I remember when one of our clients, who had had a string of fairly successful course launches, was looking like he was going to flop one big time.
He had made some assumptions based on previous launched, had put it all together in a smart, well-thought-out way, had even surveyed his audience to make sure he wasn’t off-base, and then launched.
To an echoing, painful silence. Of course, I’ve heard other people have had this problem. I’ve certainly never been there myself. (Cough, cough. Ahem. Sigh…)
Ouch! Where were all those people who were interested? And what had gone wrong? Was it the timing? Was it the sales copy? Was it the offer itself? Was the color wrong on the website? Was Mercury retrograde? Did everyone who was going to buy slip on a banana on their way to grab their credit card and were now in the hospital in traction?
When you launch something new and it flops, it is really, really hard to know why it happened. Incidentally, when something new does well, it’s also really, really hard to figure out exactly why it did so well.
There’s only one way to avoid this situation.
Get Boring–Do It Again
You might’ve heard this from me before, but people take longer to make a significant decision than you expect. Sometimes much longer. A teacher of mine once told me that the first time you launch something you are actually marketing in preparation for next year’s version.
So if you have some moderate to decent success with a new launch, don’t touch that dial! Repeat your offer the next year, or in six months.
For some personalities this can be painful in the extreme. Repeat? But that’s boring. I’ve already done that. Time for something new! Something not so five-minutes-ago.
Don’t give in to that temptation! There are demons with special pitchforks of unprofitability waiting for those who wander down the path of “let me change my offer every few months.”
Every time you change your offer, you reset the clock. People have to go through a decision-making process again. On the other hand, if you keep repeating your offer, someone who couldn’t catch it this year will jump in next year.
In fact, you may have a whole lot of somebodies who jump in the next year, since you’ve also been wise enough to keep mentioning your offer in your blog posts or ezine so people can think about it ahead of time.
For instance, our Heart of Money Transformational Journey course has done extremely well year-after-year. Because it’s a needed program, and one of our core curriculum courses, we teach it every year in the late spring. And the pool of interested people has grown with every year.
Incidentally, that’s what I mean by mentioning your offer throughout the year. Clever, eh?
Some Keys to Repeating the Course
• Avoid the ruts.
There’s no need to create ruts with your program, though. Please do update it, upgrade it, improve it, expand it, add to it, remove from it, change the pricing, and other details.
After a few years the latest edition may hardly resemble version 1.0. But in the minds of your pool of interested people, and in the integrity of the intention of your offer, it’s the same thing.
• Collect testimonials.
For our courses we try and collect testimonials every time through to help build confidence for future buyers. If you don’t repeat your offers, then any testimonials you collect are that much weaker.
Here’s one we did for our Heart of Money Transformational Journey course (there I go again… crafty…) Click: Does this Heart of Money Thing Really Work?
• Build in correction time for first-time launches.
If you are launching something new and haven’t been able to repeat it yet, make sure your launch/registration window gives you time to course-correct.
For instance, with my client, the sales were much lower than expected, and yet he had a couple of weeks. I was able to help him tweak his sales copy, think through the offer and make it better, and some other changes that results not in a home-run hit, but at least a respectable number of buyers.
How about for you?
What’s your experience? Do you repeat your offers? Do you resist repeating your offers? What else do you do?
Tell me about it below in the comments.
p.s. Want to go in-depth with your heart and go get some clients?
I think there might be one seat left if you’re local and want to join us for the Sacred Moment seminar here in Portland, February 25-26.
But, what’s even easier is to get the home study version of the seminar. High quality audio recording of the two days, edited into tracks (no big 90-minute audio chunks to wade through), plus the full workbook, which is really more like a book.
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17 Responses
Dear Mark,
I soooo love your Virgo pragmatic down to earth business savvy. It’s just so different from the flash and dazzle that I sometimes see from other marketing guru types. But it’s solid and it’s real and it’s stuff that normal working folks can understand and relate to and actually implement.
The way that what you’re referring to in this post shows up in my business ( since I pretty much do only live events) is that I hold the same workshops at the same venues at the same time …. year after year after year.
For example, I hold a Wild Heart Painting retreat every September in New Mexico… this coming year will be my 12th time… and because it’s something that people can count on and has been around so long, it now has a life and energy of it’s own.
At this point I barely have to market it in any kind of aggressive way. It practically fills itself. But it wasn’t always that way. I just had to stay consistent and boring …. as well as continually tweaking things like the sales page, etc…. for it to get to this place.
And I’ve noticed the same phenomenon with some of my other offerings.
So now when I offer something NEW I don’t get too panicked when it doesn’t perform as well as I would want it to out of the gate. I have the faith, based on experience, that that old boring Virgo reliability will win out in the end!!
Chris- you have the most awesome examples you bring around. Isn’t that amazing about your retreat- congrats on the 12th time!
Hi Mark
Thanks for your Notes from the Heart preface to the article – I appreciate you showing us that you have fearful moments too – makes you all the more human! 🙂
And also, I’d say that as well as carrying our teaching in our heart etc. as you say, that things always seem more ‘acute’ when we’ve been ill – and I recall you mentioning you’ve been sick a few times of late. So yeah, the ‘virus’ of panic doth strike. And the antidote of heart doth prevail …
On repetition – will yeah, it’s also said that training (training coaches etc.) is where the money is, rather than in coaching itself. And training tends to be on a repeat loop – with the tweaks and updates as you rightly point out.
I do remember though when I was little that there was one particular children’s TV program that I used to hate – partly because the character used to repeat everything over and over. And I had no patience for it! Is weird because apparently children love repetition – it’s meant to make them feel safe/secure – or something. But I just got bored and frustrated very quickly. nothing’s changed then ;-))
Then again, maybe all the programs had bits that were repeated often and it was simply more obvious in that one and more subtle in the others.
Of course, that was me as the consumer, not me as the provider. I’ll shut up now! Be well oh Silver Mark 🙂
Hi Annie- you’re so welcome. I really want you to see what’s true. As far as repetition goes, I think there’s a world of difference between constant, daily repetition that drives people batty, and having a predictability to what you’re offering over the long term. I definitely don’t recommend offering a retreat or class every day of the week. 🙂 Thanks for your well wishes.
Hey Mark,
Appreciate you and this post. Love this statement, “As the teacher, my heart is the container for the students. ”
Links to Abraham-Hicks, when they share, “This class happened long before we all showed up…”
Printing out your statement – as it reminds me to be “up” for the task, so much more going on than just the teaching…
All the Very Best, and More!
Suzie
Hi Suzie- thanks for your kind wishes!
“A teacher of mine once told me that the first time you launch something you are actually marketing in preparation for next year
You’re welcome, Susan. It’s made a big difference for me.
This makes a lot of sense, Mark. Given that though, how would you differentiate between something that launches to crickets because of the need to keep offering it, vs knowing when to cut your losses for something that just isn’t going to sell… or needs to be marketed differently?
Yes, it’s a big difference, Thekla, isn’t it? When to quit and when to keep going. If you launch to total crickets, and no one shows up at all, then maybe it’s not worth repeating. But if you get something of a response, and the people who do respond are enthusiastic, and you feel clear about (1) the need in your market (2) what you’re delivering is good for that need, then it’s worthwhile to keep going.
Thanks, Mark! Again, makes a lot of sense.
*nods* We had double the registrations for 52 Weeks to Awesome 2.0 as we did for 1.0. The 2nd Annual World-Changing Writing Workshop will likely be similar.
Hmm… maybe we can view the first launch of course as the initial version of an annual offering. If the first year does well, keep doing it each year, revising and possibly expanding. If not, consider making it a one-off.
This will spark lots of interesting conversations with Kyeli. Thanks!
Exactly, Pace. 🙂
Hi Mark.
Thank you so much for this post. It was super helpful, especially because I am recently returned from the fabulous Lift Off retreat with Charlie and Pam, and a little dazed still from all the crazy and fabulous idea-generating energy. Your writing reminds me that I can start small, that I just need to do the first thing…and that I can do it over and over! Oooff, what a relief. ::grin::
Woo-hoo, Julica- I’m honored that I can add to the amazingness you got from Pam, Charlie and co. 🙂
Hi Mark,
Another way to avoid the rut is to remember that the course is new for the new students. I have been teaching spelling rules , comprehension strateigies and times tables every year (you know the fun stuff) and sometimes daily. But it is always different because of the students.
For repeat online courses I think it is good to focus on improving the ways you connect with your members. Because if you do that, it will never get old.
Ainslie
So true, Ainslie, so true! The students make it alive for me as well.