What I've Learned From Launching An Online Course 15 Times!

If anyone's ever told you launching a course is easy, they're wrong. But there are some things that you can do to make launching your online course or your digital products a little easier. And this is coming from somebody who has launched the same online course over 15 times. So I've got a little experience. I've done it a few times, and in this video, I want to share with you some of the biggest mistakes I made. So the next time you're launching or if you're ready to launch your first time, you don't make the same mistakes that I made. My name is Trena, if you are new here, and I'm a YouTuber, YouTube strategist, and I help specifically online course creators and coaches figure out how to start using YouTube as organic lead magnet, I. E. How to use YouTube to book more clients and to sell more courses. And this is going to be perfect for you because I'm getting totally real in sharing many of the mistakes I made, which is a little bit scary for me to share as an enneagram 3. So you may want to grab a notebook and a pencil because I'm spilling my guts. Just a quick little background so you know I have authority to talk about this. I launched my current product, my current online program that I offer, Video Strategy Academy, about 15 times. I first initially launched it in 2016, and since then it's had quite a few reiterations, some rebranding, and I've tried a lot of different launch strategies. In fact, when I first launched it, it was called Video for Beginners. And then I realized I wanted to hone in specifically on YouTube. So then it became YouTube Bootcamp. That name was then used again by somebod else. Maybe stolen, maybe not. Who knows? So then I rebranded it into YouTube for creatives because I really wanted it to speak to who I was talking to. I realized Creatives kind of eliminated the entrepreneurial type that I was wanting to work with and really wanting to help them use YouTube for their business. And another key thing to realize about these last two names of this course that I share with you, YouTube Bootcamp and YouTube for Creatives, is you can't trademark those names because you're using the word YouTube and that's already trademarked. So in the middle of 2019, I decided to scrap it all and figure out how can I trademark a name that still speaks to my audience and makes sense. So that's when Video Strategy Academy came into play. Again, I can't use YouTube to trademark. So Video made sense. Video Strategy it also gave me a little wiggle room where, yes, I could talk about YouTube, but I could if I wanted to, start talking about Instagram video, Facebook video, LinkedIn video if I wanted to. So it was a good name to clearly explain, explain what my course was going to be about, but also gave me a little bit of room to grow. So I guess that'd be one of the lessons learned throughout this process, is finding a name that makes sense and that you can trademark. Because, trust me, you need to get your course name trademark so nobody steals it. So let's jump into the first mistake I see so many people do, and that's not planning well enough in advance or basically blocking your calendar to prepare for a launch. Launching an online program or a course or a coach program isn't something that you can just say, I'm gonna launch next week. There's a lot that goes, especially if you don't want to feel overwhelmed and stressed out and ultimately burn yourself out. Launching is a lot of work, but it is totally doable if you give yourself enough time in advance to do all the things that you need to do behind the scenes. And this was such a huge mistake for me because there were times that I was still writing my sales page the day I was supposed to open the doors to my program. There were launches that I had where I was literally writing emails the minute they were supposed to go out. And I'm dropping the ball on other things like social media hype and answering questions in my emails and my DMs. And if I would have just planned well enough in advance and got a lot of this stuff that I can get off my plate earlier on, I could have focused more in the moment with launching and engaging when I am getting ready to open the doors, because those are the people, the people that are engaging with you when you're ramping up to launch that are going to be more likely to buy. So you want to be front of face to them. And I can't tell you how many times it's been a mistake of mine where I'm literally testing the tech from my webinar five minutes before I go live. And I will tell you, this is no way to live. You're gonna have a lot of sweaty armp. You're going to have a lot of anxiety. And it's already scary enough to be doing a live webinar and to be pitching on a webinar. You don't want to be stressing out and panicking beforehand, making sure all your tech works Planning for all of these things, to test all of these things before you roll into that launch period, which kind of leads into that second mistake is batching things in advance. Yes, you need to plan and put things on your calendar, but you need to batch certain things as well in the same time period. For example, I said about emails, sales emails, did you know that when you launch a program, you're pro probably sending about 7 to 15 emails out over a 7 day period? It seems like a lot, but I'm telling you, if you're not showing up constantly and consistently in the inbox of your potential students or clients, they're going to forget. And so it really helps if you're writing These emails, these 8 to 12, 15 email sequences at one time, because it'll be much more easier for you to lead in from email 1 to email 2 to email 3. Because what this sequence is really doing is telling a complete story to get that person who's reading those emails ultimately over the fence and realizing, yes, your course, your program is the place that they need to be. And so if you are needing to write these emails, block an entire day, maybe block two days, and just focus on writing these emails. Because this is where a chunk, a large chunk of your sales is going to happen. It's going to happen in your inbox. So you need to make sure you're putting the time and effort into those emails. If you wait to the week you are launching, especially I would say day three or four of your launch when it seems like there are crickets, you may get a little bit emotional, you may not want to write those emails, you may start to think you're a total failure and just bail on the launch completely. So again, if you have this stuff done in advance, you'll be able to stick with your launch plan even when you're not getting sales. And you're on that down slump of feeling like a failure in a launch, because that happens to everyone. One other thing that I want to tell you that you can batch as well is social media content and Instagram stories. Yes, you're going to be doing a lot of things that week of your launch. And one thing you can get off your plate is prerecorded Instagram stories. Whether these are testimonials or FAQs that you normally have, you can pre record stories. So again, you can be more present with people during your launch week because again, the people that are engaging with you during that launch week or are very, very hot leads and they're going to be more likely to convert if you engage with them. So just get as much off your plate as possible. So that week you are launching cart open close time period that you're being as present as possible and you're not having to quickly do an Instagram story. You've got that all done. The next mistake I've made is not having a clear calendar of events. There's a lot of things in a launch that you need to be prepared for, especially the week of your launch. So when you're planning your launch, if you can think about, okay, if the cart opens on a Friday, what do you need to do that day? What are three things you need to do? Maybe go live on Instagram, maybe go live on Facebook, maybe do a post on Instagram. What are the things you need to be doing that day so you can focus on those things? Then what do you need to be doing Saturday? What do you need to be doing Sunday? Are Saturday and Sunday things you can batch ahead of time so you don't have to take up your weekend doing that? And then what are you going to be doing Monday? Are bonuses going to be expiring on Monday? Do you need to promote that and get the word out on that? I'm telling you, making sure you know what you need to be doing each day will really help with that sense of overwhelm. Because otherwise you may come to your desk to start your morning during launch week and it seems like there's a whole heck of a lot to do. But if you've got that list already prepared, you can sit down and say, okay, first up, I'm going to do this, then this. So your launch week will be more productive and you won't feel like you're dropping the ball or you're missing something, because you're going to be planning for all of that. When you're in a clear state of mind and you're not in this launch state of mind, which is a real thing, the next mistake is not having hype content. Now, my client Ashlyn of Ashlyn Writes, has a great course on this Club prime to launch, and she really talks about prepping and hyping up your audience about four to six weeks in advance and the type of content you should be creating leading up to the launch. You don't just want to launch, right? You need to get people knowing why what you're going to teach them is important, why your topic matters, what are results they are going to get? What difference is this course going to have in their life that they may not have realized. So this is all content leading up to your launch and this is stuff you're going to be doing about six months, weeks in advance. Your email content, your YouTube videos, your social media content is all this hype content getting people prepared and ready to want to buy the solution that you have for them. So you're talking about all their problems and all their pain points and they're shaking their head, yeah, that's me, I get that. Yeah, that's my problem. That's what I am dealing with. And then you drop in your launch the solution to all those problems. The next mistake that I've made is not saving my launch assets. So I've talked a lot about all of these things that go into a launch, like stories and lives and Facebook posts, Instagram posts and email newsletters. Well, these are things that you can reuse. Yeah. Just because you send out an entire launch email sequence, one month doesn't mean and four months later you can't reuse that email sequence. So save that. Look at the statistics of those emails. What is the open rate? Maybe you need to change the subject line to get that email open more. What is your click through rate? Maybe you need to tweak the call to action in that particular email to increase your click through rates to your sales page. But don't totally scrap your email sequence and start over on every single launch. That's a lot of work. So save these pieces. Save Instagram stories that you've done. Absolutely. You can reuse them in four months. Nobody's going to remember four months ago that you already did that. Unless maybe you change your hair quite a lot. But you can reuse your social media assets, your social media content captions as well. Four months later telling you I've learned a lot. So I'm going to keep these mistakes coming. And this next one is having multiple payment plans. But there's a key to realize with multiple payment plans. So a lot of the times you'll see that people will say if you buy the program in full, you'll save X amount of money. That's because as entrepreneurs, that money upfront, that full payment is more valuable to us. We are more willing to give you a discount if you pay in full because when you are making payments, we are going to be paying more transaction fees on that like Stripe and PayPal fees. And a lot of times people's credit cards go bad or they get a new one or they cancel one. So you're having to chase people down. And sadly, some people just don't finish their payment plans. So with a payment plan we will add an additional 20% to what you're going to pay to account for those things that may happen when you are deciding on what your payment plans are going to be. Take what your full price product is or your full price course, add 20% to that and then divide it by six months, 12 months. I've really seen success when I can have a payment plan that is below $100. So like $97 for X amount of months. That's where I've seen the biggest success with pay plans. Ah, bonuses and fast action bonuses are another mistake that I've made. And the mistake that I've made here is these bonuses just shouldn't be anything. They need to be intentional and not like Oprah style. You get a car and you get a car and you get a car. These bonuses need to really assist that potential student or that potential client in achieving what your course outcome is. It needs to be seen for that potential buyer that they need to buy this course now because this bonus is definitely going to help them achieve their end result or what they want to achieve with your product or course. For example, if you're launching an Instagram course, you may think a bonus of a seven email sequence swipe copy for you to send to your email list. Well, that's not kind of in the mind of that potential student or client right now. They're more thinking about Instagram and how this course is going to help them reach goals on Instagram. So you may have a bonus that's like three Instagram carousel templates you can swipe now. That's going to make their life a lot easier. It's going to help them create content faster and that's going to help them achieve that Instagram problem that they are having. So when you're thinking about bonuses, don't just throw in everything but the kitchen sink, right? Make these bonuses intentional. All right, the next mistake is not personally reaching out to people. Look, you can't put your launch on autopilot. It's just not going to work. You need to make personal outreaches. Whether it's personal outreach to people who are engaging and commenting with you on Instagram or if you have an email system like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign, you can see see who is clicking on the sales page and you may want to reach out to them personally. So one thing that I've done with a couple launches that have resulted in sales is seeing who's clicking on the sales page and then I Use an online tool called Loom where I really just send them a one minute video that is of me. So every morning of my launch I'll take a look at my emails and see who clicked on that sales page and who hasn't bought and send them a quick one minute video. I already have a scripted out, so I may say something like, hey Anne, I noticed you checked out my program Video Strategy Academy and you haven't jumped in yet. I would love to know what's holding you back. What would you need to have in this program to make it an easy yes for you? I'd love to see what we could do for you. Feel free to hit reply and let me know. Just saying that over and over 10, 15, maybe 20 times seems like a lot, but it's just about an hour of your time and it could result into 2, 3, 4, maybe 5 more sales. Would that be time worth it? You need to realize you've got to put work into it. This isn't passive income. You've got to make an effort. And personal outreach is huge. When you're launching, you've also got to be showing your program or your course. The biggest hurdle for people to buy an online program is not knowing what they're going to get. And so one thing that I've started incorporating in the past couple of launches that has done gangbusters for me is again using Loom and sharing my screen and walking through what you're getting in my course, how it's going to be broken down, how you're going to have a success plan, all the things that you get inside so that eliminates that worry. But they're going to get ripped off. They see the content for themselves and they see how it can really work for them. So you got to find a way to bridge that gap of people being afraid they're going to be ripped off and show them what they're actually going to get from you. Onboarding is another mistake that I've done. And what I mean by onboarding is when somebody buys your course, making them feel excited and welcomed and making that next step for them easy. Because the hardest thing to do is get people to continue to take action with your program. And if you have an online course, you want people to go through it, get success so you can shout it from the rooftop, right? This was the whole reason you created these programs, was to help people. So before launching, thinking about, you know, five to six emails that you can have automated that go out to your students to get them excited, tell them where's the first thing that they should dig into? How to join the Facebook group? Sending a reply email to you with excitement or asking them. Here's a really good one. Asking them. I'm so excited that you join. I would love to know what's the final thing that caused you to join. What's the main reason you decided to join? Because then you can use those responses in your launch content. You can share in stories or in your Instagram that the reason why people are buying our X. Or you can really use that verbiage in what people are telling you for the reasons they bought in your marketing content. Which also kind of leads into another mistake and not making shareable content. For those people who have also bought bot. The best way to get people convinced that your program is worth it is hearing from other people. So maybe you create an Instagram story template that they can use and say they're so excited that they just joined your program and tell them to tag you. Or maybe you give a reward system for people who go on Instagram and share why they join your program and tag you so you can reuse that. Right? You want to get the words of clients and students who are buying because that's the strongest piece of marketing that you can get. So making sure you're including some kind of shareability in your onboarding process as well. Another part of shareability is celebrating your students. One thing that I've done for a long time, probably since my second or third launch, is put every student's name on a post it, put it up on the wall and celebrate it on stories so I can show people who's buying, celebrate that person, make that person feel seen so they're more likely to share why they bought so you have more content. Okay, this is another one that I've not done for so long and recently done it in my last launch, and that's having a downsell. So you go through seven days of this launch of your premium course or of any course that you're selling and then that's it. You disappear from them and you ghost from them. What about the people who were excited? The people that wanted to join, but they really just weren't financially there? What is that next step that they can still take with you? Because you've got all this hype, you've got all this momentum, you've got people wanting to work with you or buy something from you. So having a down sell option can really add more money to your old ultimate launch. I know, I think I added about $8,000 more to my last launch just with a downsell. So let's say for example in my case study my program is 997 and then I offered a downsell of a portion of my program or a little piece of my program for just 1, 97 and that was something people were more able to afford. That gets them to start testing out my content, seeing what it's like me building trust with them. Because if they can get results from that this piece, they're going to be more likely to upgrade. And then I also have options in that downsell for them to upgrade. There's a voucher in there that they can use a coupon towards upgrading to the 997 program and that's really going to create this cycle of sales for you even past that cart open close launch period. These are just some of the mistakes I've made along the line of being an entrepreneur for over six years. There are mistakes I've made in my business. There are mistakes I've made on my YouTube channel. So I'm curious, do you enjoy learning from people's mistakes? Is this a series or would you like to see me talk about the mistakes I made growing my business? The mistakes I've made on YouTube? Comment below Share your mistakes if you're interested in seeing more of these videos from me and if you want to see how I'm using YouTube to make over $20,000 every single month, watch the video that's on your screen right now and don't forget to subscribe. So if I come out with those mistakes videos, you catch them. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in that next video.