Episode 26: What Kind of Launch Will Help You Land More Clients?

Episode 26: What Kind of Launch Will Help You Land More Clients?

You’ve probably heard about people launching Challenges, Webinars, Coach-a-Thons, or Facebook Lives to get clients, but what’s the right one for YOU to focus on right now?

In this episode of ‘A Profitable Impact,’ Pamela unlocks the difference between various launches so you can choose the best option to attract the high-paying clients you’re looking for.

You’ll discover:

• Key differences between the different launch types, and why that’s important for you
• The easiest launch type to start with, so you can attract clients right away
• #1 biggest mistake that most people make when launching (you definitely want to avoid THIS!)

Timecode Guide:

02:03: Discover the 4 main types of marketing launches, and learn the key differences between them.
16:19: Pamela reveals the easiest launch type to get started with, so you can start honing in on your skills running online trainings and virtual events.
19:08: Get the inside scoop on the big mistake most people make when launching.

Podcast Transcription

Episode 26: What Kind of Launch Will Help You Land More Clients?

Welcome to Launches!

Intro (00:00):
You’re listening to ‘A Profitable Impact.’

Pamela (00:02):
Challenges, webinars, coach-a-thons, Facebook Lives… How do you know what to launch to get clients? Well, that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today.

Gene (00:12):
Welcome to ‘A Profitable Impact,’ where every single week we help experts like coaches, healers, course creators, and other online professionals to expand their reach, to increase their impact in the world, and to be well-paid for their extraordinary skills and talents. My name is Gene Monterastelli, and I am the lead coach in Pamela Bruner’s Impact Accelerator coaching program. And now please welcome my friend, my colleague, and the CEO of Attract Clients Online, Pamela Bruner. How’re you doing today, Pamela?

Pamela (00:40):
We’re… LAUNCHING! No. Hahaha!

Gene (00:41):
Hahaha!

Pamela (00:45):
I’m fine, except this launch mania is kind of sweeping the online world. Like it was a big thing, but able to be contained before we went into the whole world-is-in-a-pandemic thing. Now, even with the world opening up, launches are still pretty hot. So, what should you launch to get clients? There’s challenges, there’s webinars, coach-a-thons, Facebook Lives, you know,… but what’s the right thing to launch? That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Gene (01:14):
And so, as you listen to our conversation, if you’re in a situation where you still have some more questions about how to implement this in the way that makes the most sense for you, for your business, and to serve your clients as well as possible, we would encourage you to reach out and have a free conversation with one of our coaches. All you need to do is go to BookMyBreakthroughCall.com, that’s BookMyBreakthroughCall.com. Get yourself on the calendar with one of our coaches, and they would love to help you to navigate the tricky world of launches.

Pamela (01:43):
So today we’re going to talk about the key differences between the different launch types and why that’s important for you. Also, what’s the easiest launch type to start with as you’re working to attract clients right away? And the enormous mistake that most people make when launching, and you definitely want to avoid that. So, let’s dive in.

Launch #1: Challenges

Pamela (02:03):
Key differences… So, one of the types of launches that’s been really hot for the last while now is the challenge. And with good reason, challenge’s have a lot to recommend them. The promise of a challenge, and what makes it special, is that a challenge is defined as having a particular outcome. So at the end of the challenge, you will have accomplished something. You will have made a video, you will have baked a cake, you will have “one of our clients slept for five nights in a row,” whatever it is, the outcome is the deliverable.

Pamela (02:39):
Whereas before whenever people were launching, usually the launch promised some kind of learning, or insight, or understanding, but a challenge actually has an outcome. Now you can stretch the definition of “outcome” a little bit, but that makes challenges really, really inticing for people because they believe at the end, they’re going to have something that they can hold onto that they’ve actually accomplished.

Pamela (03:06):
Now, there are challenges that run anywhere from three days to, I’ve seen them for 30 days. I’m going to suggest for a challenge that you want to look at three to five days. And with a challenge, some of the components are that the challenge is all based on engagement in a group. So you’ll usually run a challenge with some kind of group, often a Facebook Group, and every day for the three or five days, you will release content. Or you will teach live on a live presentation about the various pieces. And then you’ll usually give homework to people.

Pamela (03:43):
One of the things you need to know about a challenge is that what makes it work is engagement. You need to be in that Facebook group all the time over those three or five days, answering questions, exhorting people to do more, encouraging people, and getting them really, really engaged and excited about what you are creating. So be prepared to be on. Leading up to the challenge, I think it’s a great idea to have some kind of pre-work so that people are getting excited prior to day one of the challenge. And it does involve a number of emails because you have to send emails prepping people for the challenge, you’re going to send one or two emails a day during the challenge, and if you’re someone who is a little email-phobic, that might be uncomfortable, but it is absolutely the right way to do a challenge. And I’m not just talking from a marketing standpoint, but from an accomplishment or from a transformational standpoint. People need that encouragement to get that outcome.

Gene (04:41):
And I love what you talk about in there about this idea of how it’s important that we are engaging with the community as we’re doing this particular thing. Because I think that does a couple of things. One is it gives us an opportunity to create greater transformation in the world because we’re customizing our responses as people ask questions, as we’re encouraging them. But the other thing that it does is, it demonstrates that we are more than the useful presentation that we gave as the primary content for each of the days of the challenge. That they get to see us as human, as engaged, as understanding where they are, of understanding the nuance, which is only going to build our credibility and our connection with our audience, as we’re engaging in that particular way.

Pamela (05:23):
Now I started with a challenge in talking through the different launches, but it is,… it’s not an easy launch to run. And one of the biggest things that you need to nail (get right) about a challenge is the promise of the challenge. I have done this well, and I have done this poorly, and I’ll talk about both of them. So doing it well, I created a challenge all around creating a high-ticket offer. Now it’s like a shortened version of “here’s how to create a signature system,” which is something that we teach our long-term clients. And so we pared down the deliverable, but people came away with a small portion of the overall promise of “create your entire signature system and your high-ticket offer.” And ‘Create Your High-Ticket Offer’ was the challenge and that did very well.

Pamela (06:13):
I also launched a challenge about ‘Create a Freebie in Five Days.’ And I think because people weren’t as familiar with the concept of a “freebie,” that one didn’t do as well. It’s not that the people who went through it didn’t enjoy it, they did. They got a lot out of it and they created a free offer. But because people didn’t know what a freebie was, and it wasn’t that desirable, not as many people engaged with that challenge. So getting the promise of the challenge right is very, very important. And a mistake that is easy to fall into, especially if you are inclined to be a teacher, is to say, “Well, I’m going to challenge for five days, and each day I’m going to teach them a different component of X, Y, Z.” Well, unless you are teaching them something and then giving them homework, and having them implement, and do something, it’s not actually a challenge. It’s just five days of teaching.

Gene (07:01):
And the reality is people do not want new information. They want an outcome. They want something that is deliverable that they can implement in their lives. Because we have all learned lots and lots of things in our life that we don’t do anything with, even useful things about our business. And so, by having that key component where they’re engaging, they’re creating, and there’s a deliverable at the end of it, is going to make it so much easier for people to say “yes” in the beginning and to stay engaged as we deliver it.

Launch #2: Webinars

Pamela (07:30):
Exactly. So let’s move onto the next type of launch, which is a webinar. So there’s a lot of misunderstanding about webinars because (even in the days when they were teleseminars or teleclasses, and now they’re webinars because slides are very easy and video is very easy), the outcome with a webinar is positioned as learning-based. Usually it is, ‘[3] Massive Mistakes that [a Target Market] Makes When Trying to [Achieve an Outcome]’ – that’s a template for a potential title for a webinar. So it is about “you’re going to learn X, Y, Z when you come on this webinar.”

Pamela (08:08):
The interesting thing about that is, the webinar needs to be all about the offer that you’re going to make, not about the teaching. If you teach people, particularly if you teach them too much is a very common rookie mistake, they will end up at the end of the webinar feeling sort of stuffed with information and not willing or able to take the next step. Over-delivering with information is just going to leave people feeling full and like they have to process that, and “I got to think through this before I take any other action,” and you probably won’t succeed in selling anything else you want to offer at the end of the webinar. I consider a webinar actually the hardest of the launches to do. So it’s not the one that I recommend that you do first, because getting your slides right, getting your message right, getting your content right, even getting your offer right at the end,… there’s just a lot to put together.

Pamela (09:03):
So that being said, some people want to do a webinar. And mostly, I want to make sure that if you choose to do a webinar, you use a very established format. There are lots of people who teach webinars out there and they teach them with established formats that ended up in a sale. One hint about doing a webinar well is, your very first webinar should not sell a product. It should “sell free,” and what I mean by that is, your webinars should offer a strategy session, a discovery session, a free call with you. And on that call, you invite people to step into working with you, but do not try to sell on the webinar. That is definitely an advanced technique.

Gene (09:46):
Another piece, Pamela, about that sense of them being overstuffed inside of that, sometimes the response isn’t overstuffed. Sometimes if we teach too much, they think it’s sufficient. And so it’s really easy for them not to say “yes” to the call-to-action because we have given them so much good stuff over the course of the conversation, they’re walking away thinking, “Oh, I know everything I need to know to solve whatever the problem is.” And so, we need to be careful that when we are sharing information in any of these, not just webinars, but coach-a-thons, challenges, whatever, that in whatever we’re sharing with them, we’re also doing a really good job of demonstrating the fact that: “This is useful, and it’s also insufficient for you to solve the problem. But for you to solve the problem in a big way, we need to do whatever that call-to-action is for the particular thing that we’re doing.”

Pamela (10:30):
Exactly. Thank you – great example!

Launch #3: Coach-a-Thons

Pamela (10:32):
The third type of launch I want to talk about is a coach-a-thon. Now, a coach-a-thon is a little bit of teaching and a lot of Q&A. So for people who are used to answering Q&A and are very comfortable doing that, a coach-a-thon can be a great format. Now in a minute I’m going to talk about a Facebook Live and there’s difference. A coach-a-thon I distinguish between you have people live on the call in some way (usually Zoom) that you can interact with. So people can ask questions, maybe they’re on the screen with you, maybe they ask the question off the screen, but there is interaction in a coach-a-thon. If I want to do anything that involves tapping, or makeovers, or something like that, you know, a marketing makeover for somebody’s post, I will do it as a coach-a-thon.

Pamela (11:24):
Another nice thing about a coach-a-thon is, because you’re teaching a little bit and then answering Q&A, I think a good way to set this up is to teach maybe three short concepts that you know will be problematic for your ideal client because of what that’s going to do as you teach something. So, for example, say I taught, “Here’s how to set a high price for a high-ticket package.” Now, for most who aren’t used to charging high-ticket, that’s going to be a very uncomfortable concept. And I may ask them to do something, or invite them to do something, that they think, “Oh, but I could never do that,” or, “You don’t understand my clients.” And since we’re in a coach-a-thon format, they actually get to ask me those questions, and I get to demonstrate that I can coach people through this. So, as you think about a coach-a-thon, if you have the Zoom technology (and most people do now), that can be a very, very good format to start people off. Also, a coach-a-thon is usually a one-time thing. So, it’s not a challenge over 3-5 days. It’s not a webinar that has slides. It’s just something where you’re going to show up and teach a little bit. Even if you created a couple of slides for your coach-a-thon, and you don’t have to – but even if you created a couple of slides and you did a screenshare of your slides, it’s still much, much easier than a webinar.

Gene (12:46):
And the other thing that I find, Pamela, when we’re doing that sort of teaching is, oftentimes, particularly in the beginning, we have a hard time sharing useful information because we have so much to share. But if we get ourselves into a situation where we’re responding to question and answer, the questions people are asking us kind of narrow the focus of what we’re sharing. And oftentimes we’re much clearer communicators when we’re responding to questions versus giving a presentation on something, because by the necessity of the question we’re kind of hemmed in, which makes it easier for us to share what we know and what can be useful.

Pamela (13:18):
Yeah, another great thing about doing Q&A relatively early on in your business is that over time you will end up with stock answers and streamline things. And if you mine your own coach-a-thons, you’ll find that you’re creating great content that then you can share in emails, in other speaking opportunities, or in blog posts. You know, you’ll have things that you can share with people because you end up giving the same answer, [chuckles] hundreds and hundreds of times.

Gene (13:46):
Well yeah, the person that I plagiarize the most is myself. Like I’m constantly going back and reusing stuff all the time. I have a class that I teach monthly with some of my students, and we had an absolutely amazing conversation that wasn’t even on the topic that we were scheduled to talk about this week, over the weekend. And I walked out of it going, “Ooh, I have three podcasts ideas and an article idea just from this conversation,” because there was that give and take, and I was being forced to think about things in a new way, which is generating content. So I might as well reuse that over and over again.

Feeling stuck? As a podcast listener, you can book an exclusive FREE Breakthrough Call with one of my expert coaches to get all your business questions answered.

Launch #4: Facebook Lives

Pamela (14:22):
Great example. And then the final type of launch that I want to talk about is a Facebook Live. Now, you could do a Facebook Live weekly, bi-weekly, monthly. And for the most part, it is easier. It does not have to be very long. You could do a Facebook Live that’s 15 minutes long, whereas a coach-a-thon would probably be at least an hour, and a webinar is often 30-45 minutes, maybe an hour, and there are people who teach them up to two hours. So, your Facebook Live is a way to get started.

Pamela (14:52):
The only thing that can be a little harder with Facebook Live is that there is very little interaction with the people who may be attending. First you may not have that many people on your Facebook Live, unless you spend a fair amount of time inviting people to it. And with Facebook Live, because they are recorded to Facebook, often people will consume it after the fact. So, they’ll learn something from you afterwards, but they’re not there Live for you to engage with.

Pamela (15:23):
Now, the other thing is that there’s a delay in Facebook Lives. So when you make an invitation, like if you actually do have 20, or 30, or 40 people watching you, you can say, “Hey, what I want you to do right now is share in the comments or share in the chat with me this.” But the thing is, it’ll be 30 seconds before those responses start coming in after you make that request. So you have to fill that time with some information, rather than going onto the next section of teaching that you might be doing. And so that can be a little more difficult. When you initially do Facebook Live, I would try to set it up so that you are not dependent on those comments. So you can say, “Hey, if this resonates with you, I want you to put it in the chat right now,” or, “I want you to comment on it right now,” and you can do that, but do not expect to get a response in a meaningful way that you will then interact with.

The Easiest Launch Type for Beginners

Pamela (16:19):
So I promised that I would share the easiest launch type, and it’s probably pretty clear at this point, after going through the four different types, I really think that doing Facebook Lives, and doing relatively short presentations, is a great way to start with a launch.

Pamela (16:35):
Now, I haven’t actually defined a “launch.” Like what makes a Facebook Live a launch, as opposed to just having it be a Facebook Live? I think it’s that you invite someone to it. So think of a launch as a party. Because if you do a Facebook Live and you don’t invite anyone to it, someone might happen to knock on your door the day that you’re doing a Facebook Live and go, “Oh, Pamela is entertaining. I should go in and sit and have a glass of wine with her,” but probably they won’t.

Pamela (17:02):
So a Facebook Live launch comes from the fact that you advertise it beforehand, you make Facebook posts about it, you may email the people that you think would be interested in it, and basically it becomes a party that you invite people to. Same thing with coach-a-thons, webinars, challenges is that you need to get those people assembled at the right place, at the right time, in order to share your information or to take people through this engaging process. Also, the end result of any launch has to be an offer of some sort. As I said, I think the best offer to make initially is, “get on a call with me” – “have a strategy session,” “have a discovery session,” and we’ve got names for those, but that’s another podcast episode. So decide what type of launch you want to do, set up your event, set up a couple of emails, and go for it.

Gene (17:56):
And I want to hit home what Pamela just said, right there. It is super, super important that you know exactly the call-to-action you’re going to be using in something like this, and you make it in a clear, direct way. It’s really nice and lovely to think that people are going to hear me share wonderful information and they’re just going to reach out to me because they’re so moved by what is going on. People might be really, really moved, but they also might be confused as to what the next action is for us to do. So whatever strategy you choose to use, make sure you’re doing exactly what Pamela just said there, tell them exactly what to do at the end so it’s easier for them to engage with you.

Pamela (18:33):
And if you want them to do a call with you, make sure that you give them very clear instructions on how to do that. Please don’t use a bit.ly link. “Well, if you want to schedule a call with me, just go to ‘b-i-t dot l-y slash x-a-r.’” No. You know? Like, no – have a short link, or give your website that has the call link on it, or something – make it super easy. Especially if people are listening to you or watching you on video, it needs to be something that’s easily spoken and understood.

Gene (19:02):
Tell ’em, what to do, tell ’em how to do it, and tell ’em why it is valuable – that will get them to take action.

Pamela (19:08):
Perfect.

The Big Mistake Most People Make When Launching

Pamela (19:08):
So finally, the big mistake that most people make with launching. Though there are a myriad mistakes you can make with launching, but the thing that I want to stress is, you almost certainly have more content for whatever kind of launch you’re doing than you actually need. And the most common rookie mistake, as I mentioned earlier when talking about webinars, is to over teach. Because you want to give people who show up all of the transformation that’s possible, and all of your expertise, and everything you know, but it took you years, possibly decades, certainly months to learn all of that. You cannot give them all of that. Whether it’s 15 minutes, or an hour, or two hours, you just can’t give people all of that. So narrow down the focus. Focus on, “What is the promise of this launch?” “What is the training – is it a webinar, or coach-a-thon, or a Facebook Live? Is it the outcome of a challenge?” And, “Where am I leading my participants? What is the offer at the end?” And walk away from too much teaching.

Gene (20:14):
That is the biggest change that has happened in the last decade for me as a presenter. When I’m given the opportunity to teach I’m teaching less, more effectively, more deeply, so they can actually implement that particular thing. It is something that we all need to hear over and over again.

Closing the Loop with One Final Example

Gene (20:31):
As we’ve been having this conversation today, if you’re still struggling to figure out the strategy and which is the type of launch that makes the most sense for you right now where your business is, we’d love for you to have a free conversation with one of our coaches. All you need to do is go to BookMyBreakthroughCall.com, that’s BookMyBreakthroughCall.com, and you can get yourself on the calendar with one of our coaches so that they can help you out, and you can figure out what should be the next steps you should be taking. Now, if you listen to what I just did, I did exactly what we talked about: I’m telling you what to do, I’m telling you how to do it, and I’m telling you exactly why it is valuable.

Gene (21:13):
If you’ve enjoyed the conversation today and you know someone else in your life – another coach, another healer, another transformational entrepreneur – who you think would really benefit from this particular conversation, please pass this episode along to them. It might be the exact piece of strategic advice that they need today to move their business to the next level, and more importantly, make a bigger impact in the world.

Gene (21:34):
If you have a question about this topic, or any other topics around your business growing, making connections, and really showing up in a way that is dynamic, please let us know. We’d love to answer those questions on a future episode. All you need to do is go to AttractClientsOnline.com, click on that ‘Contact’ link, and in the message put “question for the podcast.” We would love to hear from you.

Gene (21:55):
If you haven’t done so already, Subscribe to the podcast. In podcasting, Subscribe is always free. You can get the show in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, Audible, basically everywhere you get audio online, all you need to do is search for ‘A Profitable Impact,’ click Subscribe, click Follow, and turn on those Notifications so that when a new episode comes out you know right away so you can consume more of this goodness.

Gene (22:26):
For ‘A Profitable Impact,’ I am Gene Monterastelli. Until next time, I hope you have an impactful week.

ABOUT THE PODCAST

Building a business as a coach or expert is challenging, especially if you’re trying to find your clients online.

Join business coach and online marketing expert Pamela Bruner as she uncovers the secrets of successful transformational businesses. If you want to make a difference in people’s lives, expand your reach, and attract high-paying clients, you’ll love this show!