Why Your Launch Bombed - Christine Kane

One thing’s for sure.

If you have a product, the worst thing you can do is plunk it down on your website and hope your ideal client will be compelled to hit the “buy” button.

If you’ve read anything about marketing in the last few years, then you already know that.

You also probably know that a launch can do wonders for selling your products or programs.

It’s true.  A launch or campaign can fill your program, sell your product or get people to your event.

Okay, great.  But what happens when your launch doesn’t generate the hoped for results?

I mean, you’ve created the product, you know it’s life-changing, you marketed it, you launched it, and you still didn’t get the sign ups!

Should you give up?

Not at all.

There are simple reasons why your launch wasn’t the success you wanted.  It’s not time to give up. It’s time to do some more strategic, focused work.

Here are five reasons why your launch may have bombed (and what to do about it!)”¦

 1 – You don’t have a list.

I don’t want to dismantle your dreams or anything.

But if you don’t have a list, you don’t have anyone to sell to.

Yes, you can partner with other people who DO have lists. But most people who DO have lists are going to want to know if YOU have a list. (That way, you can return the favor. After all, it’s called a partnership, not a rescue!)

If you already have a product or program, take time to focus on building your list.  This will take time, but there are lots of great strategies for speeding up the process.

2 – You haven’t built a relationship with your list.

I met a healing practitioner who had a list but never did anything with it.  Never wrote them, never added value, never offered anything.

When she heard about launches, she got fired up and started launching immediately to her list.  No one signed up for her program.  Here’s what I told her”¦

Your list is not a LIST.  Your list is people.  As such, you need to build a relationship with them.

So, if you haven’t been in touch with your list REGULARLY and CONSISTENTLY”¦ then you haven’t built any trust with them. You haven’t added any value to them. You haven’t created a relationship.

And they won’t buy from you just because you decided to launch something.

Spend a good three to six months adding value and giving free content at least once a week. Then when you do launch, your list will already like and trust you!

3 – You counted on Facebook likes.

Now hear this:

Facebook likes are NOT a list.

It’s awesome that you have so many people who like your Facebook page.

But the truth is, they’ve probably liked a lot of other pages too. And they get lots of stuff in their feed. And most of it drifts by without ever catching their eye.  What this means is that while Facebook (or twitter or pinterest or instagram) may be good ways to build your list or even supplement your launch”¦ they are not substitutes for a strong list.

The Facebook platform is Facebook’s platform. Twitter’s platform is Twitter’s platform. These are all streaming and fleeting.

Your list is YOUR platform.  Use it.

4 – Your offer was overwhelming or confusing.

What you offer in your launch must be clear.  Your prospects need to know what they’re getting when they sign up.

With that said, you need to take the time to map out what EXACTLY you are offering, how long it lasts, what bonuses you’re going to give, and when the offer ends.

Some people get so nervous and driven during a launch that they think they should offer their program, the kitchen sink, their first-born and a one-on-one coaching trip to the Bahamas together for every participant in the program, plus the collection of 11 workbooks they wrote back when they were a CPA.

News Flash: Less is more. People want clarity.  If you’re not clear, they won’t buy.  Get out of your fear of not offering enough – and give them what they truly want”¦RESULTS!

5 – You abandoned ship.

The fortune is in the follow up.

If a launch isn’t going the way we want, it’s tempting to give up and stop reaching out to our list.

Big mistake.

There’s lots of hard data to prove that most sign ups these days will come in the final 24 hours of your campaign.

And remember, follow up doesn’t mean “assault and battery.” Don’t exclamation point people to death.  You can still be conversational and add value in your emails. But you need to be consistently in touch as your launch is happening.

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Next step? Share the love!

If you’ve learned something from launching, tell us about it!  Leave a comment below and add to this list!

16 COMMENTS ADD A COMMENT
  • Ms Hope

    Happy New Year to Me! So glad I stumbled on to this site. Invaluable information. I can see my error in giving up too quickly. I abandoned ship last year but now I know better. Kudos, Christine Kane. Glad to have found your site!

  • Alba Figueroa

    Get post Christine! Another reason why launches fail is that people don’t allot the appropriate amount of time to get the launch ready. They think, “well, I think I’ll launch a product in 2 weeks and make 10k.” Then when the make only 2 or zero sales they get frustrated and don’t want to do another launch. I tell my clients to give launches at least 6 to 8 week lead time so they can share the value of what they are offering and get a chance to really connect with their audience.

  • Justin

    So true Christine. I remember when I created my first eBook that was written for new bloggers. My list at the time was under 100 at the time and I made only a few sales from that.

    After creating several new products I learned the importance of having a list and more importantly treating my list well.

  • Sheree Diamond, The Flow Doctor

    Hi Christine,
    I love your advice and I found everything you said to be very true. People are so busy these days so they need reminders. I learned that it’s so important to send several reminders so if they missed one of the emails, they see another. And if they unsubscribe I know that they we weren’t a good match. I’m currently promoting my new program “From Tense to Tenacity” on Stress Relief and I have been doing videos as well as emails to promote to my list and social media. I do agree that we cannot put all our eggs in one basket and count on Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In. Social media helps but the gold is in our list.

  • Nneka, Working Mystic

    Too early for a launch for me, but I love the information!

    Would you say, as a rule, to write to your list for 3-6 months before offering any services? Or is this just for programs? Also, should we exclude new people on the list when sending solo emails for promotion?

  • Charlotte

    Hi Christine,

    Love your post! Although I have not officially launched any product I get your 5 reasons. I an in starting phase and am building my list, one step at the time. I know exactly where my peeps are, and I am now creating systems to make it easy for them to sign up for my freebee and list. Creating content and connecting on FB and networking has been really joyful I must say. I like that.

    I don´t want to get stuck in these flows so I´ve been creating a program which I want to launch beginning of next year. My list is now small and I have 2 months to grow and built our relationship by being consistent and adding value.

    Thanx again for this blog,

    Charlotte Duzong

  • Alice Osborn

    Hi Christine,
    So true! I’ve been building my List for my writing/editing services company for over 6 years. When I launched my latest poetry book via my list, After the Steaming Stops, I didn’t have the numbers I was hoping at my signings/events EVEN with free food and wine. I kept going, posting events pics on Facebook, asking friends to repost, and then inviting my book club (which I’ve led for 4 years) to my next reception the following week. I had overwhelming success because of the relationship I had with my book club! Most of them showed up, bought my book and brought friends–I sold more books there than I did at 7 events put together. Wow! Relationships rock!

    thanks again for highlighting the Power of the LIST,
    xoxo,
    Alice

  • Barbara Alexander

    Hi Christine,
    Wow you are so right! I have been working at growing my list and then when it comes to marketing, I still struggle with bothering anyone with multiple emails. So what did the Universe give me? When I signed up with a new email service, a glitch in their system spit out 15 of the same emails to each person on my list. I was mortified!

    As it turned out, only a couple seemed to be really annoyed. Yes, I could hear your voice, “Well, they weren’t your peeps anyway.” Most commented that they knew it was a fluke and a couple even said how much they appreciated my mailings and that seeing my name in their inbox, even if it was 15 times in a row, made them smile!

    What I have found was that we are all so busy that most emails don’t even get read – so coming up with new and different interesting emails is a fun way to launch anything new.

    Of course my attitude has everything to do with my success. Even when I know that my programs and retreats have repeatedly changed and improved lives over the years, I still find some struggle with “Marketing”… I so appreciate your articles Christine, you are the consummate marketing master, guru, model of success! 🙂
    Hugs,
    Barbara

    • Mary Baxter

      Barbara- Thanks for your honesty and great humour(canadian spelling!). I am in the same boat and I am learning a couple of “unsubscribes” goes with the territory. However, most people open my newsletter and happenings. (I have 120 subscribers so it’s a small list.) so I focus on that….I have had people send me multiple emails accidently and feel thankful it wasn’t me (or my email system) hitting send 🙂
      I so LOVE what I do (Nia and creative fitness/movement) that I am willing to face the challenges of self promotion to get my name out there (at least most of the time!) but the “bothering people” feeling can rise up.

  • Marina

    Fabulous timing ~ as always.
    I was sitting here creating articles for Australia’s first nanny magazine – the tool I’m using to share information about our form of childcare – there are a few myths to be debinked in the coming months.
    I am making my way to the precipice that I launch off next Tuesday, so when I saw your email – I jumped to open it (Yes Christine tell me – what do I DO???)
    It was so reassuring – the magazine is the teaser to draw people to the website – where I can share my product and service ~ the perfect spot for visitors to join my list.
    I keep de-constructing my ‘offers’ reminding myself that what I am offering is going to make their day SO much easier and that is enough.
    That’s all I have to do – if they don’t like it straight away – I’ll still be there, I’m not going anywhere and I like my firstborn – he’s pretty cute 😉 I’ll be hanging onto him.
    Thankyou for the gentle reminder.

    • Christine Kane

      But Marina – you don’t want them to think “you’ll always be there” because then they won’t have any reason to sign up now for this launch. Make sure it has a definite deadline!

  • Mary

    SOOO relate to this. Great advice I will follow!

  • Andrea

    Hi Christine, thank you for tihs very honest post. I mean you are always honest- but what I want to say by this is, I always assume that everyone has a 100 people singups. To read that this might not be true for everyone is what I needed to know.

    Over here in Switzerland it isn’t quite easy to write every week. People here do not like it. So I write to my list every two weeks.

    When it came to my launch some weeks ago I was so scared to make them angry so after my first email, I stopped writing about it. I had 2 who were intressed.

    The same last week when I opened up for my Starter-Kit. A 20+ pages to find the passion, mission and vision.
    I wrote in my e-zine about the earlybird price but when it came to the end of that period I didn’t write it again. Fear of disturbing them. AGAIN.

    So, this is one thing I guess we should NOT do.

    What I did last year with my e-course launch:
    I created high energie for myself, so that I felt absolutely inspired and THEN I wrote emails, individual emails. So when I felt happy it affected my writing. I had 15 sign ups.

    By the way: My Starter-Kit E-Book had 4 sales in the first week. No it seems to be very silent. NO idea how to push that.
    Love, Andrea

    • Christine Kane

      Thanks for the additional thoughts here, Andrea!

      Solo emailers work much better than ezine listings. Especially when they are written to add value and be brief – with a strong call to action!