Let’s talk about your recent launch that flopped…

A lot of people have launched new things in the last couple of months… and their launches totally flopped. Let’s be honest, launching something new is rarely easy, especially during a global pandemic. But, it’s important to know that having a launch flop is OK! It doesn’t mean you’ll never have a successful launch - it simply means you have one or two things to fine tune first. Almost all online business owners have had a launch flop, but it’s important to use it as a learning experience and not a judgement on yourself or your business.

Here are a few reasons why your launch probably flopped.

Reason #1: You didn’t give yourself enough time. 

You probably made a big list of things you were going to do for your launch but you didn’t give yourself a realistic timeline to actually do those things. Planning important tasks and deadlines using a project management tool can help you manage your launch timeline efficiently and effectively.

Reason #2: You didn’t give your audience enough time to know about your launch. 

When you feel like your audience must be sick of hearing about something, that’s probably when they are hearing about it or remembering it for the first time! You need to give them enough time to discover and remember. Don’t shy away because you think you’re being annoying or aggressive - chances are you haven’t even begun to promote it enough yet!

Reason #3: You only launched to your current audience. 

You didn’t tell anyone outside your audience about your launch AND your current audience might not be warm or your ideal clients. When you’re launching something, especially if you don’t have a large audience, you need to make a point to educate new people about your business and your launch. If you don't have a big audience and you’re only launching to your current audience, you’re not giving your launch enough of a chance to succeed. So, look at your launch plan and figure out how you’re promoting your launch to new people so you can bring them into your audience and build the know/like/trust factor!

Reason #4: You didn’t do enough market research before you built that new product, program or service. 

You should always do market research before you create content for a course, before you spend time outlining a group program, and before you start promoting a new service or product. Market research can tell you if your idea is valuable to your ideal client, if they would buy it, how much they would pay for it, and how it would help them before you spend time actually creating it. Market research will also help your market your launch more effectively.

Ultimately, if you had a launch flop — it’s ok. That doesn’t mean you’ll never have a successful launch or that your business won’t grow. 

It happens to everyone and a lot of people are going through the same thing as you right now. Instead of beating yourself up over it, congratulate yourself! You executed on an idea, which is the most challenging part.

Now you can get valuable feedback from this experience and make improvements for your next launch. Look back at your launch and think about what worked, what didn’t, what you didn’t spend enough time on, and make a new launch plan for next time that will set you up for success!