Episode #022: Lessons from a NEARLY Failed Launch
Lessons from a NEARLY Failed Launch
What can you learn when a launch goes (or is going) sideways? Can you save it? Should you call it?
That's what today's episode is all about - setting yourself up for the maximum level of success with your launches.
I'm going to take you behind the scenes of a launch we did that was, well tough, and share with you...
-> How to pivot if a launch isn't going well
-> Lessons to takeaway from a launch that missed the mark by 50%
-> The importance of lead up to a launch (even if you're short on time)
So tune in, listen up, and enjoy!
Links Mentioned on the Show From Zach:
Full Transcript:
This is Not Your Average Online Marketing Podcast, episode number 22. And in this episode, we're talking about lessons from a nearly failed launch, what we did wrong, what we did right, and what you can learn from our mistakes so that your launches go even better. So let's get into it.
Hey, hey, hey, not so average marketer, welcome to the podcast. Now, I'm a little nervous for today's episode to be honest because a lot of times on the show, we talk about what's working well and how we're getting results, but we recently launched a product and it was like paddling upstream. It was difficult. It was bumpy. It didn't go to plan. We didn't see the traction that we wanted to see early on in the launch. And so what I want to share with you today is really the shortcomings that we had and what you can learn from them so that your launches are more effective than our launches were. And so I think the best place to start is just talking about specifically what we launched.
So, at the beginning of February, we launched a six-week Facebook ads bootcamp for $297. So what happened was we told people, "Hey, come work with me for six weeks. I'm going to teach you the fundamentals of the ads manager. I'm going to help you write copy and creative. I'm going to help you learn how to set up advertisements." And it was a really strong offer, I thought. Right? But it turns out that the offer wasn't as strong as we thought it was. Now, to give you context. The first, I wouldn't say mistake, but the first thing that grabbed my attention is that a lot of people that we talked to, including my mentor, Said, "Well, how are you launching it? Are you doing a webinar, a challenge, a video series?" And we decided to just do a flash promotion.
So for a very short period of time, just a couple of days, we opened the doors. We gave people three or four days to join. And we basically said, "It's 297 and you can click here to sign up." So how do we drive traffic? It was all email and social media. Right? We didn't do a webinar or a challenge or a video series. And I think the big misstep that I made was that a lot of the projections that I did and calculations on how well this launch was going to perform were actually kind of based on my experience with webinars and challenges. I don't do a ton of email-only launches. And so when you're doing your projections or you're planning out your launch or you're mapping out your metrics, you kind of have to, I don't want to say be realistic because there's always room for something really awesome to happen, but you have to be mindful of the vehicle that you're using to launch your product.
So when we didn't do a webinar or a challenge or a video series or anything formal, we kind of said, "Oh, this is going to work great," without thinking, "it's going to convert at a lower percent than when we do get people to sign up for a promotional launch." Right? So here's the thing. I think we should talk about the results and what happened. So, full transparency, our goal was 20,000 in revenue. We wanted to get $20,000 cash in hand revenue, or projected revenue even. That was kind of our goal, was to be around that number. We ended up generating 10,000 in revenue. Now, what's nice about this is we didn't spend a lot on ads. We spent less than a couple hundred on ads because it was all organic and email.
But y'all, this is part of what made me nervous to record this episode to be honest, is I know it sounds very much like, "Well, you made 10,000 so why are you complaining? Or why was it nearly failed?" Well, because we came up short on our goal by 50%. And when you're talking about metrics and cashflow and goals and managing a team, a big hit like that can feel really stressful. It can feel really daunting and it can feel like, "Oh my gosh, I had this vision for what was going to happen and it didn't happen." Right? So the other thing I want to give you to think about is that, 80% of our sales came in the last 12 to 24 hours. Okay?
So when I say it was a nearly failed launch, I mean, we still generated revenue. It's worth it for me to run a six-week bootcamp for $10,000. But for the first several days we were open, we're like, "No one's buying." We had four or five sales at 297 for the first few days.
And so part of what I think really felt nearly failed about this was that, we didn't get the traction early on. We like to see an influx of customers when we announce something, we like to see an influx of customers at the end, but it was just dead for the first three days. And so what I want to talk about, or what we did, was we kind of said, "What's the problem here? Why is this not working? What is the problem that we need to get fixed right away?" And the first things first is that, we have a membership, you may know the Not Your Average Membership, and we teach some Facebook ads stuff in there. And one of the biggest questions, objections, concerns we got from people was, "I already have the membership," or, "How is this different than the membership?"
And what that tells me is that I had really not great messaging to differentiate this from my other offers. And for those of us who are very niche, which is really helpful for your revenue and really helpful for your sales, it can be tough because you want to differentiate your offers but you want to be in that same vein of what you teach. We had kind of identified that we didn't have a clear messaging as to why this was different. And so what we did to kind of fix that was we started refining that messaging and we revised the sales page several times throughout the launch, including the last day. Before the last day emails went out, we changed the headline, we changed the copy, we changed the way it was presented. We went in and we refined stuff.
And so what I want you to understand is that sometimes you have to change things mid-launch, and that can feel stressful because you're like, "Well, what if the sales page was working and people just need to see it multiple times? Or what if, what if, what if?" But what you have to think about is, you have to be proactive in your launches. If something's not working, you have to identify what it is and work on it. The other big problem that we ran into was we started by calling it the six-week Facebook and Instagram ads bootcamp. And that's what we led with, right? On our sales page and our messaging, we were like, "Come join this six-week bootcamp. Come join this six week bootcamp." And we didn't have a clear name or outcome for the offer.
Now, at first, you might be like, "Well, yeah, you do have an outcome because it's how to learn Facebook ads in six weeks, right?" But what does that do for my customer? What do they get out of joining the six-week bootcamp besides just competency? Because what we were kind of leaning on in our messaging and in our offer was, "Oh, you'll be really good at Facebook ads. You'll feel confident. You'll feel competent. You'll have results. You'll be generating leads." And the reality is that, that's not what people desire. They desire to grow their email list. They desire to make sales. They desire to have a funnel in place.
So it was just a big, realization really, for lack of a better word, that we didn't have a clear name or a clear outcome for our offer. And if we can't identify what the outcome is based on what we're promoting, we can't expect our prospects to either. So you just have to be thinking the next time you launch your product just like, "What is the actual outcome? And am I promoting that?" Right? It sounds really silly because we think, "Oh, my gosh, I know exactly what the outcome is. People are going to get this, this, this, and this." But there's this kind of sub-question which is, are the outcomes that I'm talking about with my offer, things that my audience actually wants? Okay?
Now, the other big misstep that I think we made was, we should have done more lead-up. So I would've rather pushed the promotion back like a week and a half, two weeks and sent some emails to my list about how Facebook ads work and why they're so beneficial because we didn't do any lead-in or lead-up. And I think that really cost us because then, the minute the cart was open, there is this human element of, our guard goes up because everything I'm saying now in the eyes of my audience is to sell something. Right? Whereas before the cart opens, I can just provide massive value kind of without that resistance or fear that it's just a persuasive tactic, especially in the B2B space.
So next time, what we would do is really have more lead-in and lead-up, and it doesn't have to be massive. At the end of the day, you guys, we generated $10,000 in revenue under a $200 ad spend, pretty much organically with our email list that we've been growing for a few months, but it could have been better. Now, I know that I always hesitate to say things like that because I want you to understand that just because something could be better, doesn't mean it was failed. Right? And that's why I called this episode a nearly failed launch. It didn't fall flat on its face but it didn't soar. And if you don't have that lead-in or lead-up, if you don't prime your audience to be thinking about what they should promote, or what you are going to promote, I should say, they're not going to buy at the level that you want.
Now, you're always going to have those die-hard fans and the people that trust you and the people that dive in, but you have to understand that if you don't prime your audience before the offer comes out, it's harder to sell. Impossible, no. But harder, yes. And just to clarify, when I say prime your audience, I mean dripping content, podcast, videos, trainings that explain to them and paint the picture of why your stuff is so important. And that can be in the form of how-to content, it can be in the form of persuasive content, like I said, podcast, video, email, but you have to put your content out there so that people know why they should take you up on it. Okay?
I think that one thing we should talk about is, why I really felt like this failed and something that I want you to think about that was a big lesson for me. And that is that we ended up with about 32 people inside the program, but on our sales page, we wrote max of 75 students. We ended up talking to a few people, one of my mentors, and they were like, "That's not really... It's not compelling people. It's a big number. There's really no incentive to be one of the 75 other than you get access to the program." And it felt really defeating to know that I was shooting for 75 people and I got 32, which is about half the goal, which makes sense because we did about half the revenue we wanted.
I had this fear that if I didn't sell 75 spots, everybody in the program was going to go, "This guy doesn't know what he is doing. Zach can't even fill up a program. Zach doesn't know how to run ads to fill a program. Why would I trust this guy when there's not people in the Facebook group at the number that was the maximum capacity?" And I share that because I think this is a really common fear that I see and hear a lot from marketers. And that is that, people are going to judge them based on their numbers. Here's the truth. No one cared, no one said anything. No one said, "Oh, my gosh, this guy's so fraudulent." No one cared. Right? So one of the things that I think really got me was this gripping fear that was like, "If I don't hit 75, everything's going to be bad. People are going to perceive it as bad. People are going to perceive it as this or that."
And y'all, that just isn't the case. People don't really care about your numbers. And so I just want you to think about that next time you're like, "I only got three people," or, "I only got 10 people into my program." People are generally excited for a higher level of support, and you can provide a higher level of support when you have a smaller group. So if you do a launch and you don't get as many people as you wanted or planned for, lean into that. Use that opportunity to say, "Oh, my gosh, I can really serve the heck out of these people."
Now, I want to talk really quickly because if you're listening to this and you pieced a couple things together, what you pieced together is that prior to the last day, we had four or five sales, and we were nowhere near the goal, right? So in the last 24 hours, a lot of the sales came in. So there's a few things that I think we did mid-launch that really helped us save the promotion and still generate revenue. And these are lessons that I want you to think about and take away because you can do these too if your launch isn't going well. The first thing was we refined the messaging and refine the sales page. So we started talking instead of calling it a six-week bootcamp, we changed the headline on the sales page to be outcome-driven. We changed the content or our emails to be content-driven and outcome-driven. We tweaked a lot and we refined the messaging as we went. Now, is that optimal? No, you really want to have your messaging refined before you start. But we realized it was a little broad and we just started niche-ing and narrowing it down.
The second thing we did was, I tell my clients all the time, this is a very regular thing I tell my clients, and that is that you don't quit. You don't quit. You get frustrated. You get upset. You say, "No one's buying my thing. I'm not getting results." And a lot of times, people go, "Well, if it's not working, I'm not going to keep sending emails and kind of banging my head against the wall and just trying to get results." But if we had quit, if we had quit our email and promotion after three days because no one was buying and no one was getting traction and we weren't seeing the results, then we would've missed all those sales that came in in the last 24 hours. So next time, what I would do is, I would really refine that messaging first, and then I might even split test a couple of sales pages to see if I can get better results with a sales page.
The other thing is, I think we introduced a couple bonuses on the last day and halfway through the promotion that really helped push things forward. And that was really good in the sense that it drove more sales but I think we could have more compelling bonuses. We kind of honestly created them in real time because I was like, "We need to do something to bump these sales up." And so we put more, more, more in, which is really not my philosophy. I really want to refine and make sure I'm only giving the information that people need, and we didn't do that this time. So just something to think about. I think having the right compelling bonuses would've been better. Our bonuses were good and they definitely drove sales, but I think if we had kind of planned a little further in advance, that would've been better.
And that's the last thing that I'll say about the big misstep we made, is that we weren't big on planning. We kind of said, "Let's do this thing. Let's go for it. Let's jump right in." And we should have spent more time on it. I think we could have planned better. We didn't have that lead-up or lead-in versus being reactionary. We wanted an influx of cash so that we had ad money to spend on our next big launch. We got reactionary and it kind of bit us in the butt, right? So what can you take away from this? Right? Like I said, I was so nervous to record this episode. I'm excited to release it because I do sincerely believe that this is going to give feedback and support to people who are going through a launch that's not working or who are planning a launch or who have just finished a launch that didn't go well to kind of evaluate what did and didn't work.
If I can just give you the important lessons that I came up with, the first thing is focus on outcomes. Right? When you're doing your promotion, don't talk about what people get, talk about what they create in their life. That was a big one. We didn't do that well enough and it really ended up kind of biting us in the butt. Second is, differentiate your product. If you have multiple products, what makes them different? Why should I join a $37 program and then a membership and then still spend more money to get inside the bootcamp? Right? We weren't clear on that in our messaging and our communication. And for that reason, people were confused and didn't know if they should join or not. And there were probably a lot of people that would've been great for the program that said, "Oh, I don't need this because I'm in the membership," or, "The membership already covers this," when in fact they're very distinctly different offers.
Third is, have clarity. And this is a really broad one, but I want you to understand that you need to have clarity on everything before you go in. What emails are going out when? What is the offer about? What will people create? How are you going to sell this? What is your promotional strategy? How did you set people up for success? And I know I'm like rapid fire questions at you, but I just want you to understand that if you don't feel crystal clear about what you're selling, if you don't feel absolute certainty if somebody was to walk up to you and say, "What do you sell?" and you could explain it to them if they were in your target market, you're missing the mark. Because if you are not crystal clear, your audience will never be clearer than you. They're never going to go, "Oh, I see what Zach's trying to say." They're going to go, "I don't know what this is." And a confused mind does not buy. That's one of the quotes that I've heard several times from several people and it always sticks with me. Confused minds don't buy.
The last lesson I want to give you is, do not quit. We were 75, 80% of the way through the promotion, limited sales, limited results, but we didn't quit. We emailed. We posted on social. We promoted. We ran some last minute ads. We really pushed to get results. It's super easy to be deflated when things are not going your way, but the strength that you have to push through is what will ultimately create your results.
So I just want you to think, "How can I push through?" And I get that, that saying push through, it's got this negative connotation of like, "Oh, you've got to push. You've got to try hard." It doesn't have to be hard to keep going. Right? It might feel hard. And those feelings are totally valid, but sometimes it's as simple as saying, "I'm so mentally done but I'm going to send one more email. I'm so tapped out but I'm going to post that on Facebook." Right? And I get it, that can be hard in the moment, but just realize that one email, one post, one thing can be that differentiating key that unlocks the potential of your launch.
So, I hope that you got lots of value from this episode. Like I said, I was a little nervous to record it but I'm happy that I did because I do sincerely think it's going to help you. I do think that if you've launched or planned to launch, it's really going to give you some insights on what works. So with all that being said, if you want to listen to this episode or get the transcript for this episode, you can always head over to heartsoulhustle.com/nyap022. Again, that's heartsoulhustle.com/nyap022 for Not Your Average Podcast episode number 22. We'll have a quick outline of what the show's about and a full transcript that you can read at your leisure. If you liked the episode and you want to recap what happened without having to listen to the whole thing over again, you can do that.
So, there you have it. Like I said, I just sincerely hope that this episode helps you. So get out there. If you don't have a great launch, that's okay. Don't quit. Keep going because the magic will happen. It will happen for you if you just persist. So, with that being said, that's our episode. I hope you got mad value. Yeah, I just hope you got mad value. I was a little nervous to record but I feel good now. So let's wrap up here before I ramble any longer. Feel free to check out those show notes. And if you get lots of value, feel free to tag me on Instagram, @heartsoulhustle. I love hearing from you. I love hearing what you thought of the episodes. And until next week, stay not so average.
