Christmas is great, but for me – every year I look forward to Marie Forleo’s B-School launch!

I love to see the tweaks she makes to her tried and true formula, which consistently produces million-dollar launches.

And this year I took *careful* notes and wanted to share the latest trends and takeaways, so that you can incorporate them into your next launch plan.

1. Pre-Launch Content

Starting three weeks before even the first video in her launch series was released, Marie and her team began dripping out powerful testimonials on YouTube. (Watch the full series here.)

It’s important to note that each title is about launching, claiming, protecting your DREAM. She’s reaching out to dreamers, staking a claim for those as her ideal audience.

The timing here is really important – to create desire and intrigue before anything else!

As well as the group they chose is very diverse, so that “you” can see yourself in past students – regardless of country, language, race, business model, etc. It even included one guy (because yes, B-School is for guys, too!)

As you start planning your launch, be sure to include a runway of value-packed content, inspiration and motivation to share with your list and online followers to build desire.

2. Super Valuable Training

Marie has perfected the art of the three-part video series launch, and knocks it out of the park with a trio of value-packed videos.

And not only are her videos longer than most would expect (Don’t people have a short attention span? Not if it’s good content!), but they also come with a workbook and comments for accountability.

And it’s the PERFECT launch strategy for her program.

Because that’s exactly how B-School works.

At its core, the program is video training with workbooks and a Facebook group for support.

So leading in with mirrored training attracts the right type of people who love her videos, are dedicated to taking action and doing the work and appreciate the value of community.

As you plan your launch, don’t stop at just creating something valuable – but also match the style of training to your launch strategy.

3. Multi-Page Sales Page

I get a lot of questions about how long a sales page should be, and a good rule of thumb is that the more expensive a program is, the longer the sales page should be.

But, there is a newer trend for long-form sales pages that I’m seeing more and more of, and the B-School sales page took full advantage.

They took their standard long page, and broke it up across multiple menu sites.

This wasn’t just a menu with “jump” links, where it bounced around the page, but this menu actually opened onto new pages, AND opened in new tabs to make the page extremely sticky.

But it also gives readers a “choose your own adventure” feel, and allows them to be wowed when they get the exact answer they need to buy, such as all the details of what’s included and how the program works, diving into the success stories and answering all the FAQs.

Plus, there’s even a little side menu (where it says “MORE”) that opened other sales pages to answer direct objections.

Think about the common questions you get about your sales page, and break out each into its own section – or even it’s own page – for your next launch.

4. Redirecting Traffic

Since Marie’s been posting weekly videos on her blog since 2010, the majority of her traffic is actually going to MarieForleo.com – NOT her B-School sales page.

So to capitalize on the short window of opportunity, Team Forleo added a sleek, black hello bar to the top of their page to find out more about B-School.

But rather then just be a clickaway link from there, like a traditional HelloBar, it actually dropped down into a whole mini-promo!

By taking placing this promo on a site that her fans already trusted, and not making them click off right away but taking the time to add a little more explanation (and the power of a countdown timer), she undoubtedly got a solid flow of traffic coming from her main site back into B-School.

If you’re using a separate domain or website for your program and sales page, think about ways you can capture traffic on both sites and point them toward the action you want them to take.

5. Positioning Your Close

If you’re a B-School grad, you definitely know there are no limits to the number of students enrolled, but that doesn’t mean Team Forleo just closes the cart and puts up a waitlist!

This year, they actually positioned the launch as “sold out”, not just closed, and that sets up MAJOR success for next year.

After spending all of those months driving traffic to the sales page, they didn’t just close up and open a waitlist. By saying they sold out, it automatically gets more people to opt in for the waitlist because they feel instant FOMO and add it to their vision board for next year.

There’s so much more I could talk about, like how Marie’s the affiliate queen or how she gets the effect of being everywhere at once, but I wanted to focus on these smaller details you might have missed!

And to capture the newest strategy trends that you can take and use for your own launch.

Your Turn

I’d love to know which of these B-School launch trends you’ll take into your next project! Leave a comment below.

And, if there’s ever a launch happening that you’d like the inside scoop on, just forward their sales email to me and I’m happy to break it down. 🙂