Hey Private Practice Heroes! Thanks for tuning in today for the second in a series all about strategies to help you when you are launching a program or service.
Having a launch really means that you are creating and launching a special campaign that focuses extra attention on your OFFER and helps you connect with the most ideal people possible who will buy your OFFER!
Having a successful launch is helped by making sure you match your Offer with the Best Launch Tool to get the sales you are after. And yes, your launch tool is a sales tactic.
So yes, we are talking sales when we talk about launches and I know that this can be uncomfy for some of you in the wellness area. You want to heal people not sell to them … but let’s get real here – having a launch means you are doing an activity that is focused on making sales.
And it’s okay because when people buy that service from you, they are getting the help they are looking for in return. They pay you for your service the same way you pay people who help you – your massage therapist, hair stylist, plumber … None of them would expect you to get their services for free, and your clients do not think the same way either. So let’s put that sales monster in the closet.
What we want to focus on today is giving you the background to understand the types of launches you can have to sell your next BEST Thing!
The reason why I wanted to talk to you about this today is because as I was preparing for my Launch Marketing Blueprint Workshop coming up on May 23rd, I was doing some research online and it was very interesting because I had a really hard time doing some Google searches. I was trying to get ideas about the different ways somebody could launch a program or a service. They typically tended to be not very helpful and more about big companies launching new product campaigns! They were more about launching and creating an online course than anything else.
So I decided to create my own list of the most common types of launches you can have to launch your services or programs. Because most practice and service-based business don’t have widgets to sell or products to launch – we have services and programs, and launching these is a little bit different.
So, I’ve pulled out my knowhow and knowledge from helping clients run about 50 launches, and then guiding others through my Thrive Marketing Academy and membership program to create this info to help you.
Now… Launching is not a new thing – launches have been happening for many, many years when companies have new products they want to bring on the market but as the global marketplace has expanded, and business owners have more ways than ever to reach their ideal client than before so launches have taken on some new shapes. But ultimately they are still the same as the old days.
So first, let’s look at what some of the types of offers are that you could be launching for your business or your practice.
1. A Service
This could be a new service, or it could be an old service that maybe you’re trying to bring to light and sell more if. It could be something you have new pricing for, or a service you’ve added something new too as part of the package. Any way you look at it -it’s a service you offer.
2. A Group Program
These programs tend to be ones you offer to groups of people and they could be what we call an evergreen type of program or a cohort based program that has a start and end date. The main difference between those two is the Evergreen one people can sign up at any time. The cohort base has a set start date.
3. An Online Course
These tend to be self-study programs and can also be evergreen or cohort based if you have a hybrid option that has some live aspect with you.
4. A Special Event or Workshop
Sometimes you may offer a special LIVE event that you’re hosting and you want to offer that – I have one of those coming up soon myself, the Launch Marketing Blueprint which you can probably guess – that may be why I’m talking about launches these days is because I’m offering a workshop on that very topic.
5. Digital Products or Books
Many practice and business owners also have digital products or books they may want to have a special launch for in order to boost awareness and sales.
There will definitely be more types of offers you can launch. It depends on your business and what services, programs or products you offer.
Now… those are 5 different types of offers that you might have that you want to do a special launch campaign for because you want to bring attention to it spread the word and get as many people as possible signing up for it.
Ideally, people that are your dream client for those offers.
Once you have decided what offer you plan to launch with your special marketing campaign, you need to decide what kind of Launch Tool you want to use.
A Launch Tool is what I refer to as the type of Launch you will have.
There are 4 common types of Launch Tools that are being used these days and I’m going to review all 4 next.
1. Webinars
The most common way people do launches, although it’s been changing in the past year or so, has been by offering a free webinar – typically a 1 or 2-hour training that people can attend for free where the host teaches something related to the offer and then makes the offer to people to join and sign up.
Time involved in running the webinar is typically the time needed to prep the material, practice and host it live. There is always the behind the scene time for the launch too but that is a different story as most of these launches involve similar time / activity investments to plan and run the launch – we are just talking about the Launch Tool here.
2. Free Challenges
Most recently a lot of folks have moved to offering a free challenge of sorts and this can show up in a variety of ways as a launch tool.
Typically the challenge is that the host is going to teach you some different tactics and skills and the challenge is for you to put them in place by the end of the challenge. It might be done as a 5-day challenge or a 10-day challenge even for some folks. Sometimes these may also be referred to as a free bootcamp or training. Many run these in a free Facebook Group.
During this time they are going to present to you their offer for whatever they have and give you the opportunity to sign up.
Folks have moved to this option as a way to connect with people for longer than the one hour they have in the webinar.
Because for some people – and I am one of them – you need more than that 1 hour to connect with folks and build the Know Like and trust.
These are definitely more time consuming than having a one or two-hour free webinar training because you have to make the time to participate and get people engaged in the challenge and activities and in between networking.
3. Paid Challenge / Workshop / Training.
Another type of Launch Tool that has been showing up of late is actually a low-priced paid Workshop or event.
It may be a webinar, a live workshop or training, and even as a challenge or boot camp over a 5-10 day period. But people pay to attend them OR pay a VIP price to get special access over the free challenge. The idea with these paid challenges is that you are paying a small fee to access the material, and the strategy behind that is if someone is willing to invest $27.47 even up to $97, that person is a more ideal client for that offer than someone who is signing up for something free.
The work for these tends to be the same as a free challenge, but you will earn some income just from the launch. And typically the numbers of people signing up for a paid Launch Tool will be lower than if you have a free one but they’re often going to be more vested in what you’re teaching and a more ideal fit for the offer that you’re putting out there.
4. Email – Social Media Campaign.
The 4th way that you can do a launch is a simple email or social media campaign. These tend to be a smaller scale and you usually want to have your audience already in place since you’re launching to them by your email marketing system or social media so they need to be connected to you by having signed up on your email list or in your online community somehow.
These ones are often the type of launches that you might do for something that’s a lower price offer so I would definitely not recommend doing an email or social media launch to an offer that might be like a 6-month group coaching program. You will most likely have a real big challenge getting conversions from those emails and social posts to have people sign up for a higher-priced and longer term program.
So those are the four main launch tools that you can use for your launch campaign to launch whatever type of offer you’re going to launch next.
- Webinars
- Challenges
- Paid Challenge / Workshop / Training
- Email-Social Media Launches
And the way to have the best type of launch that you can is to match your offer to the type of Launch Tool that you want to use for your launch.
When you do this type of matching, you’re really trying to make sure that the time energy and money you put into your launch and the Launch Tool that you’re going to have to put out there is going to pay off based on what the offer is and how much money you would be making from that offer.
And that is what we are going to cover in the next episode so be sure to hit follow on whatever podcast player app you are listening in to so that you can listen in to episode 43 when it goes live and learn how to match these offers to the Launch Tools.
Thanks for listening in and remember, to Thrive in Practice … that means taking the time to put your offers – your services/programs in front of people and sell them by hosting a special launch campaign to bring attention to that offer and get more people knowing exactly how you can help them and how they can sign up and start working with you!
I’ll see you next time!
Resources mentioned:
- Register for the Launch Marketing Blueprint workshop
- Episode 41 – 10 Reasons Most Online Program And Course Launches Fail
- Book a FREE Marketing Audit with Kathy