You are listening to the Scaling to Freedom podcast and if you are an online coach or course creator, you are in the right place. I’m your host, Christina Bernhard. I’m an ad agency owner that gets an inside look every day on what’s working and what doesn’t in the online coaching space. I’m here to share with you what we see works in our agency, as well as what we see happening and changing in the industry. Stay tuned to up level your coaching business to have the freedom you want. Let’s get started. Welcome to episode 192.

00:31 In this episode, we’re going to be talking all about launching. So most of my clients because they are coaches, a lot of them live launch and maybe they have evergreen programs running in the background, but live launches is still a part of their business, sometimes a large part. A large part of the revenue relies on live launching, and if your coaching business does have live launches and you kind of rely on those for your revenue goals, you likely want them to be larger launches, and by larger I mean more money, right? So I have years of experience working behind the scenes of teams of multi six and seven figure coaches and their launches, and so I’ve seen a lot and experienced a lot. I’ve seen how launches have changed over the years, but also there is definitely a pattern. So coaches have a different way of doing things and every launch is a little bit different, but there are some common things that every single launch has, and so I wanted to do this episode and make it kind of like a checklist so you can just make sure that every area of your launch is taken care of and solid before you go into your next live launch. So just a note here all of this is a process and it evolves and changes. So each of these areas, no matter where you are in your coaching business, you will have to reevaluate these things.

01:52 I often revisit the basics of my own business and it’s necessary, and we also do this with ads as well. So, even if some of these might actually come across as somewhat beginner and basic, but they are that powerful and there is a lot of power in the basics. And just going back to the fundamentals of things, and I think the longer you are in a profession, you tend to get disconnected from the basics and the foundations, because it’s just been so long since you had to go there and think about the foundations of things, and so it’s easy to get disconnected and kind of forget about them. But sometimes it really is that simple of just going back to the basics and reevaluating those specific things and having those little tweaks can make all the difference. So I wanted to go over these five things. I have five things that I’ve put together. Every launch that I have been a part of that was six figures or more had these things and less also, but definitely those larger six figure plus launches are going to have at least these components in them.

02:57 So let’s go ahead and dive in. So the first one is a tested offer. So this one again is super basic, but it’s super, super important to focus on your offer, and one way that you can do this, to start off, is doing market research. So if you are unsure about your offer and you know and I also have another episode about your offer, and then I also have another episode about market research specifically if you want to dive deeper into those topics, but your offer obviously has to be good and I do want to point out that the offer is not necessarily your product. So if you are a coach who is selling a coaching program, it’s not necessarily the content inside of it Now, like, yes, that’s a part of it, but also your offer is what is the way that you’re offering it, so the container that you’re offering it in, and that also kind of has to do with the messaging as well, and some other components could be. You know the length of your program, different features, what it includes, but also the price point of it is part of your offer.

03:59 Levels of support whether you are doing group support, is this a one-on-one? Is there just a community that you’re not really a part of? That’s kind of self-run. What are the levels of support within your group program or your coaching program, and types of support? So, is it a Facebook group? Do you have live Q&As? Is it Boxer for more like one-on-one email, zoom calls, what does this look like? These are all components that are part of your offer, and then, of course, there are bonuses and things like that and just how you frame your offer.

04:31 So one of my favorite resources for this is Alex Hermozzi’s $100 million offer book. That has been the best resource that I’ve ever consumed with when it comes to offers. But there are a lot of other people that have resources as well, like Amy Porterfield’s, a big one and there are endless podcasts and things like that about it. But that book is definitely my favorite. I really love how he breaks it down in depth of a really good offer and so and his point in the book is to create an offer that is it’s basically a no-brainer that people I think he says something like people feel stupid. Saying no to like it’s to make an offer that good. So that is definitely the first component and necessary like right, it has to be a good offer.

05:24 The second thing is that they always have really tested messaging. So typically, whenever I’m a part of a launch that is larger, like a six figure plus, the messaging is something that has been dialed in over time. So typically the launch is not the very first launch. They’ve launched this multiple times. Now that could also be because of what I do, like I do, I run ads. So typically when people come to me, they have been at this for a while doing it organically before they’re actually investing in ads to amplify what they’ve already built. So the messaging is already like tested and it has some data behind it. Now the market changes. So just because you have tested messaging does not mean that you’re done forever Like you’re always, this is always evolving right, as well as your business and your brand, and all of that is evolving. So your messaging is going to evolve also, with your offer changing as well. But just because you know the value of your offer does not mean that you know how to communicate the value. So the messaging is so, so important and that’s going to be another basic component of a larger launch.

06:32 The third thing is consistent nurturing. So you don’t necessarily need to have huge audiences, but they do need to be warm. So I’ve actually been a part of six figure plus launches where the client actually didn’t have a massive audience, but they were very in tune with their audience, very close, very engaged, and their audience was very warm and they were loyal to the client. And so that is really what you need more than anything. So you can’t be sporadic. So if you’re doing, you know like whether it’s like lives consistent posting stories, engagement, emails, whatever it is, it doesn’t have to be all of those things, but it does have to be consistent. So if you are kind of showing up just during launches or just before launches, it’s not consistent enough. So you have to consistently be nurturing your audience. Again, this is super basic, but I think that this is something that gets left behind, especially whenever people start going into ads. They’re used to launching to their organic audience. So if you’ve never done ads before and all of your launches have been to your organic, warm audience, it can be kind of a shock when you see how much harder it is to convert cold people. Because you have been just naturally engaging with your organic audience over time as you’ve built up your Instagram or your email list or whatever it is. And now that you are running ads now you need to learn how to consistently nurture those new cold leads as well.

08:05 And sometimes you can take this nurturing and you can collapse that time frame. You don’t have to necessarily be posting and talking to them for, like you know, six months. Sometimes you do. It depends on a variety of things and what your purchase cycle is. But you can actually find ways to collapse that time frame and be intentional with your nurturing. But the nurturing does have to be consistent and people they need to be warmed up. So, especially in coaching sometimes, or a lot of the time for these larger launches, they’re always high ticket programs. So with the high ticket programs you need to have trust. The higher ticket, the more of the investment with time or money or whatever the case is from the clients, then the more trust that they’re gonna need to have from you. So that’s gonna require more nurturing not necessarily more nurturing as in a time frame, although that could be the case as well but it’s really about being intentional and what you are sharing with them within your nurturing plan, whatever that strategy is.

09:09 The fourth thing that I don’t actually hear about this that often, which I’m surprised about, is follow up and outreach during the actual launch. So whenever I hear people talk about launch strategies and this is a specific tactic or a strategy I hear a lot of people talk about there are different ad strategies, or maybe the funnel or emails and types of posts and all of these things and all of that is super important, right. So we still have to be intentional and that stuff has to be high quality. But also, I feel like not many people talk about what happens during the launch and the fact that a lot of these sales are not just sales that you know, whenever my clients are launching, a lot of times they’re not just sitting there and like they hit the live button and they just wait for sales to come. There is active engagement happening during the launch. So almost all big launches do this.

10:00 I think probably pretty much any launch I’ve been a part of this has been something that they’ve been doing, and this is basically where you can look at the people clicking in your emails or look at people that are engaging with your different content related to the launch People who have registered for the hype event or the webinar and engage there as well, and reaching out to them and asking them if they have any questions, if there’s anything that you can help them with, and you’re basically closing the sale in DMs or through email and these are one-on-one communication. So this is not where you are just doing your master class and then having your email sequence do all of the sales for you. Now you’re going to get sales that way. If your messaging is dialed in and your content is really good and the audience is very aligned and warm, that will absolutely happen. The sales will just come through. But a lot of those sales, especially for these higher ticket coaching programs, are going to be happening with this one-on-one communication, this outreach during the launch that’s happening.

11:03 This is also a really great way to gather feedback so that you can kind of pivot mid-launch. So if you are having these conversations with people and people are saying like well, you know it’s, you’re getting a specific objection or there’s some sort of misunderstanding, you can address that in real time during your launch by sending out an extra email addressing it, or you can get on your stories, address it and within your content things like that you can do a whole podcast episode. If it’s something you’re hearing a lot of, you can make changes to the sales page. All of these different things that you can do in the middle of the launch in real time because you are having conversations with the people going through your sales process for the launch and getting that feedback can really turn a launch around if it’s something really common. So having that component is so important and I feel like I don’t hear many people talk about it, but I know that everyone does it because I’m just behind the scenes of it and I’m just part of the teams. But, yeah, everyone’s doing this. This is just kind of part of closing those sales and so I think not having that component really leaves a lot of money on the table. For a variety of reasons, but also mostly because you’re not closing those sales and really having those sales conversations with people, but also you’re not getting that feedback. So you can understand how people are receiving your messaging during the launch and if you are able to get enough feedback before the launch is over, then you can actually pivot and address these things. So that one’s huge.

12:35 And then the last thing that I’ll go over is that they use ads. So yes, I’m biased because I’m only a part of launches that use ads, but I will tell you that these huge launches, they do require volume, and volume only works if your events and emails and content are high converting. So I will note that that you can’t just have high volume and then make lots of money. The back end of the sales process has to work, it has to convert. But if you’re not there, ads are not going to help you much other than gathering some data. So you do need to have that back end working and you can use ads for data, but just be aware that you’re using them for that purpose. So if you don’t have a sales process that works, you are collecting data. So data is a great investment for your future of your launches if you want to speed up the process. Just know that volume alone is not going to create a huge launch.

13:34 But if you do have that sales process converting really well and all of those other components I talked about today are dialed in, then ads is going to be a really great way to just amplify it. This is how people reach those larger numbers. They are using ads most of the time. So that’s how you’re going to be filling up those webinars, getting more people into your world, and I do also want to note that you’re not just using ads during the launch. Super, super important to note that, like I said, these leads have to be, and the people in your world have to be, warm and nurtured well before the launch. That’s going to make the launch so much easier. It’s going to increase that conversion rate of that sales process. So you want to make sure that you are running ads all year round so that you can have those leads consistently coming in and you can nurture them and whenever you are ready for your launch, you have this larger audience that’s warmed, they have been engaging with you, you’ve been engaging with them and they are ready for your launch and that is how you’re going to be able to convert them at those higher numbers. So those are the five components that every big launch that I’ve been a part of has had.

14:46 So the first thing is the tested offer. Of course, super basic, right, but we always want to be reevaluating our offer. And also, if you have had your offer for a while, like I said, the market changes, the look at how the competition is going to reframe and shift things around to are you standing out anymore? Is what you’re doing like maybe it was unique before and it’s not anymore Like these things happen and they will happen. So always reevaluate your offer. The second thing is tested messaging. So having the messaging dialed in, being able to communicate the value of your offer super important, vital.

15:24 The third thing is consistent nurturing. So being consistent and having those cold leads that are coming in, making sure you have some sort of system in place to have them learn about you, to be able to nurture them and give them lots of value before the launch. And then follow up and outreach during the launch. So you’re still actively making sales during the launch, like you yourself or a sales team. And then the last thing is using ads. So the ads are going to amplify what is already working. So that’s how you’re going to increase that volume, hit those larger revenue numbers.

15:57 So that is what I have for you today. I hope that you found this helpful and I hope that you’re able to go through these different things, even the basic ones, and have an even bigger launch, your next launch. Y’all have a great week. I will see you guys next time. Thank you for listening to the Scaling to Freedom podcast. If you are a seven-figure coach looking for ads management with an agency that partners with you to get your work out into the world and amplify your impact, see if we are a good fit by applying for a spot in our agency at ChristinaBernhard.com/apply. Find the link in our show notes.