5. How to boost course sales when your live launch is slower than expected

EPISODE 5 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

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In this episode, I answer an anonymous listener question:

“What would you do if sales during your live course launch were slower than expected to reenergize your launch?”

If you’ve ever hit the dreaded mid-launch slump, this episode is for you.

I walk you through the importance of real-time, data-driven strategies to diagnose the issue, re-engage your audience, and boost conversions… all without feeling salesy.

What we cover:

Why Your Launch Sales Might Be Slower Than Expected – Common reasons behind a mid-launch slump and how to work out if it’s normal or a red flag.

Diagnosing the Problem with Data – How to use tools like heat maps, email metrics, and engagement insights to pinpoint where potential buyers are dropping off.

Re-Engaging Your Audience in the Middle of Your Launch – Creative ways to revive interest and maintain momentum when enthusiasm starts to fade.

Leveraging Social Proof to Build Trust – How to use case studies, testimonials, and live student experiences to overcome objections and increase conversions.

Personalization Strategies That Nudge Hesitant Buyers – Simple yet effective ways to make potential customers feel seen, heard, and confident in their decision to buy.

Soundbites:

“The good thing is if your launch is slower than usual in the middle of your launch, once that initial excitement has gone, it doesn’t mean that it has to be a failure. Your audience simply needs a better experience along the way and more intentional touch points to help them get the confidence to say yes.”

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Episode Transcript:

Hey, hey, and welcome to this next episode of What Would They Do? In today’s episode, we are going to look at a far too common problem in the online space. I am going to answer the listener question that follows. What would you do if sales during your life course launch were slower than expected to re-energize your launch?

And just up front here for the purposes of this episode, I’m assuming that we are dealing with a proven offer that is designed for a very specific audience and has successfully sold as part of a life launch before, because otherwise we were going to look at a whole different set of questions and potential obstacles. So.

Slow sales in the middle of your live launch are common to begin with. What we would be worried about if your core sales would be much lower than usual. And this mid-launch slump that is also common, if it really doesn’t follow this usual mid-launch slump that you are experiencing.

So in this episode, I am going to break down some real time strategies that I would use in my life launches to, to begin with diagnose the issue because that’s super important. Then to re-engage my audience and ultimately boost conversions and get those sales up to where I want them to be without feeling desperate or salesy because

That’s just not me. So everything we’re going to look at is going to be data driven. It’s going to feel good and natural, and it’s going to be in line with the customer experience that feels anything but pushy and forced. So let’s have a look though, why that sales slump in the middle of your launch might happen.

So there could be a general messaging disconnect here. And with messaging disconnect, I mean that somehow the transformation and the urgency to take action right now as part of these live launch is simply not clear enough. And that could go back to that it simply has been too long since you had firsthand conversations with your students and that

your messaging and the way you are presenting your course hasn’t kept up with the shifting times. So even though your course might have been successfully sold before, it’s a proven offer. Our environment and society constantly shift, especially, you know, at the moment we’re looking at tough financial times, high interest rates, high hesitation when it comes to investing in particularly high ticket offers.

And there’s also a lot of political noise. So people are just a lot more conscious of the investments that they’re making. And we as business owners, as online course creators need to absolutely shift the way we present our office and even the way we shape our office at all times to make sure we touch on, you know, current objections, current hesitations, current things happening in the online landscape and beyond.

Then we also need to consider the engagement drop. So that can be a real issue. Let’s say, you know, you have your raving fans, if they’re ready to invest in your product, they’re probably going to do that as soon as you open the doors. So, you know, they’re in, which boosts your initial sales numbers. But once that initial excitement is gone and those raving fans have clicked the buy now button,

It really often happens that the engagement drops off. People are getting a little tired of receiving your emails and they’re going to put it on the for later pile. I’m going to get to it when that deadline approaches. So that is a common reason. People are simply waiting for that final deadline, which is human nature, right? We need that little nudge at the end to get us to act.

There also could be some unanswered objections floating around that are holding potential buyers back from investing in your course. it could be doubts, fears, worries, know, issues they’re having with the inclusions in the program or the promise of the program. And if you’re not addressing those people are simply going to stop engaging with your launch because they can’t put those doubts to bed. And

There also is lack of momentum. People by nature, as I said, wait till the last minute to decide whether they’re going to join and invest. And they really need a reason to take action, which often happens at the end with last minute bonuses to get people to take action and join. The good thing is if your launch is slower than usual in the middle of your launch,

once that initial excitement has gone, it doesn’t mean that it has to be a failure. Your audience simply needs a better experience along the way and more intentional touch points to help them get the confidence to say yes. And we’re going to explore some of those today. We’re going to look at how Twixty, a customer experience and that buying process can really, yeah, revive a slow course launch and get it back on track.

So personally, I always start with the data because we can guess, we can assume, and that’s not going to help us at all, right? So I am going to look at the data firsthand, insights, hard data to tell me where people are dropping off in the sales process. common drop off points really are your sales page. So people might land on your sales page,

scroll for a bit, and then at some point they drop off. In this instance, heat maps and tools such as Hotjar are super, super helpful. It’s a little bit of code that you install on your sales page. And that gives you the ability to watch your browsers interact with your sales page in real time. It gives you insights around how far down on the page they scroll before they drop off, where they

you know, get stuck. It also can help you identify technical issues with your page where buttons aren’t working. They’re not linking to the right places. So heat maps are super helpful to give you an insight around, you know, whether you need to shift certain bits of your sales page, whether you need to introduce certain ideas earlier to capture people’s attention before they drop off, for example. Another question could be, do they open your emails, but they don’t click?

Or are people opening your emails? They’re clicking, but they’re not buying, in which case we’re back to that sales page issue. Or, you know, how is the conversion rate for your launch event attendees stacking up against people who came into the launch without attending your launch event? So really that data and those insights can help you work out what

The problem is what the culprit is. And you can then tweak the messaging and the way you sell your offer based on what’s missing or what’s not working. So in this instance here, if people are clicking in your emails, but they’re not buying again, we need to look at your sales page. What’s not working on your sales page. Are you actually addressing their objections? So things that are potential deal breakers for them head on.

on the sales page. you incorporating them in your copy, in your messaging so people can put those doubts to bed? And do you have enough social proof? And when I say social proof, mean, testimonials from students who have taken your course, but testimonials that are relatable. It can be screenshots of conversations you’ve had with students. It also can be, you know, tweet.

and polished testimonials that you’ve typed up, but it’s important to make those testimonials relatable and have people look at them in a way that feels achievable for them. If people aren’t clicking on your emails, obviously there’s an issue with how you are presenting your offer in those sales emails. So

It could be a matter of refining your calls to action. So the actual invite to click through to your sales page and check out the offer. But it also could be adding additional urgency strategies. So we all know countdown timers as the deadline approaches, but we’re looking at the slump in the middle of a launch here. And you could totally introduce an unexpected bonus here.

to encourage people to take action in the middle of your launch to get those numbers up and give you peace of mind that it’s actually working. So have a think about what could be enough of an incentive for people to buy before the final deadline. If your overall launch engagement is low, so there are minimal eyeballs on your sales page, your emails don’t get opened. You basically have no one hearing about your launch and your offer.

you need to reignite and reenergize the excitement around your offer. So in this instance, that could be issuing, you know, publishing new content on your podcast, on YouTube, on your social media channels, and potentially even finding a way to get in front of new audiences in the middle of your launch.

You could do that creatively by partnering with affiliates, for example, and seeing whether anyone is happy for you to do an Instagram live for, you know, questions to be answered to organically talk about your offer and that you’re currently, opening doors people can join. So there are lots of opportunities here, but if there is a leg of engagement, that obviously means you don’t have the numbers you need to reach your launch goals. So having.

new fresh eyeballs into your launch process, even in the middle of your launch might just be what’s going to get you to those targets that you’ve set yourself for the launch. You can also absolutely leverage case studies and social proof and results your students have seen at this part of your launch. So customer experience driven storytelling.

really is a great way to reengage hesitant buyers. So buyers who are who like your course, they’re totally curious, but they need a little more and a little more trust to be ready to invest. So you can be totally sneaky here and consider email takeovers from past students. So where you invite past students to share their first-hand experience in one of your sales emails, for example. So they write

your sales email for you and basically, yeah, present your audience with a case study of their course experience. You know, where were they before taking the course? What made them join? What were the results they got from the course and why do they think it’s beneficial for you to join the course? So that’s a great little strategy here because you’re not selling your course. Your students are actually selling your course for you. You can also go live with

past students, as I mentioned, on Instagram, in your Facebook community, if you have one, in all the right places, and get them to talk about their transformation. Again, nothing is more trustworthy than a past student who shares their experience. What I would pay attention to though is, again, don’t just focus on your star students who smashed the goals and the results they got from the course.

You want to also invite people who got amazing results, results that are achievable for the average student in your community, because we all know we’re starting from different baselines and sharing stories that started from a relatable baseline are much more trustworthy, relatable and feel like I could do the same. Right? You can also leverage your student results and

even students who are currently joining during your life launch to create genuine, gentle, formal fear of missing out because people want to be in the same room as them. So I’m a huge fan of having intake surveys. So as soon as someone joins, as soon as a student joins your course, you get their feedback on why they joined, what they’re hoping to achieve. And you know,

what their goals are basically. So it doesn’t have to be many questions, but this insight is great because you can share it in your sales email in the middle of your life launch and invite people to rub shoulders with people they’re looking up to potentially. And if they have any doubt around, you know, whether this course is for me, I’m not sure I’m cut out for it. Sharing…

A broad range of people who have joined your course with their motivations will likely touch on the motivation of those students out there who are still sitting on the fence. And they’re going to think, well, if those people have already joined and are already tapping into all the course content, they’re already learning, I can do the same. And my God, it would be amazing if I could rub shoulders with all these amazing.

business owners, people they can relate to. So you can absolutely share those unique perspectives from people who joined via screenshots, via typed up testimonials, behind the scenes snippets. It is really up to you, but I would focus on just dropping them organically into your sales emails and introducing the motivations why other people have joined.

know how they fit into the picture and what they’re trying to get out of this particular course they’ve joined. And yeah next up we have the big topic of personalization here. Shouldn’t surprise you if you’ve been in my universe for a while. I think you can totally add personalization into even large scale launches with the help of data.

So really finding out, you know, who is perfectly positioned to join your course, who’s shown the right behavior, who sent you the right signals to be worthy of a few extra gentle nudges. So it’s really about making them feel seen and heard. So everyone gets the launch emails, everyone can check out the sales page, but getting a personal touch point with the course creator.

can make all the difference in that decision-making process. an easy way to do that, to help people feel like they can connect with you directly if they have any questions, any issues, any mental hurdles they need to put to bed is adding a chat bot to your sounds page. That can be in video form. So video ask is a great tool here where you can have little video message.

pop up on the sales page and you can then, people can send you a video message and you can interact with them and yeah, help them answer their questions that you potentially might’ve missed on the sales page. ChatRust, same thing here, it’s just without the video. If you’re also ever curious about my favorite customer experience tools, there’s a link in the show notes of every episode that links through to my favorite resources page where you can suss out.

tools that I’m using in my own business as well to elevate that customer experience at any stage of the buying process. Next up, so we have the chat bot on the sales page. You can absolutely invite people to DM you or if you prefer VoxAi you. So VoxAi is a free walkie talkie app where people can send you little voice messages and ask their questions. So

up to you whether you want to put this invite out to everyone in the sales emails towards the mid to late phase of your launch or whether you want to add conditional content. So only people who meet certain criteria and have shown an invested interest in your launch receive this invite. So totally up to you here, but it can be again a great way to in a private setting answer any questions that they might have.

You can also run a private Q &A session or I’ve heard it called Open House lately in the online space where you basically invite people to take a look at the course platform where you guide them through basically like a real estate open house tour. Like you take them through the features, you show people what expects them on the inside and then all the fence sitters and people who are interested.

haven’t joined yet can ask you questions as part of that session. Very effective because some people sometimes feel particularly online courses are very intangible. People promise a lot, but it’s hard to see what expects you until you’ve invested. And sometimes it’s that big disappointment because what you were promised simply doesn’t pop up on the other end of that buy now button.

An open house, you can totally run that last minute if that slump happens. It’s as easy as sending out a Zoom link, inviting people at a certain time to join you and you just show them the learning portal and talk them through all the features. Next one is my favorite, sending personal video messages to engaged but hesitant prospects. So again,

Use your email metrics here to work out who that is up to you how you set those metrics, whether it’s, you know, people who have clicked through to the sales page a certain number of times, people who have, you know, engaged with your content enough for you to know they’re definitely on the fence, they’re definitely curious, they just need a little more sub personal video messages via Bonjoro, which is my favorite tool that I use.

can make all the difference. And if you use it in the mid phase of your launch, so that mid launch slump, it can again give people enough time and enough interaction with you to feel confident about joining your course before that final deadline comes rolling round. And my last point I want to touch on, because it’s so often forgotten, it’s really making sure that you simplify

process and reduce any friction that is in the checkout process. And we can so often forget that things can break during a launch and you know, we might not even know about it. So make sure you double check that your checkout page is working, that you can actually process the payment, that it gives you all the payment options, that the buttons on your sales page link through to the checkout page.

make sure it all works as it’s designed to work because heavens forbid we all know how stressful live launches can be. It’s super easy for things to slip through last minute. So make sure you double check things. And again, that’s where heat maps on your sales page come in handy as well. So heat maps actually allow you to pick up anger clicks as well, where people clearly are clicking.

a certain part of your page but it’s not working so if a button is broken that’s going to help you identify that. Another way to support your audience here is if times are tough financially like at the moment people have you know budgets that are stretched which doesn’t mean they don’t necessarily have the funds but they might just have to have longer payment terms so

Another way to encourage people to join and give people the confidence that it’s doable is to offer a more flexible payment plan, whether you introduce it for everyone or just to people who have shown an invested interest, that’s up to you. But sometimes it’s just a little bit more flexibility that can make all the difference. what I would do

definitely as part of your launch process, particularly if you offer a very generous refund policy or refund guarantee, satisfaction guarantee is, you know, remind them of this guarantee. It’s there for a reason. And be crystal clear on how they can, you know, get their money back in case it is simply not what they expected. So drop the email that they have to email to get their money back.

There’s nothing worse than joining a program and then you have no way of actually working out what it takes to get your money back. Let’s hope your course is actually what it promises so you don’t have to worry about it, but people are hesitant and reminding them of that refund guarantee with all the steps they need to take to get their money back just in case, again, can just be the final.

push their need to go, okay, I’m just gonna go, I’m gonna join because I’m pretty sure it’s what I want. But if not, there is this fallback. So if you are currently life launching or if you are planning your next life launch, here’s a great little action step list for you that I would love you to walk away with. So.

Have a look at your current launch strategy. So hopefully you are about to live launch, which means you’re not currently in the mid launch slump. Have a look potentially at your previous launch. So what were the biggest drop-off points here? How can you optimize your sales emails so people actually click on them? How can you optimize your sales page so people actually buy? And how can you plan your launch in a way that

people and addresses those objections, ideally before you even open the doors to your course launch. Are you addressing your objections head on? I feel like for us course creators, it’s so easy to just go, well, I know the doubts are there, but we just want to talk about it. Have you got a process in place where you are openly talking about those doubts, those worries, whether it’s around, you know, do I have enough time to do this course?

can I actually get those results? You know, do I need expensive tech tools to make it work? So are you talking about those things early on? So people have the confidence that they can tick all the boxes to get the results. Is there enough engagement, in your funnel? So do you have the numbers, based on past launch conversion rates to actually get your results? And if not.

Is now the time to grow your audience, get fresh eyeballs into your email list onto your social media channels. So then when you are ready to launch, you have the numbers to, to reach your goals and hopefully avoid disappointment. And then last but not least is your launch process, your buying process effortless. Does it feel super smooth and how can you.

infuse some more personal touch points along the way, particularly for those people who have shown an invested interest in what you are offering and selling. So if you love today’s episode, if you go, I wish Nadine or one of our guest experts could answer this little headache for me, then you can submit your own customer experience.

headaches or obstacles via the link in the show notes, either anonymously or you can drop your name and business in there too for a little shout out in the episode. And if you enjoyed this episode, I would love you to subscribe, leave a review, follow in all the places and share it with your people so they can also enjoy this interactive podcast format and create a remarkable customer experience before, during.

and after the purchase. Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you next time.