20 things to think about BEFORE you launch your offer.

Whether it be a membership, a new training course, a new product or even a freebie, you might want to consider these 20 things.

I know this because, usually, a new client comes to me when the 💩 has hit the fan!

You know what I mean, right?  When you’ve got a brilliant idea, you’ve run with it, you want to go live NOW but then you realise, how will they get it?  Or how will I post about it?  How do people pay?  How can they book on?  So many things that when you buy from others look so easy to do, until your on the other side of the process.

Do these 20 things and you will nail it! 

1- Map out everything first.  EVERYTHING.  

Ok, so you might not know everything just yet, but get a blank sheet and think about everything a customer will experience from how they will find you, to how they will find out about the thing and then how they will buy it, pay for it and get it.  AND, to be ahead of your competition, what they will experience AFTER they buy.

2- Know what info you need.

It’s always key to think about what you want to know. Do you need just the leads name and email or do you want more?  How will you know what touch points they’ve seen and what they like?  Think about the tagging in your mailing system.  It gives you way more follow up options. 

3- Brand it up!  

It’s easy to get carried away with a new idea and yes, it looks beautiful! BUT is it in line with your existing brand and values your clients know and love (and trust!).

4- Audience.

Before you invest a whole heap of time into something- is there someone ready to buy it?

5- Who is that audience?

AND who are they?  Nailing it down exactly will make your marketing and communications 100 times easier.  Trust me on this one and I am not a massive fan of the ‘ideal client’ idea but it works! 

6- Content.

Whatever you’re offering you’re likely to need. 

Lead page 

Check out page

Thank you page

Confirmation emails 

Access to membership/portal/video/pdf etc 

Downloads 

Nurture emails 

Lead magnet 

Sales emails 

Follow up emails 

Thank you emails 

Social media posts- graphics, storys, reels, lives and video.

Take 5 minutes to list what you will need and then think about when you will be creating them. 

7- Tech time!  

What tech will you need?  The easiest way to figure this out is to list what you want to happen, then next to those things, write what tech will make that work.  If you don’t know, highlight it and do your research or book a clarity call with me, 15 mins and I can answer your questions and point you in the right direction (no obligation of course). 

8- Graphics.

Briefly mentioned above in terms of social media graphics, but how about mock ups of the product, testimonials, videos of you in action, images, email headers, website headings and imagery.  Have a list of them and then you can get cracking on creating them. 

9- Helllllloooo Trello. 

Well, if you know me, you’ll know I don’t even go on holiday without a Trello card, but I promise you it’s an easy and effective way to keep track of everything AND that you’re on track. 

10- The tiny tasks. 

I can’t tell you how important this bit is.  If you look at this as one project of “Launch A” then you will never get it done, or if you do it won’t be as good as it could’ve been.  “Launch A” is your goal, your finishing line, you need to break that down into all the small tasks that need doing and work on those.  So when you’re setting your to do list for the day/week ahead you don’t write- work on launch, you write, do Instagram graphics for launch, write the welcome email for affiliates and sign off the website banners.

11- Research (a boring bit so many don’t bother with).

Research everything from your audience to your competitors.  What do your audience love?  What makes them love you? How can you make sure you mention these things in every possible way?

12- SEO- at least think about it! 

Make some of those points from your research into your key words for the project and get them in everything you do (if they make sense of course) to help boost your SEO. 

13- Story tell.

Everyone loves a story, it’s relatable, easy to read and engaging.  Get stories in your sales materials.  Your stories, client stories, stories about what will happen to them if they buy or don’t buy.  You name it. BONUS they’re more fun and easier to write than if you sit down to write ‘sales copy’. 

14- Testing time! 

Make sure you add some testing time to your project plan.  Test and review I should say.  I’ve spent many a late night making a beautiful page only to realise in the morning it can be better, shorter, quicker. 

15- Automate it baby.

Automation is your friend here and the key to making this slicker, easier, quicker and more scalable! Automate whatever you can, wherever you can. 

16- Timescale that’s realistic.

This is most often the one that needs to change.  When a client or prospect contacts me they often want to launch tomorrow or next week.  They have an email ready to go (yep one email).  So looking at the stuff I’ve listed above, you’re gonna need a bit more time! The bonus here though, if you do it right just one time, you have a lot of the basics you need to rinse and repeat and the process becomes so much quicker! 

17- Project plan that works backwards from your timescale/deadline.

So, get your ideal date. Then your list of small tasks from point number 10 and make sure you can fit all of them in before that date.  If you can, winner, if not make some changes. Now stick that project plan into Trello! 

18- Record lessons learnt!

I used to save this for the end of a project but now I work through and note them as I go. Sometimes you come across small problems mid project and just solve them, get them in a lesson learnt list so you can avoid them in the future OR remember how you sorted them! 

19- Don’t leave it too late to get help.

This is a plea for VAs everywhere! Don’t leave it until the day or two before your launch when you realise 18 of the 20 things haven’t been done and you don’t know what to do next.  Or, and this happens all the time, when you’ve created everything, but nothing works.  Trust me, we are quicker (so cheaper for you) when we just do it rather than fixing or undoing what’s been done to do it again.  Support and accountability will really help you through this, if you’re not using a VA think about who could help, what with, when and how you will communicate with them. It makes a world of difference. 

20- Enjoy it!

Make sure every bit of it brings you joy.  Even when you’re doing the more boring bits, remind yourself of the joy in the project.  The results you will get for your clients, the lives you will change, the reward you’ll give yourself…whatever it is, enjoy this! Or ask yourself why you’re doing it.

Wow, I hope that hasn’t put you off.  Basically, a good brain dump, a list and some key dates should keep you on the path to a successful, profitable and effective launch.

And if you do need support, you know where we are. 

Have fun with it, Ellen and Team,

Ministry VA