laneimageconsulting
Today I’m talking about launching a new service or program.
When I trained as a stylist, I was taught the fundamentals of colour and style but not really given anything on how to run a business and nothing on launching which is a huge shame because it’s been such an incredible thing for my business.
When I relaunched my image business after a time out with my little ones, I invested in several mentors who taught me how to run a profitable business, and they taught me how to launch. It’s something I do all the time and now it’s my turn to pass on the know-how to you.
What is a launch then?
It’s where you choose a specific date to go live with something new (or already existing) in your business that helps paying clients overcome a problem they’re struggling with. For several weeks leading up to the launch date you tell your audience all about the service/program, and all your promotional work (social media posts, emails, blogs, etc.) are about this one thing.
You tell everything there is to know about your program, talking about it in lots of different ways to build up excitement and get people signing up.
You can use the same method to relaunch an existing service and refresh your audience with it, getting new people to buy.
I completed a successful launch of my Niche and Prosper VIP Intensive the other week and I’m going to take you through the whole process to encourage you to give launching a try if it’s something you’ve not done before.
(Please note that this is only one of the many many ways there is to launch so it doesn’t mean that if you are launching in a different way that there is anything wrong with it.)
You can steal my simple launch method and get started today!
On St Stephen’s Day, 26 December, it was a quiet day in our house. I was at home with my parents and family in Ireland and thinking about how to help you (my ideal clients), get back into the swing of things for the new year. I could feel a launch brewing!
Any time I think about launching something new, I always call my ideal client to mind. I was thinking about what you need as we moved into 2023. I could’ve done something on goal setting or new year, new you, but I decided to go back to basics and promote something I think is most helpful for personal stylists in their business: how to get more clients.
Let me break down how it all worked:
Step 1 – Create an irresistible offer based on enquiries from your audience.
I keep getting messages from people asking for help with their marketing. Many just don’t know what to say so find it hard to show up on social media day after day. I get people telling me they think they’re doing something wrong because they’re not getting clients or engagement on posts they’re publishing.
Based on these messages and conversations I could see a clear need. The stylists in my audience wanted support with their marketing.
⬆ That’s the key point to keep in mind. You need to create something that your ideal client WANTS. You can’t design something that you just pluck out of the air. Your offer has to be wanted if it’s going to sell.
I needed something short and sharp that would quickly deliver results for the clients signing up, so the Niche and Prosper VIP Intensive was born!
It was a 4-hour workshop spread out over four days to help participants identify their own ideal client, the problem they solve for their ideal client, and how to communicate that clearly in their marketing messages.
Step 2 – Set a launch date and promote the hell out of your offer.
Day 1 of the Niche and Prosper VIP Intensive was on 10 January, and it ran over the next three days (11 – 13 January). The first time I mentioned it to anyone was on 26 December, so I had a two-week timeframe to promote it.
I told my warm audience all about it.
A warm audience is made up of people who already know you. There’s much more chance of people buying from you when they know you, so I didn’t pay for ads or anything like that. Instead, I posted about the intensive across all my social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I posted about it in my Savvy Stylists Facebook group and emailed everyone on my list to let them know too.
I focused only on promoting the intensive for two full weeks. I didn’t talk about any other offers during that time. The message I was putting out was consistent so as not to confuse people or deflect their attention. In total, I posted about 20 times on social media, talking about the intensive in all sorts of different ways, and I emailed my list about it two or three times too.
I created the sales page in Mailerlite which allows you to track the number of people who view it, and I had a total of 290 stylists come and view the offer.
Out of that 290 viewers, 10 people signed up, which might not sound like a lot but is excellent for that number of eyes on the page. The average conversion on a warm audience is 3%, so I was spot on! 🎉
If, however, I’d been advertising to a cold audience, an audience of people who don’t know me from Adam, using Facebook ads for example, the expected conversion rate drops to only 1%.
I’ve shared my numbers with you so you can see how much effort it takes to get people to sign up as part of a launch process. So many of you say that they put your offers out there a few times and don’t get signups. Do they know how many people viewed your sales page?
If you dive into the numbers, you’ll probably see that very few people looked at it because you didn’t relentlessly promote it for a continuous length of time. You need multiple dozens of visits to get a single conversion and to expect otherwise from only a couple of posts is way off the mark. This leads me to my next point, which is…
Step 3 – Promote your offer more than feels comfortable
I know step two said to market the hell out of your offer, but it’s so important that it gets mentioned in step three too!
If you only post a couple of times about your offer, you’ll only get the odd client signing up. If you’re after a decent number of signups and good financial returns, you need to not care about what people might think and talk about your offer more than feels comfortable.
You talk about nothing else in the lead-up to the launch date.
You talk about it in all sorts of different ways.
You address people’s objections, you tell them what they get from the program, you share testimonials, and you talk about why they need your offer.
You are relentless and might feel like a stuck record by the end of it, but don’t forget that people don’t see every post you publish on social media. The algorithms don’t work like that. Similarly, not everyone on your list will receive every email you send. Spam filters might block some deliveries and then, of course, people are busy so don’t have time to read every email you send.
You’ve got to show up, show up, show up so that the message gets through to as many people as possible.
Are you getting the message? 😅
Step 4 – Keep the mechanics of your launch simple.
This is what I used for the Niche and Prosper VIP Intensive launch:
- A simple sales page which I created in Mailerlite for free.
- The sales page was a landing page (in other words it was standalone, and I didn’t have to use any technical wizardry to connect it to my website).
- I integrated a payment button into the sales page so people could pay straightaway (they didn’t have to wait for me to invoice them).
- Sessions were held on Zoom.
- I also had a pop-up Facebook group to which only participants in the intensive were added (I posted details of each task in there along with handouts and call recordings for those who couldn’t join live).
That’s it. Nothing complicated or fancy.
Step 5 – Review, tweak and repeat.
After your launch is over and you’ve delivered your program, go back and review how it all went so you can improve things for the next round.
Did you get the results you expected?
Were people happy with the service you provided?
What worked and what didn’t work?
Reviewing your launch and asking participants in the program for testimonials gives you incredibly valuable information to make things even better next time around. You can put the price up too!
On top of that, you’ve got all the content you can reuse next time. I’ll use the same handouts (one or two might need tweaking), and I’ll repurpose all the social posts and emails to get more signups when I run the intensive again later in the year!
There’s really is nothing to fear with launching and its highly profitable.
Are you going to give it a go?
Ways you can work with me:
- The 6-Figure Stylist Group Mentorship – Create, Market & Sell A High Value/ Higher Priced Program
- 5 Weeks To Online Colour Expert – Take Your Colour Analysis Services Online
- Unstoppable Style – Take Your Style Services Online
- Niching VIP Intensive – One on one 1/2 Day Intensive With Me To Identify Your Ideal Client & The Problem You’re Helping Them Solve
Email me on aileen@laneimageconsulting.com to get started. 😊