141: Simplify Your Marketing: The Guide to Launch Success with Amanda Warfield

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Before we dive into today's episode, I want to ask you an important question. Are you wondering why your hard work isn't reflecting in your bank account? If so, I've got something that could change the game for you. With my digital product accelerator one on one coaching program, I'm on a mission to help entrepreneurs like you be bank consistent revenue without sacrificing your time or sanity. Imagine shifting from 90% client facing work to enjoying consistent revenue from your digital products, all while reclaiming your time. You already know that you don't need another course and a one size fits all approach isn't going to cut it. What you need is a strategic long term plan that tailored just for you. So if you're ready to build the profitable freedom giving business you dreamed of, apply to work with me by going to destinycop.com apply. I cannot wait to learn more about you and your business. Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners increase the revenue with digital products and evergreen sales funnels. In this podcast we go deep into product and marketing strategies for digital product creators. We cover everything from digital product creation, how to market and sell your digital products, and just as important, how to find your ideal customer. Let's jump right into our show.

And my special guest today is Amanda Warfield. Amanda is a simplicity focus content marketing and launch strategist. She's author of the book Chasing Simple Marketing and host of Chasing Simple a podcast to help creative entrepreneurs uncomplicate their business and marketing. Amanda, I am so excited to jump into this topic with you today and we're going to be talking about creating a launch copy that converts with intentional launch messaging. And this is such a powerful topic and I know a lot of people who are listening to this. They have a launch plan either later on this year or maybe even coming up here shortly. And and we're going to be talking about all about what they need to be covering in their launch copy. But before we get into all the questions I have for you, can you tell the good audience a little bit more about how you help people and how you got started in all this?

Yes, absolutely. Well, first, Destiny, I'm so excited to be here. You know that I love chatting with you and this is just such an honor to get to be on your podcast. So thank you for having me so excited. Okay, so I help other entrepreneurs fit their marketing into their business without it taking over their business. And I do this in a couple ways. One, focus that I really have is just helping other entrepreneurs essentially be their own marketing strategist and doing that by simplifying what they're doing. A lot of the people that I work with in that capacity are solopreneurs or they have incredibly small teams, which is great. And they're. If that's where they want to be, that's where they want to be. That's where I want to be. Personally, I like just having myself and my, my va. And that's great. But that means you have to be your own marketing strategist and that can be so incredibly time consuming. Most big businesses, when you look at them, they have whole marketing teams and departments, right? And then we're over here as solopreneurs or very small team owners and we're having to do all of the marketing on our own. And so I have a large focus on just helping those entrepreneurs simp their marketing so that they can fit it into their business without it taking up all of their time. And then I also help business owners who just want to hand off their marketing. They want to say someone else do it. You create the copy, you create the strategy, and you just tell me what to post and when. And so those are kind of the two different ways that I help others.

And I think a lot of people listening to this, me included, can relate to what you just described. I was in corporate marketing for many, many years and I had a huge team, I had a lot of people working for. And then when I went on my own and launched my own business, it's just me. And I have two full time people that work for me. So that, that's helpful. But I didn't even have that in the beginning. So I think helping. I'm always looking for ways to kind of simplify my marketing. So I'm loving what you do. We're going to be talking about creating launch copy that converts, but also really focusing on that intentional messaging in that launch copy. So can you tell me what do you see as one of the most common problems with launches and the copy that goes along with it?

Honestly, the biggest problem that I see is that business owners aren't giving themselves enough time to actually prepare their audience for their launch. And what that ends up looking like is you've got a business owner who decides they're going to launch something and they give themselves a month to prepare for it, or even less sometimes. And they don't give their audience a chance to walk through the customer journey, to get to a place to be ready to purchase and so then when they launch, well, they're not getting the sales that they want to see because their people weren't ready for it. And then they take that and they think it's their offer that's the problem, or it's them that's the problem. And that's almost never the case. It's just that we haven't prepared our audience well enough through our messaging to be ready to actually decide if this offers for them or not.

So let's talk about that customer journey. What do you see as the stages there?

So there are five stages, I believe maybe six. You've got problem unaware, problem aware, solution aware, offer aware, and then student in this case. So in the problem unaware phase, your audience member, they don't even realize that they have the problem that you're going to solve for them. So if you are going to be someone that teaches Evergreen funnels, right? If you're going to teach your people Evergreen funnels, well, your people in this case don't even know that they need an evergreen funnel. And so you have to show them that the problem that they have is the problem that they actually have. So if you are teaching someone to that they need an Evergreen funnel, what's the problem that they have? It's that they're not selling consistently. Right? They're not seeing consistent sales, and they're only ever getting sales during a big launch, which isn't what any of us want. We want both those launches and those consistent sales. But they have to. You have to open the door, let's say, to show them, hey, there's a better way. They don't even realize that that's a problem that they're having.

And then the next one you said was solution aware, problem aware.

Okay, Problem unaware, and then problem aware. And once they're in that problem aware phase, you're then working to move them into the solution aware phase. So you're saying, hey, you're not getting consistent sales. That's your problem. How do you get consistent sales? You start building out those evergreen funnels. And so then you start talking about Evergreen funnels and how great they are. But for your audience members, and I.

Think what you're covering there kind of demonstrates, first of all, we need to understand where our, where our audience is in all of these various stages and then start addressing that content in our launch copy. So, you know, given the fact that we got a lot of stuff to cover here before we even launch, what do you suggest at the. How long do we need?

What is that Launch Runway if it's.

A brand new offer and you've never launched this course before, I suggest eight to 12 weeks. And I know that everyone just went, what? And it sounds like a lot, but you're not selling for eight to 12 weeks. You're merely starting to plant the seeds for the upcoming launch. For those eight to 12 weeks, you're only going to be selling for one to two weeks when you're doing a large live launch like this.

So eight to 12 weeks. So two to three months before you even do your launch, you're, you know, producing this content. Tell us a little bit more about what pieces of information you need and how. How are you producing this content? Is it just posting on social media? Are you doing Facebook lives? Are you doing educational webinars? Are you doing podcasts? Walk us through what exactly would this, you know, does this look like for a course creator or somebody who's launching a membership?

Right. So for your pre launch or your pre, Pre launch, those eight to 12 weeks before you're even really in launch mode, you're just simply using this information and these five key pieces of information that you're going to need to know, which I'll tell you in a minute. But knowing the information that you need to know, you're using that to walk people through that customer journey just within your typical content. So whatever long form content is, whether you've got a blog or a podcast, or you're on YouTube, your email newsletters, your social media, that's all you're doing. You're just making sure that you're focusing those key pieces each week or every other week, or however often you are putting content out, you're making sure you're focusing them around that launch messaging versus just kind of pulling ideas out of thin air.

Okay, so how would we go about mapping this out? Let's say that we know that our audience is problem aware, so they know we can use the example that you gave us. Right. With the evergreen funnel. I think that's something that a lot of people who are listening here can relate to. So they know they need an evergreen funnel, so they're problem aware. How do you go about figuring out what kind of content do you need to kind of help move them down to those other stages that you mentioned in that customer journey?

So if we back up before we even get to where they are in the customer journey, there are five things that you need to know before you can really start mapping this out. You need to have a really clear understanding of who your audience is and who you're speaking to. You need to understand what the end result of your course or membership is. What, what is the win that they get out of it. You need to be able to say that really clearly in 1 to 2 sent. You also need to understand the transformation that your students will undergo during your offer. So they're starting at point A and they're going to end at point B. Right. So they go from not having consistent sales to making consistent sales on autopilot. They're going from. And that's, that's kind of the physical external transformation. But then what's the internal one as well? Maybe they're feeling frustrated by not seeing sales and wondering if this business thing is even right for them to confident and able to take the day off to spend time with their kids. Right. There's that internal motivation as well. So you want to know both of those. And then you have to know the problem that you solve and the problem, what I call the problem before the problem, which is the problem they think, think they have. So with every offer that you put out there, there's the problem that you actually solve, but then there's also the problem that your audience thinks that they have. So one of my main offers is a course all about how to batch out your content. And the problem that that offer solves is teaching you how to batch a month's worth of content in just one week. But my audience members, most of the time, they don't, they don't know that that's their problem. Right? They're in the, the phase of the customer journey where they're not even problem aware yet. The problem they think they have or the problem before. The problem is that they don't have enough time to create their marketing. And so they're showing up inconsistently. And so knowing what that problem before the problem is is really going to help you when it comes time to map out where people are in the customer journey and how you're going to talk to them within that customer journey.

So let's say we've done our research. We, we have answered these questions so we know what their, who our audience is. We know what the end result that somebody's going to get from our course, that transformation, you know, moving from the A to B. How do we go about figuring out exactly what kind of content we know we need, I should say, for this, say we're going to be doing a podcast episode or maybe even writing a blog post. How do we go about doing the research to actually help move them through Those stages, the beauty of it is.

Is that you don't have to figure out where your people are, you just have to put the content out in that order of problem unaware, problem aware, solution aware, offer aware, and lead them through those different phases and into your offer. And so if you put out a podcast episode for, let's say you do weekly episodes and for the beginning of your launch Runway, those eight to 12 weeks, you've got two weeks where you are going to put out content geared specifically to those that are problem unaware and you're trying to move them into problem awareness. Right? And so the people that resonate with that part of the customer journey, they're going to go, oh, I need to listen to this podcast episode. And then for two weeks or so you do a few episodes around problem aware and people that are in that phase of the customer journey. And so those people are going to go, oh, that's exactly what I need to hear right now. They may not have listened to the episode before because they may have felt like, I don't really connect with that. But when they see you talking about that particular area that they do connect with within your email newsletters and your social media, because you always want to lead people back to your long form content. When you're talking about that and sending people to that, they're going to go, oh, I connect with that. And then you'll spend a couple weeks on the solution aware phase. Okay, so they know that their problem is that they don't have evergreen funnel set up. How do we set up evergreen funnels? Okay, so what do we need to do? How does that work? And then you'll spend a couple of weeks talking about, oh, the new offer is coming. And then you'll start really planting the seeds about three weeks out or so from the launch itself for this offer is coming and it's going to help solve xyz. And so people have already been hearing from you for weeks now about how they need what you're offering, what that thing can do for them, and then also how it's going to transform their life or business. And they're already on board with the idea of what it is that you're selling. And you've also spent those last six or so weeks, six to eight weeks, showcasing that you're an expert and that they can trust you to learn from you about this thing. And so all you've been doing is just talking about this thing you're already an expert in, in an intentional way to move them through this little Runway. But you've been planting so many different seeds to help prepare them to be ready to actually purchase your course or membership.

And I love what you said about, you know, once they're helping them move from that Offer Aware stage. So doing that about three weeks before your launch. Would you also suggest at this point point starting a wait list or what do you typically recommend there when you're talking about the offer that's coming?

So I recommend starting your wait list all the way back at the beginning of the 12 weeks. And at any point, if it happens to come up when you're creating your content, send people to it, really start pushing it about four weeks out, but have it available to start sending people to so that you can start creating that list of hot leads for your upcoming launch. Because a wait list is those are the hottest leads that you're going to get for your launch. So you want to be intentionally sending people to that. And you can even say things like, like have it as your call to action at the end of your episode. Right of I have this offer, it's not out yet, it won't be out for a while. But if you're interested, you can join the waitlist and you'll hear more about it later. You don't have to give them a ton of details, you don't have to sell. You just say, hey, this is coming and if you want to hear more, join the waitlist and you can do that 12 weeks out, you can do that all year long.

So after the Offer Aware stage, you're moving into, I think what you mentioned was kind of the student stage. What kind of content do you recommend at that stage? Because I think at that point, right, you're in the launch stage, you're signing people up.

So when they are solution aware, that is the launch stage. That is where you have said, hey, I've got this thing or not solution where I'm sorry, offer awareness, that is launch phase. And moving them from Offer Aware into student, that comes down to your selling and just purely getting them to say yes I want to be a student or yes I want to be a member.

Okay.

And that is when you are in launch mode, you've got like you mentioned earlier, maybe you're doing a live Facebook challenge, maybe you're doing a webinar, maybe you're doing a pop up podcast is really popular lately. That's when you're doing that launch mode that we all think about as typical launch. And you've done all of the work to make sure that the first Time someone's hearing about your offer isn't during your launch, but they've been hearing about it or at least subconsciously hearing about it for weeks and months now.

And I think that's the one of the biggest messages here, right, is there's a lot that goes into that, that launch and you even, you start it two to three months before you actually open up your cart. Amanda, any last minute tips for the audience related to launch? Copy that. Converts.

We, we vaguely, briefly touched on this, but I cannot recommend enough. Having a wait list. Your waitlist is going to be the absolute hottest leads. Anyone who's interested in what you're talking about, those are going to be warm leads. Anyone who downloads a freebie that's, you know, the same topic as your offer, that's a warm lead. Pretty much anyone on your email list is going to be a warm lead unless you have vastly different sections of your email list. But people that say, yes, I'm interested not only in this topic and not only in learning about learning from you, but in this specific offer, those are your hottest leads. And I think a lot of times what can happen is we think, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got to have a wait list and then we push it to the side. But that should be what you are really focused on getting people into. Hey, here's this wait list. This offer is coming. Sign up if you want to learn more. And then as you get closer, hey, make sure you join the wait list. They're going to get this special bonus. I personally, I always open the doors to my wait list 24 hours early and they get an extra discount or an extra bonus on top of the whatever the launch incentive is for that week. Whether it's a bonus or whether it's a discount, they get something extra special to really incentivize people who are interested in that offer to get on and join that wait list.

And I love that. Just give them just something little just to kind of encourage them to take action there. Amanda, can you let the audience know where they can find you? And I believe you also have a free gift for them.

I do have a free gift for them, which the link will be in the show notes, I believe. But I have a free guide that will walk you through the eight different emails to send your wait list for your next launch. When you're preparing your wait list for a launch, they actually get, or they should get the sales emails before the launch, even the doors even open. Whereas anyone who's not on your waitlist, they're not getting the sales email until doors open. And so there are eight different emails that I always send my wait list and this guide will walk you through exactly what those eight emails are. So highly recommend that you go download that. But I would also love it if you would come find me over on instagram. I'm at Mrs. Amanda Warfield over there. Or check out my podcast, Chasing Simple.

And Amanda, we'll make sure that all of those links are in the show notes so people can go there, click on them. And I definitely want them to download that free gift and kind of take advantage of that wait list that we talked about today. Amanda, thank you so much for joining us and sharing all of your knowledge about launch copy and just, you know, expanding upon the importance of doing this, you know, months before we actually open the cart for our course or membership.

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. Destiny.

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