You don’t have to spend too much time online before you come across a coach or course creator who starts off talking about her half-million dollar launch and how much fun it was. While launches can be successful AND exhilarating, they don’t just happen that way by accident. If you’re aspiring to have profitable and enjoyable launches, you’ll want to keep reading. I’m sharing the six things you need for a successful course launch.
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6 Tips for a Successful Course Launch
1. A Solid Launch Strategy
The internet is experiencing no shortage of strategies. Everyone seems to have their “right” way to launch strategy. The important thing is to find what works for you. That means, if you’re comfortable showing up on video, you might want to do Facebook and/or IG Lives, and maybe a webinar strategy. If video isn’t your thing and you really like to connect with people, then you might want to create a challenge.
I recently ran a challenge for one of my own launches, and I thrive on the interaction. Each day included a video walkthrough of a task along with a live, engaged Q&A on Facebook. The result was a lot of camaraderie and support within the group, and a dynamic I really enjoyed. My point is, find what serves you and show up in that energy.
How will your audience get to know you and your personality best? If you aren’t showing up in a way you enjoy, it won’t be true to you. Don’t blindly follow gurus who preach different launch strategies and assume they will work for you too. You need to think of what works with your personality.
2. A Strong Team
In addition to strategy, you need to figure out the people you need in place to help you carry off your launch. It’s easy to want to compare yourself to Marie Forleo, Amy Porterfield, or other course creators people who have large, well-known launches that are planned all year with multiple affiliates. The difference might be the time they have to plan, they’ve relaunched several times so they have lots of data, they have a large team, and they have a big budget.
If you are in the beginning stages of launching, maybe it’s only you on your team or maybe you have a VA or a Tech VA. You may want to hire someone else to help you with some of the pieces and the parts that go into a successful course launch. These may be contractors you bring in on a project basis.
It’s okay to outsource things that aren’t in your zone of genius. So if you’re doing a webinar and you’ve created the outline, maybe you need the slides made but you really don’t enjoy the graphics design aspect, or you simply don’t have the time. You can certainly delegate this to save you the stress, make your launch a more enjoyable experience for you, and it’s cost-effective.
3. Ability to Plan Your Time
It’s super important to be organized with your launch plan, but also with the time each piece takes. I suggest using a project management tool like Asana, ClickUp, Airtable, or even a Google Sheet where you can see at a glance all of the tasks and when they are happening, who is assigned to complete each piece, and when all of the items are due.
This is where a strong team will shine and each person will step into their roles. Be aware of everyone’s skill sets, and also take the time to understand that just because they are capable doesn’t mean they “love” it. It may mean bringing in additional support such as a Social Media Manager, Facebook Ads Manager, and so on and then allowing everyone ample time to complete their tasks.
A Launch Manager can be key in this role of ensuring that every step in the process is documented and accountable. I recommend a launch lead time minimum of eight weeks. If a potential client approaches me requesting to launch in a month, I might not be able to make that happen for them because I know the high level of detail and work that goes into a launch.
4. Self Care
That leads into my fourth tip for a successful course launch: self-care. If you find yourself stressed out about the launch plan and how it’s going and working up against the deadline, you will find yourself experiencing sleepless nights, digestion issues, or sickness.
A launch is an emotional time. And with that comes lots of ups and downs in your assessment of how well things are going. A fast-action bonus upon open cart might result in lots of enrollments and you’ll be on cloud 9! Then you’ll hit the “messy middle” which is traditionally less enrollment as people procrastinate and gather more information, and you’ll start doubting everything. As cart close draws near, you’ll get more enrollments.
That’s all to say it can be havoc on your mindset. You need to keep your morale up and continue with your self-care routine. Do things like meal prep in advance, make sure your kids are taken care of, and more. A Launch Manager can be your cheerleader and reminder during this time.
5. Mindset
You need to maintain a positive mindset. No matter what the numbers look like, you need to keep showing up with lots of energy. This ties in a lot to the self-care because if you aren’t sleeping or eating properly, you’re going to be cranky, listless, and not your best self.
Mindself and self-care are so interconnected. If you journal, continue this process during your launch.
6. A Launch Manager
If you can get yourself a Launch Manager, like myself, who can help you through this whole process you will have a much more enjoyable experience during your course launch. A Launch Manager is the one who’s going to take that strategy and execute it. She’ll manage the team members, the deliverables, and the moving parts of the launch, so you can just show up as your best self and share your program with your whole energy.
It will be so important for you to preserve yourself as you appear on Facebook Lives, Instagram Stories, and personally reach out to potential course attendees. This can be such an extra touch if you send a Bonjourno or Loom to someone who watched your webinar but didn’t sign up yet. You’re taking the time to build that personal relationship with them by saying you noticed them and were curious if they had any additional questions. It might mean the difference between hitting your goals with enrollments, or not.
If you are juggling all the balls yourself, you may not have the energy for this, or you may not even think of it. Especially if this was a first launch and it’s a product that you’ve never launched. Taking time to reach out and get feedback may be helpful in validating your product, especially if you haven’t built it out yet. Your Launch Manager can help you to work through all these things, help keep your spirits up, keep things moving smoothly.
Do You Really Need a Launch Manager?
You know you’re only one person, so while you’re doing your lives on Facebook and Instagram where only you can show up. The Launch Manager will ensure everything else is running smoothly the in the background: the emails are going out on time, social media posts are being posted, the cart is working, you’re getting sales, and so on.
I’m currently offering launch management services, as well as VIP days where we can develop the best launch strategy and plan for you. It will be customized based on how you like to show up, the size of your team, the tech stack you have in place, possible sales events you might be able to run whether a webinar, a challenge, or something else. Need help brainstorming content or a webinar or challenge topic that leads to the launch of your product? I can help you map that out too during a VIP day. Book a call and let’s talk about your next launch!
