Should you live launch every offer? 6 times when I wouldn’t

Should you live launch every offer? 6 times when I wouldn't

This is a question that I get asked all the time. “I'm launching a $20 ebook. Is it worth live launching that?” “I'm launching a high ticket offer.
Is it worth live launching that?”

And while I believe that live launching is a super effective sales process for most offers, there are a couple of times when I wouldn't live launch my offers. And those are the ones I'm going to talk about in today's blog. So to clarify, live launching is essentially a limited-time sales campaign for one offer where we have a couple of weeks, usually at least four weeks of free content that's strategically designed to bridge the magician's gap. If it's a brand new offer and you haven't been showing up consistently, I would say at least eight weeks of free content. You're also going to have audience-building activities that are designed to grow your email list with the right people for this particular offer that you are launching, you'll usually have a clear cut open date where you pivot from sharing that free content to then sharing sales-focused content. And then you have a clear-cut close date where you stop the sales focus content, and there is a real deadline.
Whether that is doors closed, whether that is the bonus being removed, whether that is the price increasing or some other kind of deadline.

 

When would I not use a live launch?

 

A low ticket offer

So a couple of times when I wouldn't use this live launch framework, first of all, I probably wouldn't use it when it's a low ticket offer. Something under a hundred ish dollars, is a very easy yes for your ideal client.
So if it's a low ticket offer and it's an easy yes for your client, then I probably wouldn't. Now, when I say under a hundred dollars, there's no real rule as to what is low ticket. It's going to depend on your ideal client, because there are some audiences, some ideal clients out there who. For them, that 100 offer is actually considered quite high ticket.
It's quite a large commitment for them. So they might need that live launch. You know, some people will drop 500 on something without asking very many questions. Other people might spend days deliberating over 50. So it pays to know your ideal client really, really well. Some things that would make your offer an easy yes for your ideal client is when it solves a super specific problem that is really painful for the ideal client, or it delivers a super specific transformation that they really want, and they want it right now.
It might be an easier yes, if you have lots of social proof for this specific offer, if they don't have any hesitations or any questions about that offer, and if they do have some, you've addressed those all thoroughly on your sales page. Maybe it's an easy yes if they are ready to take action right now.
They want to solve this problem right now. Right away. And it's also an easier yes, if the outcome of the offer won't take them that long to achieve. So for example, an eight week course is going to be a much more difficult yes for somebody, because it's a longer time commitment than for example, a template that they can implement straight away and get the results from straight away.

I wouldn't live launch when it solves a problem that they only have at a very specific point in time.

For example, Riz from Found Legal, who I actually interviewed on this show a couple of months ago. She has a copycat kit. So a kit that you can use when somebody has gone and copied something that your business has created, templates for things like cease and desist letters and all of that.
Now somebody is unlikely to buy this preemptively, they're not going to go and buy the copycat kit just in case somebody goes and copies them, but when somebody has gone and copied them and they've discovered that somebody's copied them, they are now very ready to take action and buy. They want to take action right now and make that copycat go away. So when somebody has that copycat, that pain point for them is very painful. It's very urgent. They know that they have a problem at this specific point in time and they want it to go away. So at that point, there is no need for the kind of content that we would usually share.
That's bridging the magician's gap, the gap between where they are right now and where they need to be to be ready to buy. There's also no need for a deadline of a launch because. The problem itself has that innate urgency. It's costing their business. The longer that they have somebody copying them essentially.
Now, this is something that they only have this problem at that specific point when they've gone and discovered that somebody has copied them. But when I say that they only have a problem at a specific point in time, this doesn't apply when it's a problem that applies at a specific time for all of your audience. For example, business owners at the end of the year, when they're planning for the year ahead, that is a specific problem that they have at a specific point in time, but they all have that problem at the same time or high school students at the end of the school year, when they're graduating, they all have similar problems at the same time. In those kinds of cases, I would still live launch because it's still applying to a large chunk of your audience at the same time. They're not at individual times, like in the case of Riz's copycat kit.

 

I wouldn't live launch when it's a backend offer that flows really naturally from the end of a previous offer.

For example, once they finish working with you one on one and you maybe have a membership offer where they can be part of a community and they can join Q& A calls with you once a month. That naturally comes after. You can still have some elements of the live launch process in this sales process. So you might have some sales emails that are triggered when they finish the original eight-week course, or you might have a live webinar that you deliver when your entire cohort of students finishes that course together, or you might ask them to book in a one on one fitting call.
So when they finish working with you in the course, you might give them the call to action. Hey, book in a fitting call and let's address any questions that you have about. What it would look like to work together ongoing, but you wouldn't need to go through the whole live launch process where you're sharing, you know, weeks and weeks of content.
And then there's a cart open and a cart close because the people who have already come through your offer, they've probably already got to a point where they know you like you and trust you. They probably have a very good understanding of the problem that they're experiencing. And now it becomes a bit of a segue just into how you can keep working together.

I wouldn't live launch if it's a done for you service where you can only work with a limited number of clients at any one time.

Technically you could live launch this and it might work, but it's probably not necessary since you can only take on a few clients at any one time.
And if it's done for you, then the sales process is usually going to need a bit more of a personal touch. You're probably going to need to have some more conversations with the potential client about their specific situation, what specific solution you're going to give them for their situation. They might want previous examples of client work that you've done, they might want a proposal outlining what you're going to do for them. It might be customized to them. There's a lot more tailored, more high-touch elements in this than there would be if you were launching a very specific offer in a very set container for everyone who's going through that container.

I wouldn't live launch an offer that is tailored to the buyer.

So similar to the done for you services, when you have an offer that is not a standard offer, when it's like a custom package or custom deliverables, the way that you position the offer is going to be tailored to the potential buyer. So the way that you would launch it would have to be very different for each person who's going through the launch.
And that's going to be a lot of extra work to try and talk to all of the different potential people who would potentially work with you. It's also likely that you could only work with a few clients at once anyway. So I would say there's probably no need to live launch it. You will still need some kind of sales process though, whether that is a fitting call, whether that's a proposal back and forth by email, whatever that sales process is going to look like, there might be a few different steps in there between when somebody lands on your website and when they decide to go ahead and work with you.

 

I wouldn't live launching an offer that requires more than two decision-makers.

So for example, if you are launching something to a large corporate that needs quite a few people to sign off on it, then it's, it's going to be a little bit more challenging.
I have seen this work, but it's usually when the launch focuses on the first person in the chain. The person who is making that decision and it gives them all of the information and the resources that they need to get approval from the other stakeholders, from the people who are higher up in the ladder, usually going to be their boss, maybe their boss's boss.
And you really need to know who each of these decision makers is and what is in it for them. So what does this person that you are selling it to need to be able to justify the decision to their boss? And typically what I've noticed is that it probably would be easier to sell this via relationship building via one on one conversations than through the live launch process, but it can be done.
And I have had students come through Launch Magic in the past who have launched offers like that, where there have been multiple stakeholders. Now, three times when I definitely would live launch my offers. So we've looked at a couple of times when I wouldn't bother live launching, but there are three times when I would absolutely double down and live launch my offers.

 

3 times when I would absolutely live launch my offers.

Firstly, when it is a cohort-based offer with a clear start and end date, a live launch suits this. Perfectly. For example, my course Launch Magic, it starts on the 4th of March. It ends on the 25th of May, and you can't join after the start date. So that makes sense for me to launch that as there's a natural doors open, doors closed.
Maybe you have a membership that's only open to new members for one week every quarter. Either way, when there is a very clear deadline for somebody to join, I would almost always live launch it because it means you can take your entire audience through this journey. You can bridge the magician's gap in real time.
You can get them to the point where they are ready to sign up. before the deadline. And it's more of a focused push than if you're always trying to promote it, always telling people to sign up when there's like three months to go before doors are even open, and they're going to keep delaying it, delaying it for as late as possible.
You're better off using this time to really nurture them and warm them up so that they are ready when doors open.

 

The second time I would definitely live launch is when it's an offer that is always available, but that feels like a painful investment, or that has a large magician's gap that needs bridging, or that the buyer doesn't yet trust whether you are the right person to deliver the outcome, Or they have other hesitations like I'm not ready yet.
Now the worst thing that you could do with an offer like this is to put it on your website and make it always available to buy and never run a live launch for it because a live launch is what allows you to address any hesitations that they have about why they're not ready or why it might not work for them or why it's not the best investment for them right now.
It also means that you can bridge that magician's gap, the gap between where they are now and where they need to be. The gap between where they are today and where they need to be to be ready to sign up. You can bridge that with your free content and that's going to help them to become ready.
When they say I'm not ready, that free content is making them ready. A live launch also is a great way to build trust really quickly because there's most likely going to be some kind of live component in that, probably something like a masterclass where they get to hang out with you virtually, see that you're the real deal, which if somebody has never met you before, that's a great way for them to trust you really quickly.

The third time I would definitely live launch is when you have an offer that is seasonal or that you only want to sell at certain times of the year. So for example, let's say that in December you sell a pre-recorded training that steps them through planning for the year ahead, even though they could technically buy this and complete it at any time, it's going to be much more relevant at the end of the year for them. It's going to be much more relevant for them in December or maybe even early January. So I would live launch this. I would run that focused push at the time when it is super relevant for your ideal client. Even if you're only live launching it that one time a year, that means you're going to make more sales than if it's just there on your website for somebody to try and find.
Now, as you can tell, I'm a big fan of live launching as a way to sell your offers. For me, it's one of my favourite sales processes because I think it's one of the most sustainable ways to sell your offer since it's just a limited time-focused push of energy, and then you can chill for a little bit.

 

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