You’ve put a lot of work into creating a coaching program that will change your coaching clients’ lives. It has been quite literally months in the making, and you are so excited to show your followers. Then launch day comes around, and… crickets!
You keep refreshing your stats, thinking there must be some sort of mistake. Barely anyone has visited your landing page, let alone purchased your course. Meanwhile, you’re seeing other coaches bragging about 6-figure launches and sticking hundreds of post-it notes with new client names on their walls. Why is their launch going so well while yours is flopping?
Common Launch Problems
We may be just copywriters, but we have partnered with coaches during many a launch. It doesn’t matter how amazing your coaching course is and the strength of your copy; there are some mistakes that will derail any launch. Let’s take a look at them so you can avoid them for your next launch.
Short Pre-Launch Marketing Period/Insufficient Touchpoints with Prospects
The secret to a successful launch is building buzz around your launch. Get people excited by sharing sneak peeks, hyping the benefits, and telling people what to expect. This is something the majority of coaches understand.
The problem occurs when they leave it until a week or two until their launch to build that hype. People are busy; they need more time to see your launch and consider it. Ideally, you need to be hyping your launch up for about a month. It can be a little longer or shorter than this, depending on the balance you want to achieve between launch content and regular content during this time.
Think about it this way; studies show that, on average, it requires 8 touchpoints for consumers to make a buying decision. That means they need to hear about your course at least 8 times before they start seriously thinking about buying. You can’t just post 8 pieces of content and be done with your pre-launch marketing, though. Not all your followers see every piece of content you make.
This is particularly true for Instagram content, where only 10% of your followers see each post. Then, not every follower will follow you on multiple platforms. The key is to market your new coaching course across multiple platforms using multiple pieces of content. You want to get as many followers as possible to or close to those 8 touchpoints.
Focusing Marketing on Platforms You Don’t Own
This isn’t a problem that will cause issues for most launches, but when things go wrong, this has the potential to become a BIG problem.
While you have your own profile and page on a social media platform, your followers aren’t really your followers; they’re that social media company’s customers. You are completely reliant on them for the attention of those followers. At any point, things could change.
- Algorithm updates could mean your followers no longer see your content
- Your account could be banned/restricted
- The social media platform could crash (looking at you, Meta)
- New content types could be prioritised
- Features you relied on could be removed
These platforms serve a purpose; they are a great way to get new leads and build a base of prospective coaching clients. But you need to move them across to platforms you control, like your website, non-Facebook membership group, and email list. There you have a lot more control.
Promote your launch on social media, but also promote your launch on your website and to your email list and membership group. That way, if something happens to your social media, you can still sell your coaching course.
The Offer Is Not Attractive Enough
If your launch is getting a lot of attention, but none of that is converting, then your offer may not be attractive enough. This simply means that your ideal coaching clients don’t see enough value to justify the price.
There are two things that could be the issue with an offer.
The first is that there are still glaring problems that the coaching program doesn’t solve. Your followers want to work with a coach to solve their problems faster. They’re not going to drop thousands on your course if they can see barriers to their success that are not addressed.
Most coaching clients know that they need to put in a little bit of effort to implement your teachings, but they don’t want to have to expend huge amounts of effort. This is where bonus resources come into play for coaching programs. They solve any “what if” questions your coaching clients may have. In marketing terms, they overcome objections.
The second is that your copy doesn’t do a good enough job of showing the benefits in real tangible terms. You can put a dollar value on each element of your coaching course all you want, but your prospects need to see the value that your course will have in THEIR life. Not everyone will have the exact same problems that have the exact same impact. That is why talking about dollar impact won’t always work.
Instead, your copy needs to focus on the emotional impact of solving their problems. What does it feel like to have the problems they do? What would it feel like to solve them? What new opportunities would they have just by getting past that barrier? Business coaches fixate on vanity numbers like “six-figure business” or “10k months.” But those are just numbers. Your copy needs to tap into what those numbers mean for your ideal coaching clients. 10k months could mean:
- Feeling like an industry leader
- Sending your kids to private school
- Buying your dream home
- Getting out of debt
- Retiring your parents/partner
- Taking dream holidays each year
- Feeling financially secure (having breathing room)
The 10k month is just a means to an end in that sense.
No Social Proof
Social proof helps to sway people who are on the fence about your course. It shows that people have found value in your coaching program in the past and/or you are respected in your industry, depending on the type of social proof you use.
There are ways to get social proof for a new coaching course:
- Do a soft launch to your warmest leads – Open discounted places to your course ahead of your launch as a beta test of sorts. This is only advertised to a small portion of your warmest clients. You get to spot any issues ahead of your launch and testimonials from the beta testers. The people testing feel like part of an exclusive crowd because they were able to test your program first.
- Ask industry experts to hype your course – If you have friendships or affiliate relationships with people in the industry, ask them to say a few nice words. Think of this a little bit like when books have reviews from other authors or big publications. You may need to give these people a peek inside your program, so NDAs are needed for this type of social proof. At the same time, you could even arrange an affiliate link to give these people a commission for sharing your marketing materials.
- Guest post – Get your name out there by guest posting and collaborations. This will give you the “As Seen In” social proof.
How to Plan a Sold-Out Launch
Start planning your launch from the very moment you sit down to create your new coaching program. Successful launches need a lot of hands. Depending on the skills of your team, you could need to hire copywriters, graphic designers, editors, web developers, website designers, app designers, video editors, VAs, marketing teams, or launch coaches. You will need these people a month or two ahead of your launch date so you can create the assets you need for your pre-launch. Some of these people book their schedules months in advance, so the earlier you think about your launch, the more likely you are to get the best experts on your side.
To determine your ideal launch date, calculate how long you think it will take to create your coaching course. Multiply that number by 1.5 to give yourself a buffer for any unexpected life events. Then, you can start reaching out to experts to help you plan your launch.
Once you’ve finished creating your coaching program, go through it with a fine-tooth comb. This will give you a chance to spot any mistakes, but it will also allow you to look for content for your pre-launch marketing. Giving people a look behind the curtain gives prospects confidence in your coaching course. It feels less like a gamble. You can pull quotes, note down timestamps for a video editor, etc.
Create a content calendar for your pre-launch and launch period. If you are working with experts, this could be a rough draft that you then fill in with specifics once you speak to the experts. They can even help you create the content and schedule it, depending on who you hire and your agreements with them. The content calendar will specify the following:
- Posts
- Stories
- Lives
- Email content
- Blog content
- Other social media content
Armed with your content calendar, all you need to do is implement it and keep an eye on the stats. You may need to review how your launch is going and make adjustments as you go. Check that the experts you hire will put aside time for regular reviews during the pre-launch and launch period.
How to Set Goals for Your Next Launch
The best place to start is with how much money you want to make from your next launch. Remember to factor in the time you will spend with your clients, the cost of working with experts, and the fees for the software you use. You would not be the first coach to lose profit because they forgot to calculate payment processing fees or the fees for Zoom calls.
Once you have your profit number, convert that to the number of coaching clients that it represents.
From there, reverse engineer to figure out how you will onboard that many people. Where will you promote your coaching course? How will you promote your coaching course? Remember, landing page conversion rates tend to be around 9.7% on average, so you need to reach a lot more people than you may think.
Need some help with your next launch? Work with a launch copywriter to improve the conversion rates of your coaching course launch. We can write landing page copy for £800 per landing page. You could also book our Perfect Launch package, where we help you with the strategy of your launch. It includes offer strategy, email sequences, objection busters, and more. Check out the full inclusions here.