I made a weird choice when I opted for a 6 - 8 week launch of my Content Creator’s membership this summer…

Honestly, I thought doing it this way would be easy - 

(it wasn’t) - 

and I made lots of mistakes…

You know I like to be transparent in my content, so I’m sharing some No BS lessons I hope will be useful for your business - 

whether you plan to launch an offer in the next month, quarter, or year!

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Full Transcript

I made a weird choice when I opted for a 6 - 8 week launch of my Content Creator’s membership this summer…

Honestly, I thought doing it this way would be easy - 

(it wasn’t) - 

and I made lots of mistakes…

You know I like to be transparent in my content, so I’m sharing some No BS lessons I hope will be useful for your business - 

whether you plan to launch an offer in the next month, quarter, or year!

First up: Reality Check:

My dream is to grow my membership to 100 people. 

It opened February 2021 - with 34 members at the time of re-launch. 

Only 4 people have left since February, telling me most members feel served with the support they need.

Concept proven - time to grow.

Here’s the reality check part: to grow from 34 to 100 members, I’d have to add 66 new members.

And if I only wanted to do it using my email list, I was delusional. 

What you need to know: My email list is small: I grew it from 700 to 1150 by the time I launched mid-June…

By industry standards, ~1-2% of the people on your list will convert to customers during a launch, which means I could expect 11 - 22 people to become new members.

Turns out those numbers don’t lie: 

✅ I welcomed 16 new members into my program by the last day of my launch!

Now that’s nowhere near the 66 I need to reach my ultimate goal of 100 members…but it was right on track given the size of my list!

(And given that I didn’t do much else to fill this program.)

To onboard 66+ people & reach my goal, I’d have to do a lot more work to leverage other audiences (using relationships, podcast, socials, Pinterest, Youtube, affiliates, referrals - )

Or build my list to 7000+.

Am I sad that I ‘only’ added 16 people to my membership? HELL NO! I am so thrilled - my goal was 20, and I didn’t feel burned out at the end of it!

There’s only one thing I regret about this launch, and I’ll tell you about that next week.

Until then, think about your own goals for launching YOUR offer - 

Understanding our numbers REALISTICALLY is an EYE-OPENER! You don’t need to feel shame for having a small list, not wanting to tap dance all over the internet to make it happen, or not wanting to spend THOUSANDS on Facebook ads!

• What offer would you love to sell?
• How many people need to see this offer to convert? (Do you know what YOUR conversion rate is?)
• What do you need to focus on: List growth? Social presence? Developing affiliate relationships?
• Is your content focused on growing relationships, helping your audience see they need you, and outlining the benefits?
  
  ^^These are the things you want to focus on before you jump in!

I know it’s easy to want to focus on ALL THE THINGS, but that will drain you. 

Streamline your thinking & get focused on the most important aspect so you can see the needle move forward!

Ok, part two of the lessons I learned:

Like you, I don’t know anyone who embraces Marketing BS…

I loathe tactics like made-up scarcity & would rather go out of business than use fear tactics to get someone to buy something.

Therefore, I decided on a nice, slow, leisurely launch for my membership program this summer.

I didn’t want to rush people into making a decision because I actually did NOT have an end date in mind for when I’d close the doors!

In my mind, this launch was a ‘summer fling’ & I was gonna take my time, enjoy the ride, and close it when I felt like it. 

Bad Idea. SO dumb.

Truth:

1. People make decisions & take action pretty much only when there’s a deadline. 

This is especially true for the ‘boring’ bits of business, like content creation & (according to my lawyer friends) - legal stuff.

Think about your life: if you’ve got visitors coming next week, when do you clean your house? NOT A WEEK BEFORE! 

If you’re like most of us, you’re putting away the vacuum & tidying up the piles as they pull into the driveway! 

2. I GOT SICK OF MY OWN LAUNCH! 

Since I usually email my list once a week, every call to action had to be sell the membership. That’s not how I like to roll. 

I wanted to share OTHER news & resources but couldn’t because I had to use all my content capital on this launch.

3. Here’s the part that I REGRET THE MOST: I fatigued my list, and that…ugh, that’s the worst part to me. 

I lost about 50 people who unsubbed, even though I gave them the opportunity to opt out of the launch emails.**

My being up front, transparent & offering opt-outs didn’t stop the frustration for some. 

On the day after the launch, one woman couldn’t take it anymore & screamed at me IN ALL CAPS to delete her from my list.

The worst part? She was responding to an email that wasn’t selling anything - just encouraging her to have a wonderful August.

Sigh...

My BIGGEST A-HA: 

Ultimately, the bulk of new members came the day of the cart close - 

ZERO came in after that ‘last chance, I’m going to bed’ email that went out at 9:30pm EST.

So, FYI: if you think false scarcity sucks, I agree. Don’t use it.

But - create scarcity for yourself because a long, drawn-out launch without any closing, deadlines, or scarcity will EXHAUST you -

and your audience.

Last, and probably MOST important when preparing for Your Launch Realistically: let’s talk Launch Energy

In my personal life, many moving parts sucked up my energy & kept me from what I “should’ve done” to launch my last program:

A webinar, challenge, or training - all in the name of activating my audience to join my membership.

But with a family house sale/move, some health challenges & injuries, mental burn out… 

Well, I had no OOOMPH left to pull off a big push to initiate my audience, a ‘best practice’ in MarketingLand.

You know the drill: you provide lots o’value for free, show your audience what’s possible, & let ‘em see you as the solution to their problem.

They sign up for your thing.

Let’s talk openly about Launch Energy - what it REALLY takes to put an offer out there successfully…

Because in addition to planning your activating event, training, challenge, webinar, etc…

1. Consider what you ALREADY did to create the offer it’s going to sell :

• Brand/logo/colors/etc.
• Research & outlines
• Write/create/recording
• Edit/tweak/upload - LORDY all the tech…
• Oh! Name it & price it.

PHEW! You’re probably plumb tuckered out, right? 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could now put it out there & it sells itself?!

If only! Now you need a…

2. Sales page - let’s not lie: this is a giant pain in the ass & can take endless hours. I don’t care how good you are at it. 

I’m a strong writer, but all told, I poured 20+ hours into mine.

**Next week I’m gonna break mine down for you so you can see what works & what doesn’t!**

3. Checkout page: are prices correct & all tech working? 
4. Double-check every sales page button goes to checkout & works.
5. ‘Thank you’ landing page.
6. Welcome email sequence once people JOIN - make that onboarding smoooooth!
7. Triple check links & tech connect! 

Grrrrr - we haven’t even talked about marketing to sell your program - emails, social posts, IG stories, videos, webinar, reminders, etc...

Are you still awake? Have you passed out?

You know I’m in the business of transparency, so let’s not LIE: There’s a LOT. You’ve gotta have the ENERGY.

But don’t give up your dream of putting your offer out there: simply use this as a reminder go into your launch understanding all the moving parts -

so you don’t commit to things you “should” do - but maybe “can’t” do - 

for whatever reasons - Time. Energy. Money. Vision. Help. Support. 

This’ll keep you from thinking “I suck” if you get a different outcome from what’s “promised” out there in MarketingLand.

You don’t suck at all. You’re wonderful! What you provide your audience & clients is so very needed in the world.

Make sure you give yourself the space to create & promote with ENERGY!

Xo, Jen

PS: Make it as SIMPLE as possible…especially if you don’t have a team.

This is a great place to thank my team - Jessica & Rochelle - without them, I’d be nowhere. SO much love to you both. 🧡

Thank you to my Business BFF Claudia Schalkx, marketing genius, who brainstorms with me every week! Is it time to plug the marketing holes in your business, get on a free call with her. She’s VERY generous with her help & knowledge on those calls.