3 Essentials for a Successful Course Launch

Want to launch a course, membership, or group program, but worried about it being a flop? Check that you have these 3 essentials in place before you sink the time, money, and effort into a launch that's not likely to succeed.

Launching can be a huge undertaking for any business. If you're just getting started or you've got a brand new offer that you're looking to launch, it can be nerve-wracking to put in all of that time and effort without knowing whether your launch is going to be successful. 

Now, I don't have a crystal ball — so I can't predict your launch success with 100% accuracy. But there are some key elements that make a huge difference when you're launching. 

Basically, the success of any campaign comes down to your audience, your offer, and your copy. Here’s a rough breakdown of how these pieces impact your launch:

40% of it is based on your audience

40% of it is based on your offer

20% of it is really based on all other things, including your copy

You may have heard of these three elements before. That's because they are part of something called the 40-40-20 rule. Let's dive into each so you can evaluate where you stand before you jump into a big launch.

Your Audience

Roughly 40% of your success depends on your audience. When you're evaluating your audience before you launch, you want to look at your list size. Do you have one? How big is it? How engaged is it?

When you’re forecasting your launch and creating your income goals and your conversion goals. You want to keep in mind average conversion rates and how that would play out with the size of your audience. Average conversion rates are 2-5%, depending on the industry. 

For example, maybe you want to launch a membership site, and your goal is to have a hundred people in your membership. But you only have 1000 people on your list. To get 100 people into your membership, you'd have to convert 10% of your list. For a new offer, that's a really high bar to clear. 

You want to keep those conversion rates in mind when you are preparing for launch so that you don't have unrealistic expectations for your launch based on your audience size. It'll help you set expectations and help you plan your launch better. You don't want to be expecting something huge and something that would be really far out of reach and then overspend on ads and be really disappointed when the numbers just aren't there.

Your Offer

The next 40% is your offer. What is it that you're actually selling? Is it something that your audience wants? 

When you're planning to launch, you want to make sure you're launching something that your audience is actually willing to buy. Have you sold it before? Have you tested it? Have you surveyed your audience? Have you researched to see if this is something that they need right now?

Before you dive into a big launch, it's really critical that you research and test your offer. You can do audience interviews to find out what your audience is struggling with right now and make sure your offer lines up with that.

You can also have beta testers. Have a small group to go through and give you feedback and make sure it's something that's actually very helpful. You can get great feedback and make your offer even better by the time that you launch. You'll also have a nice stack of testimonials.

You also want to research your competition. Is this something that already exists? Is there a hole in the market that you can fill? Is there something that you can do better that everyone else seems to be missing?

It's really hard to have a successful launch if your offer is not something that people want to buy. So that's why your offer makes up a huge part of this and it's really why the audience makes up a big part of your launch.

Because if you don't have a great offer, and you don't have anyone to sell it to, your launch is pretty much DOA. If you've got your audience figured out, you've got your offer dialed in, the last 20% of your launch success comes down to everything else.

Everything Else

This final 20% includes your copy, but it also includes other things that go into the execution of your launch. This is your sales page, your emails, your ads, your branding, your logo, your tech stack — all the stuff you're using to deliver your launch.

And here's the hard truth, especially for a copywriter —  good copy can't save your launch. If those other parts of your launch equation are off, great copy can't really overcome it. A great email sequence or slick sales page really can't overcome a small or disengaged list. And it can't sell something that no one actually wants to buy.

So what can this 20% do? Well, can help you beat those average conversion rates. If you've got a great audience that's engaged with you and you have a proven offer that people want to buy, great copy can help you sell even more.

Before you invest heavily in a launch, you want to make sure that you have these other major pieces figured out. That way you can make sure you're profiting from your investment instead of just sinking money into something that might not pay you back for months or years to come.

Of course, you want to grow your audience. You want to be always growing your audience. You want to have a way that you are constantly generating new leads.

Then you also want to engage that audience. Make sure you are keeping them warm between launches. Make sure you're serving them, interacting with them, and asking them what they want from you. 

And when you come up with a great offer, make sure you validate it with your audience first. Do some more surveys, do some customer interviews, do some testing, and make sure that it's an offer they're excited to buy and it can actually help them. 

Once you've done all that, then it's time to invest and profit from that investment on your next launch.

If you've already got your audience and your offer dialed in and you're looking for a copywriter, let's chat. You can get in touch with me here and set up a free call to learn how I can help with the execution of your next launch.