138: Boost Your Launch Results: Unleashing the Power of Pre-Launch Content
Copywriter launch strategist, Stephanie Tilton, shares her expert advice on the critical pre-launch phase of launching a course. With a focus on creating authentic, heart-driven content over a four-week period, Stephanie emphasizes the importance of validating ideas and gauging audience interest before launching, to ensure a successful course launch. With tips on creating effective pre-launch content and advice on what types of content to avoid, this podcast is a must-listen for any course creator or membership owner looking to improve their launch strategy.
Specifically, we discuss:
Why pre-launch content is so important
Why pre-launch content is often overlooked or not used effectively during launches
What should be included in your pre-launch content
Misconceptions about pre-launch content
Summary:
Launching a course can be a daunting task, and it's not uncommon to experience disappointment when the launch falls flat. In a recent episode of The Course Creator's MBA Podcast, copywriter launch strategist, Stephanie Tilton, discussed the importance of pre-launch content and how it can make a significant difference in the success of a launch.
The pre-launch phase is an opportunity for creators to communicate the significance of their upcoming launch and give their audience a chance to learn more about them and how they can help solve their problems or reach their goals. Stephanie stresses that pre-launch content should not be overlooked or used ineffectively, as it is crucial for creators to validate their idea and see if it's something their audience would be interested in before taking their money or creating the product.
Stephanie recommends creating pre-launch content over a four-week time period, with at least one piece of content specific to the pre-launch idea being created each week. The content should focus on helping the audience with mindset issues, foreshadowing what their future could look like once their problem is solved, and filling the gap between where they are now and where they want to be.
Course creators should focus on pre-launch content before creating sales pages and launch emails, as this is the time to gauge interest in the offer and make any necessary tweaks before launching. Stephanie emphasizes that it's essential to try different types of pre-launch content to see what resonates with the audience and what doesn't, and to do more of what gets engagement.
One misconception about pre-launch content is that it should be trendy or DIY-focused, but Stephanie warns that these types of content may not necessarily warm up an audience to the offer or help them feel confident in their ability to benefit from it. Pre-launch content should be authentic and come from the heart, as this is what will resonate with the audience and make them excited about the upcoming launch.
Stephanie offers a free guide called the Profitable Course Launch Guide, which includes resources for audience growth, planning a five-day launch, and pre-launch content ideas. It's an excellent resource for course creators who need help with their pre-launch strategy.
In conclusion, the pre-launch phase is a critical time for creators to connect with their audience, validate their idea, and make necessary tweaks before launching. Creating pre-launch content over a four-week time period and focusing on helping the audience with mindset issues, foreshadowing what their future could look like once their problem is solved, and filling the gap between where they are now and where they want to be, is crucial for a successful launch. Course creators who implement pre-launch content effectively will find that their audience is engaged, excited, and ready to buy when the time comes.
Mentioned In This Episode
Where you can find Stephanie: Website and Instagram
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Transcript:
Destini Copp 0:00:00
You. And my special guest today is Stephanie Tilton. Stephanie is a copywriter launch strategist and founder of Stephanie Tilton Copywriting. Her mission is simple, helping her clients write launch copy that comes from the heart so that they can hit their big picture launch goals. And I know, Stephanie, we all want to do that. And I am super excited to jump into this topic with you today. And today we're going to be talking about how to increase your launch results using strategic prelaunch content. And I know a lot of us, and I'll put myself in this category too, we don't do as much as we should, right, to kind of warm up of our audience. So I am so excited to chat with you today about this. But before we begin with all the questions I have for you, Stephanie, can you tell the good audience a little bit more about you, how you help people and how you got started in all this?
Stephanie Tilton 0:01:11
Yeah, I'm really excited to be here also and to talk about pre launch, because like you said, it has something that not everyone understands the power that it has and why it's so important. But just to get into kind of where I got my start, I think a lot of service providers, we always say we love what we did before we ever turned that into a career. And that is especially true for me. I've always loved to write. I used to take notebooks, keep them in my car or at work, and would write like, little stories and things. And so, kind of an unfortunate event. I was working in a government agency, a local government agency here and had some preterm labor stuff going on while I was out on bed rest. Received a letter in the mail that I no longer was an employee there. So it is what it is. I still to this day have no idea what happened with that. But I just decided to take that as an opportunity to kind of get more into the writing part that I love. And so I started on upwork like a lot of copywriters do, writing blog posts and things like that, and then eventually just got in with the right types of clients, started working more on sales pages and email sequences. And then all of that led me to launches because I like to provide the full service for my clients. I will write just a sales page or just an email sequence, but I really love to give them everything the need to really be successful and to really have the results reach the results that they're going for. And so I work now with smaller businesses to mid size businesses who have courses, programs or memberships that they are wanting to launch and continue promoting every year.
Stephanie Tilton 0:03:01
So it's so much fun.
Destini Copp 0:03:05
In terms of what you said about you love to kind of look at the big picture and I think that's important. Right? Because if we're only looking at or working on certain aspects of our launch, we might be missing something. And I think that's what we're going to be talking about today, because we're going to be talking about something that I think a lot of us either overlook completely or we don't put a lot of emphasis on it. And that is prelaunch content. So Stephanie, can you tell us why focusing on pre launch content and making sure that we have a complete strategy around it is so important?
Stephanie Tilton 0:03:47
Yeah, so one of the biggest things when you're launching, like a big complaint that I know a lot of my clients have had is they go and launch and then it's just crickets. Like, nobody engages with their emails or their social media content. People aren't really going over to their sales page and buying. And one of the reasons for that is their audience really had no idea that this launch was even going to happen or the significance of it at this point in time. And so with your prelaunch content, it's really your chance to, first of all, give your audience a chance in this time period where they're learning a little bit more about you and how you can specifically help them with whether that's a problem or just reaching a goal or whatever it is that your audience is really needing at that point in time. It's just your chance to showcase how you can help them through that or how you can help them reach their goals. But the also with prelaunch content, from our point of view, the creators who are launching an offer, this is also our chance to kind of validate that idea and to see if this is even something that our audience is interested in, if it would even be something that they would want to buy. And so a lot goes into that. And having this pre launch content, you can kind of see what your audience's reaction is going to be if this topic is something they're interested in. And then that way you don't waste a lot of time creating an offer that may not sell because they really don't need it. So it does really save a lot of headache and trouble going forward into the launch.
Destini Copp 0:05:29
So I loved what you're suggesting there, which is you can also use it not only to warm up your audience, but if it's a new offer, you can use it to validate an idea and see if it's something that they would even just to see if something that they're going to buy when you actually launch it.
Stephanie Tilton 0:05:49
Yeah, and it's not even pre selling. I know a lot of people talk about preselling, but it's really not an exchange of money before you've ever created something. I know a lot of people have a dilemma around that. Like the ethical piece of that, what if I don't create it and someone's paid for it. And I kind of feel the same way about that. I want to make sure I deliver something if people are paying. So this is just a way to kind of see if this is even anything that your audience would be interested in before you ever take money or create the thing. And I think people are open, especially now, to creators who are just open about the fact that, hey, I'm launching this thing. It's not going to start until X date. I don't have it created yet, but it will be created by the time we start. So it's okay to do it that way as well when you're launching.
Destini Copp 0:06:40
So I'm just curious, why do you think we either overlook prelaunch content or we're not using it effectively? What do you think is missing there? What is causing us to kind of skip this step?
Stephanie Tilton 0:06:55
Well, there's two main reasons that I see a lot with the clients I work with or just people that I'm talking to in general. One of those is that we run out of time and I'm guilty of this as well. What can happen is we're creating offers, we're worried about the sales page and making sure that's perfect and worried about the launch emails and everything. And then we realize we're a week or two out from our car open day and we've not put any sort of content out that gets our audience like this pre launch content that I'm talking about that's warming up our audience or just making them aware of this thing that we're going to be promoting and why it's so important. And so that's one of the biggest things. It's just not enough time. And then another thing is that we don't really always know what we're supposed to talk about during this prelaunch phase or how long we should talk about things or what prelaunch content is supposed to look like. And so when you don't really know what you're supposed to do, we tend to just not do anything at all. And that can be for anything, whether it's launching or whatever it is in business or in life. So those two main things have a big role in why prelaunch content just doesn't get created.
Destini Copp 0:08:18
And I agree with you, everybody is we're all busy, we don't have enough time in the day. So that's definitely one of the reasons. But I also think you hit the nail on the head when you said if we don't know what we're supposed to do, then we just don't do it or don't do anything. So let's jump in there and talk about what are some of the things that we should bring up in this pre launch content or talk about with our audience, what exactly is included in this content?
Stephanie Tilton 0:08:50
Yeah, and I know something that everyone will ask us, how long should we do this for? So when I'm thinking of creating pre launch content, whether it's for a client or for myself, I'm looking at like a four week time period. And that doesn't necessarily mean that you're putting out one piece of content every day for four weeks. It just means at least once a week you're creating content specific to this pre launch idea. And so what you want to think about is the buyer's journey basically and where your audience is in this exact moment, whether that's they're facing some sort of struggle they want to overcome or whether that is that they have some deep desire that they're hoping that they can achieve. You want to think about where they are now and where they want to be, what that end goal is for them. And so your prelaunch content is basically going to fill in the gap and help them to get to that place where they feel capable of jumping in and investing in your offer. They feel like at this moment or when the invest and when they work with you, that they're actually going to be able to achieve those results. So some of the things that you want to talk about in your pre launch content are just helping with any sort of mindset stuff. I'll say just the mindset piece that goes in to where we have our self doubt. We doubt ourself, we doubt what we're capable of. We have maybe been misled by things in the past. And so maybe we want to shift the way people see their ability to achieve success and we want to help them work through that mindset piece. Or you can also help them to see why some of the things that the misleading things that they've been doing in the past, why those haven't have kept them stuck or kept them in this place that they're at and then how maybe you do things differently, that's a better option. And some other things that we can talk about too are just sort of foreshadowing what is going to happen in the future or what their future could look like once this problem is gone or they've finally fulfilled that desire, that goal that they want to achieve.
Stephanie Tilton 0:11:16
What will their life or their business look like after that. And all of these things really you're just kind of helping people feel like that empowered feeling where they say to themselves like yes, I can actually do this, I can actually have this in life, in business and this is the person I feel confident can help me to get there. And so that's kind of like what goes into prelaunch content without going into super detailed specifics here. And I can give specifics if you think that would be something that the listeners would like to hear. But it's just really about thinking how you can really support your audience through this process of deciding if an offer like yours is something that would benefit them. Because we all have that little bit of doubt like, is this actually going to help me? And if I'm spending all this money, I want to make sure that it works.
Destini Copp 0:12:18
Absolutely. And I think a lot of people out there are questioning their purchasing decisions, especially in this economy, helping them feel like it is truly achievable and that you're the person to help them get there, I think is very important. So let's dig into that a little bit. So let's say that that is the type of content that you want to put out there or you want to kind of help them see. Yes. At the end of this journey, I want to go on, I can actually do this. What would you suggest? That a course creator or somebody who has a membership, what kind of content specifically would they be doing there?
Stephanie Tilton 0:13:01
Yeah, so I can give an example. It kind of helps me to feel like I'm less generic. And then also you can kind of take this and spin it into your own business. But for example, I've worked with a watercolor artist, and it was for a watercolor course. And then she also had some other smaller digital offers and things, but some of the pre launch content that we would try to focus on, and this is just her style as well. So you have to kind of think about how you approach kind of sharing and teaching your specific audience. But for her, she's very inspirational and uplifting. And so we wanted to kind of talk about the mindset piece, which would be like perfectionism. So for her audience, they kind of struggle with this idea that everything has to be perfect when they sit down to paint. And so it kind of hinders them getting started. It goes into a whole lot of what they do and how they feel while they're painting. And so that right there just that perfectionism. We created one email, just focused on that aspect of it just to kind of walk them through and help them to overcome, like, everything doesn't need to be perfect. And here's why. And even thinking about, like, in nature, no two trees are the same, so it's okay if your painting doesn't look like someone else's.
Stephanie Tilton 0:14:22
That type of thing.
Destini Copp 0:14:24
I love that, and I think that's a great example of helping people understand what the end they can do it. That's the end result. And I can actually do it because it doesn't have to be perfect. I love that.
Stephanie Tilton 0:14:37
Yeah, exactly. And so it's just really thinking about how can you support your audience and almost, like, help them through these things. Because every opportunity that you have to write an email or to just communicate with your audience is an opportunity for you to show them the type of I want to say teacher, but when we get into courses, obviously we're learning and so it's someone's teaching us. But the type of teacher that you are, the type of coach that you are, how you are going to be when they're in that offer, when they're in that course or that program, or that membership. You're giving them that kind of sneak peek of what they can expect when they're working with you and when they're learning from you. And so any chance that you have to showcase that part of yourself is always going to be a benefit when you're launching and when you're writing this prelaunch content.
Destini Copp 0:15:30
Thank you for giving us that and going into a specific example of how we can actually implement this in our business. And I'm going to switch gears with you a little bit here. And can you tell us about when somebody's thinking about prelaunch content, what is one misconception that they may have about what prelaunch content actually is?
Stephanie Tilton 0:15:54
Yeah, so I know we've probably all seen a lot of this these days. I think a lot of people have this idea that the pre launch content, it needs to be something like a trendy reel or maybe a DIY piece of content where you're teaching them how to do something. But the reason that that is not necessarily like pre launch content, it does have a place as we're marketing ourselves as business owners and that type of thing. But with a trendy reel you have to think about what is that doing? That's really just growing your audience. And so that isn't necessarily getting an audience that's ready to buy, it's bringing in a new audience that may still be really cold to you and to your offers. And so the trendy reels would be great to do a few months before you decide to launch as you're building and growing your audience. But the pre launch content you want to really have that be content that's warming people up to the idea of you and to your offer and to how you help. And then also getting into things like the DIY type of content. Depending on what your offer is, you may not necessarily be teaching people something or they may not really need to know how to do something themselves. They may just want to get a feeling from you and just to see they don't necessarily like for example, if you were trying to teach someone how to set up Facebook ads, they may not want to necessarily learn how to do that. You may actually be overwhelming them even more because things like Facebook ads are very stressful anyways. And so if it's just causing even more overwhelm or confusion in your DIY content even though it's helpful, we can actually be doing the opposite. And so if people are feeling really overwhelmed and stressed out the they're probably not going to want to buy from us or to want to work with us if they're getting that feeling when we are putting out content. So just kind of thinking of it that way really the type of content you want to focus on for pre launch is more of that, I would say kind of motivational empowering type of thing and just inspiring.
Stephanie Tilton 0:18:14
So maybe even sharing stories from your past clients or past students who have experienced your offers and how they have grown from that and what they've been able to accomplish after that, or even just sharing your own story can also have a really powerful impact during the prelaunch phase.
Destini Copp 0:18:34
So just to kind of recap some of the things that you said there, because I think you gave us some really powerful points. Prelaunch content could be sharing stories from previous students in our courses or customers, even your story and your journey, and kind of showing that aspiration here's where you can do and just making them feel like it's achievable it's doable more aspirational type content. So I love that. That's great. Stephanie, any last minute tips here for the audience before we wrap it up?
Stephanie Tilton 0:19:09
Yeah, I think everyone, especially when it comes down to like, I don't know what to say or not really sure what to do, I think the first tip would be to focus on prelaunch content before you start getting into creating sales pages and launch emails. Because like I said before, pre launch is your time to really gauge the interest in your offer. And so if you're not really getting a lot of engagement or interest from your pre launch content, then you'll know that you need to tweak a few things before you actually go into launch. But then also with the prelaunch content, it's really just about putting things out there, trying different things. Like I said earlier, if you're not really an inspirational type of person and you're more just like tough love type of thing, that's perfectly fine to create prelaunch content like that. It's just trying different things to see what really resonates with your audience and what they really don't care about and the doing more of what gets the engagement and creating more of that type of content for your pre launch. So just try different things. If it doesn't work out, there's always next time. Just like with everything, don't be afraid of the failures. And I hate even to use that word because I think there's so much we can learn from the bad things that happen. Especially with launches, you learn way more from things going wrong than you do when things go right. So I think just my number one tip would be just to put content out there and see what your audience really relates to and then do more of that each time you launch.
Destini Copp 0:20:42
And I think that's an important point because with marketing in general, everything you're doing, you're just testing and tweaking and testing and tweaking. We run Summits almost every month in two different brands. And every single time we run a Summit, we tweak just something little just to improve it every single time. And there you go. We're learning. Yeah. Stephanie, before we hang up here today, can you let the audience know where they can find you and also about your free gift?
Stephanie Tilton 0:21:12
Yeah, so you can find me. My website is Stephanie Tilton.com. I'm also on Instagram St Copywriting, so that's my social media platform of choice. I share a lot of stories behind the scenes and things like that. And my inbox is always open if you have questions or just want to chat about launches or anything else, for that matter. And then also for my free gift, it's called the Profitable Course Launch Guide, and inside you'll find a lot of resources that help with audience growth, with planning out a five day launch, what that's going to look like, what content you want to create for that. And then also some of the pre launch content ideas and things are in there as well. So if you would like to download that, you can find Stephanie Tilton. comGuide. And I'm sure that the link will be in the show notes. But yes, there's plenty so many resources inside of the guide just to kind of help you with getting your offers out there and again, learning from the launches as you go.
Destini Copp 0:22:21
And we'll definitely make sure that those links are in the show notes. And Stephanie, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your knowledge with us about prelaunch content.
Stephanie Tilton 0:22:31
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. It was really fun. I love talking about this, and I could have talked all day about it, so just thank you so much for having me.
Destini Copp 0:22:40
Thank you.