4 Keys to Successful, Repeatable, and Sustainable Launches

If you’re a business owner that dreams of taking your business to the next level (I’m talking 6-7 figures and beyond), you probably already know that you must come up with a plan that can generate large cash infusions into your business at different times throughout the year. 

The online business world has quickly adjusted to the idea of “launching” which means you are actively selling one of your services or programs and it has an open and close cart date.

During your launch, you might have a masterclass, workshop or some sort of event that helps solution aware people move into the product aware phase – meaning they know that your offer is a potential solution to their problem. 

The thing you’re launching can be brand new, or it can be an existing offering that’s been refreshed, has new bonuses or it’s simply time for the next cohort. 

Many of the clients that I’ve worked with over several years (and still work with to this day) follow a launch model like this and they continue to see massive results from this method. 

This is how I know that launching WORKS! 

I know this… but business owners that are new to this model sometimes have different thoughts. They want the cash infusion and they understand that a launch can get them that, but they don’t always take the necessary steps to do it well.

When they try it once and it doesn’t go as planned, they often want to skip the launch part and move straight into building an evergreen funnel.

The only problem with this is you really can’t have an evergreen funnel WITHOUT a successful launch first. Skipping the launch step will likely leave you even more stuck, so to help you understand the real keys of a successful launch, keep reading.

• Revisit (or create) your yearly/quarterly business goals

We’re starting here for a reason, so don’t overlook this step. 

When you have CLEAR goals for your business, such as “earn X revenue,” you’ll be able to determine how many seats you need to sell for a current course, how many 1:1 spots you can take on, if you need to create (or get rid of) any offers, and the overall actions you need to take.

If you aren’t clear on what you want to accomplish, you’ll essentially be throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping that something sticks.

If you’ve already created your yearly/quarterly goals, revisit them and ask yourself if they still align with what you ultimately want to achieve this year. 

If you haven’t already done this, think about what you want the year to look like.

Who do you want to serve? How do you want to serve them? Do you want to launch something new? Do you want to re-launch an existing offer? Do you want to scale back or double down? 

Asking yourself questions like this can help you get crystal clear on your goals so that you can move forward in an effective way. 

• Create a marketing calendar

Once you’ve defined your goals for the year or quarter, it’s time to create a marketing calendar. 

And I know those two words have the tendency to sound vague or confusing, but a marketing calendar isn’t some complex thing that so many people make it out to be. 

It’s simply a plan that can be created in a Google spreadsheet or an Asana board to serve as a roadmap for what you’re focusing on in your business at any given time. 

Similar to not having clear goals, when you don’t have a marketing calendar with specified dates for when you’re launching certain offers or when you’re promoting certain parts of your business, you’re again throwing spaghetti at the wall with no real outcome in mind aside from a few likes on Instagram. 

A marketing calendar helps you strategically design a plan for your business so that you focus on the right things at the right time in order to get the results that you really want.

• Work backwards

Sounds weird I know, but hear me out… 

If you know that you want to create a new offer to serve a new audience and attract more of your ideal customer in June of this year, the best thing you can do is work BACKWARDS. 

First things first, pull out your marketing calendar that I mentioned above and set the date of your launch. From there look at the month before and determine what needs to happen during that time in order for your audience to be ready to buy.

Oftentimes business owners think that they can just create an Instagram post that says, “NOW ENROLLING” or send an email that says “YOU’RE INVITED” and people will start flooding through their virtual doors. 

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

If you want a successful launch, you have to prime your audience for what’s coming and that doesn’t start a week or even two weeks before. 

It starts MONTHS before your new offer is actually here and it’s done through all of your content – Instagram, Podcast, Email, LinkedIn, Blogs. All of it! 

The months prior to your launch is what’s often referred to as the “pre-launch” period and the content is often centered around selling the belief that someone needs to believe in order to be ready to buy your offer. 

In addition to selling beliefs, you’re also speaking to your problem aware people and calling out their specific pain points. These are your people who know they have a problem, but they don’t yet know that there’s a solution.

As you speak to their pain points, they become more in tune with who you are and start wanting more of what you have.

• Master your messaging

Which leads me to… your messaging. 

The only way you can successfully speak to your ideal audience’s pain points is if you master your messaging. 

You probably hear the word “messaging” thrown around a lot in marketing and because of that you might not know what it really means.

On the most basic level, your messaging is what guides how you communicate with your audience. It’s a combination of the words and phrases you use along with the feelings and emotions that you evoke.

The best way to help you understand messaging is to think of it like this: let’s say when you’re scrolling through Instagram, you’re served an ad for a meal kit.

There’s a headline and image paired with other copy that have been designed to draw you in so that you either opt in to receive a deal or buy the product. 

If their messaging is right and speaks specifically to your pain points, you’ll probably click the ad. But if their messaging is off, you’ll keep scrolling.

It works the same way for ALL of your content.

Oftentimes people think that if people aren’t buying, it’s because their offer is wrong. But sometimes the offer isn’t the only problem. Your messaging and positioning is likely the thing that really needs fixed!

So, how do you possibly master your messaging? There’s a few things you can do, but the most important thing is that you start truly LISTENING to what your audience is saying.

Sounds simple I know, but listening to what they say their struggles are, what they’ve tried before, and what they think is working and what isn’t will give you so much insight to what your messaging needs to be. 

Since there’s a lot that goes into this messaging piece, stay tuned for more guidance on how to truly master it so you can successfully launch in Q2 and beyond!