Sell Your Program Before You Launch: Anticipation Marketing with Brenna McGowan

It's really done in a way where we're putting the client first , because we know them so well that when we can do this , it starts creating all of the stuff that we're talking about today .

What I want to know is , if the listener only heard the next three minutes of this podcast episode , what is at stake if they do not do their pre-launch phase correctly ?

Ok , I always use my friend Linda to do she has a program called the Quiz Lab , right . But before you're ready to invest in a course all about how to create a strategic quiz , you have to really believe that quizzes are the way to grow your email list and to be able to separate and segment your email list .

You have to believe that lead gen is super important to the overall thing . You know there's all these beliefs that happen before we decide to buy and offer a product , a course , a program , whatever that is . So what ends up happening when you do this pre-launch process that I'm talking about is that you get people to buy in .

I always say during pre-launch you're selling your process , not your product . You get people to buy into your process . So , for example , for me , if you truly believe that pre-launch is the way to increase revenue and have way less stress on your next launch , when I offer you the pre-launch plan program .

There's a lot less resistance around that , and when you have less resistance and less friction in your marketing and sales , your sales just increase . That's just the way it is .

So if we're going to add on the pre-launch phase too now we've gone from two week launch to that makes it eight weeks total . Eight to 10 weeks total . What do we do there ?

eight weeks and I say no , no , no , no , it's not eight weeks . You're not extending your sales period . You are using strategic content , very intentional content . I call it consideration content . What ends up happening with most launches ? If we go from nurture , we just kind of like throw out some like our random content .

We fill the content pillars I used to be a social media manager and then we go OK , we're opening the doors the next day . There's not this like in between times where we're actually warming people up . So you're not extending the length of your launch .

You're actually making , when your launch comes around , a heck of a lot more effective , because you're already getting buy in before you actually launch , using content that is not salesy , pressurizing all of those things . So a lot of times , what I see is part of the reason why people get so burnt out during launches because they haven't done a pre-launch .

They have set themselves up for everything to rest on a one to two week period and when things don't go right , everyone flips out right when .

If you already have people that are bought in , that are like excited to buy what you have looking at it , if you have buyers like me who are slow decision makers , who are taking their time right , when you start doing that , the launch period becomes easier . And I can say this . I have testimonials from clients , but I can say this for myself .

I launched the pre-launch plan program gosh . It was September and it was my easiest launch ever . I did no webinar , I increased revenue by 25 to 30 percent and and I had amazing people come through . But that wouldn't have happened had I not been doing this process that we're chatting about today .

But before we get there , what I want to know is back when you were first on the podcast with Rick , and that was July 2022 . I think it was episode 614 . We'll link it up in the show notes below , but you said something .

Well , you said many things that I wrote down , but you said something which was that you saw then that the launching landscape was changing , and so now that we're at the end , at the time of this episode's recording we're at the end of November , it's before Thanksgiving in 2023 .

And I want to know what do you see that's working and not working in launching , like right now for online course creators , membership owners and coaches ?

Like we're marketing , we can figure out a use case for probably anything working or not working , but what I notice as a whole is that the market is not especially if you're selling something you know 2000 and over , maybe even a thousand at this point like people being able to say okay , I'm doing a webinar today and I'm going to give you five days to decide

to spend thousands of dollars . It's just not working as well as it used to , and that's because there's market

saturation . With the pandemic , online business grew a lot right . On top of that , we have people who have invested heavily in courses and programs . Having gotten the results that they thought they should , they're maybe a little unhappy .

So now we're not just dealing with the fact that people have like market saturation and competition , we're dealing with people going . Eh , there's a hesitancy in the market and it's growing daily , and I work with people day in and day out on launches and we do research around their particular client .

And I see this across the board where people are like I've invested before , I'm nervous to invest , and on top of it , there's just recession , you know , and I don't know necessarily in like full recession , but the wallets have been tightened and so , all of a sudden , these sales and things that we've done in the past just aren't working as well and I think

which is great we're dealing with a more sophisticated buyer , so our marketing has to become more sophisticated .

And when you talk about market sophistication now that becomes even more important here at the end of 2023 . So my question to you is what do you see as like part of that pre-launch phase that really can help somebody stand out from all the other people who are doing what they're doing or selling what they're selling online ?

I have like a little framework which is personality , authority , credibility , empathy , so I'll go over those personality , personality , credibility , empathy , exactly . So the reason why you can stand out during a pre-launch period is because you're able to talk about , you know , using personality .

We use a lot of stories during pre-launch , so this is not salesy content . I'm a copywriter , right . So in the past there's been this world of you either create content or you're writing conversion copy .

This is where we go back to what I mentioned earlier , which is like this consideration time To me is a mix of content and copywriting , that we're using copywriting our persuasive skills in our content , but we're doing it in a very creative way , which makes it fun . So that's the other thing I want to mention here .

The pressure is off because all of a sudden , I can tell a quirky story about . You know , my pug just passed away , but oh sorry . Oh , that's okay . But you know I would always tell stories about the silly stuff this dog would do , right Like I can talk about it with a metaphor or analogy in stories .

So when I use personality , people , that's building no like trust . That's helping me stand out . It's helping people remember me because I am telling stories .

If I use authority , which is I want people to see me as an expert in the space , and that is what in today's market right , you want to be seen as a true expert in the space that you're in , so you have opportunities to speak your mind , be able to talk about your values , things like that in your pre-launch content .

That also builds that goes back to that . No like trust Credibility is . I can tell customer and client stories . I can use case studies . I can use these in very creative ways so that I'm not just telling people how great . You know . Once again , I'll use the pre-launch process , as it's not me just saying how great the pre-launch processes .

I can like tie in stories of what's happening with customers and clients to help do some of this persuasion . And last but not least , is empathy , which I feel like since I started talking about it . You know there's always kind of like buzzy words . But , empathy is like .

When we can truly understand our client , when we understand them , when we understand how they think , how they feel , and we can reflect that back to them and copy then they start to see us as the person that can help them . So in this market .

This is why doing a pre-launch is so important , because I've written long form sales pages forever for clients , for myself , right . What I see a lot of time in launches is people are trying to take this like what 40 , 50 page Google document and trying to somehow smoosh all of this like education and belief shifting and everything into 10 launch emails .

And then they're wondering why is this not working as well ? That's why , because we're dealing with a more sophisticated buyer all of a sudden , now we can be . We have this opportunity to really stand out in a non-pressure way . And the last thing I'll say around that is one of my favorite quotes from a book is never split the difference , Chris Voss .

He talks about . When you give people the opportunity to say no , they often say yes , and that's the other thing that we're doing . We're giving our clients , our customers , our readers a lot of autonomy in their decision making .

And when you give people autonomy , they feel much more in control of the buying process , and that is a beautiful thing when people feel in control and they're not feeling pressured and they're not feeling so much .

You know , one of my quotes I don't know if I said this on the last episode , because I've been saying it forever is like the more empathy you have , the less urgency and scarcity you need , and that's really what I wanna lean into is like it's not working as well as it used to anyway . So I don't want my entire launch to rely on like doors are closing .

I wanted to rely on someone having a belief that they're really going to get a transformation and then coming and investing with me , and when we do that , we get also better clients and customers who create better testimonials , and it starts creating the cyclical effect .

I got a question All right Before , when you said authority , pace , personality , authority , credibility and empathy . When you said authority , something that stuck out to me was to you mentioned speak your mind and talk about your values .

I got my keyboard stuck on my lap under the desk so that hopefully the clackity , clack , clackity in my fingers isn't like picking up in the mic . But I wrote that down because , in my mind , speaking my mind and talking about my values doesn't build authority .

So I'm like super curious how that builds authority , because I know that I want to change my content , but then the listener probably is thinking the same thing .

. I've been talking a lot lately . I feel like launching has got this really bad rap . Oh , it's so stressful and you know you should just try and go evergreen all the time . And I'm not saying don't go evergreen . What I'm saying is launching is not fundamentally the problem , it's the way the market has approached launching is the problem .

So suddenly , here I'm speaking my mind about the industry that I'm in , and when I'm doing that , I'm either getting people that are leaning into me and that are like oh , like this is interesting . This is what I've been feeling .

Or I get the people who are like Brenna's , crazy and launching is horrible , no matter what , and those people are never gonna be my buyers anyway . But the people who are are gonna start leaning in . So that's when I'm talking about authority content .

Is you really figuring out in your industry what you stand for and what you stand against , and being able to speak about that very clearly so that you start grabbing the right people before you launch .

So I was speaking my mind , but in like a fun way . Like every brand is different , but for my brand that's the other way that I can do it . And it's funny on those like relatable things that I speak my mind about . I'm middle-aged , so I make jokes about being over 40 . Things like that is another way .

That's not really necessarily like authority , authority , but these are the kind of things where you tie maybe that personality in a little bit . That helps people see you differently .

But really to me and this goes back to something I said a little earlier I , as a consumer , don't like to be pressured , but I like to buy when it feels good and I'm excited . So I really started to think like okay , how can we start building buzz and anticipation ? How can we ?

I wrote down the definition of anticipation excitement , waiting eagerly for something that's going to happen . That's what I want in my promotion periods I want people to be excited for what's about to happen to them and about to happen to their launches .

When I can do that , it taps a different part of the brain and it also changes the way that you approach your sales periods .

But I definitely think , like no one prepares you for some of the emotional stuff that happens when they're teenagers and navigating that time or creating young adults that are getting jobs and things like that . But I do feel like overall , yes , it gets 100% easier .

I love being a parent of teenagers 99% of the time , so you have something to look forward to for sure .

I'm just kind of a few mistakes I've made and then it's like every day they're asking about it because they're they know it's coming , but their concept of time is still for me , and so that's immediately what I thought about anticipation . And you create this .

So you have a system , you have a system for other coaches and course creators , like your clients , to really create that in their pre-launch phase .

So that's why , with anticipation , we're getting people excited for either the pain being removed out of their life or the transformation of the promise of our offer about to happen to them . But we have to navigate this because , as humans , a lot of times , right , we get excited about something .

It's funny I was just reading a book by David Garfinkel and he talked about this where , like , people get excited and then they start to feel some resistance , and that's what I see . So it's like anticipation marketing .

To me is , if you could just build buzz and excitement , then we'd all be millionaires , right , because you would just say , ooh , this is coming and people would be excited . What we have to do is build buzz and excitement while dealing with the things that are going to come up and block people in the way .

So the way I approach this whole period that we've talked about this four to six weeks with anticipation is we're building up anticipation and then what ends up happening is we get people who are like I don't think this is possible for me . I think that a pre-launch is too long , like four to six weeks . That seems like more work .

We're dealing with the way people think and the things that stop them from buying .

So what ends up happening is we have to deal with that while trying to remove some of those changed the way people think with our content , doing some belief shifting , helping , showing them the objections of why this isn't the case or why actually they're doing something to hold themselves back .

So in the middle of all of that , that's what we're kind of contending with when we use anticipation .

So I feel like the listener I'm not going to say me because I'm just going to blame it on the listener I feel I feel somebody listening maybe me , could be thinking of a content calendar and wondering how in the heck are they going to plan all this out cohesively and make their pre-launch phase work with anticipation , marketing dotting all their Ts and crossing

all their eyes ?

They're not thinking of creative ways to talk about what they're up to , about how people can get transformation . They're not doing so . I would say , if you're listening to this and you're like , okay , maybe this seems like a lot , right , because I put a lot of thought process into this . It's not so much that it's a lot . You're creating content anyway .

So that's the thing I really want to point out here . You're creating a podcast , you're doing social media posts , you're doing emails , so you are effectively wasting time , if you will . You know , I know that's a strong statement .

Yeah , back to my authority statement , but you're truly wasting time and hurting your own launch by not doing this process right , like you are not really being intentional with the content .

So it's not a matter of oh my gosh , how am I going to do this Right , like you're already doing this Now we're just going to do it in a different way that is a little bit more effective than what you're already doing , cause that's what happens People either ignore their audience before launch cause they're so busy launching , or they are just kind of throwing

stuff out there , probably cause they're busy doing launches . So that's my answer for you .

I was going to say like that content treadmill . But there's another negative analogy . It doesn't have to be like that , though .

So the beautiful process is , if anything , your content becomes much easier to create , cause you know exactly what , what to say , when to say it , and you know that it's something that the reader needs to hear , because you've done your research .

So keep in mind all of that is that that is part of the reason , too , we go back to anticipation marketing here is that you're saying something that's making people think differently .

I was reading a book called talk like Ted , and there is this beautiful part in here where it talks about when people can learn something different and I think you'll really like this as a teacher .

When they can see something differently , it actually creates a hit of dopamine in your mind , and when you have a hit of dopamine there was a researcher in here that said it's almost like a save button in your brain and that , in coincidentally , anticipation also releases dopamine .

So all of a sudden , you're getting people excited and they're pressing save in their brain when you start to do this process . So that's really what you should think about here is like okay , I am not just creating random content , I'm creating this content that's like people are excited about and that they're clocking in their brain .

Yes , this is something I'm thinking about , something I'm listening to , something I'm contemplating .

new way . A lot of people have talked about launches . I'm guessing , never heard someone talk about it in this way , so , in a very meta way , me talking about how dopamine creates a save button that helps people remember you when it comes time to buy right there . That is a bit of a hit of the dopamine right .

When I start to talk , so , like during one part of the pre-launch , we go into what I call transformation week , where we start to really future pace people on what's possible . Well , maybe someone truly hasn't believed in the past that they can get these kinds of results .

So all of a sudden they're learning something new and they're seeing something different , and so in that way , we're building up the excitement for what's to come while at the same time , presenting information that's different , which is creating those hits of dopamine .

So you know and I'm not like a dopamine dealer , this isn't like , this is just it's been amazing to me . It's been amazing to me going through this process Like I started to do pre-launch just because I thought there's a way to do differently . I see a hole in the market that the more I study , learn , do all the things .

I get confirmation after confirmation of why my clients have tripled enrollment in their programs , why I have people selling 75% of their program before their doors even open , why people are having their first figure launch , and it's because all of these things that I'm talking about here are really put into play . But it's not done in a manipulative way , right .

It's really done in a way where we're putting the client first , because we know them so well that when we can do this , it starts creating all of the stuff that we're talking about today .

And the really cool part is , too , is when you are building anticipation . People are interested , people are ready to take action now and they can . What ends up happening is this beautiful cyclical effect that I talk about , which is you pre-sell some spots which boost your confidence .

Like you go into a launch already having 20 , 30% of your spot sold and even if you have something where you don't have like a cap on there , even if you've just have made sales , all of a sudden you feel way more confident . When you feel way more confident , you show up differently . When you show up differently , people feel it .

When people feel it and they know people have already bought it creates a natural FOMO . When you have a natural FOMO and people want that thing that you have , then all of a sudden then you get more buyers and you get more buyers and then it all starts happening again .

So this process that I'm talking about here is not just about creating anticipation , which , of course , I love .

It really feeds and creates the cyclical movement , and then the other cool part about it is because we're getting people that four to six weeks that we're doing pre-launch , people are making really good buying decisions and when people make really good buying decisions , they come into your program ready to do the work or take your course .

They get better results Once they get better results and they start doing your word of mouth marketing for you .

So all of a sudden , as I see the compounding effect , I have one particular student who was part of the first round of the pre-launch plan program just at her third launch which , by the way , everything I'm talking about becomes a rinse and repeat process Just at her third launch and had her biggest launch ever , even in this market .

Right , and it's because of what we're talking about here , because all of a sudden then you have amazing front end marketing that you know exactly what to say and how to say it , and you get this back end marketing of testimonials and people talking about you and it starts doing your selling for you as well .

Can you like motivate the listener by just sharing some not the sensational story , right , because I know you got those two , but let's just talk average Jill and Joe success stories from people who are like implementing this anticipation marketing that you're teaching in their business and they're like what's possible ?

People are listening and you're like maybe you don't have these huge results or whatever it is is someone bought into my program , bought my VIP package , which is not a cheap package , because on my sales page I had one person who said , hell , they had their most common confident lunch , yet To them that was like so worth it .

So I think what's possible is that you can get out of what I call this do or die launch cycle , where you feel like you're killing yourself and that's what launches end up becoming right , like I want to create an environment for you where you can go , where you can use buzz , excitement , stories like all these things that we've been talking about Can .

I create an environment where I'm more relaxed , more confident .

Just stay where they were at from the previous launches . Right , Seriously .

So I think those are the things that are , you know , maybe less sensational , but definitely more effective or not more effective , but these are the things that can happen . Yes , our goal is to always increase revenue with business owners , but I don't know . I know we both have children . Like I just don't want to be stressed .

I want to be able to enjoy my business , have fun , serve my students and not be in this freak out cycle every launch , and that's really my main goal and I do my own process , and so I know what it feels like when you're in self doubt , when you have imposter syndrome , when people are asking you like the worst question anyone can ask during your launch ,

like how's your launch going ? And you're like it's going horrible , right , like that's what I really want , because when you can start doing some of this pre-sell when you know you already have interested buyers , you're not going into a seven day launch period and being like oh my gosh , is anyone going to buy ?

You already know you have buyers , people have already talked to you and you've had enough time to get feedback . If people aren't buying that , you have time to maybe change some of your marketing material , launch emails , things like that .

But something you said about what was it you just said about children in you not being in freak out mode Just reminded me like more than ever , like this is important because a lot of us who have online businesses are blessed to work at home , but way more than when I was growing up , like my dad and mom disappeared somewhere to work and I had no idea what

they're doing . Like my kids might not super understand what I'm doing , but they can definitely see my emotions , my stress level , and I was like I don't want to be in freak out mode for my kids to observe something that gives me a lot of joy and I hope they could do something similar later on and then to like associate something negative with it .

But even if you do that , if you implement these launch periods , you're still going to see more sales . So that's the first thing . But the other thing too is that people try and like , recoil and go oh my gosh , I got to figure out how to go evergreen because I can't deal with this launch cycle .

I'm trying to like , even everything out , like , okay , how can we not be like super stressed launch period ? But then again , how can we start to create a way to have these higher income periods ? So , in a way , that's not like like we talked about , where you want to burn everything to the ground .

I have the pre-launch cheat sheet and there's three beliefs that every buyer has to have before they can buy from you , and so I have a cheat sheet where I show you the type of content that you can create that supports those beliefs .

But you just taught me some very good things and I know the listener listener . Head back to the beginning of this episode . Listen to it one more time .