What is launching? It’s a way to attract a lot of attention in a short time span to something you are doing. In my terms, as a business coach, a launch is creating a cash injection for your business.
What is it that we are going to be doing on today’s show? I'm going to walk you through the launch we just wrapped up a little less than two weeks ago — namely our Business Freedom Elevator™ launch.
We’re going to get into the nitty gritty of the numbers. I’ll be discussing how much revenue we made, in which phases, how many people bought, what was the average order value, and other numbers which can help you in your own launches.
In the FastForward Business School, we don’t necessarily look at sales every month. We like to do these regular launches, and then have some time where we don’t launch for a while. That is how we’ve done 4 million in revenue in 2 years.
So — why should you launch if you’ve never launched? Because it’s a massive cash injection for your business.
Doing a launch in today’s uncertain world.
This cash injection is more important than ever in today’s world, now that bills are rising and everyone is worried about costs.
It may seem impossible to try and launch when you are trying to keep your money close to you and your bills paid. But you can spend your energy on action or worry — at least action will bring you growth.
I want to invite you when you start thinking like that, when you start freaking out about bills that come in, stop yourself and look at the freak out. Feel your feelings for a bit.
Do something movement wise so that you can go through all of the emotions. Then consciously commit to, instead of worrying, taking massive action — because massive action is going to get us results.
Our launch in numbers — what do they mean?
My team and I have taken massive action between August 31st and September 31st — 31 days — and we booked 584,000 euros in revenue. That’s 274 new customers.
So what does that mean? Well, we don't have all of that money coming in because it's booked, not banked. But people are contractually obliged to pay eventually.
I really involve my team in the numbers of the business, so that also means involving them in the numbers of the targets. We worked together to create the targets for this launch.
Our targets for the launch.
Our low target was 250 sales because that was enough revenue to last us 12 months of running the business.
Currently, we have about 50,000 euro a month in expenses. We are actively trying to reduce that, to be smart with our money.
Our ideal target was 500 sales, and what really would’ve blown us away was 1000 sales. However, we made these targets without fully understanding what a crisis was going on around us.
Unexpected difficulties.
The war in Ukraine which started in March really affected our previous launch. What we didn’t expect was for it to still be so difficult to launch during the summer — but it definitely was.
So, we had set these targets before we really understood the crisis around us. 250 seemed like a done deal. Previously, we had done 370 or 350 in sales. But we had only prepped this launch for 2 months before making it public, so we landed on 250.
In the end, we hit that target. But things were definitely more difficult than before.
The launch process.
Hitting our target was impressive both because of the economic crisis and because we built this launch in such a short time. So, how did we do it?
We used to do a pre-order, wait a month, then do an early bird, then do a close cart phase. Now, we put it all together because we wanted a shorter launch with more focus on lead gen than on marketing. So, instead of across a few weeks, we did all the phases (pre-order, early bird, close cart) in 31 days.
We also offered a special early bird discount (997 euro) to those who had just graduated from our last course, and about 35 of them signed straight up again for this launch. That means by getting those 35 people to sign up again, we made an extra 35,000 euro in revenue.
Regenerating old subscriptions can be great because you don’t have to spend a lot on extra marketing efforts. One tip I give people is if you want to make more money, start by contacting the people you already have as clients.
Conversions:
Even though we sold out our pre-order to 100 people, the wait list was 700. So, we’re looking at a conversion of about 15%. In our experience, around 16% conversions is realistic and that’s what you should rely on.
Generally, when you increase your pool — webinar audience, email list — your conversions will drop a little. In our close cart phase, we had 66% of people choose a payment plan. In the pre-order, only 30% of people chose a payment plan. So, conversions can vary.
You can use incentives to generate the revenue you want. If you want more people to pay in full, offer a little discount, or give them a little bonus. Focus on what you want to be selling and make that a key part of your messaging.
It’s not over at pre-order.
Often, people think if the pre-order went well that there’s no one left to buy their product. It’s not true. We did 300,000 in pre-order, 180,000 in early bird, and 140,000 in the close cart phase.
In the pre-order, the hot audience buys. Afterwards, the warm audience buys. You still have a warm audience you can get hot, and a cold audience that you can get warm during your launch. A lot can happen in a launch.
Things to know before your launch.
This launch did well because we really prepped it, we spent two months telling people why they should invest in us. But there are also some basic questions you should ask before your launch. Such as:
- How are you setting your targets?
- Do you know when you’re actually breaking even in your business?
- Am I pushing enough sales emails? (Don’t take unsubscribers personally — there’s no point having subscribers on a list that never buy from you anyway!)
Speaking of emails, I made sure to review my email stats. What was our email open rate? Of that, who was clicking through to a sales page? Those emails lead to a 15 or 20% conversion rate. That can be a really strong mechanism to use to generate a certain number of sales.
A lot of people make the mistake of setting a sales target, without setting a lead gen target. You can have really great plans, but if you aren’t speaking to people — through email, Instagram, etc. — you’re going to get nowhere.
What’s next?
If you found my launch process helpful in this episode, I invite you to join my masterclass on how I made 4 million in revenue in 2 years on the 7th of November. This class will be in English with Dutch subtitles.
I’ll be sharing how I launched in a crisis, the most important behind-the-scenes of six and seven-figure launches, and all the secrets of a great launch. You can find it now with 75% off, for 49 euros, at fastforwardamy.com/4millionmasterclass.
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and search for episode 153 of The FastForwardAmy Show.
PS: If you want to work with me but aren’t sure where to begin, head to fastforwardamy.com/findyourfit and answer the questions — we’ll point you in the right direction!
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