In this episode of Your Dream Business Podcast, I delve into the critical components for successfully launching online events such as webinars, bootcamps, or courses. Drawing from personal experiences and real data, I discuss setting realistic expectations, the importance of pre-launch and launch phases, and how to create engaging content that transitions into real sales. I discuss the significance of audience warmth, payment options, cart open/close strategies, and effective email marketing. And critically the importance of continually tweaking and tracking to perfect your launch strategies.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

1. Set Realistic Expectations: Understand that launching an online event requires time, effort, and strategic planning.
2. Leverage the Power of Pre-Launch: Build anticipation and excitement for your event through a well-executed pre-launch campaign.
3. Optimise Your Launch Strategy: Employ effective strategies for cart open/close times, bonuses, and email marketing to maximize conversions.

If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Ep 368 (Launch Reality Check: Understanding and Setting Realistic Expectations) Ep 364 (Has the online course bubble burst? How to adapt to the future of selling knowledge based content.) Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter

Transcript

When it comes to launching online, there are so many moving parts. How do you know which of those parts are important to help you get more people to sign up, join the actual webinar or bootcamp or whatever it is that you're doing, and then actually buy? Which of those things are really useful? Which of them are nice to have? And what is working right now when it comes to launching? That is what you're going to discover in today's episode as I take you through all of the various things that can make a big difference to your launch and to your sales. Welcome to the Your Dream Business Podcast. I'm your host, Therese Heath Waring, an international bestselling author, award winning speaker, TEDx speaker, certified coach, and the host of this number one ranked podcast. I am so excited to guide you on the journey of a business and life that you not only love, but one Perfectly aligns with you and the season of life [00:01:00] that you're in. In each episode, I'll share with you easy, actionable, and insightful strategies to grow your online business. Plus, we'll be diving into some mindset tools and strategies that keep you focused, motivated, and are going to stop you from getting in your own way. So if you're a course creator, membership owner, or coach, you are in the right place. Let's get started. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing? So. I seem to be talking lots about launching recently, which I'm actually really loving having these conversations. And a few weeks back I did an episode, it was episode 368, we'll link to it in the show notes, called Launch Reality Check, Understanding and Setting Realistic Expectations. And I talked all about What are realistics like figures when you launch something and how many people blocked in and how big your list is and, and really focused on the percentage of things like real numbers. I [00:02:00] used real launches, things that I have personally experienced in and involved with and was able to give you a real clear understanding on actually, this is what you should expect because one of the things that really often come up is people's expectations of what they should achieve in a launch are not really what is standard. And yes, we don't want what is standard. We want way better than that. But what I don't want to see happen is for you to do something and then beat yourself up and think I'm not doing a very good job when that's just not the case. That's actually you're doing a great job. So today I wanted to take that a little bit further and I wanted to share a couple of things. First up, I want to share what will have an effect on your launch. So I'm going to run through a load of different strategies and they will affect your launch and your launch numbers. And then I'm going to talk about what is working well now. And also I'm going to give you an idea of when I talk about some of the things as to what an average [00:03:00] launch might look like. And I say average, because one thing I want to start. As a caveat on this and everything I ever talk about is you should take everything I say with a pinch of salt. And I mean that from a, every business is different. Every industry is different. Every person is different. Every email list is different. And therefore, I am going to give you a kind of base level or a kind of average on what I would expect or see or teach on a launch. However, the key thing in all of this is for you to do something, track what you're doing, Get the results, try it again, tweak it, do it again, tweak it, do it again, tweak it. So I might turn around to you and say one thing in this podcast that's like, you know, this thing's working really well and you might have tried it six times and gone, this isn't working. But this is probably a really good reminder that it's not just a one thing. This isn't just a one and done. This is [00:04:00] a case of you've got to keep doing it. You've got to keep trying it and tracking what you're doing and then making some tweaks and changes and then moving forward and trying again and seeing what result that has is the way to really perfect and hone your launches, your sales, your emails, everything. So it's about rinse and repeat, track it. And how can I improve it? The other thing I want to bring up here is the fact of hopefully this will help you. understand what will make the difference and be more sympathetic to yourself if things haven't quite gone as you hoped. So for instance, if I say to you an average number of emails and you've done less than half of that, then that might be the reason that you haven't got some of the results you wanted. If I say there's a launch window of X amount of weeks and you did a launch within five days, then then maybe that might be another reason. So it's kind of just going, okay, well, that's interesting. I did this, this, this, I [00:05:00] didn't do this, this, this, and this is the result I got. So if I do it again and add in those extra bits, what result will I get? So this is definitely a try it, see how you feel, work out what's working for you. So don't take this as you have to do it this way, because no one has to do anything anyway. It's your business. You get to choose. But what I'm trying to do here is give you practical, real things that are going to help, things that I've seen that have helped, things that I know work, and things that you can try in your business. Before I get started with the main content of this episode, I just want to say a really big thank you for spending some time with me and listening to the podcast. It really does mean the world to me. And also, if I could possibly be so forward as asking you to go and give me a review on your favorite platform, Spotify or Apple would be brilliant. If you would love, be so kind as to put a lovely five star review and write something nice, I would appreciate it so very much. Okay, let's get going. So we're going to start off by looking [00:06:00] at the launch bit. And when I talk about the launch bit, I'm talking about the bit before the launch mechanism. Okay. So we have the pre launch phase, the launch phase, the actual thing that you're doing, i. e. a challenge, a webinar, a live launch, whatever it is. And then the sales phase and that's the bit where you get them to sell. So let's say we were going to do a webinar and I'm going to keep using the term webinar, although it could be a challenge, it could be a bootcamp, it could be anything. Then what I want you to do is think, okay, pre launch phase is before you even mentioned the webinar. Launch phase is when you mentioned the webinar and you're trying to get people on the webinar. Then the launch mechanism is the webinar and then sales phase is after the webinar. When you start selling the thing that you're ultimately trying to sell. So let's talk about the launch bit and the pre launch bit. So some of the things that will make a big, big difference to your launch is the launch runway that you give yourself. [00:07:00] And this is split up into two. It's the pre launch. So it's the getting people ready. So that can make a big difference. If you are creating content that is either meeting and helping with objections, or you're getting content ready for them stepping into the launch, then great. I want to give you an example when I'm going through these different things and I'm going to choose one of my students that I work with who helps children or helps parents with their children who are fussy eaters. So let's say she was going to be selling a course for fussy eaters and She was going to do a webinar. Her pre launch content could be things like, what is fussy eating? It might be a quiz that you work out whether your child is a fussy eater or not. So basically the content that she's going to do Pre, the actual launch would be looking at making sure people understand whether they are the customer or not. So what is it that your [00:08:00] business or what is it that is the kind of prerequisite, the really beginner basic level that your customers need to be self identifying as that helps them move into the next phase, which is then joining a webinar about the thing, which will then lead on to the thing that you're selling. I hope this makes sense. Okay. Okay. So. The pre launch content, like I just discussed, that can have an effect. If you're not warming people up and you're jumping straight into a launch, then you might not get as many people in it. Because if someone, for instance, doesn't even think their child does fussy eating, there's definitely not going to sign up with a webinar to do with fussy eating. However, if you've helped them identify that first, then they are more likely to do it. Okay. The launch runway time that you give to promote this is key. So on an kind of, you know, ordinary level or kind of an average would be a two to three week launch window where you are promoting the webinar. The less time you give it, just the [00:09:00] less opportunity people have to see it and to sign up. And also the other thing, when you're using a window like two weeks to promote something, you are going to use very different strategies during those two weeks. Something might attract one person that something else didn't, you know, so like you might frame it in a way, or you might say it in a way, or you might share a case study, or you might talk about something that makes them suddenly go, Oh, no, this is for me. Whereas the first two, three emails just didn't, didn't resonate. So the longer the window you've got, the more chances you've got to share it in different places, the more chances you got to talk about it, the more chances that people have got to see it, which is why in an ideal world, we want about a two week window when it comes to launching. The other thing that really helps is. How warm that audience is, and that will have a big effect on not only your show up rate, or your engagement rate in your launch mechanism, your challenge, your bootcamp, your webinar, but also then ultimately the people that go on to buy. So if you have a [00:10:00] fairly low, like a really cool audience that have not worked with you for very long or not been on your list for very long. You've got them from ads. The chances are your turn up rates or your engagement rates are going to be a lot lower because you're asking a lot of someone. You're asking a lot of someone to not know who you are, but then to come and spend an hour with you when you do a webinar or come and engage in a challenge. Whereas if it's a warmer audience, then they are more likely to want to invest that time in you, even though there's no cost. So the fact that they are having to invest their time is as considerable of something for them to consider than not. So the, the warmth or the how warm the audience are is a really, really important thing, which also will kind of lead into giving them a reason to show up live. So the whole point of a launch at all is to get people engaged so that you can get an understanding of them, they can get an understanding of you, and ultimately you can help them make a buying decision as to whether this is something they [00:11:00] want. So the idea is you want them to show up live. You want them to engage and to come into the thing as much as possible. So there are a couple of things that you can do that will help you increase that show up live. So you can add bonuses to people who show up live and bonuses to people who stay till the end. So often on a webinar, I will have a something for free that if you stay till the end, you get this bonus, regardless of whether they buy or not. The other thing that makes a difference is when you offer workbooks, a workbook can be really helpful to get them to turn up live. I know it sounds so silly, but something about printing off a workbook, having it there on their desk, reminding them, showing them that they're actually going to be doing something and they're going to get some value from the time they're spending with you can really help with getting them to show up live. The last thing that I've seen happen quite a few times recently in terms of the launch section is that some people aren't offering replays. Now this kind of [00:12:00] leads more into, actually it kind of leads into both, it leads into the sale and into the actual launch, because if you know there's no replay and you really want that content, you are going to make the effort to turn up live. Turn up rate should hopefully be higher. Now whether that then converts into a higher sales, I guess you'll have to see from your own launches. And you might decide that actually it's hard if you don't offer a replay and some people just won't be available. But That is one option. The other option is that you offer a replay, but you bring it down before the cart closes. Let's say that the course that you're selling it, the door is going to close on a Thursday. You might bring the webinar, the replay down on a Tuesday so that you kind of push them into. Having to make, not make the decision, but you're kind of saying if you really do want to do this, if you really want to watch this, you are going to have to make an effort to watch it because we all know if [00:13:00] something is available to us forever, how many times have we bought replays of stuff or how many times have we been given replays of events or conferences and never watched them? Whereas if we did really want to watch it and they said it's going to come down on a certain day, you would make sure that you make the time and that's what we're trying to encourage people to do. Okay, so there's a various different things in there that I've ran through that will make a difference to the people showing up and people engaging and people actually coming to your launch mechanism. Now let's talk about sales and some of the things that are going to make a difference and some of the things that are working right now. One of the things that makes a big difference and always has done is bonuses. Now, I know sometimes this can feel a little bit icky and a little bit kind of, I don't know, just a little bit salesy, but bonuses do really work. And actually the type of bonuses can make a big difference. One of the things that I have seen a couple of times that is working [00:14:00] really, really well is a physical product as a bonus, which is crazy. But I think there's a lot to do with the online world we're in actually giving them something physical, like a workbook. Like I've had a, I've done work with summit in a box when I did my summit and she sends out a physical box with the workbook, a pen and various other things, little things like that. really do go a long way to give someone something a bit different. They feel like there's a different investment. They feel like it just feels different to have something like that given to you rather than an online bonus. So the, the kind of physical stuff as a bonus can be really, really good. Bonuses in general are great. Bonuses that basically make their life easier. Not more courses. Bonuses, like things like swipe documents, like checklists, things that basically make their, make them get the work done quicker is. a much better thing than necessarily just giving them [00:15:00] another course or more content to consume. Also another thing to think about is in person stuff. Is there an in person invite that they get to an event or a discount they get if you were going to do something event wise? Don't add this in just for the sake of adding it in, there's much easier bonuses. But also if you do something like an in person event, then that can be a great way of really Encouraging that sale or a great bonus where they actually go and meet people in person. Okay. Next thing that makes a big difference, the price. Now I know this seems like a crazy, stupid thing to say, because of course the price is going to make a difference, but actually there's some different strategies involved in this than just the price. And we're talking about the Payment options. Normally with a course or something, you might have a full pay. So just pay all in one, or you might have a part pay. [00:16:00] Giving the multiple pay options could be really, really useful. And again,...