To Sum It Up…

I’ve had at least 20 people reach out to work with me and ask me to help plan their launch for next week. I even had one person email me asking to help on their launch tomorrow!

While I love you and I love your enthusiasm, NO – you can’t launch tomorrow.

The ideal launch timeframe is about three months.

I know to some that may seem like a long time, but you’re going to get double or triple the amount of results if you actually spend time building up buzz and getting people excited for your launch then if you just put out a sales page from Day 1.

In addition to building anticipation, you’re going to want to create all your launch your materials, arrange promotion with affiliates, hire your launch team and build at least 50% of your course before you open the cart.

And if you tried to accomplish all of that overnight you’d probably end up wanting to pull your hair out!

Trust me when I tell you that launches are stressful and emotional enough without the need to put extra time pressure on yourself.

If you try to pull off a true launch tomorrow, I promise you’re going to wake up the next day hating yourself and regretting the results.

Your Turn

So, will you be adding a client onboarding process to your project list for 2017? If so, leave your questions and ideas in the comments below!

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Full Transcript

As online entrepreneurs, we’re so lucky to have technology that allows us to procrastinate. We have social media so we can instantly connect with our audience in real-time, including new Facebook Live videos. We have MailChimp and email services that can send a broadcast to thousands of people at the touch of the button, or preschedule them if you are working in advance. We even have technology that allows us to film a video at 11 p.m. at night before it needs to go to you this morning at 7 a.m.

But there’s one thing in your business that you can’t procrastinate on and take it right up to the wire – your launch.

I’m Jessica Castle, your online launch strategist. Today I want to talk to you about why you can’t launch tomorrow.

I’m not sure of the exact number offhand, but I’ve had at least 20 people ask me, “Can I launch next week?” or “Can I launch this in 20 days?” or even, “Can I launch this tomorrow?”

My answer to you is no. I love you, I love your passion, but no, you can’t launch it tomorrow.

The ideal launch timeframe is about three months. I know that may seem like a long time because you’re like, “Oh, I just put up a sales page.” That’s something you can do, but you’re going to get double or triple the amount of results if you actually spend time building up buzz and getting people excited for your launch.

In addition to building anticipation, you’re going to want to create materials. You have to create Facebook ads, opt-in pages, workbooks, emails, social media graphics, all kinds of materials that need to be created that you can’t do overnight without probably wanting to pull your hair out.

Another reason the launch timeline works best at three months is if you’re using affiliates, or if you even just want friends and family to promote the launch for you for free. Affiliates usually plan their own emails way in advance. They don’t make them the night before like I am. But most people have their content calendar scheduled weeks or months in advance. Especially if you’re doing a bigger launch and you’ve got some bigger business affiliates on there with you, they’ve already got their content planned. If you don’t get them the materials they need to send out to their list months in advance, they’re most likely not going to do the full extent of promoting that they could have done if you’d gotten your materials to them well in advance.

Another reason I think three months is the perfect time for planning and executing a launch is because I truly believe in creating the course, or at least 50% of it, before you open the cart. There’s tons of people out there who specialize in launches and definitely promote the idea of selling something before you can create it. You 100% can. I’ve found, though, that that creates an enormous amount of stress on the business owner. Instead of celebrating that you just had a very successful launch, you are running right back into content creation for the course and trying to build the membership site, and dealing with customer service issues of why don’t I have access to this yet. I really like to build the membership site and the welcome emails and the welcome videos, all of that, before anyone even has a chance to buy your offer. That’s also why I coined the term “stress-free launches” when you work with me.

Finally, another thing to consider when planning and executing your launch is who needs to be on your launch team. Obviously, you can’t have all your phone interviews with your launch team in one single day and then have them create all the materials overnight. You might want a graphic designer to do the sales page. You might need a copywriter to help you take some of your emails to the next level. These could be things you also wait to invest in your second launch, but even with your first launch, you’re going to want to take your time on these materials. You’re not going to want to rush them.

Trust me when I tell you that launches are stressful and emotional enough without the need to put extra time pressure on yourself.

If you try to pull off a true launch tomorrow, I promise you’re going to wake up the next day hating yourself and regretting the results. Because you could have gotten double or even triple the results if you’d taken at least three months to plan and execute your launch.

While I love you and I love your enthusiasm, and I’m so excited that you are ready to launch your idea into the universe, I caution you to take your time and don’t put too much pressure around a specific date or make that date public.

Really give yourself time for things in life that will come up. Three months really will give you a very successful, well planned, and stress-free launch.