Marketing to launch your course is as essential as building up an awesome course. Creating an outstanding course without paying attention to its marketing, is actually useless. It is not uncommon for people to make $100k+ just at the launch event.

These are the people who have worked hard to build an audience and crafted a fantastic marketing strategy that made it all possible. The right launch strategy can bring you epic results. Customers are now more conscious about what they are purchasing and what actual value they will be getting after the purchase.

A few series of emails and live events are not successful launches. A successful launch is one where you succeed to make your goal sales, build momentum and build a strong connection with the audience.

Now, let’s dig deeper into what type of launch is more suitable for you depending on your current situation. There are usually 4  types of launch, depending upon your audience.

Types of Course- Launch

No-list Launch: If you do not have an email list of your potential buyers before the “launch”, then you have to build your audience “through” the launch. Usually, we recommend building an audience before going to launch your course. But, if you have not, you can still grow the list during the process through paid ads and affiliates.

Dial-up Launch: If you have already built your audience by offering freebies and building up an email list or already having a well-established social media presence, you can start directly by selling to your list. You can also check our article on building up an audience before launch here.

Scale-up: If you have already sold a course and gone through everything and just taking your present course to the next level, this launch is for you.

Pre-sale: If you want to sell a part of your course before the whole course launch, it is called a pre-sale. Pre-sale is like a testing phase where you sell a comprehensive small part of your course or a mini-course to a limited number of people to get feedback which you can apply to your course. These people can also provide testimonials, which can be used in the full-course launch.

Now, you have determined which is your preferable type of launch. Let’s discuss the launch strategy briefly.

Launch Strategy

A launch strategy usually has four stages,

1. Pre-Launch
2. Launch Trigger
3. Launch
4. Post-Launch

Let’s discuss each of these stages in detail.

1. Pre-Launch:

This is the first step where you are just letting people know about you, your industry and your course. This is the step where you are usually building up your email list. You may be running Facebook ads and affiliate programs to bring people to your website or social media page/group.

Conducting podcast interviews and free webinars/ live streaming is also helpful in actually reaching out to potential customers and talking to them. You may also do partnerships with people who have an already established audience in exchange for profit sharing.

Writing blogs and bringing traffic to your website through blogs is another common practice at this step. Then, offer a freebie or a free resource like a cheat sheet, workbook etc. in exchange for an email and start sending free articles and free information material to your email lists with a hint that something cool is coming up soon.

All of these tricks help to build an audience as well as engage them. In this way, you can build a relationship with your potential customers. If you have a solid trust-based relationship with them, they will be waiting for the launch date to buy your course.

If you have no audience, at least give 90 days to build up an audience before the next step.

2. Launch Trigger:

Launch Trigger is some kind of event which leads to the course launch. It can be a challenge or a series of practical tasks leading to the course launch. Once you have built your audience and told them about the upcoming launch, it’s time to engage them until the launch date.

In this step, you develop a series of tasks, through which users can achieve a small result. For example, if you are offering a weight loss course, a week before your course launch, you can start doing a 7-day “Junk-free” challenge.

You can do it on your Facebook Group, on Instagram stories or through daily emails. The prompts should be easy and fun so the users are attracted to them. You can also add a point system for those who are participating and may end the challenge with a free giveaway for the winner.

Lisazhou, a well-known entrepreneur and coach, adopts the same strategy of launch trigger in her Facebook group to engage her followers until the launch.

It takes about 1-2 months in pre-launch and launches trigger steps before the course launch which is our next step.

3. Launch:

This is finally the launch date for which you have been preparing. It’s time to tell your audience that the course is open for registration. Many experts say that at this point, creating a sense of scarcity helps a lot to push people to enroll in your course.

First, tell them that the registration period is limited let’s say for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, registration will be closed. You can offer a discount for the first limited number of buyers.

Similarly, when the closing date is coming, start reminding people that the registration deadline is coming so they need to hurry up. In the last 24 or 48 hours, you can again offer some discount or concession to encourage your audience to register.

You need to become active during the launch period. Keep checking if everything is working well. Your sales page is fully functional and people can easily go through the registration process. Keep checking your emails to know if someone is having any difficulty in the process or any query related to the course.

If you have a Facebook group, reply to every comment and post every single day. You can even offer a free 1-1 call to answer the queries of the potential buyers.

It can take 2-4 weeks to the launch period depending upon how long you want to keep your registration open.

4. Post-Launch:

Many course creators think that once the launch period has ended, it’s time to relax. That’s not true. Now is the time to deliver what you have promised to your students. Answer their questions, arrange live Q&A sessions, and provide support through personal emails and private member-only Facebook groups.

If your students are happy with your course results, they are more likely to buy your next course or a membership program if you offer any. These students are actually your asset as they will be providing feedback and reviews. Also, they will be the established audience for your next launch.

Post-launch is a continuous process to provide support to your students and also examine what improvements can be done in the next launch period.

Conclusion:

Each step in the launch strategy has multiple tactics to do it in a flawless manner. A whole launch strategy needs thorough planning and hard work. But, a course is not just a one-time selling product, rather it is an asset that you can sell again and again by improving your course content and marketing strategy. When done correctly, a course launch can bring you 4-5x more revenue than your actual cost.

We hope our practical tactics help you in achieving your desired results at your next course launch. If you want to build your audience before launch, read our article here for some very useful tips. If you want an expert consultation to successfully launch your course or want a specialist to integrate marketing platforms to your LMS website, our LMS crafters can help you.  Check out our services page to book a free 30 minute call or try our premium consultation services.