Lemme start by sayin’ …

YOU’RE IN BUSINESS.

And Business = Sales = Money

Right?

So the next question would be…

WHAT are you selling and WHEN are you selling it?

Kinda important right??!?!

I’ve got you covered in this post and you can catch the video here.

We’re breaking down:

• What a launch and promo cal is and why you need it
• The difference between a launch + promotion
• How to organize your marketing calendar gameplan (your marketing cal includes all your launches and promotions)
• How to set up your own Marketing Cal
• Growth and profit in action

This strategy is GOLD and you need to be doing the same thing for your business, whether you have a service based business or are selling evergreen products.

Take action and grab a piece of paper and a pen and follow along with the post to create your own promotional strategy for your upcoming launch. Ready to GSD?

Here is the truth: you need to have a promo/launch calendar and plan in place at all times. The focus on your business should always be “what am I selling?”

PART 1: WHAT THE HECK IS A LAUNCH CALENDAR AND WHY YOU NEED IT

THE 80/20 RULE

Think about this for a minute, WHY…WHY do you click that bright shiny button and opt into somebody's email list? They must have offered you something really VALUABLE that made you say “OMG I have to have this…and OMG it’s free! No way!  Click…!  

So when you are IN “the list” and you start getting their emails and ALL the damn time it’s sell sell sell…you’re going to opt OUT. Am I right?

Heck YES!

You can’t just sell all the time…that’s not why people are following you and are subscribed to your list. It is your job to build a know like (LOVE) trust relationship and you can’t do that if they don’t even know you yet. You have to build this relationship up first. So let’s do that! Provide them with valuable content that makes them think “Hey she really knows her stuff!” so they get to know you better and this builds up TRUST.

The sweet spot is about 80% VALUE and 20% SALES…

So 80% of the time your audience is consuming content from you that either 1) entertains 2) motivates and inspires 3) educates them… without a hard sales CTA (call to action).

Note – you can add a “soft”CTA  in a P.S but the overall feeling of this content has to be VALUE.

THE CALENDAR

It makes sense that you would not want to promote your offer with “time is running out”, “last chance”, “I’m taking on 5 clients” at the end of this month and then again at the beginning of next month…right? Kinda silly.

Now when do you want to promote your offer? Do you have other offers? Are you planning on taking time off? What about any additional things to consider?

Example – In the fitness industry, you definitely do not want to miss promotion in your main money makers in Sept and Jan – your biggest months right? So that kinda writes off Oct and Feb for the same offer…

This is when your promotional calendar HAS to come in. Get out a calendar or use google calendar and lay it ALL out. When are you NOT available, put those dates in first and block them off, any special events(weddings, things you cannot miss). Next determine the dates that you want to close off a promotion that you will be running. Next you have a promotional period before the close dates that you will be promoting your content and getting people to know you and what you and your offer are all about.

PLAN out your whole year ahead…yes the whole year!!! Then it is in your calendar, you know what you need to do and exactly when so GET SH*T DONE! #GSD

HOW OFTEN CAN YOU PROMOTE THE SAME OFFER?

That depends.

Are you following the 80/20 RULE by adding one weekly piece of value content and 2 blog posts? In this case, according to my rule, every 8 weeks you can promote for 2 weeks. If you’re adding a ton more value, you can promote more!

The price point and type of launch makes a difference too.

Are you promoting your higher ticket offer for 2 weeks and creating a whole hoop-de-la about your offer and adding a bunch of scarcity marketing tactics and bonuses? If so, you’re not going to want to launch this too often as it dilutes your launch.

On the flip side…if you’re launching a $97 program and you’re having 3 day flash sale… doing this once a month (as long as you’re following the 80/20 rule) is totally possible!

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LAUNCH + PROMOTION

This is how I differentiate them in my biz.

Launch – When I am opening and closing enrollment to a specific program. It has a clear start and end date where I am offering my promotional period pricing.

Promotion –  When I am promoting anything else to my email list. This also includes any and all communication my email list will receive. If I am promoting my new blog post, my new Facebook live I want them to see, an event I am speaking at, an affiliate promotion I’m doing with a friend etc. This is any communication my list gets that is not a program launch.

 

PART 2: CREATING YOUR MARKETING CALENDAR

 

To help you build your own promo + launch calendar, I’ll walk you through an example.

Meet my awesome, talented, funny and badass client Jaime Morocco (here is a link to her website, you should really check it out because she is awesomesauce)….

 

 

Jaime is a Fitness coach who teaches her clients how to build a SUSTAINABLE lifestyle in effort to reach their physique and wellness goals. Jaime believes in training  hard and eating cupcakes, there is no on and off a plan. There is just life.

THE GOAL

 Create a launch plan and marketing calendar to sell Jaime's Eat for Your Goals program. 

THE STRATEGY

Jaime captures new leads (email addresses) via a lead magnet (a free eating for optimal fat loss guide) and then plugs the new leads into an automated email sequence that promotes her 90 day Eat for your Goals program 

PSST: If all of this is making your head spin.. have no fear I break this whole process down step by step for you riiiight here 

 

ORGANIZING THE GAMEPLAN

To get started, we first had to identify Jaime's numbers…

*Note* These are not her big business goals (i.e. I want to make 40k this year), but rather her goals for this specific launch that will feed into the big business goal.

1.The program?

• Eat for Your Goals (Here is a link to her sales page)

2. Length of program?

• 90 Days

3. Price of Program

• Paid In Full: 650 regularly //  On call $500:
• OR 3 pay Plan $250 x 3 regularly // or $200 x 3 on call offer
• Jaime used THIS method to figure out how to price her offer and talk about it on calls with confidence 

4. Lead Generation 

• She started with 800 e-mails already on her list
• Add 600 new leads during her March Lead Generation period (leads downloaded her guide)
• Goal of $2  cost per lead ($1200 total Facebook ad spend)
• Total 1400 leads going into March 2017 Launch

5. Sales Numbers

• 1.6 % of her total email list took action
• 16 sales
• Average gross $308 (average between her paid in full and payment plan price)
• Gross = $4933
• Profit = $3733 (gross less her Facebook Ad spend)

 

MARKETING & PROMO DATES

There are 2 important sets of dates with your launch calendar.

It makes sense that you need to lead generate before you sell. You can't expect to send cold traffic right to your offer right?!!?

Lead Generation dates: these are the dates when she will be focusing on building your email list, nurturing your new leads and building trust.

Launch dates: these are the dates when her product/program promotion starts and ends.

PS:  a “launch” is not the actual completion and first launch of a new product or program, but rather when the product is out for sale. You can launch (open registration) for your program twice a year.

BREAKING IT ALL DOWN 

Jaime wants to have a  and enroll 10 new clients into her signature Eat For Your Goals program during each launch.

We are going to build a fully automated process that repeats itself every time she wants to launch her program – in her case, it’s 3 times a year.

Launch dates: Jaime's promotional period (AKA THE LAUNCH) will last for a total of 12 days every time she launches her program.

Plugging in the dates in the promotional calendar: As we start building Jaime's promotional calendar,  we will first identify where she will be taking time off; vacation, winter holidays, other important dates when she know she won’t be working. Jaime's will avoid the last minute launch scramble most online business owners face. #thestruggleisreal

Doing this ensures you are in control of your schedule, and fully aware of the times when you won’t be working.   

For example, if you know you have a trip scheduled on the 15th of December, then you want to avoid launching a program that month.

Another benefit of knowing your dates is being aware of your business’ hot and cold seasons, and by scheduling all of your events ahead of time you get to take advantage of those seasons.  

Also think about when your audience is likely to be in buying mode. Example, if you're in fitness, you don't want to miss a January launch and September seems to be the ‘hot month’ to launch a stay at home mom’s fitness program, as kids go back to school and moms are looking to get active again.

This process helps you map out the best times to plug in the “money making launch promos”, and the best times to focus on list building.

Now that we have Jaime's dates figured out…Let’s have a close look at how we built her promotional calendar

 

 

Jaime's next 3 2017 launched for her Eat for Your Goals program:

 

 

• Launch #1 Program Enrolment Period : March 13-23
• Launch #2 Program Enrolment Period: June 12-23
• Launch #3 Program Enrolment Period : September 11-22

Jaime's prime Lead Generation periods are:

 

 

• Launch #1 Lead Gen Period : April 17-20
• Launch #2 Lead Gen Period : May 1-18
• Launch #3 Lead Gen Period: July 10-31

This is when she is sending Facebook Ad traffic to her free guide. The bulk of her budget is dedicated to these lead generation periods as she needs time to warm up her new cold leads before each launch. For example, the new (cold) leads she gets during July's lead generation period are to top up her existing email list and nurture these new leads in time for September's launch.

 

Jaime's Facebook ads

 

The beauty of this strategy is that all of her promotions are already scheduled and the process is fully automated. She won’t have to re-create the whole promotional campaign again.  Automation is perfection my friends! 

 

 

GROWTH AND PROFIT IN ACTION

Let’s have a look at Jaime's calendar again.The yellow highlighted dates “Jaime's growth period”. This is where she will be growing her email list with new leads. Jaime's is going to step on the gas during the yellow highlighted dates to grow her mail list.  

 

 

From July 10th to 31st , Jaime’s going to be focusing almost entirely on building her email list during her growth period by giving away a free gift (her lead magnet).

This can be a free report, a checklist, an e-book, etc.  Your lead magnet should be a reflection of your brand and your current product or service.

Jaime could also host a free webinar as part of her list building strategy. Find the hook that works best for you and your business.

Once new subscribers join and get her free gift, they will continue to receive value from her through an email sequence she already prepared.  She will be providing massive value through her blogs and email broadcasts, building trust and showing up as the expert.

Jaime’s new leads will also get an invitation to join her in her facebook group as they go through her email sequence, and then will be invited to join her Eat For Your Goals signature  program during promotional periods [September 11th-22nd ]

A note about Lead Generation….

While her primary lead generation strategy is Facebook advertising but if you're not ready to dive into Facebook ads there are a ton of other ways you can drive traffic to promote your freebie, some include:

• Social media: Facebook, Facebook groups, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
• Google organic traffic: through SEO
• Guest posting for other sites: include links back to her site.
• Advertisement: Facebook ads, pay per click advertising

PS: if you want my list building action plan you can get your hands on it below 👇

 

 

THE BEAUTY OF IT ALL

This process will repeat itself in the next promotional periods. Having a well mapped out marketing calendar will help you reach your business goals faster than not having one.

It’s important to realize that once you put your leads into the automated email sequences, many will buy your evergreen/low end signature program, and others will enroll in your higher end offers. However, some may not enroll right away, and that’s fine.

Those people are still part of your community, and love receiving your weekly broadcasts and reading your blog.  They will still receive promotional offers once in awhile and may enroll during the next promotional campaign when you add a bangin’ bonus they can’t say no to.

Not saying YES now doesn’t mean never.

Let's see this in action.

Launch #1

• 1400 total email subscribers 
• Spent $12oo on Facebook ads to add 600 New subscribers
• 1.6 % of her total email list took action
• 16 sales
• Average gross $308 (average between her paid in full and payment plan price)
• Gross = $4933
• Profit = $3733 (gross less her Facebook Ad spend)

Launch #2

Projections – this is where you'll begin to see the magic of a compounding email list!

Say she invests another $1200 into Facebook ads to top her list by 600 new leads (at a cost per lead of $2), then this is what she can expect:

• 200o total email subscribers 
• If 1.6 % of her total email list takes action
• 32 Sales
• Average gross $308 (average between her paid in full and payment plan price)
• Gross = $9,856
• Profit = $8,656 (gross less her Facebook Ad spend)

Launch #3

Let's look at what happens if she repeats this again for Launch #3. She invest another $1200  into Facebook ads to top her list by 500 new leads (let's just say her cost per lead went up to $2.40 so you can see how this would be a homerun), then this is what she can expect:

• 250o total email subscribers 
• If 1.6 % of her total email list takes action
• 40 Sales
• Average gross $308 (average between her paid in full and payment plan price)
• Gross = $12,320
• Profit = $11,120 (gross less her Facebook Ad spend)

Can you see what is happening here?

Since you only have to pay to acquire each new lead once and as the size of your email list grows. The same percentage of your total list that takes action when applied to a larger email list equals….. MORE SALES!

 

 

Let's see what she could expect after launch 6

(time to get excited)

Let's crunch those numbers…

Let's say she invested another $1200 on Facebook ads prior to each launch and her cost per lead was an average of $2/lead.

What her Launch #6 would like like:

• 4200 total email subscribers ( 1800 new leads from the next 3 launches + the 250o emails she already had on her list after launch 3) 
• If 1.6 % of her total email list takes action during launch #6
• 62 Sales
• Average gross $308 (average between her paid in full and payment plan price)
• Gross = $19,096
• Profit = $17,896 (gross less her Facebook Ad spend)

Pretty sweet right?? Hopefully you're starting to see how important it is to “Crunch Your Numbers” and to get really clear on WHAT you're selling and WHEN you are selling it.

YOUR TURN

Now it’s your turn to map out your own promotional and marketing calendar.  Get a calendar, or use an online version.

Map out when you will be 100% building your email list, when you plan to launch your program or service, and your hot and cold seasons!  You also better be crystal clear on your marketing goals.  

Once you’re done, share it with me in our Facebook group.