The Most Underrated Launch Strategy
When it comes to launching there is one strategy that everyone should be using no matter what style of launch you are doing - I’d even go as far to say that is the most underrated launch strategy of them all - and that is your waitlist!
Setting up a waitlist and making sure that the leads on there are hot is a key part of having an ‘easy’ launch.
You could be spending months building your followers, counting your likes and views on social, and then when you put your offer out there - crickets. Now imagine instead of just focusing solely on these figures you also build a waitlist for your offer where you spend the time nurturing those leads - I can promise you that your launch success rate will increase!
I have a client who uses this tactic every time we release a new offer and often we can fill up her offers 75% before we even announce the offer to her regular email list or even publicly!
This tactic is not about followers or how many likes you get - it’s all about seeing how many potential buyers are raising their hand for what you have so you know that people are interested.
The reasons I love this strategy so much are:
Gets potential buyers to raise their hand
Creates early momentum for your launch
Gives you more time to nurture buyers
You can launch without launching!
Boosts your launch profits
Boosts your confidence for your launch
So how do you build a stronger waitlist and make sure that the people on there will be ready to buy from you?
1/ Limit the time to join the waitlist
Although you can create and have a waitlist open anytime the #1 rule of this strategy is to make sure that you do cut off joining the waitlist before your launch event happens (whether that’s a challenge or webinar) - you do not want to be talking about the waitlist all through your launch as it will just create distraction and confusion!
Remember that the waitlist is meant to feel exclusive and for those who want priority notice of when doors to your offer is open.
You can have your waitlist open anytime for people to join but I highly recommend that around 6-8 weeks before your launch you start hyping up and promoting your waitlist through social, email marketing, in any groups you’re in.
2/ MAKE SURE Your waitlist page iS CLEAR AND SIMPLE
Imagine a waitlist page like a mini sales page - you don’t want to include ALL the details of your offer but you do want to include is:
Clarity on what they signing up for (make it clear that this is a waitlist)
Who your offer is for
What the transformation is for them
The reason to sign up to the waitlist (will they get bonuses, discounts etc)
Have a few testimonials/ social proof
And a little bit about you
This is not the time to necessarily show everything that’s in your offer, or talk about all the details like call times, module names etc. This is all about creating curiosity and anticipation.
However please please make sure that you are clear on who the offer is for and what the transformation is to make sure that the people joining the waitlist are the right people! This is key to your success!
3/ nurture them through an email sequence
Once people are signed up to your waitlist, now is the chance for you to work your magic and really nurture them. You can make this email sequence as long as you like but here are three emails that you must include:
A confirmation email reaffirming the reason why they want to be on the waitlist and possibly giving them more details about the offer including any exclusive bonuses and reminding them how your offer is going to help solve the problem that they have and getting them excited about that
Your background story - so why you do what you do, and why you’re so passionate about helping them with this particular problem. This is about making that personal connection stronger and getting people to believe that you’re aligned with them and the right person for them to buy from.
Share the success stories and case studies of past students. This not only reaffirms that they’ve made the right choice in joining the waitlist but it helps to build connection and show them what is possible. This is all about inspiring and motivating them!
Bonus email idea: You can also create an email that provides them with a little bit of value ahead of the launch by providing them with a quick win that builds the trust in you and your authority on this topic.
Bonus tip! Make sure to ask for people’s social handles when they sign up to your waitlist and then reach out to them on social as well to nurture them! This isn’t about cold spamming them - take the time to look through their profile, like and comment on their content and then if you find something in common strike up a conversation with them. Later in your launch you could reach out (if they have been interacting back) and say hey, I know that you’ve been considering working with me I’d love to invite you to my launch event OR I see you joined my waitlist I’d love to know what drew you to joining’. Spark authentic conversation and connection.
4/ Create strong waitlist bonuses
In order to really make this strategy work you need to have a strong incentive to join the waitlist, whether it’s a decent discount or a really strong bonus make sure that what you’re offering when people join the waitlist is something that your audience really want or that will help them get a better, faster, quicker, result.
Spend some time thinking about this.
And remember that this is a bonus that has to disappear and is available only exclusively to the waitlist in order to get those buyers jumping in!
Make sure that what you offer is aligned with the end product you’re selling and also that it complements it and is not going to be a distraction to it all!
Once you have your waitlist built, it’s time to start pre-selling!
This is where the magic of having a warm waitlist really kicks in. As your launch approaches you can email your waitlist group to:
Join your event before it’s publicly promoted
Buy the offer before the doors 'officially open’
If you have had your waitlist open for a long time and there are potentially people who have been on there for months then make sure that you send them a reminder email as your launch date approaches that they are on the waitlist, to let them know that doors are opening soon, why they joined the waitlist and reaffirm some of the pieces from the earlier nurture sequence.
You can then invite them to your launch event as an opportunity for them to get a taster of what’s to come. This is a great time to also remind them of the amazing bonus / discount that they will receive for being on the waitlist. You want to really make it clear the benefits of this and why they want to jump on it when the doors open.
A reminder to not make the discount/ bonus something that will also be on offer to anyone outside of the waitlist once doors open because then you will cancel out all the benefits of being on the waitlist.
You also want to send your waitlist your sales email sequence a day or so before your doors officially open so that they can jump in and claim their exclusive discount/ bonus. Having sales come in before your launch event can really boost your confidence and also create a great energy so that you go into your launch event really hyped up and not in a desperate selling energy. You can then also talk about how many people have jumped in on the launch event to create that buzz around your offer and encourage others to jump in.
The important thing here is to make sure that you only make your waitlist bonus available for a limited time so 48-72hrs. This is not about fake scarcity - it’s about getting people to take action and jump off the fence and again reaffirming that the waitlist is something to sign up for and it is what it says it is!
The truth is that if people from your waitlist have not bought within 72hrs of your offer being out then they’re unlikely going to buy it this round - especially if your sales sequence has addressed any potential objections, has shown them social proof and has walked them through the offer in total clarity.
Ok I’ve built my waitlist page, where do I put it?
There are tons of places that you can share your waitlist opt-in page but always remember to add it to your website homepage (make sure it’s somewhere obvious and not hidden at the bottom of the page) or top (announcement) bar.
Have it on your quicklinks page, your about page, your services page, even blog pages as the CTA…anywhere that you get high traffic make sure that you’re linking out to your waitlist page.
There is no wrong place to have a link to your waitlist page unless it’s buried deep down a page that no one ever visits.
Bonus tip! Make sure to send an email to your audience to encourage them to sign up for the waitlist or if you’re promoting your waitlist all year round then make sure to include it on your evergreen welcome sequence!
Bonus tip 2! Get partners to promote your waitlist to their audiences as well. You might need to test this method and this may work better once you become known for an offer but thinking about building partnerships to help promote your launches is a great tactic for scaling your launches.
One final piece of advice - clean your waitlist out often, after every 2-3 launches, remove people from the list that haven’t bought from you. Having a massive waitlist that doesn't convert because people are not the right fit skews your numbers. You only want the most active people on the launch list on your waitlist.
Also pay attention to the people who sign up for your waitlist because ultimately, they're the ones who are most likely to buy from you. But if your waitlist doesn't convert, then look at:
Your bonuses
Your messaging is likely off
You’ve not talked about your offer enough
You need to segment your list more by asking them on the waitlist page where they are at with this issue, e.g are they a total beginner, tried different solutions before, etc. This can also reveal if the people signing up to your waitlist are actually the people you thought would be or not
The great thing about this strategy is that over time as you test more and more things and also your offer is better established, having a waitlist for your offer can actually do all the heavy lifting for you and remove the need for live launching! So if you're someone who actually doesn't want to launch as often, your waitlist can be an amazing tool for that.
Looking for support building out your waitlist? We offer a VIP day service where we can support you in building your waitlist page, nurture email sequence, and putting together a waitlist strategy for you! Book your free consultation here to find out how we can support you.