If you've ever felt like you were pushing a boulder uphill during launch week...you’re not alone.

In this episode, we get honest about the biggest launch mistake we see over and over again: starting too late. We break down what actually needs to happen before you open the cart—like building a warm, aligned audience and creating steady demand through intentional, values-driven list growth.

In this episode, we cover:

• 01:40 List-building that actually leads to sales
• 04:37 Turning cold subscribers into warm buyers
• 07:39 Attracting the right people on purpose
• 10:32 Going beyond Instagram for visibility
• 13:50 — Doing more with less through repurposing

Links and resources mentioned:

• Crafting a Launch Strategy That Fits Your Audience: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/1adf5d33-84a0-40d9-8cb9-80200c1e03f0/
• Build a Quiz Funnel That Works For You: Our Favorite Lead Magnet Strategy: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/0fb76578-d1de-4599-a0c3-511bda1298bd/

The number one mistake that I see with people doing launches is waiting until launch week to start marketing for their product for the overall launch.

And what happens with that is that it ultimately feels like you're pushing a boulder uphill.

Have you ever audited any launches or experienced people launching that essentially just waited until right before?

Yeah.

I think it's so easy for my clients to get so wrapped up in launch week and open card, especially if they're doing some sort of webinar or challenge that kind of kicks off open cart for them to get so far.

One that they kind of forget to promote anything before that and they're really walking in.

We talked about a lot, a lot about this last week.

We're talking about strategy.

Like, it is like pushing a boulder up the hill if you haven't been growing your list.

Because the natural time that it takes someone to convert and build that like first with you is going to be longer than just open cards.

So I think that ramp up is the most important part of your launch.

There we set it.

And unfortunately it is the part that like doesn't get a lot of attention.

Just to even direct this back to the end result.

No.

Ramp up means your list and audiences are cold.

And a cold list is essentially cold results.

So use that as your mindset as we take you through this, because today we're going to be talking about everything that happens before launch week.

The list building, creating, demand, warming people up so that by the time that you come opening that cart, they're already ready.

They're already ready to give you the money.

So number one, the most important thing to do before opening your card is really focus on list building and warming up your existing list list.

I have a client who is about to launch next week.

We open her cart and I'm very, very statically excited because we put so much focus and effort on having a really intentional ramp up strategy.

So I feel so good going into this launch.

It's not like, oh, can it, will it go to convert?

Are the right people going to see it?

Like, no, we know they're primed and ready.

And now it's just kind of like opening the cart and playing out the rest of our playbook.

Yeah.

And list building doesn't just mean running ads or throwing out all these different freebies.

Like, it's super intentional and really targeted.

Some people utilize their webinars or whatever that challenge is with that hook for their launch as A list building tool, but really it should start kind of right before that too, and driving a really, really specific, specific person to your list so that come launch time, they're ready to take action.

In this case, list building is all about quality over quantity.

We don't want to say however many thousands of people joined, but if they're not the right people, that still leads to cold results.

So ultimately, quality leads is what we're targeting in this list building stage.

Yep.

And really before we move on to the next, this is probably more of an advanced launch tactic, but something that I'm really excited that we're implementing today because we had installed a quiz into this client's business last year and it's consistently seen over 300 leads.

We revamped it a little bit going right into this launch.

So now what we're able to do is make her launch email so much more specific and able to speak to those specific problems.

So we actually have three different sequences that are going out that all say like the meat is all the same, but there's certain elements in each one that's personalized to where that person who may be dealing with like a lot of inflammation gets it.

And they're like, oh my gosh, this is.

They're speaking directly to me.

This is what I need.

And I know that we're going to see so much more conversions because of that.

Yeah, I think that's so important to a relevant and like targeted conversion is personalization and quizzes.

Like, you know, just I can talk about quizzes.

We actually have several episodes on quizzes, but like it does exactly that.

And it's perfect for list building in a very strategic way where you're not just pausing on all of the other like funnels that you have going on in the background.

So fully support that.

All right.

Number two is warming up a cold audience.

So I like to use.

Well, I want to provide a reframe in the sense that like a cold audience isn't that you've ghosted your list or that you've haven't been posting or anything like that.

Like we're just assuming they're problem aware or close to in that stage.

So warm up happens at that beginning awareness stage where we're saying, okay, we need to get you to solution aware because come open cartoon, you have to know what Your problem is what your solution is and that I'm the answer to your problems.

So that's what I mean by cold audience.

I don't.

I am not endorsing.

Ghosting your audience ghosting or your audience or your email list.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think one of the things that we used to focus on is like healthy contacts.

How many people have opened your email within the last 90 days?

But what you're saying is like, we shouldn't even just be looking at that.

We should also be looking at the content that we're actually sending, sending to them so that we're moving them from problem aware to solution aware.

Could you maybe give a quick example for a gut, since we're already on this?

Gut Health dietitian, large interprogram.

What would be the difference between problem aware?

Like what are the different.

Well, let me use a different example because I feel like it would be easier to follow if somebody's not so familiar with like the diet, like the gut stuff.

Got it.

But like, let's say I have a client who offers pregnancy and non pregnancy topics and we are shifting towards a launch that is pregnancy related.

The content that's happening several weeks before open cart for that pregnancy launch needs to be identifying anybody that's pregnant in that, like in your space.

Anybody that's like really focused in that specific topic because otherwise it's completely irrelevant.

Right.

Like if you are not pregnant, you're not going to be paying attention to this launch here.

So really making sure that like you're transitioning that content to things that are primed to identify the ideal people in your list.

So talking about, you know, the specific trimesters and then trying to get to see how many people are identifying or clicking on like the third trimester versus the first and all of those things so you have a better idea of like where people are at in their audience.

Like, you can throw in postpartum content in there too and kind of like shuffle some of those people out.

But like it's really identifying in the weeks before so that you can say like, you really don't want to be like, okay, guys, I'm gonna launch a product in seven weeks.

Like, can you tell me if you're pregnant?

Like, that's not the strategy because nobody's gonna do that.

That feels like very intrusive kind of thing.

But you can use your content in a way to kind of like plant the seed and see if they take it and like say, say, oh, okay, perfect, I'm gonna put you in this bucket as like recently engaged with specific topic.

And then that will be kind of like your warmer audience that you're gonna hit.

Yeah, perfect.

Perfect.

All right, so number three, which I know Rachel's very passionate about, this too, is growing your list, your leads with absolute intention.

So building a list of just not people with aligned people and not just freebie hunters.

So kind of like what you said with the pregnancy people.

And I think that's so scary for people.

Like you don't have to email like half your email list during this launch because we know they're not interested in my content.

That's like really scary to people.

But I think in the back end it's like, well, you're going to get less unsubscribes.

Like people are not like going to not stop ignoring your emails.

Like you're not seeing all of those like opportunity costs that you're gonna lose by not segmenting it out correctly.

Yeah.

And I mean also think about like future promotions.

Like if you out of FOMO and fear, keep these people, keep your entire list in this launch segment, they're still gonna experience like launch fatigue with you or sales fatigue because they're getting that ramp up in email communication.

They're getting that like non educational like sales messaging versus if you take them out and say actually like we're just going to put you on like some, you know, high performing newsletters for now while everybody else is getting this launch, they're going to be even more primed for that non pregnancy launch that you're launching or planning the next quarter kind of thing.

And honestly I did this with one of my clients.

I would say, when did we do this In March where we ran a.

And she kind of had that FOMO where she's like, I don't really want to like exclude half my list or however many people in my list.

So I said, okay, we're going to drive two exact segments or two exact email flows.

One's going to be to the people who have raised their hand and identified themselves as this particular need.

And then the rest will just like exclude them for the rest of your list.

And we're going to run it.

So we'll say like primed launch list.

Everybody else, the primed launch list like converted at I think it was like 40% versus the other one that was like maybe 5.

Those are still really good numbers.

And like that person that's having that FOMO can be like, oh, but the fibers.

But like if you just grow your effort to or focus your effort on growing this launch list with intention, you can easily bump this up to a 45, 50% conversion versus hoping and holding on to this tiny little 5% that converted.

So that's what we're saying, like grow with intention.

Like really identify who your prime audience is for these, like your launch topic, your launch pain point, all of those things.

So that it's not just saying, Okay, I have 10,000 new people to my list.

You're saying, okay, I have a thousand primed people to my list that I know based off of past data are going to convert very, very well.

I'm going off script now, but I do want to talk about.

So we're talking a lot about list building.

But even before that I think we should give some ideas because I know from watching that kind of Instagram has stopped doing an Instagram thing for a lot of people.

I think that when a lot of people think ramp up, they're thinking like, posted on Instagram, sharing my freebie on Instagram.

And I just wanted to give some like other ideas of kind of what you can do as pre launch activities to start to build your list that might be even more effective than just posting on Instagram.

So one of the things that I love to do is like audience borrowing, so setting up some strategic podcast tour that's going somewhere, kind of go out before where you share your freebies so you can get those people on your list.

Maybe you have somebody in an adjacent field and you're taking over their newsletter or guesting in their community, or going into certain Facebook groups that are focused on certain things and kind of popping your freebie in there.

I think there's so much more that, that you can do when you're posting on Instagram, posting on Instagram and really not seeing any traction.

A lot of times that's not the freebie.

It's that like the algorithm is new.

I've even seen somebody say, like, it's become a pay to play platform now and that like, if you're going into a launch, you probably should get your little verified check post, you know, some post if you need to.

Just if you're going to continue to use that as your launch vehicle.

Yeah, I completely agree.

I think Instagram is one the freest, lowest, lowest hanging fruit to like do.

But there are so many other strategic ways to like get in front of the right people.

Because Instagram really has just become that platform where if you hit post and you just like hope it makes it to the right people and when you remove the little bit of that like crossing your fingers and like hoping and you go and like intentionally place yourself in front of those people.

I think you take a lot more control back into your hands.

And I've seen a lot of people who do that.

Like a lot of my clients do that big podcast, like tour right beforehand.

And that is super successful in the sense that you are being like audience borrowing your long form content.

You're something that's longer than a 24 hour lifespan on Instagram.

Like you're giving yourself way more reach in a way that is so much more intentional.

Yeah.

And then all comes back to like future planning.

Because obviously to be able to book a podcast, get on the podcast, have it come out before your launch, like that is not planning your launch a month before, that is planning your launch six months out.

Another great thing if you're not borrowing audiences is to ramp up what we like to call your hero content and get super specific about that hero content.

So if you are talking about gut, maybe you're doing a post about bloated, maybe you're doing a blog or a video about constipation, you're starting to kind of hit those key things in your larger form content.

So that one, you can get SEO if you're on YouTube, you know that's a very searchable thing.

But people are finding you through the searchable interwebs as well.

And we know that that's like a lot of work on top of getting everything ready for the launch.

So one thing that we did kind of just want to remind everybody is like really working smarter, not harder and what the content waterfall system is.

So what that is is taking a big piece of content and then breaking it down into smaller bits so that it can go out into email, newsletter, Instagram.

And this is something that we've seen really effective with smaller teams.

Yeah, definitely.

I've been using this strategy for my own posts and for some of my clients posts where we anchor it into a large searchable piece and then we trickle out pieces from that in the sense that they're reels, blogs, newsletters, and it all flows down where you created one masterpiece, your anchor core piece, and you just take bits and pieces from it.

And you know what really I've noticed is that the anchor piece is so much more like when you're, you're focused on building out that content like waterfall, that anchor piece is so much more like thought through because you know you're pulling pieces from it that are going to give you like make it easier for you to create content off of it.

So almost use your like anchor piece and then think breadcrumbs.

Like you're not creating 10 new pieces.

You're saying here's my big loaf of bread and I'm just going to take this piece off and drop it here, this piece and drop it there versus, you know, really just trying to like crank out 100 different pieces.

Because if you're like a lot of the service providers or you know, business owners that I work with, you're also managing like one on one clients while you're trying to launch these one to many products.

So it really is just work smarter and not harder in this case so you don't burn yourself out.

Yeah.

When you're doing long term searchable content like podcasts, YouTube, SEO, that is another thing that's going to help you build momentum for your future launches.

Because unlike that Instagram post that you're going to post your, your launch, your anchor content is going to perform for years to come if you kind of like the right evergreen strategy.

And my clients that I've seen that have been able to like break into the, you know, higher six figures in their business, they all have like a blog article or a podcast or YouTube.

I know we like beat this over the middle of the time, but like we think it's just so important to building like a sustainable marketing ecosystem.

Totally.

And I mean like this, I guess like a little layer to this where it's like, don't just think of these things as like a one launch tactic and then we move on.

Like any strategy that you're developing from a content marketing side, collaborations or anything along those ends are truly building that like ecosystem.

System.

Ecosystem.

I guess you can't really say system afterwards, but like ecosystem where you're not just saying, okay, I'm growing my social following, okay, I'm growing my email list.

Like it's all working together and it's the heartbeat that's going to support the next launch and then launch after that.

You don't think siloed to like this launch.

I just got to get through it.

We're just going to do these collabs because you're going to build a relationship out of any podcast tours, out of anything like that that you can use for future and future and future.

So yeah.

Yeah.

All right, so let's wrap it up with a quick recap.

So the most important part of your launch is your ramp up there.

We said it's going to be in a different amount of time depending on who you are, how big Your audience is what your launch goals are.

If your launch goals are really big and your current audience is really small, you might need a six, six month ramp up.

If your launch goals are okay and your list is huge and very warm, smaller ramp up.

So this is going to be something that comes back to like judging where you're at, where your audience is at and being really intentional about when you're starting the preparation for your launch.

Because building your list and warming up the audience that you already have is super important.

And the next really important thing is to focus on quality, not quantity.

We don't want to just be calling any leads in, we want to be calling in the ideal leads for our offer.

And then the number three thing is just keep in mind is like Instagram is not your only avenue to build your list to support your launch.

You really want to make sure that you're taking a multi channel approach to kind of build in a little bit of insurance so that if one channel is not performing well, that's not your only channel that you're relying on for your launch.

So if you are leading into a launch, just make sure you don't skip this ramp up part.

If you found this episode helpful, share it with the biz bestie, drop us a Note in the DMs or email, whatever works when you're launching next because I would love to follow along.

I don't know about you, Jess, but I think I can add one more, one more inbox or email to my inbox, especially when you're going through it.

So next week we're going to be.

Talking about pricing strategies and how to maximize your revenue during the launch of different things that you can do that once you have all these people's attention and eyeballs on your, yourself and your business.

How can you maximize and get the most money of all that not leave any money on the table?

I was like, get the most money off the table.

Not even any money on the table.

We're going to maximize the launch because it's a lot of work and we want to make sure that we're getting a nice big cash injection for our next one.

Amazing.

Until next time, we are rooting for you.