If you are not getting the clients and the income you want from your products, programmes and services, then read on because in this article I’m going to show you the 3 biggest mistakes and the antidotes for them.
When we first began helping clients with launches and new ventures about 4 or 5 years ago we noticed something you may have noticed…
The idea doesn’t come with a handy roadmap and every new launch needs some special treatment.
But what we have noticed are common themes for failure. Here are the top 3:
1. Inadequate resources – people go cheap on the tech. They invest in the wrong system – they usually go for the cheapest which has limited functionality and that thwarts the venture. People also go cheap on getting the job done right. They delude themselves about their capability in marketing copy and selling from one-to-many presentations
2. Lack of noise – they don’t create a fanfare about the importance and the potential of the new venture. They launch “quietly” or “softly” and when the results are not quite what they hoped for, they park the idea.
3. Hedging your bets – the moment you hedge your bets you doom your project to failure. When you do this you begin to play “not to lose” rather than to win. You have to believe in what you are doing and go for it.
The 3 Antidotes for Launch Mistakes
Antidote #1 – Put on your best outfit
If you wanted to attract your ideal mate or get a loan from your bank would you put on your scruffiest outfit, not wash for a week and leave your hair? Not if you want to make a good first impression.
For me it’s the same with tech and marketing. Why go for the $5 an hour guy who might do the job, but won’t enhance it?
Neither will creating a slick product and then not investing in your marketing copy or your presentation.
You see it’s not what you spend here it’s the expertise you miss out on. That’s much harder to put a price on. With lost revenue like this, you never know how much you missed out on because you went cheap.
Hiring the best team you know and who get what you are trying to do – people who can help you avoid the pitfalls and improve your idea is well worth the investment.
We were exploring a launch with a client a few days ago and they were very savvy. They already knew the process they were following, but where we helped them was in the fine detail – the things that would make or break the launch.
Antidote #2 – Make some noise
Your new venture or launch needs to have a special place in your heart. It needs to be like a baby – your child or grandchild. You have to make time for it and love it and you can never treat it like an inconvenience. You birthed the idea, now you need to give it legs.
With a new venture you give it legs by dedicating time to being the ideas biggest cheerleader. You network the idea, you look for partnerships. You talk it up at every opportunity. You have to make a noise and you have to be consistent with that noise. You have to get your message through.
Antidote #3 – Give your blessing
Rather than hedging your bets you have to let the new venture loose. You have to set it free. Get it out there and keep it out there. BUT you have to monitor it all the way.
A new programme we set up over a year ago required a lot of monitoring to get it right. We put in an autoresponder sequence and initially we were only averaging around 15% open rate and about 25% click through.
With careful changes we improved the average open rate to 60% over the next year with a very similar click through rate.
We gave this project our blessing. We put our bets on it. We set it free. We showed it to the world – and then we monitored everything that happened and continually improved it until we got results that satisfied us.
Don’t be afraid of your ideas. Don’t hide them. Be bold. Be courageous. Belief in what you create or work on it until you believe in it. Breathe life into it. Set it free.
