5 content styles you need for a course launch

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:: 00:01

You know, what really breaks my heart, seeing cause creators focus pretty much exclusively on content for their cart open week when there's actually five stages to consider. When it comes to planning an online course launch I'm Janet Murray and I've built a multi six-figure business, selling online courses and memberships along with digital and physical products and initial episode of the courageous content podcast. I'll share the five content styles you need to create for your course.

:: 00:33

So the first type of content you need to create is your cart, close content. If that sounds a bit mad, it's not because the best time to start promoting your next course launch is when you're closing up the current one. When I'm planning a launch, I think about what I want to happen on the day. My launch closes because if I'm strategic in that way,

:: 00:52

I can create a wait list for people who missed out this time. Wow. So when my next launch comes around, I know I'll have a wait list of warm leads, but of course that means creating some content. You'll need a weightless page, a confirmation email. You'll need to think about what your next launch is going to be, what your offer's going to be,

:: 01:12

but it's definitely the best place to start because it will increase the sales in your next launch. The next stage of your launch is one you may not even have thought about, but it's definitely worth thinking about even as a new course creator, and this is your upsell content, creating some kind of upsell offer where you offer an additional resource. It could be a bonus masterclass.

:: 01:35

It could be a bonus cheat sheet or toolkit, or even a one-to-one with you. This will help you to maximize sales from your course launch. And if you think this sounds like an advanced course creators strategy, it is, but paradoxically, I think it's vital that you start doing it from your very first course launch because you're going to need to maximize your income more than ever at that stage.

:: 02:03

If you are a regular listener to the podcast. So you follow me on social media, you'll know the average conversion rate for online courses is just one to 2%. So unless you already have a massive email list, it's likely your core sales are going to be more just for the first time around. So if you can create some kind of upsell offer where perhaps you offer a VIP option or a one-to-one or something else or anything else that you can think of that somebody who buys your course would value that will help you maximum sales.

:: 02:33

And believe me, most people really need that more than ever when they're a new course creator, which is why I recommend creating an upsell offer right from the off. If you've listened to my episode on common myths about online course creation, I will link to that one in the show notes. You'll have heard me say that while you do need an email list to launch an online course or membership,

:: 02:56

or certainly if you want to make decent sales, you don't necessarily need a large list, but you certainly do need to be building that list. You don't actually need the fancy email automation. You can create an upsell offer by drafting an upsell email in word or in Google. And when somebody buys your course, you can literally cut and paste it and send it over to them.

:: 03:17

So don't let not having fancy email automation or having all of your email stuff figured out, hold you back. You can do this manually. So the third type of content you need to create is cart open content. This is the kind of stuff that you're probably familiar with already sales pages. Thank you. Pages sales, emails, testimonials social media posts,

:: 03:37

onboarding emails looks not bought emails possibly. You're not so familiar with that, but I use them in all of my email marketing campaigns. So we always have a sequence of three emails. At least for people who have clicked on the product or service, we automate it. But again, it doesn't need to be automated. Just do whatever you can manage at the stage that you're at.

:: 03:59

What's important is the strategy that you're following up with people who are interested in your product or service service could be people who have replied to your marketing emails, but haven't bought this could be people. Who've asked you questions on social media, but haven't bought, you can do all of that without the fancy automation. But I can promise you that if you use the looked not bought strategy,

:: 04:20

if you follow up with every single person who has looked, but not for you will maximize your core sales. So that's a type of content. I would definitely recommend you create FAQ's T's. And C's really were thinking about refunds before you put your course on sale, because people will ask for them. You're provocative, what you decide to do about it,

:: 04:41

obviously within the law, but it's well worth having that all set out. So if someone comes back and says that they don't like your course or it wasn't what they expected, you know what to do, and it will happen. I can promise you the next type of content is your wait list content. So creating a wait list will help increase revenue from your course.

:: 05:01

So when I'm helping my clients plan out more chairs, I always start at the end. We look at what it is they want to sell at the end. And then we look at the beginning. So we think, okay, who do we have in your audience already? That will be right for this product. And we actually list them out and we try and get numbers so we can see what the conversion rate might be.

:: 05:20

And then we look at how much time we've got and how many more of those types of people could we get into your audience in the time that we've got available? Ideally, I always want people to have 90 days, especially if they don't have an audience at least 90 days, sometimes it can be a good idea to create an email lead magnet. So that could be a resource that you create specifically to get the right people on your list,

:: 05:46

ready to launch your products. I've got some specific episodes coming up on that thing. Sometimes there isn't enough time or sometimes if your product is quite a low cost product. So I've working with a client recently, who's selling something. That's going to be around 20 pounds, creating a lead magnet to sell something. That's going to be 20 pounds of your lead magnet probably a waste of time.

:: 06:06

I would recommend a wait list. So with the wait list, you create a wait list. It's exactly that you tell people the date that your product or service is going to be available. We do it with my planner. You let them know that if they join the wait list, they will get something special. So they might get early access to something.

:: 06:23

They might get discount, they might get bonus. They might get all three of those things. It's up to you. But what you want to do is to get people to put their hand up before your product or service becomes available. Other things that you can do at this stage, you can say there's only a limited number of places I know with my planner,

:: 06:40

we have had in the past where we've run out of certain cover styles. So we say that people who on the wait list get guaranteed choice of cover. Cause we have full cover styles. We offer a special discount. We sometimes also add additional bonuses. So by the time the planner goes on sale, I think this time around, we had thousands of people on the wait list.

:: 07:00

Not all of those people will buy, but this is not only about getting you a nice list of hot leads, but also about creating buzz excitement. So that the day that your product or service goes on sale people excited. They are waiting for it. They already know about it. They already invested in it because you've been creating content where you've been getting them involved with the creation.

:: 07:23

Perhaps if that product or service they're creating a wait list allows you to not only get that list of warm leads, increase your sales, but also it helps you to get that buzz and excitement going. And you're going to need to create content for that. Not necessarily a lot, but you're going to need a page. If you have the ability to do that and a confirmation email to tell people that you're on your wait list.

:: 07:45

I usually send a different set of emails to people who have been on my wait list. Say, that's going to have an impact on your email marketing campaign, but again, you don't need to have a special webpage. As long as you are complying with data protection law. And you're not emailing people who haven't asked you to email them or you're emailing people about things that they didn't ask you to email them about.

:: 08:07

You could create a spreadsheet and you could add people's names again. What's important is the strategy, not the fancy automation or the tools. And then the fifth type of content is your audience grows content to put this into context, I am creating audience growth content now. So I'm recording this in February, 2022 for products and services. I want to launch in August,

:: 08:30

September time because it takes people time. They need to develop know like, and trust with some launches where you want to gather a certain number of leads in a specific time period. Then you might want to create a dedicated lead magnet. You might want to do a webinar. That's another type of content that you might have to create. So for me,

:: 08:52

it all comes back to starting with the end in mind. What's the, that you want to sell at the end. What's the quickest possible route to get somebody to buy your online course or membership. Sometimes a lead magnet might be the right thing. Sometimes depending on the price point, a wait list might be better. A webinar might be better, but whatever it is,

:: 09:12

you're going to need to create some content. So in the 90 days running up to your launch, ideally, you're going to be creating blog content, podcast content. If you have one YouTube content newsletter content, it's all going to be building towards that launch date. You may also be creating additional types of content. Like I mentioned, lead magnets webinars challenges.

:: 09:34

You might set up a Facebook group specifically with the aim of gathering leads for your online course or membership. There are lots of choices, but what I will say, and it would be remiss of me not to is if you skip this part of it, if you don't sit down and map this all out and start with, what is it want to sell?

:: 09:54

What's the quickest possible route to sale? Who do I have in my audience already that I think this product or service would be ideal for what would be the quickest routes to get them to buy how many new people do I need to bring into my world to make the kind of sales that I would like, what kind of content do I need to be creating for them?

:: 10:14

And if you have a copy of my courageous content planner, and you're following my four by four strategy with your news and trends inspire community, educate, this is where this all comes into play because you always need to be thinking about creating content for people who are at different stages in their journey with you. Those people who are new to your world, who haven't even found you yet,

:: 10:33

they're going to be much more interested in your news and trends, educate content, solving their problems, answering their questions, because they don't yet have a relationship with you. Those people who already have a relationship with you, it's more about nurturing. That's where you're inspired and community content might come in a little bit more. So I hope you found that useful.

:: 10:53

And if you'd like to save yourself tons of time on your launch content, maybe you don't know where to start. I would really recommend investing in my launch content toolkit. I have organized the content into these five stages and there are templates for the content that you might need at every single stage email marketing sales pages. Thank you. Pages, product descriptions,

:: 11:15

those looked not bought emails that I mentioned. There's templates for everything, and it will save you a ton of time. So if you're interested investing in that, then head to the show notes. It's my Courageous Launch Content Toolkit.