Launching your courses

Okay, this is the exciting part, and this is where I'm going to show you a little snippet of what I teach inside the Educator Diploma when our students approach the end of the course and they're ready to launch theirs. Okay, so let's imagine that you are at that place now in your business, and I'm going to run you through a few top tips that I teach in order to help you get as many eyes as possible on your course and make as many sales at the beginning as you possibly can. So, so let me just share my screen with you. And we're going to run into what we call a wait list launch strategy. And this is where you get to use your email list in order to launch your courses to an engaged group of people. Okay, now, what is a wait list launch, first of all? So you might be sat here thinking, I've never launched anything before. I don't really know what this means. So a wait list launch is basically when you open the doors before you open the doors, right? So you're launching your course before you're actually launching it. And the reason we do this to our email wait list, and I'll talk to you about that in a second, is because imagine you are about to launch a course and so you go out into the street, you stand on the corner and you shout, hey, everyone, I'm about to launch a course for beginner students who want to learn how to become a nail tech. Right? How many people are stopping in that street and turning round and listening to what you've got to say? Definitely not all of them, because some people will be walking past, never want to be an ltech, would never even dream of being an ltech and don't want to listen to what you've got to say. But out of all those people, let's say there's 50 people walking past on that street, maybe at least a couple of them. We would like to hope a couple of them would be interested in what you've got to say. They might not definitely book, but they will be interested. And they're what is called more of a warm audience. Right, so they're people who actually know who you are, trust you, and trust that maybe you've got the answer to what they're looking for, but they're not yet ready to buy. Okay? So rather than standing on the street corner, what we get to do is already identify those group of people who are walking past who are a little bit interested. We get to welcome them over to the corner and we get to speak to them directly. Listen, I have just launched the course that I know you're interested in. Let me tell you a little bit more about it. And can you see how you would be more likely to get sales from those people by talking directly to them rather than shouting into the void? I've launched and hoping people sign up. Right. So it allows you also to bring people together who are interested and start building a connection with them, building curiosity in what you're bringing them, and building excitement before your offer. Your course, your master class, whatever it is, even goes live. So what does this work well for? Well, it works incredibly well for anybody who is launching a new service or a new treatment. In your case, it would be a new service which is a course or a masterclass. If you are a nail tech though, you can also use this process for launching new treatments in your salon and things like that. It also helps you when you have limited availability, for example, only five spaces or that's what you can use in your marketing when you do this. And it's also going to help you when you want to build trust, clarity or when pre decision is needed. So when the customer is on the edge and they're not quite sure whether they want to buy or not, and also if the price is a little bit higher, because when you're in their emails, it's a closer connection than them just scrolling past you on Instagram. Because if I asked you to tell me about an Instagram post you scrolled past yesterday, I bet you it would be hard for you to pinpoint one because we consume so many pieces of short form content. But if I asked you to tell me about an email that you read word for word yesterday, if you read one, I can almost guarantee you'd be able to tell me what that email was because you were there for longer. You were listening to the words inside that email, you were giving it your time, right? So it also turns your audience from just waiting and watching to actually want them to buy. So why would you use a wait list? So a wait list essentially is before you launch, you actually gather the email addresses of people who might be interested. Now this allows you to start conversations early, right? So once you have their email address, you can start to filter emails to them once a week, once a month, that allow them to start to get to know you. You can also build a want for your course while you're still prepping it. So your course might not even be built yet, but you're creating a want for that course and a desire for that course by talking about it on social media and saying to people, sign up to my wait list here, because this is what's coming. You're also learning what your audience wants based on who signs up. So when people sign up and give you their email, it also opens you up to have a little stalk of their Instagram page or understands it exactly who they are and where they're at in their journey. Because when you know what your customer wants, you can adapt your course for that and also adapt your marketing. You also then get a launch to what I've just shared with you is a warm audience instead of just hoping that your posts land. So if you were planning on just putting a post up on social media to launch your course, then yes, you can do that. But again, that's the equivalent of standing on that street corner shouting into the voice and hoping that people listen. But if you launch to a small group of people on a wait list first, even if your list is small, it is a list of engaged and interested people that is powerful. You know that even if you've got a wait list of 10 people, these people want to listen to what you're about to say because they actively gave you your email when they saw that you were building a waitlist. Now an example case study of this, I don't know if you are a Molly Mae fan or maybe you have seen the rise of Molly Mae in the public media over the last few years. She recently, well, I say recently, I think it was over a year ago now. But she launched her own clothing brand. It's called maybe. And for the launch, it was like watching a masterclass in launching because she used one of the best launch methods, which was the email wait list method. So she started releasing little bits of content. I think there was one where she showed like a voice note that she had sent to a business partner or a team saying, I really want to launch something that is my own clothing brand. This is the idea that I've got. What do you think? Right. So that's building hype around what she's creating. She was creating all this content before her brand even launched. But what was she advertising in this content? She was advertising one wait list. And that wait list just looked like this one simple page that you can create through your email marketing platform that asks for their email and adds them to a list. If you don't have an email marketing platform like Flodesk or Mailchimp or one of those, you can head to Module 1 where I walk you through setting up your Email marketing. You should already have this by now, I hope. But if not, go back and set it up. And in that email marketing platform it will allow you to create a landing page like this one that allows you to build a wait list. All you need is a box for them to enter their email. You get to promote this on your social media and you get to build up a wait list of people who are interested in the course or learning experience that you are about to offer. Here is another case study that I really wanted to show you. If anyone is aware of Grace Beverly, I should hope that you are. If not, go and follow up because she is such a great business person to follow. So she has her own planet called the productivity method. This planner has a wait list of over 85000 people. Their brand positions, their product as a part of every girl's, every it girl's day. By building a lifestyle around that planet so many people wish to be a part of. So even when the planet is still in production and it's not made yet because she releases it in bulk when it's still in the factory being made, she's posting posts like this. So then the people who want to be that it girl and want to have that lifestyle where they go on the coffee run and they've got their road lip liner and all of those things and it all looks really aest, they want that planner to fit in as being one of those girls. So straight away, how go get hold of this? Oh my God, I can't. This huge wait list. Let me get myself on that wait list. I want to be first to get that planet 85, 85, 000 people joined that wait list. It wasn't even created yet. The wait list builds hype, creates fear of missing out and it gives buyers a sense of urgency. Oh my God. If there's 85000 people on this wait list, then it must be good. I need to get on the waitlist, right? So straight away it creates that agency for the customer. So what I want you to start doing right now is starting to collect emails for your waitlist. And those emails are people who are going to be interested in what it is that you offer. So here is the step by step that I want you to follow. It starts here. You want to create a simple landing page to entice people to join your wait list. Something that looks exactly like this, okay. Tell them what the weight, what they're doing in the waitlist for, or give a hint of that and ask for their email you can create that on your email marketing platform like Mail this, Offload, Mail that, Mailchimp or Flow Desk. If you don't know how to do that, go back to module one. Once you have that page, you can start collecting emails by whatever way you market your business. Change your marketing to advertise the waitlist. Talk about the pain points that the customer is having. So maybe it's a French nail art masterclass. So you want to start saying to people, for how long have you felt sick in the pit of your stomach when a customer has asked for a French manicure? I am creating something that will get rid of that for good. Pop your email in this box and you will be faced to access it, right? So straight away the customer's like, oh my God, feels like she's inside my head. Or it feels like he's inside my head. How do I sign up to this? Okay, wait list. Bang. Here's my email. Once you have captured the emails of these people, you want to start to nurture them through a sequence of emails. I have already taught this. Inside the module that covers marketing, there's a section for email marketing. Go and watch that video. I talk to you about email nature sequences, but all they are is a list of emails that you create once. And then you just get to send those emails in a strategic order to the people that sign up to your waitlist by sending them emails, giving them updates of the course that you create, and giving them little tips. So let's say, let's continue with the French manicure client. Let's say somebody's giving you their email and signs up to your waitlist, they could get an email straight away. Hey, thanks for signing up to my wait list. I know that you're really struggling with French, so over the next four weeks, before my course launches, I'm going to send you a mini tip to help you with your French. Here's tip number one. Use a brush that is 1 millimeter or above. For example. Sorry, is it 1 millimeter? 1 centimeter or above? Sorry. So then that's the tip that you're giving the person in the first email a week later. Hey, just an update to let you know that the French masterclass is going to be available for you soon and you're going to get discount because you're on my wait list. In the meantime, if you're still struggling with it, here's a top tip that I want to share with you today. Use a series of whites to create a different look. You could use a muted white to create a softer French look, you could use a nail art paint white to create a sharper look, right? So you're constantly giving them information that they are going to be interested in because they've told you they're struggling with French when they gave you their email. So you're just nurturing them with emails, giving them little tips. So that person's like, if she's given me tips that are this good for free, imagine what she's going to give me in a course that I can pay for. So it's constantly building trust with that customer who's giving you their email. Then once you are ready to launch that course, bang, you launch it to your email followers first before you launch it to your social media followers or whatever, wherever else you market your business. And you do that for 48 hours. So you would go out to your email list and say, oh my goodness, the French nail art master class is here. It covers this, this and this. This is the price. But for today and for the next 48 hours, not only am I giving it you discounted at this price because you're on my wait list, but I'm also going to give you my bonus guide in I don't know, it could be, you know what, what other problems is someone having who is struggling with French? It could be, I'm going to give you my bonus guide matching your French base and I'm going to give you a free master class that covers three other nail art looks as well, stars, hearts and leopard print. So all of a sudden the customer's not only getting the nail art masterclass that they opted into, they're getting an exclusive discount and a guide and three other master classes. That is a no brainer. But they have to buy within the first 48 hours in order to get that. So in the first 48 hours you should see an influx of sales with your new masterclass. Then you launch it to the rest of the public on social media and throughout that 48 hours, you can send a number of emails to that wait list to remind them. You've got 24 hours left to back all of these bonuses and the discount, this goes live in 24 hours to my wider community on social media. If you want to get in now with these bonuses, they are going to end. This is your last chance to get these bonuses. So you are constantly creating agency around what you are selling. I can guarantee if you sell your course in this way at the beginning, you will get a larger influx of purchases at the start than if you were to wait and just launch it when you're ready on social media, with one post or whatever else you you launch. The other thing I want to make you aware of is that on social media you're up against an algorithm. On emails, you are not. It's just a chance of whether the customer opens the email or doesn't. But if you put a post up on social media to launch your courses, if you've got a thousand followers, maybe only 100 or 200 of your followers will actually see that post. So the higher the top number, the less and less you're sort of diluting the possibility that they will buy because it's a wider audience. But when you look at it from a warm audience perspective, this is a list of people who told you they want to know what you're about to sell. You've got higher chances of those people buying. And also it's more concentrated because they're all in the one place and you can directly send them emails where you're not up against an algorithm. So hopefully this was helpful. I'm looking forward to seeing your waitlist launch. Please follow this strategy and I promise you will see a huge difference.