Failed launch – a nightmare of every course creator. Working away on your course and launching it to the sound of crickets… is not a vibe. Good news is – we can turn your passion into profit one successful launch at a time!

Explore our newest blog post to discover the crucial 10 launch mistakes you should avoid for a smooth, ca-ching launch!

Launch Mistake #1: Launching your course idea without testing it first

Both new and xperienced course creators commit this mistake, so if you recognized yourself – you’re defo not alone! Instead of validating and testing their course idea first, they jump in head first and invest thousands of dollars…only for them to launch their course to the sound of crickets.

Yeah, not ideal. 😅

One of the easiest ways to avoid this is to validate your course idea first and test it before you actually commit to creating a full-fledged course. Or in other words: sell your course first and create it later.

Now, this has NOTHING to do woth scamming or decieveing your clients.

Here's how it works:

1. Create a rough outline of your program, and create the curriculum, but without all of the granular details

2. Create a sales page like you normally would with all of the elements that you’d normally include in a sales page

3. Promote and live launch the course to your audience, notifying them that you will start on date X, and that new modules will get unlocked weekly, or every other week.

4. If people buy - yeehaw! Get crackin’ on creating your course ASAP. if they don’t CONGRATS! You just jodged a massive bullet and saved yourself potentially weeks or months of working on a course no one would buy.

Please, please, pleassse don't ever skip this step, even if you think that you know what your target audience wants. People might tell you they’re al in, they might like your posts and be active in your comments, but the only real confirmation of their interest is their money. 

Launch Mistake #2: Failure to warm up your audience

Ambushing your audience with a surprise offer is rarely (if ever!) a good idea.

Anticipation is actually one of the strongest buying triggers. So if you're not using that in your launch sequence, you're missing out big time. I

f you want to find out why anticipation works so well and what some of the other buying triggers are, make sure to read this blog post. (I go into detail on what buying triggers are and how you can use them in your marketing.)

Implementing a proper warmup ensures that your audience sees you as THE go-to expert in your, understands the urgency of their problem and feels the need to solve this problem right now.

You might think that all of these ingredients are already a given for your audience, but in my experience (which brought in over $4M+ in collective revenue to my clients at te date of this article…) a little warm-up party never hurt nobody!

👉 In fact, warming your audience up is the surefire way to spike up your sales.

This is especially important if you are venturing out into adjacent fields.

So let's say you already created and successfully sold courses on social media content strategy, focusing on Instagram. If you are venturing out into the world of YouTube online courses or TikTok online courses, you need to reestablish your expertise and you need to prove to your audience once again that you are the expert they should trust.

You might still generate some sales if you skip this step, but you'll definitely be leaving money on the table. 

The only scenario where it's ever acceptable to skip the pre-warm-up phase is if you're already a widely recognized authority. Like, the Taylor Swift of your niche.

By the way, that's exactly what Masterclass is doing. They capitalize on inviting widely known experts onto their course platform because they are already popular. But unless that's the case for you, do not skip this step.

Launch Mistake #3: Showing expert content only

Being boring is a liability in 21st century. There, I said it.

And there’s nothing more yawn-inducing than yet another expert regurgitating Wikipedia-like tips.

Sharing tips and valuable content is an amazing way to grow your audience and build trust and, but that alone is just not enough.

Attention spans are sinking as the online space is getting more crowded by the day, so if you are not interesting to your audience, even if the information you're sharing is super valuable, they will move on. 

Before you freak out: You don't need to invent a whole new online persona and do crazy stuff to seem interesting online. Being interesting and relatable is not about pretending to be someone you're not.

It's actually quite the opposite.

It's about being a 100% fully yourself and expressing that. Not trying to fit into the onine mold of what an expert ‘should’ sound or look like.

It’s simply about…. being you. And showing your REAL self to the ausience.

I know this sounds super vulnerable and scary. And I’m not gonna sugarcoat it – there are trolls online who might leave a stinky comment on your page.

BUT, on the flip side, you’ll be building a genuine, real connection with your community. And since people buy from people… this will inevitably spike up your sales.

Launch Mistake #4: Relying on just one platform for your launch 

Whether it's email, TikTok, or Instagram paid ads – placing all of your eggs in one basket is not a good strategy.

I know, know… Managing multiple platforms is a ton of work. And I certainly don't recommend you go all in on ALLL of the social media platforms at once. Instead, choose two or three platforms where you know your ideal client hangs out and diversify your traffic sources.

Because as we all know by now, platforms can get banned and tables can turn suuuper quickly.

And an FYI for busy business owner: you don't have to create original content for each of those platforms.

With a smart repurposing content strategy, you can maximize the content you create without burnout. So use your short videos for Insta, TikTOK AND YouTube SHorts, repurpose the scripts into newsletters or even blog posts.

I promise, your audience will not notice. (And if they will, they won’t care). But you will save a ton of time and energy.

Launch Mistake #5:Not using buying triggers 

Buying triggers are certain behaviors and patterns rooted deeply in our psyche, and by utilizing them in a smart way, we can drive conversion rates wayyyy up.

A disclaimer: just like any marketing tactic, buying triggers can be used for selling good and crappy offers. So it's on you to make sure that you are selling with integrity and that you're selling something that actually helps your audience. 

Check out this blog post for a detailed description of what the buying triggers area and how to use them for your launch.

Launch Mistake #6:Not running a webinar to sell a higher ticket offer

If your offer is over $500 (give or take) running a webinar, free training, or a challenge to sell your course is a MUST.

Can you sell it without it? I mean, you could… There's no online course police stopping you. 🚨😅

But fair warning: you will be leaving money on the table. Because the higher the price of your offer, the more trust your potential clients need to build towards you before they're ready and willing to buy.

And how can you foster that trust? By providing a valuable, long-frm resoure to your audience upfront. A quick-win webinar that will deliver that aha-moment. A challenge, that will make your ideal client believe in themsleves. And… that will also highlight your expertise.

Btw, on avearge, course creators who run a webinar tend to bring in 40% more sales than the ones who don’t. So don’t sleep on this tip! or you could do it as asynchronous training, as a free mini course, but just don't skip this step. 

Launch Mistake #7:Having no product suite in place 

The golden rule of marketing that will forever change the way you look at sales and will allow you to scale much faster:

It's much easier and cheaper to sell an offer to an existing client than to acquire a new one.

Let that sink in. In practical terms, that means that you need to give your students an opportunity to buy more than just ONE thing from you.

So take a moment and think: after your clients buy your flagship offer, what happens next? Can you help them solve another pressing problem that's connected to the first one?

Is there an advanced level that you could also help them achieve? Can they grow and evolve together with you in your business? Or are they forced to look for another expert to help them out?

Launch Mistake #8:Skipping the after-launch audit

if you’re not doing launch audits after every launch, you’re running your business blind-folded, because you have no idea as to what worked out and what hasn't.

#ToughLove ❤️‍🩹

And by every launch I mean every. single. one. Yup, even the successful ones. Or let me rephrase... especially the successful ones.

I know a launch audit does not sound sexy, and it's not as exciting as coming up with new marketing ideas and new offers to connect with your audience, but trust me, this is the foundation of consistent sales.

Launch Mistake #9: Chasing perfection

Progress over perfection. Any day of the week.

Stop trying to get everything perfect during your launch because perfection is a real progress killer.

Here’s the mindset shift that will help you tune out your inner perfectionst: it’s easier to correct imperfect action… than to look back and regret you ahven’t started at all.

So instead of aiming for perfection, which let's be frank, just does not exist, aim for good enough. Yep. I've said it. And I know this might be controversial, but listen, the whole beauty of an online business, Is that you can change things quickly.

It's not like building a house, releasing a TV show, or a printed book. You can always keep on improving and you can just start going even if your offer is not 100% perfect. 

Launch Mistake #10: Not triple-testing your launch setup

I know this is an obvious one, but I’ve seen a lot od course creators gloss over it, so let me repeat this louder for the audience in the back:

You need to triple-test your tech setup for launch.

What I see a lot of experts do is that they either don't test anything at all (which is the worst-case scenario). Or they forget to test their setup with different browsers like Safari and Firefox and Chrome.. Or they test it only by themselves without having a pair of fresh, preferably unbiased eyes look at their entire setup.

And look, not properly testing your funnel is what can make or break your launch.

Imagine a sales button not working on your webinar for weeks and you not knowing. Imagine your credit card information not being taken correctly, people not getting charged for their orders, or getting charged double or triple amounts…. 🤯

It can get messy really quickly and it's much harder to fix a tech mistake once the funnel is running versus catching it at the beginning.

And there you have it, top 10 Launch Mistakes – that you now know how to avoid!

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