout your launch content so that potential buyers can see the real value in your product/service.
BONUS TIP: Prep It All
The final step is a big one but one of the most vital for your entire launch no matter what stage you’re at: prepare everything, EVERYTHING you possibly can as far in advance as you can. This means that when you’re live, you can focus your energy on showing up and behind available for people who are ready to potentially become a client or customer.
If you work on all your copy, content, and marketing materials ahead of time, you’ll be free to trust what you built when you weren’t in full-blown launch mode and let it do its thing while YOU are able to just be visible, answer questions, and deal with any last-minute tweaks or adjustments.
I use a platform called Asana that I’ve raved about before to organise my systems. I’ll dedicate an entire project to a launch and break down all the different needs, from small things like creating pop-ups for my blog to bigger tasks like recording a pre-launch podcast episode on the specific topic of my new offer.
When you see it all laid out like this it’s huge, and allows you to task it out, schedule it out, and complete a lot of the heavy lifting before the launch even arrives. When it comes to preparing your pre-launch period, I’d recommend simply listing out everything you’ll need for the launch, from a sales page and thank you emails, to product delivery, email sequences, social media posts, and beyond so that you’ve got a big picture view of what is needed. Then you can break it all down and plan it out before the actual launch arrives.
All of these things are a huge part of your launch strategy which I believe impacts your launch a lot more than the actual product itself.
a final note
I’m launching a new course next year that is focused purely on launch strategy and launching your product and services. Not the creation part of your product or service - if you want to learn how to create offers and products that sell, you’ll want to join the Busy To Boss Academy for that!
The course that I’m creating is how to actually LAUNCH. So what are you doing in that 60-90 days before you actually put your product out into the world to buy or before you open doors for sales or before you make that special bonus available - what are you doing in that 60 to 90 days beforehand.
The course is going to be a whole deep dive into that launch strategy, getting your messaging right, growing your audience with the right people, building your authority, making them know like and trust you, sharing strategic pre-launch content that gets your audience ready to buy from you - all of these things that we overlook and then we wonder, why did my launch fail - oh it must be because my product was rubbish.
Well, no it’s probably NOT because your product is rubbish. It’s probably because your messaging wasn’t right or your pre-launch content wasn’t right or you didn’t do the right things to grow your audience. It’s probably not your product. And that’s what this course is going to be all about.
This post was a bit of me on my soapbox but I’m a big believer that you don’t only launch once, you re-launch, re-launch, re-launch and refine and improve each time. I can’t wait for you to experience how powerful this can be for you and your business.
ABOUT THE BLOGGER
Hey There! I’m Holly Bray.
I’m an expert at online marketing, a nerd when it comes to the numbers, and my obsession is teaching others how to know what tasks to focus on so they can create a business that GIVES them life (not one that takes it away).
