Launching!

Test Run

It's time to put it all out there! Hopefully if you're here, you've got a great proofread sales page live on the Internet, checkout/sign up process tested and thank you page ready to go. You or a volunteer absolutely needs to test the system to make sure everything works. The next 5 days will be you putting your offer out and monitoring results.

By monitoring, I mean looking at email or advertising data, are they clicking? Are they opening, is there traffic to your page? A breakdown in any area needs to be found and fixed. Sometimes your link doesn't work, sometimes the email didn't actually send, there are many variables that can go wrong, and I don't want you to assume product failure when it wasn't. If they all click the link in your email, but nobody buys on your page, is checkout working? If that's working, then it's either your sales message or your offer. Is there some information they need to make the decision? Is it something you said or didn't say? Do you have it clearly worded with a focus on the benefits, the "why" they need it rather than just the dry feature details? You can salvage if you are watching closely and finding the obstacles areas in their path to buying.

Why 5 days?

Because you need to give people a deadline. We as people operate best by deadlines, and most people would rather put off making a decision indefinitely if you'll let them. This is especially true where money is concerned. The way you do this is by building in some type of repercussion if they fail to take action by a certain date and time. Either the price goes up, the opportunity goes away, or they don't get your bonus thingie. If you have limited availability such as a class or coaching type situation where there is only so much of you to go around, that could work too. Not giving them a deadline will cut your sales in half.

You'll be connecting with your prospects a lot over the next 5 days, so in order to avoid redundant "buy my thing" messages, you need to be creative, educational or entertaining so they have a reason to keep listening. Giving them a quick actionable tip that solves a small problem for them works wonders. So does being your interesting self. Every email or post needs to have at least one link back to your sales page.

5 Day Game Plan

Day 1: Announce that you're finally open for business. Whew! Thank everybody for their feedback and co-creation, (from your research and crowdsourcing you did earlier) let them know you couldn't have done it without them. (Reminder that they are part of this/warm fuzzies.) PS. (Insert deadline here.)

Day 2: Talk positively about how well yesterday's grand opening went (social proof, better hop on this bandwagon) and ask if they have any questions.

Day 3: Address the questions assuming you got any. If not, think of some objections people might have to buying your product and unravel those. For instance, someone might not enroll in this class because they think they don't have time to start a business, so I could write about how you can be successful in as little as an hour a day. This can be a pretty long email addressing several issues, or you can break it up and keep addressing things over the next couple days.

Day 4: Quick tip email or more questions/objections answered. Shift your message at the end to the deadline. Let them know exactly when and what they'll miss out on.

Day 5: You'll send two emails/posts. This is not the time to back down and let up for fear of bothering people. If you do this you will absolutely leave money on the table. It can feel like harassment at this point but I've actually had people thank me for reminding them to get in under the wire.

So send the first one early morning saying today is the day. The second one goes out later on saying last call. Most of your sales will happen on day 5.

Ok, so 5 Days are Up 

How did it go? Did you make your goal and decide you have a viable business? If yes, great. At this point, besides fulfilling your new customers, you should look at getting all your legal ducks in a row and get a real website or whatever else you need. If you feel like you've got it from here, awesome! If you'd like to keep working together to get a foundation under your business and grow it, I'd like to invite you to join the regular Dream Ventures Class.

Lackluster sales?

What do you think went wrong? Post below with any supporting details. You may just need to make some small adjustments to your offer. You might send out an email to those who didn't buy, asking them why they didn't. You'll have to work hard here to keep a positive tone in your email. I get quite a few titled "Was it something I said?" Use some humor so it doesn't sound like sour grapes and reiterate that you want to help people as best as you possibly can in this area, and their feedback would mean the world to you.

Take some time, regroup and come back with a tweaked offer, unless you feel like you've really missed it in terms of what you're supposed to be doing. In the meantime, keep sending occasional useful non-salesy emails to your list. Keep it relevant to that interest group. For example if you pitched a gardening class that failed, you can still send them gardening tips here and there. That may be a niche that you need to stay in, but pitch them a different idea later. This will continue to build goodwill and establish that "know, like and trust" factor for when your next launch goes out.

If you didn't make your goal for what it would be worth to you to start the business, you need to think about whether you are going ahead with your product for those who bought, or if you will just issue refunds.

The End?

It's probably not as final as that. Lets please talk about your success or failure (not that it's ever really a failure so much as an opportunity to learn and change direction. If you did the free option for this class, a big congratulations, because most people that get things for free don't follow through. I'd like to look over what you've done and offer some feedback free of charge.

[]
1 Step 1
keyboard_arrow_leftPrevious
Nextkeyboard_arrow_right