Why my leisurely launch was a terrible idea
Like you, I don’t know anyone who embraces Marketing BS…
I loathe tactics like made-up scarcity & would rather go out of business than use fear tactics to get someone to buy something.
Therefore, I decided on a nice, slow, leisurely launch for my membership program this summer.
I didn’t want to rush people into making a decision because I actually did NOT have an end date in mind for when I’d close the doors!
In my mind, this launch was a ‘summer fling’ & I was gonna take my time, enjoy the ride, and close it when I felt like it.
Bad Idea. SO dumb.
Truth:
1. People make decisions & take action pretty much only when there’s a deadline.
This is especially true for the ‘boring’ bits of business, like content creation & (according to my lawyer friends) - legal stuff.
Think about your life: if you’ve got visitors coming next week, when do you clean your house? NOT A WEEK BEFORE!
If you’re like most of us, you’re putting away the vacuum & tidying up the piles as they pull into the driveway!
2. I GOT SICK OF MY OWN LAUNCH!
Since I usually email my list once a week, every call to action had to be sell the membership. That’s not how I like to roll.
I wanted to share OTHER news & resources but couldn’t because I had to use all my content capital on this launch.
3. Here’s the part that I REGRET THE MOST: I fatigued my list, and that…ugh, that’s the worst part to me.
I lost about 50 people who unsubbed, even though I gave them the opportunity to opt out of the launch emails.**
My being up front, transparent & offering opt-outs didn’t stop the frustration for some.
On the day after the launch, one woman couldn’t take it anymore & screamed at me IN ALL CAPS to delete her from my list.
The worst part? She was responding to an email that wasn’t selling anything - just encouraging her to have a wonderful August.
Sigh...
My BIGGEST A-HA:
Ultimately, the bulk of new members came the day of the cart close -
ZERO came in after that ‘last chance, I’m going to bed’ email that went out at 9:30pm EST.
So, FYI: if you think false scarcity sucks, I agree. Don’t use it.
But - create scarcity for yourself because a long, drawn-out launch without any closing, deadlines, or scarcity will EXHAUST you -
and your audience.
Xo, Jen
**A practice to keep your audience from getting too fatigued while remaining on your list is to tag them so they can opt-out of your current promotion - without unsubscribing!
Create a landing page that simply says, “Thanks for letting me know”
…& when they click on the link to that landing page inside your email, tell your email system to tag them. I use something like, “NoPromo”.
Then, you simply EXCLUDE the “NoPromo” tagged people on your list from receiving your next promo email!
I like to put my opt-out at the top of an email so no one has to search for it.
PS:
Here’s a Loom video where I take you through a sales page live & talk about the secrets, tweaks, and hints that’ll make your sales page a helluva lot easier to create.
It’s about 13 minutes long & I cover the sections ‘needed’ in a long-form sales page.
**Grab the PDF outlining the 14 Sections I cover inside the video with specifics about what you “should” include at the bottom of this blog!
PPS: Click to read about the other realities of my launch
Prepare for Your Launch: Let’s talk launch energy
You Need a Deadline: Why my leisurely launch was a terrible idea
