You launch your program, you open the cart… and no one buys.
I hear this a lot in the entrepreneur space, and people seem to be really confused as to what went wrong.
“Did I make a mistake? It seemed like things were going well.”
“I worked so hard on it. I poured my blood sweat and tears into this. People should applaud; what happened?”
“What…. Happened??”
I don’t want this to happen to you.
So, I am going to give you some of the biggest mistakes that people make when launching and the things that you can do to avoid them; so that you don’t end up with zilch…nada…. nothing when you open your cart.
With the launch of my first course, the Wellpreneur Business Academy, we had a ton of success: a six figure launch, a multiple six figure launch, and a quarter of a million plus launch. So, I definitely have a rock solid strategy that I use:
- get people in the door,
- get them excited about what we’re talking about, and
- really just show up as leader and an authority in this niche.
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Number 1 Mistake: Making sure that what you’re doing is going to generate income.
Otherwise, it’s not really worth it. The first common mistake that I see entrepreneurs make is that they launch without an audience. I don’t even want to say they launched too soon, because I think having some kind of offer something to put out there is crazy powerful. But, if you don’t have a hungry audience who is ready to buy, who wants what you’re serving up… you’re going to run into a problem.
For the most part, when you are launching something, you might have an audience of, let’s say, 100 people on your e-mail list. You’re just getting started with the early stages. I think it’s important to recognize that, whether it be your e-mail list or your sales page, typically people only convert their list at around 5%; sometimes less than that.
The other piece of this is that you might have a lot of people who are showing up for you. People who are excited about what you’re doing and who even write you inbox messages saying how inspiring you are and how much they love your stuff. But, they might not be ready to buy from you. So it’s important that you have an audience.
It’s important to really not get ahead of yourself.
Take a look at what you’ve got going on with your business and say, “Is this realistic right now?” And if not, “how do I grow my audience? What pieces am I missing? What do I need to get in place so that, when we do close the cart, we hit our goal?”
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Number 2 (and this might even be the biggest one): Many entrepreneurs don’t have total clarity in their niche.
They don’t know what they’re offering to their people. Let’s say, I work with a lot of health and fitness coaches and they’ll want to put out programs that are “healthy lifestyle programs” or “the healthy body program” or “the fit lifestyle.”
The words are in really general terminology: “fit healthy lifestyle.”
This kind of stuff doesn’t convert because, as a consumer I’m looking at the title of your program, and it doesn’t really speak to a specific pain or pleasure point. If your stuff is not getting people to bite, it might just be really super general. The only way to fix that is to actually know what your specific niche is that you’re trying to serve. Really know your avatar forward and back, so that when you are creating some kind of offer, you know exactly what they’re looking for.
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Number 3: People who didn’t make the ask.
They’re not selling it. They’re just assuming that people are going to know that they came out with a new program.
So you didn’t make the ask on social media, or you waited for people to reach out to you. This is probably the most common. Some women who I work with are previous network marketers who are now creating their own products/programs/services. They are literally terrified to go back to inboxing people. They’re like, “No, that’s why I got out of this whole network marketing thing. I don’t want to inbox people. I’m not going to do it. It feels weird.”
I promise you: if you seriously don’t reach out to people in the beginning and start to build that momentum, it’s going to take a lot longer to get people to say yes. There’s no harm. There’s no foul in building a community; building your audience and getting them highly excited and engaged.
You’re showing up as a leader, putting out incredible content, and then looking at the people who are engaged on your posts. You’re going to them and saying,
“Hey! I love that you’ve been so active in my community and you’ve been posting really consistently. It seems like you’re really looking for additional support with things that are exactly what I coach. And I really believe that the program that I’m about to put out is exactly what you’re looking for. I would love to jump on a quick discovery call with you to see if it would be a good fit?”
That’s it.
And then you see if they’re available and they’re interested. And boom! That’s not icky at all. You’re already showing up and giving tons and tons and TONS of free value. So ,it’s obvious. It makes perfect sense to reach out to that person and make that private ask.
Don’t make the ask on social media and then wait around for people to inbox you.
Don’t wait for the direct ask of, “Oh, you have a program coming out?” because it’s probably not going to happen. Or, it’s not going to happen as frequently as you’re hoping. That being said, once you build a massive audience and once you are Tony Robbins or Gabby Bernstein or Jillian Michaels or the Tone-It-Up Gals… sure, you’re going to have people just showing up for you. They’ll be coming to your pages and looking for your programs, and you’re not going to have to do any individual one-on-one invitation. But, in the beginning, it’s good to do that. Like I said to get things moving to get the momentum going.
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Number 4: Only making one post about your offer.
Many new entrepreneurs will learn a couple of things online, and they’re like, “OK, I’m going to launch program.” So they make maybe a handful of social media posts about their one-on-one coaching, about their mini group course, and about their e-book. And no one buys it. So they give up and they go, “Well, this didn’t work.”
Girlfriend! You only made one post!
When you’re thinking about social media, like Facebook and the algorithms, especially if you don’t have a big following already? Most of the time, less than 10 percent of your friends’ list is actually seeing that post.
So you’re saying nobody bought but….did people even see it?
How can you really throw your hands in the air and go, “Well that was a failure.” No, it wasn’t. You just didn’t put it out there enough! You’ve got to get more eyeballs on your stuff. You can’t just do one or two posts. You’ve got to put a little bit more effort and strategy behind it.
And, if you’re struggling with strategy and you’re not sure how to figure it out, take a course or hire business coach. The information’s out there. You’ve just got to go get it and identify where you’re struggling. Don’t throw your hands up and give up. If there’s a problem that you’re having, there is a solution that someone has that they would be happy to give you and teach you.
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Number 5: Only making the ask on social media.
They don’t reach out to those highly engaged people. As I was saying before, you’ve got to ask them one-on-one if they would be interested. You cannot just hide behind your computer. In the early days (especially in the early days) when you’re just building your business, if you’re not getting out in front of more people and you’re just using Facebook or you’re just using unscrambled don’t use it all use it all. Get some affiliates. Get some other people involved in the promotion of what you’re doing.
Number 6: you didn’t show up consistently on social media.
Sorry. That’s the truth.
It hurts sometimes when you’re like, “Nobody bought it and I don’t know why. It was such a great program. I loved it so much.” That’s cool that you loved it, but people didn’t know you enough yet. And they didn’t understand the value of what you were putting out there because you weren’t consistent.
What do you personally look for in a mentor or coach?
What attracts you into someone’s tribe?
Why do you hire them?
Why do you give them money?
Probably because they’re showing up.
And now with live video, it’s a bazillion times easier to get people’s attention and to actually build that quality relationship in a fraction of the time. It used to be something crazy, like they would have to read 10, 20, 30 blog posts. Now, they can do it in a couple of minutes with online video, saying, “Yep, I like her vibe. I like her energy. I like her content. She’s already given me some quick wins in just a couple of minutes? Yeah, I wanna hire her!”
Are you showing up? Are you that person that is providing valuable content in the News Feed?
Listen, in today’s day and age, there’s no shortage of great content. There are so many people killing it. Lots of people will listen to thousands upon thousands of podcasts. Everybody’s jumping on live video, now YouTube. There’s no shortage of great content. So the day that you don’t show up and that person comes to the podcast, or comes to a live video and they’re ready to absorb some new information because you are their go-to person… and you’re not there?
What do you think they’re going to do while this is their time to develop themselves?
They’re going to go find someone else to follow. That’s it.
And if that person is more consistent and that person shows up every single day, well, you just lost that person’s ear. You just lost those eyeballs. They’re gone. So you’ve got to show up consistently.
Create some site, some kind of strategy for yourself, organize yourself and I’m telling you right now: outsource some stuff.
I don’t care if you’re a newbie. I don’t care if you’ve been in business for 10 years.
You’ve got to start building a team. You’ve got to start outsourcing some stuff. I get it – “I’m busy. I don’t always have time to get on video.” I hear you. But if you’re spending all of your time behind the scenes, building funnels, working on Facebook ads, coaching people… you’re not going to have the time and energy to actually get in front of people, create content and connect.
You’ve got to hand off some of those behind-the-scenes tasks. If you’re still sitting there trying to build your Instagram yourself, find somebody to hire. Go research it on Google; there’s plenty of agencies. Do your due diligence and make sure that they’re not doing anything sketchy that’s in violation of Instagram’s rules, but you’ve got to start handing some things off.
I recently handed off my podcast editing and that was a freaking godsend! I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I have about 10 hours more a week now!” I feel more excited to get on live video, because I know I’m not the one that’s going to have to sit there for an hour editing it. I’m more excited to reach out to influencers and bring them on my show because I know that I don’t have to sit there and rake through every second and listen to it again.
That was crazy that I did that for so long, but I’m just like you. I’m that perfectionist. I don’t like handing things off.
“No one’s going to do it as good as me,” right?
No one can do it as good as me, and that’s OK. The shifts are subtle if you find somebody who you really trust. No one really notices when you hand it off. It’s very, very subtle. You’ve got to show how you are committing to get visible today in your business. What do you need to do? You know exactly what it is. What do you need to do? OK.
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Number 7: You’re promoting yourself as a personal brand….but you have nowhere to send people.
What do I mean by this? You don’t have an e-mail list. You don’t have a Facebook group. If you are sending people in a circle on social media, you’re going to run into problems (especially Facebook and Instagram which is everyone’s favorite.) Those actually require probably the most effort long-term.
Why do I say this? Well, something like Pinterest, a podcast or YouTube: those platforms actually grow over time. I can put up a YouTube video in 2011, and if I put some real strategy behind it, people are still going to be watching it today. The post that I made on Facebook or Instagram in 2011? That is buried beneath all the other stuff that I put out there. No one seeing it and it’s not getting me that residual viewership with podcasts.
YouTube videos, blogs, and Pinterest are searchable platforms. These platforms take a little bit more effort, and a lot of people don’t want to waste the time. They want the quick wins; they want the likes and they want the hearts. They’re not necessarily willing to go long term, so they don’t have those things in place. They don’t have an email list or a Facebook group to set. So then, where are you sending people? What I see most often with entrepreneurs: they have Facebook. They have Instagram. And they’re just kind of sending people in a circle.
And at no point in time is anyone collecting those eyeballs.
How are you taking those people who are looking at your stuff and getting their information? Because, when you get to the point where you’re ready to launch a project/a product/program/service, you want to be able to promote directly to those people. So, even though email marketing doesn’t get as high of an open rate or click rate, it is still crazy valuable.
Because at the end of the day we still use email for everything.
We cannot log into Facebook or Instagram to get Venmo or PayPal. You need an email. Email is not going anywhere, guys. So the open rates might be lower today than they were in the early 1990s, but it’s still super relevant and still necessary when growing your business.
If you don’t have any list yet, that’s OK!
We’re going to work on that. If you don’t have an email list yet, you can start by creating a Facebook group. This is not something that works for everyone, but I have used this extensively in my launch strategies. You can start a private Facebook group of free content, where you basically funnel all of your people. At the end of a podcast, we’ll give a call to action in our post to join the group. We’re funneling and sending people there, so that we can nurture that relationship a little bit more. We’re creating a hub. This branded community where people can come and hang out, connect with us and see what we’re about.
It’s really important that you have a place to send people, because when you get to the point of a launch, you’re not scrambling to pull names. If you’ve got everybody in one place, it makes it a thousand times easier. You also can crunch some numbers and do some analytics. If you’ve got a group of 500 people, you probably know how many are going to convert. If you’ve got a group of 5000 or 50,000, you can have a better sense of what your numbers are.
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Number 8: You didn’t get on Discovery calls.
Discovery calls guide people to the yes.
If you’re that person that slaps links all over the place, just inboxing people links with vague conversations via Facebook or email messages, you might be getting away with it if your program is less expensive. But, I promise you: as you continue to expand your brand, you’re going to need to get on some calls. I’m a huge advocate for this, because it’s important that you learn about your customers.
That research is invaluable.
You don’t want to skip the research aspect of growing an audience. Otherwise, you’re creating programs that people don’t want, and putting out content that people don’t care about. So you have to listen to your audience, and the best way to really get to know them on an intimate level is to do discovery calls. Get to know what their biggest problems are, and I promise you that you’re going to change the way that you’ve mapped out your one-on-one. You will write programs based on those conversations.
There was a time before launch that I did between 80-100 discovery calls. Sure, it was exhausting, and I wanted to pull my hair out at times. But whoa mama… that cranked it up on a whole new level! I knew exactly what people needed to hear, I knew exactly what they were struggling with, and I also knew what the objections were going to be around our program. The content created from those discovery calls helped to overcome those objections, and
the response was unbelievable.
Absolutely get on discovery calls to learn to master sales.
You’ve got to figure it out. Basically, if you’re not getting on calls with people and you’re not learning how to master sales on the phone, your sales copy on your sales page for your programs, and your copy in social media and your Facebook ads, it’s probably all suffering.
You haven’t really gotten to know the pain and pleasure points of your ideal client.
We want to make sure that you’re getting on the phone and helping to guide them towards that yes. So this kind of goes into Number nine…
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Number 9: You didn’t do market research.
You didn’t do the market research to see if people even wanted what you were putting out there. If you didn’t test the waters and say, “Hey audience that I’ve built! What do you think of this idea?”, you’re going to run into some serious problems. I have so many stories of this happening with other entrepreneurs. They created something they were hyped about, they launch it and then nothing.
I recently renamed my podcast from “Entrepreneur Now” to “Social Media to Sales” podcast. I did this because I’m all about taking the action and jumping in. I wanted to make this happen. I wanted it out by January 2017 and I’m so glad that I did that. But I realized…
I didn’t really ask my audience.
I didn’t think about what would make them want to click play. What would get my audience to find me? What would be searchable? So I made the name of the podcast “Entrepreneur Now,” and later I realized that my audience of mostly health and wellness coaches – not that they don’t refer to themselves as entrepreneurs – call themselves a health coach first. Then a business owner, and then MAYBE an entrepreneur. And they’re not really searching for entrepreneur shows in iTunes.
They are, however, looking for empowerment, mindset, sales help, and anything related to social media. So I made the change and it feels like a much better fit. But that’s a huge lesson in launching something that you didn’t actually confirm that people wanted. When I created that name, I wasn’t being super thoughtful about who my audience was and who I was trying to attract with that name. I was just trying to find something that worked with the content that I was going to maybe create.
One of my incredible clients was going to be launching this program called, “The Yo-Yo Dieters Weight Loss Academy.” And instead of being like, “Hey that’s not a great name,” I simply said, “I have an idea. I want you to come up with two other names (and I gave her some suggestions) ask your audience which program they would rather participate in.
A. Fat Loss Yo-Yo Academy.
B. Something about hormones… The Hormone (something) Academy?
C. The Metabolism Reboot Academy.
Needless to say, she posted this and 95 percent of people picked C – the Metabolic Reboot Academy. It was insane! She couldn’t believe it.
Her response was, “If it weren’t for you, I would have put out a program that no one wanted or have bought.”
Doing that research, having that editing, and asking a business coach or some other peer who knows their stuff is really powerful when you are getting into a launch.
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Number 10: Your sales page.
It was too wordy, or it was super long, or it didn’t focus on the pain and pleasure points, or it was too short.
There are some people who I’ve worked with who create a first draft of a sales page and make it live. You know it’s their first draft without even needing to scroll to see the whole thing. And yet, it’s a $3000 course or program. And truth be told: if it is something that is higher in price point, you probably need a little bit more on the sales page to actually compel people to buy. Now, you don’t want things to be long for the sake of being long, but realize that
The purpose of a sales page is persuasion.
You’re trying to persuade someone to buy with your sales page. So ,if you’re not using their language, if you’re not focusing on pain and pleasure points of what’s going to compel them to make that buy… you’re not going to get sales. You need to inspire thoughts like, “Oh my God, this is exactly what I need. She’s solving my problem right now.” Otherwise, people are going to assume it’s not worth it, because they don’t really know what they’re getting.
Do people know what they’re getting when they’re looking at your sales page?
How are you outlining it?
I recommend that you either hire somebody to help you with some copywriting or you just start with doing some research of people who have had really successful launches. Go look at their sales pages, but do not copy and paste! You can get in some big trouble for that and it’s not really based on integrity. You can get sued, so don’t do that.
But… take a look at their framework. What is compelling to you?
How are they using language to guide their potential buyer to a “YES”?
Here’s an interesting thought. When we were first launching, we had this woman come in who was helping us with some of the HTML / graphics side of building the page. She said, “Can I give you a suggestion?” We said, “Sure.” She said, “I know that the template that you guys are using has a ‘BUY NOW’ button right at the top. But, I would really recommend we remove that, because the first thing people are going to do is they’re going to click that button. They’re going to see a price, but you haven’t convinced them of your value yet. So, don’t give them an opportunity to go away. Make sure they have to scroll down and read some of the stuff, and actually get a sense for what you have in the program.
I was like, “Dude. That’s genius.”
Because, of course, the first thing that everybody does is click, “BUY NOW.” There’s a lot of strategy that goes into sales pages, so if your sales page was not converting, that can be a huge issue. Make sure you’ve got a second set of eyeballs on what you’re putting out there.
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Number 11: The name of your program is crazy vague.
Like I was saying earlier, there’s a lot of people who want to put things out there. We’ve had many girls in the past who are health, wellness, fitness coaches. They say, “Well, I really focus on mindset.” or “I focus on habits.” or “I focus on the mind / body / soul.” So they create these “Mind Body Soul Programs.” And I’m sitting there as a consumer, saying, “So… are you an acupuncturist? Are you a nutritionist? Are you a yogi? Is this therapy?” I don’t know what I’m getting.
It’s not tangible.
It’s not focused on a specific individual.
I was just working with one of my clients yesterday, and we were able to take her program name from something that was pretty vague too. I believe it was, “The Body After Baby” program vs “The Better Body” project. We were able to take that name and make it something very clear. “Better Body” could be anything. “Body After Baby”, I know exactly who that’s for: new moms, or moms who had a baby 5 years ago who are still trying to get their body back.
It’s super niche and targeted.
From there, you can get specific about your system (kettle bells? HIIT workouts?), but quite honestly, most people don’t really care what the system is. They just want to know what the tangible end result is that you will help them achieve with the program, product, or service you’re providing.
Having a specific name means that yes, you will polarize people.
Some people aren’t going to buy it because it’s specific. But, when you get specific, your sales are going to go through the roof.
I’m not lying – I have watched it happen time and time again.
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Number 12: You have no testimonials or social proof.
The first thing that people do is look for testimonials of people who have worked with you. And you may think, “Oh crap.. I don’t have any. What do I do? Who can I find to write me a testimonial?”
Don’t put yourself in that position.
I’m all about you stepping forward, owning your worth, putting together your very first one-on-one or the very first group program. But, before you do, make sure you’ve got a couple of testimonials that you can share. Those success stories are going to give you social proof and help to persuade people to the YES without you having to butter them up and convince them of anything. If other people have done it and they’ve gotten great results, well clearly, it’s worth it.
How can you get testimonials?
First, you can run a beta test group. This is just a first draft of your program. It’s great because the people who are going to join have no expectations. They know going into it that this is the test drive. There’s going to be some kinks, and that takes the pressure off of you as well.
You can charge an introductory or lower price for your first beta test group.
And this way, you can get nice testimonials or get that vital feedback about how you can change your program and make it even better. And BOOM! When you actually launch, you’ve already got them giving you some referrals.
You’ve got these great testimonials, and you know that the program is something that actually works.
Another way to generate testimonials is you can do some pro-bono, one-on-one coaching, or free coaching/clarity calls before they get on a discovery call with you. This is a great way to give people that experience of what it’s like working with you as a coach.
People want to know, “What’s her style? What’s her vibe?”
You can achieve a lot of that with live video and getting crazy visible. But, I think it’s great to have those testimonials as well.
Put yourself out there.
See if there are some people who are in your network and who are looking for some brief coaching. Find a specific topic that you can coach around, and give them some free support in exchange for a testimonial. That’s a great way to start building your your little library of feedback from people.
When you do launch, you can put testimonials on your sales page, your landing pages, on your social media… and you’ll be in really good shape.
Number 13: Your price point was too low.
Yes it was too low.
“There’s no way. I have to discount it more so that I can get more people to buy it.”
No, you don’t.
Here’s why: perceived value.
If there is a “ top business coach “ who is charging $200 for their 12 week program, you bet your bottom dollar I’m not signing up for that.
Why am I not signing up? Because I’m thinking ,”Why the heck are they charging only two hundred dollars? They must not value themselves. The content must not be that good.”
We make a lot of decisions and assumptions based around someone’s price point. They want to know that they’ve got skin in the game, and if you are under pricing or undercharging, you don’t show up as big. They don’t show up as big and they don’t get optimal results. Everyone kind of loses, because then you’re friggin’ spinning your wheels trying to bring new people in the door every five seconds, because you only charge $200 for a 12 week health coaching program. Plus, your clients are texting you 24/7. So, when you actually do the math, you’re probably making a dollar for every hour that you work.
That is crazy pants.
So, please, stop undervaluing yourself.
Whatever your prices are, up your prices right now. If your current clients are not going to stay with you after you up your prices, that’s fine.
There are people that are willing to pay for higher prices, so long as you are up leveling yourself.
If you are getting more experience as a coach, if you are continuing to add on to your education and your knowledge, you can charge more. You are making yourself more valuable, and if you are more valuable, you can make more money.
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Number 14: Your price point was too high.
When people tell you that it’s too expensive, it’s usually not because the thing that you’re selling is actually too expensive. Most of the time, people are undervaluing their stuff. Most of the time, when you’re getting money objections about your price, it has nothing to do with the actual price and has everything to do with the fact that they don’t know, like, and trust you enough.
If you haven’t built that rapport with someone or they’re just not sure if you’re the right fit for them, they’re not sure if it’s the right time.
Now, I know you’re going to sit there and think, “Oh man, I thought this was a good price point. I mean maybe I can negotiate down with them. Maybe I can give them a discount.”
No.
No.
No!
We don’t do that.
You’ve just got to be more valuable.
How can you add more value and get more visible, so that you don’t run into that?
Look, there’s always somebody that has an issue with price. Like I said, most of the time, it has nothing to do with actual money. I mean, maybe they’re broke and maybe they really can’t afford it and there could be some validity to that. But, a lot of times people will find the money if they really feel it’s important.
How many “broke” people do you know, who can’t invest in an event / personal development program / health or business coach… but, if their phone broke tomorrow, they would be dropping a thousand dollars on a new phone? So, it has nothing to do with the actual price.
It has to do with where they rank your program in their list of priorities.
How do we make what you’re offering more of a priority? That has to do with you being a great salesperson just by:
Showing up, providing value, being amazing, being a thought leader, and being generous with what you put out there.
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Number 15: You waste time and energy trying to set up complicated funnels and ads even though that’s not your expertise.
Now Facebook ads are amazing. I think most people should be running them at some degree if they actually know how to set them up. But, I also know that dozens of people set them up incorrectly. They get really bad advice from “gurus” and “experts”, and they end up blowing thousands of dollars without getting a return on their investment. And why? Because they don’t have any of the foundational pieces in their business set up! I want to rip my hair out when I hear people that don’t have a niche, don’t have a focus, selling generic programs… and somebody is telling them to put $15K into Facebook ads. That’s bad advice.
You can spend a million dollars on Facebook ads, and that program is still not going to sell as well as something with a focused niche.
Don’t waste time and energy on things that are not your expertise.
Outsource what you need to, and then take time to develop that expertise; so you’re not just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks. If you’ve only got like 50 people on your list, if you’re in the middle of launch and you’ve got a couple of weeks to go? Setting up funnels on your own is probably not the best use of your time. I would recommend that you start crafting e-mails and kind of do it organically as you go. See what works, and then save those marketing strategies for the next time you launch.
The first time you launch, you don’t really know what’s going to work.
You don’t know what’s going to convert well. You just have to do some testing, and you’ll get a feel for it. The first time is a little rough, but each time just continues to get easier.
What is your expertise? Where do you need to be?
If you need to be on Facebook Live, outsource that other stuff or find another peer that you can maybe support each other in different ways.
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Number 16: You skipped out on quality graphics and professional photos, and in turn, you were perceived as less professional.
If you were trying to sell a $2K or $100 program, you need quality professional photos of you. If I go to someone’s website and it’s a picture that’s like a selfie that they took, I’m not buying the program. If I go to their Facebook page and I see their cover photo is some pictures that they kind of slapped together, I’m not following them.
They’re not presenting their business as something that is high caliber or high level, so I’m going to assume that the program that they’re putting out is not really high caliber or high level.
You’ve got to make the investment. You’ve got to show up and look like a professional. Please, get some professional photos done. You need them for your Facebook ads.
You need them for your website, and for your Facebook cover photo. You need it for literally everything.
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Number 17: You had no strategy behind launching, and the content you put out had nothing to do with your product.
So, you want to put out this program that’s about “body after baby,” but you don’t talk about anything that has to do with a post-baby body on your social media. So people are like, “…what?”
Let’s say that all I’m talking about is how to set up Facebook ads and funnels on my social media platform. But, then I want to launch a mindset program. That’s not what you prepped your audience for.
You should be breadcrumbing content. In my example, I was planting seeds so that my clients would be really excited for this Facebook ads or funnel program, but I’m giving a mindset program? There is a disconnect.
So, what kind of content are you consistently putting out on social media?
Your whole purpose of social media is to get people interested in what you want them to know.
“This is interesting; I would love to know more about this. I think I’ll work with this person at a higher level.”
Your content has to move them towards that.
Yes that’s the front end of your sales funnel is your social media platforms. So have some strategy behind what you’re putting out there.
What are the biggest objections that you get when it comes to your program?
What are things that people need to know before they join your program?
You’re guiding them to that “YES” with your content.
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Number 18: You did not utilize partnerships with other people or promote timely challenges to grow your audience.
This might be like, getting onto other people’s podcasts, or pitching yourself to do some joint Facebook live videos. Reach out to other influencers in your niche who have slightly different approaches to their business, but also have an audience that they’re very similar to what you’re trying to attract.
Do some challenges with your social media content. Guide people to that “YES” by giving them some quick wins. Maybe in a 5 Day Challenge, they lost some weight but they still have 30 more pounds to lose.
What’s next for them? And then you’re right there with, “I’ve got this program for you that will help you with that!”
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Number 19: you didn’t create urgency around your offer.
When you are putting out your offer, there’s got to be some kind of urgency. Is it limited quantity? Did the doors close at some point? Now, maybe you’re saying, “Well Jen, I just started my one on one. People know that I just started.” That’s fine! You don’t have to lie. You can simply say on your social media platforms and on your videos,
“Hey, I am taking on 3 new clients for the month of August. If you’re interested in learning more about my coaching services, click below to fill out this form. We can jump on a quick call to go over some of your goals to see if working together would be a good fit!”
Really easy.
That’s an urgency.
You’ve only got a couple of spots left, and probably if you’re just starting your business, you’re not going to be taking on 20 new clients. You’ve got other things that you need to set up in your business, and you don’t want to be on the phone for 20 hours a week working with people one-on-one because you’re still trading time for money.
Maybe you’ve got a limited quantity, or maybe you launch a program and the doors are going to be closing. “You’ve got to sign up by the 16th at 9 PM and if you miss it, you miss it.” So there’s some urgency around signing up.
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And LAST BUT NOT LEAST!
Number 20 reason why your launch tanked is pretty simple:
You didn’t believe in it.
You didn’t believe in yourself.
You didn’t believe it was possible to reach that goal.
This is less strategy-related, but no less important if you do not believe that you are valuable. If you do not believe in the stuff that you were putting out there, people can not only sense that energy but (let me get a little woo with it for a sec), the universe can sense your energy.
What you focus on expands, and you’re thinking no one’s going to buy it.
Guess what? When you’re on your sales calls, people can hear that lack of confidence and that lack of belief in your price!
They’re not totally sure how to pinpoint it, but they’re just like, “I feel this isn’t the right program for me.” You’ve got to believe in what you’re doing.
Do you believe in what you’re doing?
Do you believe in what you’re putting out there?
I freakin’ hope so, because well, hot diggity dang: the world needs to hear it!
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I know I gave you a ton of content just now, but I hope that these are steps that you can start to implement into your launch strategy. And, hopefully, you can avoid some of these big mistakes that people make.
If you are not already inside the Facebook group Online Coaches Manifest and Monetize, head on over there. I am constantly in there hanging out; posting video content for you guys on how to grow and monetize your online business. And if you’re not already subscribed on iTunes or Stitcher, you can find me on the Social Media to Sales podcast. I would love for you to come over there and check it out. I’m really excited about the incredible guests that I’m going to be bringing on all this month into the near future.
I’ll give you one last little thing: If you are struggling right now with your launch strategy and with content creation, you can go to SocialMediatoSales.com and grab my free live video content blueprint. Super simple, and you know pretty much everyone who goes through that responds,
“Oh my God, I have all these video ideas! I can’t wait to start implementing. Holy crap you’re organized! How did I not know this, you ninja?!”
Go check it out – SocialMediatoSales.com!
