7 Things You Need To Do Before You Launch Your Group Program

Episode Transcript:

Welcome back to another episode of the Book Your Dream Clients podcast. I hope you're doing well. I'm excited because you are here again. And I am grateful that you choose to put me in your earbuds every single week because today I have a special treat for you. I'm going to share with you seven things you need to do before you launch your group program. So this is for you if you've launched a group program, or if you're thinking about it, whether it was successful or not.

I just had a conversation with a client about just this very subject today. There is no such thing as a failed launch. What that is, is feedback and information for your next. So no one has ever gone and launched something and had all the massive success that they had in their head. I've launched many years ago and took crickets.  I spent all the time trying to do it. And I was so hurt that nobody wanted to buy this amazing thing. And it just ended up collecting dust on my desktop.

I want to talk to you about some tangible things that you can do. We're not going to talk about, you know, getting in the right mindset. We're not going to talk about any of that. We're going to talk about some actual things that you need to do physically taking action in your business before you launch.

Okay. You might've missed some things. So I want to make sure that you are checking all the boxes before you go ahead and launch again or for the first time.

But before we dig into that, I want to invite you to my free Facebook community. If you're not there yet you need to go to dreamclientcommunity.com. It's free and it's full of coaches, just like you. So please come and visit me over there. Ask me questions, share what you do. This is a group for collaboration and inspiration. So I hope to see you inside the group.

Okay, I hope you have something to write about, cause this is going to be good. You're going to get lots of gold nuggets. So I have listed them out there right in front of me. And we're going to go ahead and take in the first one.

Number one, create a name for your course. That sounds like, “Oh, well that's easy. I already have that”. Double-check it, go over to godaddy.com type it in claim your domain. We just had an amazing client come up with a fabulous name for her group program. We went over to GoDaddy to see if it was claimed or not. And it was a $3,000 domain. So we're like, “Hmm. I don't think, I don't think that's what we want.” So we are tweaking it. And we're checking with GoDaddy to make sure that we can claim that for her. So once you come up with a name or two or three or five or ten, whatever you have in front of you, as you're working on this process, please go over to GoDaddy and make sure that no one has purchased it before. Or it's not this high, high ranking domain where you're going to pay thousands of dollars for it. This also gives you inspiration for new names too. So it'll kind of give you some variations of what you typed in. If yours isn't available. So create the name of your course. You're going to need to do that. Obviously, that's all you need to do. You don't need to create the course. You're just making the name.

Then the next thing, number two is, to go and create a wait list page in Squarespace. You can go and just create a simple cover page. If you're on any other platform, I'm sure you can do something very similar. Actually attached is a visual inside this post on my website. So if you want to know what a cover page looks like, go to this podcast episode, Lindsaymaloney.com, click on podcasts, find this one. And you will see there is a visual of what a cover page looks like. It's basically saying that the course isn't open yet or coming soon, or enrollment is closed. Please put your name below. So you can be the first to know when the course is launched or something like that.

You don't need to put a whole entire sales page together. If you don't have one yet you can easily just create a cover page. So anytime you have an idea for anything new in your business, whether it's launching a podcast, a group program, a membership, whatever it is, you can feel the water out by putting a cover page on your website because that way, at least it's there and it's not just sitting in your head. So create a wait-list for me, that visual says “soca is in session”. This is something that I used a while ago. So when people wanted to enroll in it, when I had an open door, closed door method, which I don't anymore. So, cause in session click the link below to get on the list and people would click the link below. And then my waitlist would build the purpose of the waitlist is to grow very warm leads, hot leads of people who know what your program is about.

They can kind of get that feeling from your title and they want in when it's ready. And this kind of goes back to the name of your course. So your course should really be the transformation that they're going to achieve when they enroll in your program. Stand Out Coaching Academy- I know it's for coaches sounds like something I'm going to be, you know, learning a lot with the academy, standing out. This is what coaches want. Right? So make it a positive transformation. Don't make it so cutesy that people are like, I don't know what this means. Your title should give it away. So think about that too, when you're naming your course, cause you are going to put it on your waitlist page. So I want to make sure that people know what this is.

Number three, create a spot on your pop-up bar for your waitlist. Easy-peasy right? Go to your website and add something on your pop-up bar, under courses or group program or work with it. Let me add a spot for your group program, but the title of it in there is routed to the cover page, your waitlist page.

Now, next one is announce it to your list. What's coming. So I want you to utilize the list that you worked so hard to build. I want you to let them know that you are working on something amazing. You can announce to them what you're working on, what they can expect from it, and then ask them to join the waitlist because you have special perks for, you know, early birds or VIP's whatever you want to call it. So announce to your list. You're going to build your waitlist really big when you do it this way. So definitely utilize the list that you have.

Then the next one is to share on social media with CTAs, calls to action, to get on the waitlist. So you're always pushing for people to get on the waitlist. Facebook posts, Instagram posts, stories, Facebook page, your Facebook group. I want you to create content. So you're talking about what you're working on. You're creating the buzz and then people are going to be curious about it and then they're going to want in on it and when it's ready for them. So you can also take it a step further and update your Facebook group photos, your Facebook page photos with, you know, coming soon, get on the waitlist, and then make sure you put the link for your waitlist in the comments section of your photo on Facebook.

That way you're utilizing that real estate by, you know, not just putting up a photo of and assuming people will know where to go. So put it on there. Don't ever assume people are going to know what to do. Next simplify, simplify, simplify links, directions, all the things where you are multiple steps ahead of people that we want work with. So we want to make sure that it is easy to navigate, that people can easily navigate to where you want them to go. And you're always providing that next time for them.

Number six, create consistent content on your preferred medium. So what's a medium? It's either your podcast, your videos, your blog, whatever you're doing. I want you to create consistent content. You should be doing this anyway, at least two to five weeks to create buzz and have those CTAs. So if I write a blog post, I'm going to write something that I know my future students are going to want to read.

If I am recording a podcast, I'm going to record something that I know my future students will want and the same thing with the video, but we have to have those calls to action inside of it. So once they hear from you or they see you or read your words, they feel like they need to be a part of this. So make it easy for them. Put those buttons throughout the post, put them in the links in the show notes, in the YouTube video, put them everywhere, make it easy for people to get on this waitlist. Cause when this, when this program launches, you're already going to be hyped up because you already have a list of all of these people who want in on it, and it's going to feel like they lifted you up and they can carry you through that launch.

And it's going to feel like it'll put you at a different level because you know, people will invest in you. And whether everyone is on the waitlist will or not, that doesn't matter. A huge percentage will. I had a launch in 2018 where every single person on my waitlist enrolled in it. So don't disregard this strategy. Okay?

Then the last one is to create a targeted freebie with a CTA on the PDF, the email, and even follow up with some automation. So let's break this down. Think about what your future student would love to have as a freebie. You're going to use this freebie inside your blog, post inside your podcasts, inside your video on social media, you're going to put it everywhere. And then inside that PDF or that freebie that they're going to download you're going to give them a call to action.

After they're done following the checklist, the roadmap, whatever it is, make sure they go out of the PDF and get on your waitlist. You can put links in Canva. You can get put the link inside. You can make it really easy for people. Don't let it die with the PDF. Always take them out and onto where you want them to go. Ultimately, if you have your email service providers set up properly and you have the freebie going to their inbox, then what you can do is ask them to get on the waitlist in the, in the automatic email too. So you can say like, “here's your workbook, enjoy blah, blah, blah.” And then in the PS section, you can say “Stand Out Coaching Academy is launching soon. Be sure you get on the waitlist for special perks and blah, blah, blah.” It doesn't have to be like a huge letter talking about your program. Like literally just CTA. And then they'll follow up. If that CTA is still within that first scroll, they're going to see it.

So keep it short and sweet and then take them out of the email and onto the waitlist. Then I would also make sure you could set up, you want to get even nerdier with this. You could set up a trigger. So when they click on that particular link, you can stop the automation for them. If they don't click on the link, then trigger a day later to send them an email and ask them to get on the waitlist. Cause you don't want to ask them to get on the waitlist if they already did. So that's just kind of a nerd tip right there. So set up a trigger. If they click on this link then the automation, if they don't then send them another email a day later, asking them to get on the waitlist and letting them know why they should be on the wait list.

I have some bonus tips for you. I just gave you seven things. Let's go through them really quick. Number one, create a name for your course. Number two, create a waitlist page. Create a spot on your pop-up bar for your waitlist is number three. Number four is to announce it to your list. Number five shares on social with CTAs to get on the waitlist. Facebook, Instagram, all of those things. Number six is create consistent content on your preferred medium blog, podcast or video at least two to five weeks before you launched to create buzz and make sure you have those CTAs inside. And then number seven, create a targeted freebie with a CTA or call to action on the PDF and then an automation to sign up for the waitlist. If they don't follow that on the email.

Bonus tip is to create an actual sales page. I have a sales page bundle that you can go and grab right now where you could really lay out the whole entire program. And then that would probably get people even more excited to sign up to be in your program. If they can see what the modules are going to be, what the proposed outcomes of your course, what they're going to be. And then you might bring in more people when they can see that full length. It's not a hundred percent necessary to build your waitlist. And in fact, some people get a little lost going through it.

So I want to make sure that you have what you need. I'm going to include the sales page, a bundle link in the show notes. So you can go ahead and get that and then build your whole sales page. Because sometimes we feel like we just need to get that creativity out of our system because we are not actually creating the course before we launch it anyway. So if you need to get it out of your system and you know, you're going to be launching it, grab the sales page, bundle, build out your sales page and then you have one major step done. Now, remember your calls to action on the sales page are going to be what get people on the waitlist. And you're also going to have to switch those buttons out when you do launch. So they link to your shopping cart. Don't forget that very important step. You could, even if you know the date that you're going to be launching this, you could even slap a timer on the top and say, you know, coming in June or whatever it is, you can do whatever you want, test things out, see how your people will respond.

I think that's the most important thing is you got to just do it to see what your people respond to, what they love and what they feel called to do. And when to do it, make sure you have those CTAs to go to the waitlist. And the biggest tip that I can give you is don't create the course. I know you want to, I know you want to so bad, but I don't want you to get stuck in the creative zone. I want you to get stuck in the action zone so you can be bringing students into your program so you can change lives.

And if you have to just do one thing, go ahead and create the branding for your course. Go create modules zero, the welcome module, but then stop and then launch it. Okay. Trust me. You'll thank me later. If you have questions about that strategy, then please let me know. You can put it in the Facebook group. You can DM me. I'd be happy to share why that is so important to not create your full course before you launch it, please. So I just gave you a ton of information. I'm sure you're feeling really inspired. There are lots of things that I just added to your to-do list. Hope you're feeling excited about it again, please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing how this list helped you prepare for your next launch. And I will see you on the next episode.