How to Create a Solid Marketing Plan for Your Online Course Launch
Are you ready to sell your digital course? You’ve probably spent weeks, if not months, creating a perfect course for your future students. But this is just content that is sitting in your online course platform without a marketing plan in place. Marketing your course doesn’t have to be super complicated or stressful, but you need a solid plan.
This post will cover how to create an effective marketing plan to sell your online course in your upcoming course launch.
The 3-Part Launch Phase
Before we begin, it’s important to note that every course launch should have three distinct phases:
The Pre-Launch Phase - Approximately eight weeks before your launch, depending on how warm your audience already is and how much the investment is.
The Launch Phase - The period of time that your cart is open and your course is available for enrollment. This phase typically lasts 1-2 weeks.
The Post-Launch Phase – A few weeks after your launch is over and your cart is closed.
Before you plan out the content for your launch, put a stake in the ground and determine your cart open and close dates. These dates will drive all other activities and deadlines for your launch.
Another decision you should make at the beginning of your planning is what type of launch you want to do. Will you do a live webinar launch, a challenge launch, or simply launch to your email list?
Now, let’s dive into each of these phases to know precisely what you need for a solid course launch marketing plan.
Phase 1: Pre-Launch
The pre-launch phase of your launch is the most essential and longest. How well your pre-launch is planned will generally determine how well your launch does.
In this phase, the most important part is showing up, showcasing your expertise, and building the know, like, and trust factor with your audience.
This phase usually includes promoting a lead magnet, such as a new guide, webinar, challenge, quiz, etc., that fits as a lead into your course.
If your audience is small, this phase can also focus on nurturing and bringing in new leads via collaboration with other business owners in your niche. You can also use Facebook Ads or other paid advertising promoting your content and lead magnet to grow your list.
During this phase, you’re promoting content that you’ve created related to your online course topic. This could be blog posts, podcast episodes, Facebook lives, YouTube videos, Instagram reels, TikTok videos, and similar types of content.
During this phase, you’re posting on social media and focused on building your email list for your upcoming course launch. You’re warming up your audience so that they are ready to buy when your cart opens.
In addition, in the pre-launch stage, you’re getting everything ready for your upcoming cart open phase. This may include finalizing your sales page and preparing any live webinar or challenge material. If you’re still putting the final touches on your course content, now is an excellent time to finish it too!
Phase 2: Launch
The doors are officially open, and all your launch planning is paying off. During the cart launch period, you want to focus on two main areas:
You are showing up and talking about your course - everywhere and all the time.
Don’t worry about annoying your audience. You know the statistics; people need to see something seven or more times before taking action. So, talk about your course! Nobody else will be as excited about it as you are, so share that excitement!
And the second focus should be on connecting. Be responsive to messages on social media or email. Make any inquiries feel heard and deliver excellent customer service.
You could even send warm leads who click on the link in your launch emails or who signed up for your waitlist a personalized video. Another option is to add a live chat box to your course sales page. Focus on building those relationships and authentic connections.
Be sure to send out all of your launch emails to your list during the cart open phase to promote your course and encourage your email subscribers to take action while the cart is open.
Suppose you’re doing a live webinar launch or a challenge launch. In that case, this is your opportunity to engage with your audience in real-time by interacting in the webinar chat or via a private Facebook challenge group.
Phase 3: Post-Launch
After your launch, no matter if you hit your goals this time around or not, take a break and celebrate! Launching is a lot of work, and the post-launch phase is essential for making your next launch even better.
Check out your numbers and see what was done well. Then, make notes on what could be improved for next time.
During this phase, you’re focused on onboarding your new students to ensure they know how to navigate through your course material and feel comfortable asking questions when needed.
You will thank yourself in the long run if you take the time to perform a launch audit to see what worked and what didn’t. Everything is always a valuable learning lesson!
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