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How To Pre Launch a Course
If you’ve been listening to the Chasing Simple podcast episodes over the last few weeks, you’ve heard me talk numerous times about the length of your prelaunch, and the fact that I highly encourage you to give yourself plenty of time to prepare for a course launch. If you’ve been tuning in and hearing me talk about how long the prelaunch should be, you’ve probably thought to yourself – there’s no way I can sell my course for that long.
And you’d be right. Both you and your audience would get really bored really quickly if that’s what the prelaunch was all about. The good news? It’s not. And in today’s episode i’m walking you through exactly what that prelaunch should look like within your launch timeline.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Grab the 8 emails I send to my waitlist every launch – a new free resource for you!
- This week’s action step: Apply for the Mastermind! (Or Join the waitlist) If you’re listening to this live, applications for my Course Launch Mastermind are open for just a few more days! Head to amandawarfield.com/mastermind/ to apply before it’s too late. This mastermind is going to help 6 entrepreneurs break into the education space by walking them step-by-step through every single part of a course launch: from market research to post-launch analysis. Between my background in both education and marketing, plus the handful of incredible experts I’m bringing in to help with things like copywriting and sales page design … you’re going to have everything you need to get your course launched, and the accountability to do it thanks to our weekly meetings and action steps. If getting your course launched in Q1 of 2023 is a goal that’s calling your name, I’d love to see you apply for one of the six spaces. And if you’re listening later, still be sure to head over to amandawarfield.com/mastermind/ to get on the waitlist for the next round!
- This week’s book recommendation: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer.
- Find me on Instagram and tell me you completed this week’s action step: @mrsamandawarfield
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Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!
*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate.
If you’ve been listening to the Chasing Simple Podcast episodes over the last few weeks, you’ve heard me talk numerous times about the length of your prelaunch and the fact that I highly encourage you to give yourself plenty of time to prepare for a course launch. If you’ve been tuning in and hearing me talk about how long the prelaunch should be, you’ve probably thought to yourself, there’s absolutely no way that I can sell my course for that long.
And you’d be right. Both you and your audience would get really bored really quickly. If that’s what the prelaunch was all about. The good news. It’s not. And in today’s episode, I’m walking you through exactly what the prelaunch should look like within your launch timeline. You’re listening to episode 125 of the Chasing Simple Podcasts.
And I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. Let’s dive in.
You’ve probably heard me say it before, but your launch timeline, particularly your pre-launch content should be about eight to 12 weeks. Which again, I know if you’re hearing that for the first time, you’re like Amanda. what, what do I talk about for eight to 12 weeks? I can’t sell for that long. No one would listen.
And I am not asking you to sell for that long. I promise, but you should be preparing your audience for your launch for that long, and you should be preparing for your launch and planning for your launch for even longer than that. So let’s get into the timeline and we’ll work backwards. You’ve got the week of your actual launch week.
This is when you are. Selling doors are opening. If you’re live, launching doors are closing or you’re. If you’re not doing doors, open doors closed, you’ve got incentives beginning and ending. This is when you’re selling really, really hard. And the goal of this week is to convert your audience members into students.
It’s all about the course, how it’s gonna help people. And it’s all about selling. the week before that is your visibility boost week. This is when you are doing your webinar, your challenge, your pop-up podcast, whatever the case may be, whatever it is that you’re doing as a free intro into your launch, into your course, and really showcasing how you can help your people and getting more eyes on your business.
You’re getting more visible with this. and the goal is to get visible and to bring in new audience members, which if you listen to last week’s episode, you’ll know that most of these new audience members will not convert this week. Some will, but most won’t and getting more eyes and getting more engagement with your content and with your business at this point.
It’s great for right now, because it brings in more and more people with each piece of engagement you get, but it’s really preparing you and your launch. In your business for the next launch. So something to keep in mind there then from about four to six weeks out from your launch. You are in pre-launch.
This is the pre-launch phase. And the goal of this pre-launch phase is to build your email list in particular, you really wanna build your launch list. So you’re going to be really talking up your. Freebie that aligns with your course. You’re gonna be talking about your wait list. You’re gonna be trying to get people onto your email list as warm leads.
You want people who are interested in your topic and in your course, you’re going to be trying to get people on your wait list. That is the goal of every single piece of content you should put out during this pre-launch phase and the things you’re gonna talk about. Well, you’re going to attempt to show your audience, the solution to their problems.
AKA. The fact that the topic that your course is on, right? Like you want to be really showcasing, Hey, here’s your problem. Here’s a solution to your problem. And you’re not necessarily saying my course is the solution to your problem. You’re just talking about the topic of your course being the solution to the problem, but you’re showing them there’s a better way.
This is your problem. Here’s the so. Here’s this thing. And then when you get into the visibility booster in the launch week, you’re saying, Hey, remember that solution I told you about I can help you with it. Here’s how I help you. so that’s a pre-launched phase. You are kind of talking about your course, some because you are sending people to the wait list, hopefully, and you’re hopefully building up that wait list and saying, Hey, I’ve got this course coming.
You wanna let people know the course is coming, give ’em a, save the date, talk about it. Occasionally, get their advice, give them a, a poll to vote on things like that, but you’re not selling it. You’re just kind of saying that it’s coming. and then you’ve got your pre pre-launch phase. And this is the one that most people forget about.
This is gonna be about eight to 12 weeks out. And the goal is again to be building your list, but you’re not talking about the course yet. You’re not talking even about the fact that it’s coming. Most likely, all you’re doing is showing your audience what their problem is. So you’re bringing those people who don’t even realize they have a problem yet into awareness of their problem.
They think this one thing’s their problem. But actually this is their problem is this thing. And the problem is the one you’re gonna solve later, but you’re not talking about the fact that you’re solving it yet. You’re just bringing attention to the problem itself. You’re just kind of saying, Hey, like, this is the problem you think you have, I can help solve that.
And as I’m solving that, let me showcase the real problem that you have. And I’ve used this example in the past where let’s say you are a system strategist and a big problem that you want to solve is the fact that your clients are not resigning. because they felt like something was missing because they didn’t get onboarded. Well, essentially your course is gonna be about creating onboarding systems that will help clients resign.
And the problem they have is that they don’t have an onboarding system, so they’re not nurturing their relationships with their clients fully, but they don’t realize that’s their problem. They think their problem is that they just don’t have enough time to fully engage with all of. Their clients a or they think that maybe the offers the problem there at this point, there could be multiple different problems that you could solve that would lead them back to what the actual problem is.
But let’s say it’s the time thing, and you’re gonna give them all these different ways that they can save time in particular, when it comes to clients, that’s the problem they think they have. You’re gonna help ’em save time in relation to that. And then the last suggestion you have is gonna be. Also having a really strong onboarding sequence.
That’s automated is gonna be a great way to solve this problem. So you’re solving the problem they think they have and kind of introducing the fact that they have a whole different problem that they don’t have that onboarding sequence. And then that’s all pre pre-launch. You’re introducing the problem they actually have.
And then in the pre-launch when you get down to that, it’s okay. Your problem is the onboarding sequence. Here’s how you. So on and so forth. So that’s about eight to 12 weeks out. You’re building your list. You’re giving them an aligned freebie, and you’re talking about different things around that freebie.
You’re sending them to that freebie, but you’re not talking about the course pretty much at all yet. . And then even before that, about 12 to 16 weeks out, you’re planning and you’re mapping your, content’s not talking about this topic. I mean, it might be, but you’re not intentionally strategically talking about the topic yet.
You’re not really talking about the launch period. You’re not even maybe sending people to your list. You’re simply doing what you need to do to plan and map out your launch and your launch strategy. your goal is to get prepared and get organized and be able to work for the next 12 to 16 weeks on getting this launch out into the world and getting it done without stressing yourself out without putting a huge toll on your mental health or your relationships, but also efficiently and getting that boost in visibility and in your bottom line.
So I’m gonna give you this backwards. Now, 12 to 16 weeks out, you’re gonna start planning and mapping. You’re going to be creating the strategy behind all that you’re doing. You’re not necessarily creating the things yet, you’re determining?
What’s my topic. What’s my transformation. What’s my freebie gonna be. What are the different parts of my pre prelaunch and my prelaunch phase gonna look like what’s my content gonna look like you’re mapping all of that out, even though you’re not creating it just yet. And then you start creating it and then you start putting it out into the world, which leads you into the pre prelaunch phase eight to 12 weeks out.
Your goal is to build your list with people who are interested in your topic. Doing that through your freebie, most likely you’re showing them, Hey, this is what you think your problem is. This is what your actual problem is. Let me introduce you to what your real problem is, cuz you don’t even know about it yet.
And then four to six weeks out, you’re in the prelaunch phase. Again, you’re building your list, both with that freebie you’ve been talking about, but also with your wait list, you’re talking about the fact that the course is coming, but you’re not selling it yet. And your goal is to show the audience that the solution to their problem is the topic specifically that you’re teaching on.
and then you’ve got the visibility booster. your goal is to get visible and bring in new audience members, which you then will hope convert if not this time, next time or the launch after that, which is totally normal.
And then you finally have launch week, when you’re actually selling, but you’re not actually selling until the week before or the week of your launch. I highly recommend giving yourself 12 to 16 weeks to get prepared. And then the eight to 12 weeks to actually do the pre-launch so that you’re ready.
And your audience is ready. Now, if you’re listening to this episode, live applications for my course launch mastermind are open for just a few more days, and I would love to invite you to apply, especially if you’re wanting to launch a course in the next year, I would love to walk you step by step by step through.
So if you wanna apply to that, go to Amanda warfield.com/mastermind. Go ahead and apply before it’s too late. Applications close on the 16th, which if you’re listening to this live is cutting it really close, but this mastermind is going to help six entrepreneurs break into the education space by walking them step by step through every single part of a course launch from market research to post launch analysis.
Between my background about education and marketing, plus the handful of incredible experts that I’m bringing in to help with things like copywriting and sales page design. You’re going to have everything you need to get your course launched and the accountability to do it. Thanks to our weekly meetings and action steps.
If getting your course launched in Q1 of 2023 is a goal that’s calling your name. I would love to see you apply for one of those six spaces. And if you’re listening later in the future and applications have closed for this round, still head over to Amanda warfield.com/mastermind to get on the wait list for the next round.
Now, this week’s book recommendation is the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer and I have really been on this journey this year of. Slowing down and simplifying my life and simplifying my business and kind of trying to step away from anxiety.
And this has just been a really recurring theme in my life this year. And so I ordered this book and I loved it. It is, it’s a Christian based book. It’s faith, obviously, spiritually alive. so if that’s not your thing, stay tuned for two weeks from now episode, there’s a book recommendation that you’ll really like to on the same theme, but this really took a great look into how my beliefs should be shaping.
How I’m viewing the world and how I’m interacting with the world and how my, hustle mentality can get the best of me and things like that. So if that sounds up your alley, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. And until next time, my friend, I hope that you go out and Uncomplicate your life and biz.
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