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Have you ever poured your heart and soul into a service or program, offer it to your peeps, and then no one  (or hardly no one) signs up? 

Program launches that fizzle are painful, frustrating to bear, and leave you strapped for cash.

Why does this happen?  In this article, I will share with you 5 key mistakes solo entrepreneurs make with their launches that causes them to fall short of their program launch expectations.

1. Thinking too small.

A big mistake is to think too small, and pour a lot of energy and time into launching, say, a $37 e-book.  You’d have to sell many e-books at this investment level to create any significant cash flow.

Many people are wooed by what they hear about generating thousands of dollars of passive income “while they sleep” by selling an inexpensive information product online.    The truth is, to generate a lot of income from an information product, like an e-book, you need a MASSIVE number of people on your email list.

For someone with a list on the “small end,” there’s simply not enough critical mass to generate significant sales.

For example, with a list of 1,000 people, and a generous 5% sales conversion rate that yields sales of 50 e-books, an entrepreneur would create sales of just $1,850.  With a launch every 45 days, this is hardly enough to build your security, freedom, and wealth.  And, it simply isn’t worth the time and energy that goes into a launch this small.

What should you do?  Make sure your launches are worthwhile, financially, to you.  Set a Bold Money Goal for your launch.   Also, if you have a smaller list (fewer than 1,000 people), consider offline methods to market, and promote your programs and products.  A very powerful strategy is to hand-select people, and invite them into a conversation with you about your offering.

2. Thinking too big.

This can happen when a solo entrepreneur NEEDS to generate cash, and plans on “this one big launch” to save them financially.  The mindset here is one of desperation, and is a total energy drain, because they’re “betting the farm” on this one launch.  Too high or unrealistic expectations WILL most likely set you up for massive disappointment.

First, make sure you create a launch you can energetically “step into.”  What I mean by this is if your biggest launch to date enrolled 5 people, steer clear of setting a goal of enrolling 40 people in your next launch.  It’s just too big of a leap, and may be disappointingly unrealistic.

What you can do, once again, is set a Bold Money Goal for your launch.  Think about how much money you want to make.  How does this number feel energetically to you?  Is it a stretch for you, but still seems doable?

Also, look at your current price point of your offering.  How many sales would you have to make to reach your Bold Money Goal?  For example, if your Bold Money Goal is $5,000, and your program is priced at $297, you’d have to sell 17 units.  Does this seem doable to you?

If you priced your program at $997, you’d have to sell only 5 units to reach your Bold Money Goal.  Keep in mind it’s just as easy to sell a high-priced program, as it is a lower-priced one!

3. Not solving an urgent problem.

The problem here is no one’s buying, because there’s simply no demand for the program and product you’ve just poured your heart and soul into.

It’s critically important that you create programs that are a SOLUTION to a PROBLEM your clients urgently have, AND are willing to invest money to solve this problem.  To get right down to it, they want YOUR solution more than they want their money in their purse.

You can find out what problems your target market is suffering from by conducting email surveys; asking them directly in emails that you request they respond to; one-on-one conversations you have with them; “R&D” free teleseminars; customer feedback after they buy, etc.

4. Focusing online before it’s time.

This goes back to the “smaller list” issue.  If you depend entirely on email marketing to fill your programs, you’ll probably be disappointed because your list size isn’t large enough to create your sales goals.

With a smaller list (fewer than 1,000 people), make sure you reach out to current clients, past clients, and anyone else who has ever expressed interest in your programs and services, first, before depending on an online launch to fulfill your goals.

5. Not having a well-thought-out launch strategy.

Even if you do have a sufficiently large list, a launch strategy that’s not well planned will be a disappointment.  It’s important to have a launch sequence that carries through all the activities you must do to have a successful launch.  A launch isn’t necessarily complicated, but, it IS involved, as there are a lot of “moving parts” and multiple activities happening at the same time.

For example, for a successful program launch will need to—

• create a launch calendar
• offer a free preview teleseminar call to announce the program
• write and post a teleseminar opt-in page
• send emails to promote the teleseminar to your whole list and those who’ve already signed up
• schedule strategy sessions (1-1 conversations)
• to write articles about the topic and submi them to article directories
• advertise your teleseminar on seminar posting sites
• create Tweets and post them on twitter, Face book, and Linkedin
• blog about your topic
• send follow-up emails after the preview teleseminar
• plan a strategy to deal with launch lulls after the preview offering and launch end date
• Decide on offline promotional activities

All these activities have to flow and dance together in harmonious movement to be effective and profitable for you.  Before your next launch, set a Bold Money Goal, and really think about how you’re pricing your offering.  Then, put your launch plan into play to generate maximum sales, and create a lucrative cash flow stream.

Posted: Thursday, May 12th, 2011 at 1:59 pm • Tags: launch, launches, program launches •  Both comments and pings are currently closed.