Launching a course or coaching program can be overwhelming; with so many moving parts, it’s easy to lose track and drop the ball; cutting into the revenue you generate and the service you provide.

Whether you’re a total newbie or it’s not your first rodeo, These ten strategies give you the systems to make sure you’re killing it for your customers WITHOUT leaving money on the table.

In this article, I’m going to walk you through my ten best actionable tips to optimize your launch on (and off) of social media. There’s a misconception in the social media coaching and online business world that if you simply post “valuable” content, you’ll sell out your launches and everyone will flock to your feed.

Unfortunately, that’s not even close to the truth–and I want to see you succeed, which means knowing what it truly takes to market and launch your offer to your online audience.

Getting your offer into the hands of humans who *truly* need it IS the art of Marketing. Let’s dive in.

My Top Ten Tips to Optimize Your Launch:

Launch Optimization Tip 1: Give yourself space to plan, batch, and execute.

Launching can be a lot, especially when you know all that goes into a successful, fully optimized launch.

Whenever you’re new to something, it means you aren’t completely efficient yet – so it may take a bit longer to learn, set-up, pre-plan, and execute for the first or second time.

Here’s what I’d plan:

• Enrollment Period [4-6 days for a course or e-product, 1-3 weeks for a coaching program]
• Front End Announcement Day [To large social media audience]
• Back-End [To warm, targeted email list or Facebook group audience]
• Warm Up Period + Strategy [Free Masterclass, Challenge, or Email Series]

Here’s what I’d batch:

• Content for your free lead magnet
• Emails

Warming up your social media audience, building and engaging your email list, curating specific free resources.

Launch Optimization Tip 2: Build Community Through Massive Value, Pre-Launch.

The better prepared your audience is on launch day, the easier it is to say yes early.

Launches are typically most successful when you’ve spent time and energy building an engaged audience before ever marketing to them. This is the time period where they get to know you, like you, and trust you.

When I say pre-launch strategy, this simply means gathering your most warm, targeted leads into one location (email list, ideally) so you can speak DIRECTLY to them.

This is even more crucial of a step to implement if you don’t yet have trust or connection built with your audience. Ideally, you’re inviting them to join a curated class, challenge, or series that gives them the opportunity to connect directly with you, while learning and implementing things that will give them value and wins right away.

This pre-launch offer or opportunity also allows for the audience member to accomplish a “quick win” alongside you as their guide. If their entire transformation journey is 15 steps, the pre-launch should help support them in step 1-2.

Launch Optimization Tip 3: Multi-Channel Marketing

Building an email list is one of the most important things you can possibly do for your business. I remember when I first learned about email lists — and it was AFTER I had already amassed an audience of 225k+ subscribers on YouTube. An email list is a place to house your audience members so you can send them content directly to their emails. People join email lists by “opt-ing in” for something that can get send to their email – an ebook, a guide, a link to a training–or any other free resource they may need to support them on their journey.

This audience is, ideally, the most engaged audience who would absolutely LOVE to purchase your offer. I recommend nurturing this audience as you would on social media – weekly valuable content directly to their email. During launches, you can create email sequences that both add value, and invite them to join your offer as a way to help them solve their problems more efficiently.

Utilizing other channels including Facebook, Group, Podcast, or YouTube is also highly beneficial. Many people miss posts, skip through, and will need reminders of your offer — so if you have multiple platforms, be sure to strategize content for each channel.

Launch Optimization Tip 4: Build The Hype and Create Major Buzz.

The best launches are the ones people know about six months ahead of time. Before your offer is even ready to be launched, one of the BEST and most UNDERUTILIZED opportunities you have is to document the journey you’re taking in creating your offer.

1. Plan to get on as many podcasts as possible 3-5 weeks before the launch itself. Discuss content that’s directly related to the launch.
2. Share yourself creating the course or program.
3. IG Story yourself recording some of the modules,
4. Add countdowns on your Instagram Stories until the launch day.
5. Share graphics and images of the course or program itself.
6. Create content relevant to the offer for the few weeks leading up to the course.
7. Run a free challenge or webinar before the official launch date.

This gives the offer itself a life of it’s own, and gets people both excited and prepared to buy on the actual launch day.

Think of how Apple does announcement live streams whenever they have something new! It gets everyone excited about it, they announce a release date, and it creates space for the new offer to become a part of peoples lives and realities before it’s even available for purchase.

Launch Optimization Tip 5: IG Stories Mini-Trainings

During your launch is actually one of the best times to create educational content. Before someone takes action in the direction of changing for the better, they may need to learn something they feel as though they can “grab onto” so to speak. Instagram is interesting in this way, because there isn’t much opportunity to teach in a long-form manner. We can create 20 IG stories in a row daily, we can do IG Lives, or we can write long captions — but people only stay on for so long. The power of free education doesn’t take away from the motive someone may have to work with you — it only ADDS to it because they learn that they can trust you.

Launch Optimization Tip 6: IG Stories Sales Pages

The new, trendy, brilliant-AF strategy to support your launches on Instagram is to create Instagram Story Sales Page Templates.

Since Instagram stories is a place where people are spending SO much of their time, but they don’t always listen with the sound on — having a content series of “sales page” templates allows people to consume the copy EXACTLY as you want it presented, right where they’re already hanging out.

These allow you to be fun and creative with graphics, and also hit on each of the necessary aspects a sales page entails to show people what the offer is, how it solves their problem, who its for, what’s included, what the bonuses are, when the offer ends, and what they could experience on the other end of their transformation.

Launch Optimization Tip 7: Prioritize These Types of Content

Teaching content: Education during pitching is an important type of content to include to ensure your audience continuously trusts you, and sees the value you have to share. They think “jeez, if this is what they’re sharing for free…I can’t even imagine how great the paid offer is!”

Action-taking content: When we’re presented with the opportunity to take action on the thing that’s *really* good for us, we have to overcome a lot of inertia–especially if we know all that it entails. “I have to start a fitness journey again…ugh. This means thinking and caring about whether or not I have a drink at dinner. Too much work, no thanks.” <– this is LITERALLY one of the few reasons people don’t say “Yes” to your offers — because it’s a helluva lot easier not to. It’s easier to stay the same, and harder to make change. It’s up to you to get people out of their habitual cycles, and into the change-making energy.

Pain-focused content: The truth is, people have a difficult time changing from a place of contentment. Most of us (myself included) struggle to change until something is unbearable and the “last straw.” Illuminating that pain for people is supporting them in bringing it to the surface so they can look at it, and shift into change and action more quickly. Know what your clients day to day struggles are, what keeps them up at night, and what they’ve even gotten used to is important to highlight during launches.

Credibility-testimonial focused content: Sharing the stories of your clients who have been in your audiences’ shoes, worked with you, and got inspiring results an integral piece of launching that supports conversion rates through seeing real-life transformations.

Launch Optimization Tip 8: Direct Communication.

It may seem enticing to post once and hope all of the sales come flooding in…but it doesn’t always work that way, sister.

Unless you’ve built a highly engaged audience, you’ll need to spend time communicating with people directly before they purchase one of your products — especially if it’s a higher-priced offer.

Eventually, you can answer peoples questions in FAQ sections on your sales page, in the sales page itself, and in your content via market research of your previous launches; but until you have that information, people will want to get their questions answered! Not only will they have pressing questions about what they get, if there’s refunds, how long it lasts, if it’s “for someone whose in xyz situation…,” but when they get treated like a human and not a number, it’s changes everything.

This is person-centered marketing.

Utilize DMs, enrollment conversations, and/or the Q&A feature to communicate directly. Address questions, concerns, and fears, Make sure the opportunity to ask is made available to them, and invite them not to be shy.

Launch Optimization Tip 9: Stay Strong Until the Very Last Minute.

Waiting until last minute is a common theme with buyer behavior.

Many of us need a level of urgency to finally remove our distractions, move past our resistance, and take action.

I notice this in my own behavior so often whenever I’m purchasing something. Oooo, add to cart. Ignore the cart tab on my google chrome for a day. Close the tab. Get re-targeted with an add. Remember to go back to the cart and buy it. Hopefully don’t get distracted enough to just get the dang thing I want to get.

Never mind for things we actually need to purchase for our businesses or bodies — phew. Either way, most of us (30-40{d971428489a06ea3e790f000714868b0a4933c10e253ff6fbe27b1bed23b7de8}, as we’ve experienced in our own business launch and launch again) wait until the VERY LAST MINUTE to apply, schedule the call, or press the “purchase” button. Don’t back down until the end, your audience WANTS the reminder — especially if they had the intention on following through.

Launch Optimization Tip 10: Humanize Your Audience – No One Is Above Relationship Building. 

When connection, empathy, and compassion are the filter through which you speak, teach, and pitch — everything works with so much more ease and flow.

The true goal of any coach-client, or customer-company relationship is to help real people solve their real problems. ‘People with problems” is a really de-humanizing way to even describe this process, because our “problems” run deep. They infiltrate our lives. They affect our day-to-day experience. They’re hard. They hurt. They don’t feel good.

As the company whose goal it is to make someone feel better after their problem is solved, we must first validate and empathize with the human, emotional experience the person is having. Relationship building is showing people you understand, you validate their pain, and you’re there as an ally to support.

Save this and go back through it during your next business strategy session with yourself, coach, or team.