How to Launch and Sell your Digital Course Using a High Converting Sales Funnel (Part 2)

How to Launch and Sell your Digital Course Using a High Converting Sales Funnel (Part 2)

For marketers, launching a new product can be equal parts thrilling and nerve-wracking.

Theres a lot of room for error when it comes to a successful launch, so how do you make sure things go as smoothly as possible?

In part two of this three-part series, we break down what to do during the launch of your digital course and how to react if the launch doesnt go according to plan.

The hype behind launching a new product is hard to replicate.

Every time Apple makes an announcement for a new iPhone, for example, people seem to lose their minds collectively.

And why not?

New products are sexy, cutting-edge and represent the creative spark that drives many entrepreneurs to create in the first place.

When it comes to launching our own products, however, those feelings of excitement, tension and worry are amplified tenfold.

We keep ourselves up at night wondering what could go right or wrong, obsessing over minute details as we worry about our bottom line.

What if it doesn’t work out? What if it flops?

Will my business survive?

Take a step back.

Now, let’s talk about launching your digital course.

It’s natural to be nervous during the launch of any new product designed to drive new business and passive income.

While digital courses may not be quite as sexy as a new iPad, they represent the ultimate means of putting your business out in the open.

Naturally, we also want to ensure that our launch is a success and that our digital course results in ongoing leads and legitimate passive income.

If you’ve done your homework and feel confident in your product, you’ve already got most of your bases covered.

If you haven’t already, take a look at Part I of this series to ensure that you’re ready to launch your digital course and have the marketing pieces of the puzzle exactly where they need to be.

Failure to Launch?

Many marketers stress out so much during the lead-up to their launches that they exhaust themselves.

The end result is a failure to make sure they know what to do with the launch itself. Not everything simply falls into place during the launch as the money rolls in.

The launch phase of your digital course requires you be incredibly engaged with users, and perhaps represents the make or break moments of your launch (as detailed later in the post).

Meanwhile, consider that not everything is going to go according to plan during your launch.

Yes, despite hours and hours of meticulous research on your industry and marketing tactics, your blueprint may not be perfect. And that’s okay.

Should you plan for the worst?

Not necessarily; however, you should make sure that you have the following in place:

  • A process for engaging users over the day of and days immediately following the launch (juggling the various pieces of your sales funnel, from website and email to social media profiles and beyond)
  • An advertising strategy that re-targets those that didn’t respond to the first time
  • The ability to target users beyond your initial email blast (on Facebook, for example)
  • A partner to assist you in expanding your reach beyond the launch (detailed in Part III)

The leads are warm.

You’ve tailored your email marketing strategy to your hungry leads and are ready to hit “send.”

You’ve launched. Now, what?

Staying Engaged During the Launch

“Engagement” is a favored buzzword of the Internet marketing sphere; unfortunately, it doesn’t mean a whole lot by itself.

Regarding your sales funnel and digital course, post-launch “engagement” means…

  • Replying and responding to your users’ questions in real time
  • Monitoring your users’ feedback in real time
  • Having a rock-solid foundation of support backing up your sales funnel

Why such an emphasis on “real time?” Because immediacy matters to today’s users: you need to be respond to their wants and needs at the drop of a hat to keep them engaged.

Otherwise, you risk them dropping off altogether.

Are you personally expected to be staring at your computer monitor 24/7, answering questions and responding to emails?

Not necessarily; however, consider that in today’s digital, global economy, users are asking questions and buying around the clock.

Okay, so what can you do to keep these users in your funnel?

Reply to their Comments

As noted earlier, today’s users crave immediacy and attention.

If we can’t provide it to them, unfortunately, a competitor will.

It’s incredibly important to respond to questions and comments as quickly as possible, especially from warm leads.

Users hungry for information are the most likely to buy: therefore, they should be given your full attention.

Make sure to monitor your blog and the social network (including Twitter and Facebook mentions), as these are easily accessible and are easy means of reaching out to businesses.

Then again, how are you expected to do all of this?

Hopefully, you already have a means of monitoring replies and social mentions, and yes, you may have to put in some extra hours immediately post-launch.

However, assuming you don’t have a team already on your side, you could quite literally take a page out of Tim Ferriss’ book (The 4-Hour Work Week) and hire a virtual assistant to keep track of user feedback.

Regardless of how you approach replying to users, keep in mind the importance of feedback and what impact it may have on your bottom line.

Have a Live Chat Available

Consider that 44% of user benefit from having a live person there to guide them through the purchasing process.

Live chats build trust and ease the minds of hesitant buyers who are likely to drop off in the shopping cart.

As noted earlier, you may need to hire a service or virtual assistant to pull this off; however, consider the risk versus the reward.

Is it worth losing a dozen customers at the cost of a cheap, live chat service?

If you’re a relatively small operation, you may be able to run this piece of your funnel from your smartphone.

Regardless, make sure you have options available when it comes to real-time responses to user feedback.

Set Up an Email Support System

Keep in mind that not all users’ feedback needs to be personally tailored: some questions may be adequately answered by a general support email or FAQ. There are some email marketing services available to ensure that this is done properly.

Make sure that you have email autoresponders set up as well as some sort of frequently asked question section of your blog or website which details common concerns of products such as price point, subscription fees and dates and so on.

Ideally, you’d be able to respond to such emails on your own; however, sometimes an autoresponder may do the trick.

In short, you need to be able to have all of your bases covered when it comes to user feedback.

Getting Back on Target

Despite the painstaking footwork and research we put into our email marketing campaigns, the elephant in the room is still there: what happens to all of the leads that didnt click through or convert?

Do they go forever?

Of course not.

Re-targeting post-launch leads and getting them back into the funnel is simply part of the game.

Although getting such leads back can be tricky, it’s certainly not impossible.

The obvious solution may be to blast our warm leads again, perhaps offering a discounted rate combined with an urgency offer.

For some marketers, this may be a viable option; however, what do we do when we want to go beyond email and really catch the attention of our leads that didn’t convert the first time around?

The solution perhaps lies in the form of re-targeting.

You’re probably already familiar with Facebook’s robust advertising options; however, re-targeting users on Facebook through your existing email list may be the solution to really selling your digital course.

Facebook’s re-targeted ads provide some options, all ideal for bringing users back into your funnel.

Thankfully, Facebook allows you to target specific users, allowing for more personalized ads based on how segmented your list happens to be.

For example, you can re-target…

  • Your business entire email list, which would be prime for a discounted offer
  • Users on your list who have visited your website, perhaps representing warmer leads
  • Users on your list who visited a specific page of your website, meaning that they were maybe on the fence but simply need an extra push
  • Users who dropped off at the shopping cart
  • Users who have bought from you before

By setting up dynamic Facebook ads combined with the marketing tactics discussed in Part I (such as urgency and scarcity), the personalization options are seemingly endless.

In short, you can tailor your ads to specific segments of your list, resulting in new click-throughs and conversions.

Plus, considering the trust factor of Facebook and the fact that it’s so widely used, you know that you’re marketing efforts are being put in the right place.

What’s Next for My Digital Course?

You’ve launched. You’ve responded your users. You’ve re-targeted users who didn’t enter your funnel the first time. Everything’s good, right?

Hold on.

There’s still work to be done, especially if you want to turn your digital course into the means to real passive income.

Now that you’ve sewn the seeds of a successful launch and taken the steps to make sure your users are happy, it’s time to consider bringing in some hired guns.

In Part Three, we’ll discuss how to make the most of your digital course by bringing on affiliates and how you can reflect on the process of your launch to make it even better the next time around.

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