We have seen many launches from the inside, ours and other people's. The ones that struggle rarely have a weak course. Usually the content is good and the author knows the subject well. What goes wrong is everything around the product: who it is for, how it is described, when it goes on sale and how people hear about it. The good news is that these problems can be fixed, and most of them can be spotted before the launch even starts.
Here are the mistakes we see most often, and what to do instead:
1. Selling to Everyone
A course for "anyone who wants to be healthier" is a course for no one. Broad offers make ads expensive and sales pages vague, because they can't speak to anyone's specific problem. Pick one group of people with one pressing problem, describe their situation in their own words and say exactly what will change for them. You can widen the audience later.
A narrow offer also makes the price easier to accept. People happily pay more for something that feels made for them and their situation than for a general course on a topic they could google.
2. Launching Without a List
Many authors open sales on the same day they first mention the course. Without a warm-up, even an engaged audience isn't ready to buy. Two to four weeks before the launch we start collecting emails with a free lesson, a checklist or a live session. These people already know the author and the topic when sales open, and they buy far more often than cold traffic.
The list also protects the launch from ad platform problems. If an ad account gets restricted in launch week, or ad costs jump because of a holiday sale season, the emails still go out to people who asked for them, and sales still come in.
3. Stopping After Day One
A launch is a test, not a final exam. Authors often treat the first week's numbers as the verdict on the whole product, then give up or stop advertising. We treat the first launch as the start of the data. We fix the weakest step, adjust the offer or the price and launch again. Products often sell better in their third month than in their first.
Two more mistakes worth avoiding: pricing too low out of fear, and building a second product before the first one has found its buyers.
