Three things that made my last launch easier (and more joyful)

If you run a small business, work as a freelancer or creative, you’ll have to launch in some shape or form at some point. Whenever you’re offering something new—be it a service or a product—you need to tell people about it, and that’s launching.

While I love creating new offers and products, and have even come to enjoy marketing, launching has never been my favourite thing. 

But it’s become easier and even more joyful, as I share in this post about three lessons I learned from the recent launch of my marketing group programme Grow.

#1 Using a waitlist

I’ve never been completely sure how to successfully use a waitlist, but this year I came up with a strategy that worked.

I used the waitlist to:

• Help people who were already interested in Grow make a decision about the programme early on;
• Joyfully nurture the waitlist subscribers with resources that they got before anyone else did, and by offering them early access as well as a discount during the prelaunch;
• Make sales early on in the launch—as much to soothe my nervous system as to see that people genuinely wanted to buy.

I built the waitlist by:

• Creating a marketing hurdles quiz, which I shared through my newsletter, blog and Pinterest pins;
• Inviting people to sign up for the waitlist in every single pre-launch email;
• Offering a few joyful bonuses that felt good to me: a marketing e-book, early access to the launch and a 10% discount during the prelaunch.

I had 10 spaces for Grow this year and filled 8 of them—of which 4 people signed up in the first 72 hours. And since I’ve been using other waitlists too: they feel like a really intimate way of nurturing the people who are interested in some of my offers and products, and I’m looking forward to doing more with them.

(You can still sign up for the waitlist, get the free marketing e-book and be the first to know when Grow launches again here)

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Sharing from the programme during the launch felt joyful and effective.

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#2 Sharing freely from the programme

Grow is a 4-month hybrid group programme, consisting of monthly office hours, monthly live planning calls, accountability check-ins and 6 modules around marketing. The modules are at the core of the programme, they share my marketing philosophy and walk participants through creating their own.

Sharing parts of these modules felt really good. I’m proud of this programme and truly believe in it and what I can do for small business owners. And sharing parts of it for free also felt like giving a lovely gift to my newsletter subscribers.

I once heard a business mentor say that the materials themselves are just part of what you’re offering: the true value lies in how you support people to work through and with the materials. When I shared parts of the marketing foundations workshop, and the section on scaling down and scaling up your marketing from one of the later modules, I felt like I was giving a really good impression of the programme.

I also selected the materials in such a way that they could stand alone: a newsletter subscriber could still get something out of them even if they didn’t join the programme. But the true magic happens will people join the programme, when they can ask questions and get my hands-on support.

#3 Holding my nerve

Just like in the early days of my business marketing felt like a necessary evil, for the longest time I dreaded launching.

While I feel like every launch gets easier, it still takes a lot out of me mentally and emotionally. It also requires me to scale up my marketing and even though I feel good about the marketing I did, it of course took extra energy (if you’re curious, check out all the posts I wrote on Grow here).

A few things helped me to keep my nerve throughout the launch:

• planned and unplanned distractions: the pre-launch started on my mother’s birthday and I spent the day with her (and had cake); the last day of the launch I had to have dental surgery and was distracted by that (and painkillers);
• having a shorter launch period than last year: last year’s launch for Growwas over five weeks, which felt way too long. This time I took three weeks, including three days for the waitlist-only pre-launch, and this felt much better and more do-able;
• getting early sales through the waitlist;
• having the exactly right people sign up;

repeating that this launch says very little about the overall health of my business: this is just one moment in time.

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I’d love to know what resonates with you from this post.

Please feel free to share this post it with business friends, in your newsletter or elsewhere. 💛

I’d love to support you in all phases of your business. Providing clarity, focus and next steps is something that my clients tell me I’m really good at. If you’re curious about how we can work together through 1:1 mentoring, check out what I offer or send me an email–no strings attached. I have payment plans available, and flexible options for mentoring calls.

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