*Show notes: *
Website: www.thedirtyalchemy.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thedirtyalchemy
Facebook: http://facebook.com/thedirtyalchemy
Podcasts mentioned:
8 Phases of a Numinous Launch: https://thedirtyalchemy.simplecast.com/episodes/004
How to Grow Your Business with Planetary Magic: https://thedirtyalchemy.simplecast.com/episodes/planetary-magic
Distillation: How to Get Out of the More is Better Trap and Make Truly Transformational Programs: https://thedirtyalchemy.simplecast.com/episodes/007
Resources mentioned:
We use www.videoask.com for our video testimonials
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Hey everyone!
So today I wanted to do a little Behind the scenes of a $513,000 online course launch.
These are real numbers from a relaunch we did for a client this year. This is actually a third launch for a single program - created this year, launch this year, and then relaunched 2 more times.
And with each launch of this program, things are just getting better and better. The launch goes more smoothly, word spreads more quickly, and we get even more people signing up.
A total argument for re-launching a stellar program versus launching brand new things all the time.
And I’ll just tell you now because I’m so excited and I can’t wait, but we actually got within 50 new members of our stretch goal for this launch.
Our goal was 250 new members, our stretch goal was 500 new members, but we were planning to launch again later this year to hit that number.
And we actually got 432 new members total, which means that we don't need to launch again this year. So actually this launch created less work for us which is really incredible.
So with 432 new members at the price of this program… this launch will make the business owner $513,000 over the next 12 months. And that’s not even including the hundreds of other members in the program right now who have been there since the first or second launch.
All together… this launch has helped us cross over into a million-dollar program. And it’s still growing!
Launches are this really interesting thing energetically and when it comes to business. There’s always the strategic and practical side of a launch… and then there’s the energetic & magical side to a launch. And me and my team really believe that you need BOTH to be aligned to have big success (whatever that success might look like to you specifically).
Memberships have blown up over the last year because of Stu Mclarens tribe program. You’ve probably seen more and more online businesses launching their own memberships, maybe you’ve even joined one or considered joining one. And maybe you’re wondering if it’s time for you to launch your own.
Hopefully this episode can help you answer that question and give you some insight and ideas into how to have the super successful launch and program of your dreams.
First thing’s first: I honestly don’t recommend starting an online membership unless you have a large audience and a team. It’s a ton of work to implement, and the more you grow and scale, the more work it becomes.
And just to clarify - a membership is when someone is paying you month after month for a set amount of new things month after month - whether that’s calls with you, new content, products, whatever. This is different than a course in that, in general, a course is something you create once, and maybe you add to it and make it better over time, but you’re charging your audience a set price for a set amount of stuff.
While memberships have been made sexy… There are downsides.
As I said, you do need a big audience to hit the monthly revenue to make it worth the amount of effort in general takes.
There’s also churn.
People who are canceling every month.
So you have to be constantly bringing in new people to cover the costs of the program & to keep a good profit margin.
Now I’m seeing a trend of people selling a full year of membership - which is not really a membership. Because you’re not just launching to get people for a short-term program, you’re not even really trying to lock people in for a year, you’re trying to lock people in for life or for however long you plan to have this membership last.
If you have a year-long membership, that’s really just a slightly-longer than usual but still short-term program. At the end of that year you are going to need to re-sell the program to the people who just completed it to try to get them to stay in.
So. Unless you have the team in place to continually launch the program… AND keep the current members happy and well cared for… AND continue to scale your business… this is not the time for you to start your membership program.
But I’m not here today to talk about memberships.
Now, let’s dive into the nitty gritty details of this past launch we just orchestrated here at Dirty Alchemy and look at why it was so successful.
If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you’ve probably heard me say before that I recommend relaunching a program over launching a new program. And this launch is a great example of why.
This was our biggest launch ever for this program — and the best part is, it wasn’t even supposed to be! We really didn’t expect this launch to be as big as it was. But that’s just what happens when you’re able to learn from past launches exactly what your audience wants.
Not to mention, it can be way less work to relaunch a product!
For this launch, we already had the sales page made. So while we did add to that sales page and edit it based on what seemed to work (or not work) during our past launches, most of the copy and the website building was done before we even started this relaunch. And the entire marketing funnel into the program was already established and well underway.
We were already super clear on what our offer was. Which is actually a really big deal.
The very first time you launch a product, sometimes there’s a gap between what you as the business owner are offering to people and what your audience understands about your offer. Or even a gap between what you think the offer will be & what it really becomes!
This is just classic communication issues that can totally be resolved and prevented, but I believe a lot of it comes from the business owner not always being super clear on what the execution of their brilliant ideas are.
They know exactly what they want to give their members in terms of what transformation they’re offering. But they don’t know exactly how that will look in practice.
So the awesome thing about re-launching is you already know exactly what the inside of your program looks like. You can tell people very clearly what they can expect because you’ve already seen it all play out in real time. And that helps to make it super clear who you are and what you’re all about to people who think your program might be for them.
Also, and this is big -- you can learn so much about your customer avatar by looking at who’s already in your program. By using social listening inside your program, you get crystal clear insight into what your ideal customers want and how they think your program can help them get it. Because ideally there's an open forum in your program where they're already talking about that amongst themselves. And so as you're trying to sell your program to new members, you can use all of this insight from your current members to say, “okay, I know what people want, I know how I can help them get there, and now I know exactly what I need to tell them to give them an understanding of how my program will help them get there.”
I've said this before but it’s still so true that you need to be the unicorn. Your customers are going to flock to you when they feel like you are fitting exactly what they need, their niche interests. So the more clear you are on your offerings, and what the members get from your offerings, the more like a unicorn you'll be.
Another thing about a membership program is that your offerings can change.
Obviously you don't want to welcome people into the program on one premise and then completely change that premise. It's also a ton of extra work for you if you decide halfway through that something isn't working so you're going to completely change it.
So you do want to be super clear about your offerings and why those are your offerings and how they can help people before your program even begins.
But once your program has started, you can use feedback from current members to make your program even better. And that can help you continue to scale your program and improve your program in a way that's going to make current members stick around, and is actually going to help you get new members as well.
By the way, if you’re still trying to figure out exactly what your program should look like, check out episode 7 on how to distill your message and make truly transformational programs. I’ll link it in the show notes. In that episode, I go in-depth into how to get people to join and stay in your program, and there is sooo much incredible information there so check that out.
Anyway, back to the behind the scenes. One thing we did during this launch was we had fresh eyes review
