In order to create a successful launch strategy, one method I found to be super effective for The Blogger Blueprint was to break down the different phases of the launch.
Like I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, I created a 90-day launch plan for The Blogger Blueprint so I knew exactly what I was sharing and when. This launch strategy wasn’t just for social media, it was for email too. Email played the biggest role in the success of The Blogger Blueprint.
It always amazes me when influencers, entrepreneurs, and creatives don’t have an email list. It’s arguably the most important aspect of your business. It’s one of the only variables you can control. An email list and a blog or website is absolutely necessary for a sustainable brand.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you don’t own Instagram, TikTok, Clubhouse, etc. so if something happens to one of those platforms and you’ve invested all your time and energy into them, then what? You’re SOL… unless of course you have an email and blog. Anyway, that topic is for another time so let’s jump into the phases of a successful launch.
Pre-pre-launch (45 days)
This phase was when I primed my audience for what was about to be unleashed through The Blogger Blueprint. This was when I created content around the problem that The Blogger Blueprint solved which is: building a brand, growing your following, and monetizing your influence. I took micro topics from each week within the course and elaborated on them with Instagram posts, IG Stories, blog posts, YouTube videos, TikToks, etc.
I “attacked” from all angles and made sure my audience’s wheels were turning about how to improve their brand, grow their social media, and monetize their influence so I could swoop in and provide the perfect solution (aka The Blogger Blueprint). I posted 5x a week on most of my platforms during the pre-pre-launch. My content calendar looked like this:
Pre-launch (30 days)
The pre-launch phase was heavily focused on generating leads for The Blogger Blueprint. During this phase I wanted to get as many people as possible to grab my freebies. A freebie can be in the form of a download, webinar, training, consultation, challenge, etc. I chose to promote my Ultimate Instagram Growth Guide and Instagram Captions to Engage Your Audience. I took about 15 days to promote the IG Growth Guide consecutively and 15 days for the Instagram Captions.
I did this for 2 reasons: 1. I wanted to do a lot of giving and offering during the pre-launch because people love free stuff and 2. to A/B test which freebie my audience was more excited for so I knew what to push for with The Blogger Blueprint. In this case, more people were interested in the IG Growth Guide than IG Captions which told me that I really needed to lean into that when I was promoting The Blogger Blueprint, which I did.
I did not do this for the initial launch of The Blogger Blueprint, but what you could do is advertise to the people who already signed up to download your freebie, attend your webinar, or join your challenge through IG and Facebook. This would increase your chances of those on the waitlist actually purchasing your product. Advertising requires money and someone who’s an expert in social ads. If you try to do this on your own without any knowledge of Facebook ads, you could end up wasting a ton of time and money.
During the pre-launch phase I really leveraged my audience by asking them questions, having them ask me questions, having them share their takeaways, etc. I wanted to make sure I was delivering exactly what they wanted so they would reciprocate by joining The Blogger Blueprint during enrollment. I also wanted them to share what I was doing on their own social media so I gave some incentives for that (i.e. Starbucks on me if you share your biggest takeaway on your Story). In addition, I was sharing behind the scenes snippets of the process of creating The Blogger Blueprint on Stories so my content wasn’t so information/education heavy. I wanted everything to still be fun!
Waitlist (2 weeks before)
So the goal of the freebie opt-in was to get a sense of who was interested in what The Blogger Blueprint offered. The goal of the waitlist (2 weeks prior to launch) was to get an idea of who was interested in The Blogger Blueprint, meaning the people who raised their hands saying “I want this!”. There was no rhyme or reason for why I choose 2 weeks for the waitlist phase but it worked. (I had also shared the waitlist in the previous weeks, I just wasn’t as focused on it as I was 2 weeks before launch.)
Before implementing any phase, you want to assess your audience on social media and your email list. If you don’t have an email list, you’ll want to start one ASAP and building that up is going to require time so if you want to have a 90-day launch plan, you may need to make it 120-days so it’s as effective as possible. Then you want to assess how active you are and how engaged your audience is.
You don’t want your audience to be overwhelmed and turned off during your launch strategy. I personally send emails 1x a week and I post to social media 3-5x a week, so for me to increase this wasn’t a huge deal. During The Blogger Blueprint waitlist phase, my email frequency and social media posting jumped to almost daily. Here’s why…
Like I mentioned in Part 1, I went hard on freebies, content, and offerings so I wanted my email list to know exactly what was happening and when. I emailed every time I was going to go on IG live, I emailed my up-sell offer (X% off other services/products), I emailed my other email lists about joining The Blogger Blueprint waitlist, I emailed that the first person to join The Blogger Blueprint would get $100 + the course for FREE, etc.
I knew it was a lot of emailing so what I wish I would have done was give my audience the option to opt out if they knew they definitely did not want to join The Blogger Blueprint, which could have been a little button down at the bottom of my email. That way they could still be a part of my email list, just not get blasted with Blogger Blueprint content.
The goal of my email blasts was to get people to hit reply so I would never just say “Check out this fun behind the scenes of me recording The Blogger Blueprint!” – I always included a CTA (call to action).
For example, if I were to send an email like that to The Blogger Blueprint waitlist members, I would have ended with “Show me your BTS” or something like that or “Reply to this email for a FREE 15-minute coaching call.” I wanted to elicit a response, and for the most part, I did.
Pro tip: Use plain text emails so they don’t end up in spam. You can achieve this through Mailchimp, Convertkit, etc.
strategies I wish I tried
As you can see there’s SO much that goes into launching and no matter how many times you’ve done it, nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan. It’s pretty impossible to squeeze in every possible strategy so what I plan to do the next time I launch The Blogger Blueprint is this:
- Have a Blogger Blueprint launch countdown on my blog
- Create a Blogger Blueprint Facebook group
- Send Facebook messenger reminders to those in the Facebook group about the launch
- Host a webinar
- Run Facebook/IG ads
- Incentivize my audience to share more about The Blogger Blueprint on their social media
- Set benchmark goals (i.e. get X amount of sign ups for webinar, have X amount of subscribers on waitlist, etc.)
What questions do you have around launching a digital product? Rattle them off in the comments below!
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