Podcast: Play in new window | Download (36.2MB)

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

Biggest Launch Takeaways of 2019

If you want to understand where I was with my knowledge of business when I started out, this should make it pretty clear…

I bought B school by Marie Forleo in 2016. When we got to the marketing section, I skipped most of it because it was terrifying and I had nothing to market yet.

When she mentioned launching, I didn’t even know what a “launch” was. I had no real mailing list or audience and my Idea of a launch was just saying “hi guys, buy my training” followed by waiting for all the humans to sign up.

As you can imagine, that was an epic failure. There were so many factors at play here. It was not the fault of B school.

A large portion of it was really just a pure lack of experience.

Luckily, if you keep going with this entrepreneur deal, you certainly gain experience.

Since 2016 I have launched

• 20 day challenge
• Free prelude to 20 day challenge (when I thought I needed a funnel and was doing it all wrong).
• 6 week transformations (when I hadn’t taken the time to really get clear on my ideal client and the type of service I wanted to offer).
• A pull up guide
• Free challenges
• Built By Annie round 1
• Movement 101
• A relaunch of Built By Annie with 3 new programs
• Body weight for weight lifters
• Biz Talk Power Hours
• FitsPRO Foundations
• Instagram 101
• Recent promo for Built By Annie
• And the Big Lift Audit

That’s 15 launches okay?

That’s A LOT of failing and learning with some succeeding intertwined.

2018 and 2019 are when I started to really get a system for launching. To develop a launch map.

I took a launch mastermind as well. Which I don’t think was innately worth the value, but I think you get out what you put in so in that sense it lead to success.

So, today we’re diving Into my biggest takeaways from launching in 2019.

Track your launch numbers

Number 1 – launching is a time to study.

Studying my launches has helped take away from the connection between my launch being success and my value as a human or professional. Launches are for learning.

Now, this will be harder if you’re on the side hustle life. You likely won’t have time for this. But if you can, tracking your numbers is so powerful and empowering in my experience. That’s coming from a person who likes numbers.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about,

I track:

• Email opens and click throughs throughout the launch
• Main sales page visits
• Checkout page visits
• Enrollments.

Super simple. Not extensive.

What this does is two things:

It gives me feedback and shows me trends – Which emails did the best Which emails did poorly? What percentage are clicking through to the checkout page from the sales page?

And on top of that, it was so encouraging to me to track sales page visits BECAUSE…

When you’re launching and sending emails and posting on the gram or getting in your stories, but no one is purchasing or letting you know they are interested, it’s easy to think NO ONE is interested or visiting your site.

But THEY ARE. I almost guarantee they are! Remember people need to see things far more than one time before they make a purchase. Especially for a larger investment. Right?

A great example of the difference here is my FitsPRO foundations launches vs my recent big lift audit launch. With FitsPRO it takes more momentum through out the launch to get people to feel confident investing.

With the $21 launch of the big lift audit, we had people purchasing on the daily anytime I mentioned it because it’s only $21. That takes far less convincing. And there is far less risk involved. So those launch patterns will differ.

Either way, track your numbers related to your launch if you can. It gives you data which makes your life easier next time, and it allows you to see that there are cold and warm leads, you just can’t see them without tracking it.

Create your launch map

Number 2 was really sitting down and Taking the time to map it out.

Again, this takes TIME. So if you’re limited on that, I encourage you to use the map I am about to share to save you some of that time figuring it out for yourself.

So this could be a whole course, but this is what my launch map includes: We have five phases to my launches.

1. Pre-launch phase
2. Back door VIP phase
3. Launch phase
4. Detail & Information phase 
5. FOMO reign fire phase

Within each of these I decide what is happening where.

What emails need to go out? Plug them in

What canva stories or IG stories do I need to create?

Okay, so you have these phases. They can be however many days long as you need each of them to be but remember that we want launches to build momentum.

Which is where the content comes in.

You could have emails, promos, discounts or free bonuses, fast action bonuses, testimonies, last minute bonuses, educational canva stories, bundles, sharing enrollments as people enroll.

We want to avoid sharing all of that out the gate. Right?

So you get to decide how you release those things throughout your launch in a way that build interest, curiosity and fomo in order to get people to sign up.

I personally like 10 day launches.

Now, that 10 days DOES NOT include the Pre-launch Phase.

But does include the back door VIP, launch, detail & information, and fomo reign fire phases.

Pre-launch phase is where I start warming up my email lists and getting people on the waitlist or in the facebook group or wherever I am going to want them to be for the back door VIP launch phase.

This could take three weeks or three days. Depends on the launch.

I made a simple color coded spreadsheet for all of this.

So I have my five phases of my launch, each having a different color, an allotted number of boxes for the number of days in that phase, and then the tasks that take place in each phase of the launch.

That is my LITERAL launch map.

Once I have that, then I create all of the things that need to be done. That’s the emails, the canva IG story images, the Instagram posts, sales page updates and so on so forth.

knowing your ideal client and her issues

Number 3 is really more related to story telling and diving deep into my ideal client and my offers more than launching as a singular subject matter.

Have you ever watched someone launch, or maybe you’ve talked about your offer and it just doesn’t come off as confident?

It’s kind of passive, and unclear?

That comes from a lack of confidence in their offer.

And that lack of confidence comes from not knowing their offer and WHO IT’S FOR, like the back of their hand.

When you know the ins and outs of your offer, what purpose it serves, and EXACTLY who it was made for…you don’t even feel like you’re selling it.

You feel like you just found the PERFECT pair of leggings and you’re sharing it with your bff because you KNOW she will absolutely love and appreciate them.

Which one do you feel like when you’re launching?

I know I felt like the first, uncertain, unconfident, hesitant human for years.

Hear me – you will not have a successful launch if you don’t know your ideal client and your offer inside and out.

So here are some things I chose to focus on in 2018 and 19 to help me get CLEAR AF on these topics before launching, and actually before creating my sales pages…because THAT is ultimately where someone pulls the trigger and gives you their credit card.

What is the big takeaway? What’s the big win for them? Allison Tenney actually asked me this about one of my programs and it has stuck with me ever since.

What’s the promise, or promises?

This needs to be CLEAR you guys. What’s in it for them? Do they lose weight? Get out of pain? Save time? Do they love themselves more? Feel confident having sex with the lights on? WHAT IS THE PROMISE?

The more specific you can get with this, the better. And it’s okay to refine this more and more as you get to know your clients more and more.

THIS IS WHAT YOU TALK ABOUT DURING YOUR LAUNCH.

THIS is what you share stories around so you can connect with that ideal client who suffers from the same issues you’re talking about.

On the same note, know your process. You need to be able to clearly communicate the process by which they gain these results. Paint that picture for them. Do they uncover something new each week? Do they get a tried and proven blue print? HOW do they get the promise?

To add a cherry on top, get social proof from humans who have used your offer or done your program so you have proof from humans with no ulterior motive.

When you know all of that, you will speak with confidence and authority during your launch, in your emails, or social media copy, and on your sales pages.

Now, in regards to digging deeper into you ideal client.

I focused on WHAT SHE WAS REALLY LOOKING FOR. WHAT STRUGGLES WAS SHE HAVING IN REGARDS TO MY OFFER?

Again, fam….this takes time and effort. Okay. Even if you have a pretty launch map and track your numbers, if you don’t know your ideal client or the ins and outs of your offer, ain’t no body buying what you’re selling. THAT’S A FACT.

So, ask yourself.

What is my ideal client looking for? What are her feelings around this offer topic? Answer what her reality looks like now, and what does she wish her reality was?

TALK ABOUT THAT. PAINT THAT PICTURE FOR HER.

A super simple example is the big lift audit.

If you follow me on instagram, you know I shared several email and DM responses from ladies saying, “you know your clientele so well.” “This is exactly what I was looking for.” “You really know your audience.” And yes those are direct, unsolicited quotes from people who purchased the big lift audit.

I sold over 100 units of BLA and it was through the simple messaging of:

Learn how to correct your main lifts via video analysis without paying for a full time coach. “TAKE THE GUESS WORK OUT OF VIDEOING & LOOKING AT YOUR LIFTS. KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR + HAVE THE TOOLS TO FIX IT.”

Be the girl who videos herself at the gym, but also knows her shit

These are women who value learning, are curious about their bodies and care about lifting well. Many of them already video themselves but then don’t know what to make of the video. What are they seeing, what should they be looking for? And then great, they know what to look for but then how do they address that.

The big lift audit is the answer to all of those questions for the front and back squat, conventional and sumo deadlifts, bench press and overhead press.

You feel me? Can you clearly see who that is for? And what it does?

That is why number three was all about the details and depths of your offer and your ideal client.

With clarity on those, I’d argue the launch map and tracking numbers are icing on the cake for your launch.

That’s it fam.

My biggest takeaways so far from launching in 2019.

• Track your numbers.

• Have an actual map. Use my five phases if you have nothing so far.

• And understand the power in getting painfully, annoyingly clear on your offer and who it’s for.

If you find value here, on The FitsPRO Podcast, then pretty please head over to itunes, subscribe, rate and review the show. It means the world to me when you spread my message to more humans.

Want more podcasts? Click here to skim the archives.

P.S. Save this value packed episode for later over on pinterest!