I only had 1 sale on day 1 of launch

One of my biggest fears is spiders. The mere thought of them actually makes me want to throw up.

My second biggest fear is failing at launching an offer.

And back in September of last year. It happened.

If you’ve met me in person you probably know how I open this story…

“Have you seen that news article about that girl with 1M followers who couldn’t sell her merch - I thought that would be me"

I was waiting for all the “likes ain’t cash bros” to come at me.

Was already seeing the headlines of the LinkedIn bros who use my name for clout telling their audience that viral posts don’t matter….

A day later, sales started pouring in.

So instead of bragging about how my last few launches have gone.

First I want to focus on the things I did wrong that lost me thousands.

Because honestly, no one talks about this.

2 Launch cardinal sins I wish I didn’t make:

I made 1 sale on day 1 of the launch for the first version of Literally Academy because the stripe link attached to the landing page was only set for 1 purchase only.

I’d driven so much traffic to my landing page, for it to have 1 single conversion.

So cardinal sin no.1 is obvious, but not really..

Make sure all your links work.

LISTEN TO ME. I see you, rolling your eyes telling me “This is obvious Lara”

WELL IT WASN’T FOR ME!

During launch there are 10000000 things to be done and optimized, and most efforts go to copy and promotion - so this single mistake is easy to miss.

How I’ve prevented this from happening now:

1. Launch two I had multiple friends test all links and purchase

2. Launch 3 I hired a team to handle all the tech stuff

See the evolution though, because it’s important.

Launch 1 I did it all by myself, launch 2 I asked for help and launch 3 I finally hired a team full time.

I think too many people hire too soon without validating their product or idea.

Doing this and making some honest mistakes has allowed me to know exactly what needs to be done in all fronts of the business and launch - so now I can give single tasks away and know they’re getting done!

Now, I might’ve saved some pennies now hiring a team who makes sure all the links work and the product can actually be bought but…

Let me tell you something about marketing psychology.

People want to feel like they’re saving money.
Like they won the lottery and they got the best price.

And I know that, you know that…

But for launch 3 I didn’t use this knowledge.

And so, to my loss and your gain, I didn’t add more pricing options to the final offer for Literally Academy.

Let me show you:

This segment of the landing page looks nice, kinda sexy with the gradients going on.

The price is a bargain even without the launch discount… right?

WELL NO.

Because 1 single option is limiting people’s choices.

Here’s what would’ve been better for me:

On this second image, I’ve added a second offer to 1 make the $399 price look like a STEAL and 2 to satisfy the demand I have for 1:1 consulting right now and still get them to purchase the course.

There is an immediate value add, and again, there are more options.

I’m not a conversion expert, but even now looking at this mini mock up I just made the difference it could’ve made is obvious.

So Cardinal Sin 2 was not using tiered pricing.

I learned this from one of my coaches Ken and it did well when I was pitching my agency services and consulting offers.

So I will be bringing it back when we revamp the landing page to make these adjustments…

The truth is though, even with tiered pricing - customers still doubt you.

After all they’re about to give you their hard-earned money over the internet.

And they might get distracted, after all I’m not in the room with them telling them to buy my product.

I’m competing for attention here, not just conversion…

And so the first 2 launches - we drove traffic (a lot of it) to the landing page…

But some people weren’t pressing “pay”.

They’d input their email and name… then the transaction never happened.

This is known as an abandoned cart.

There’s a MILLION different reasons why this happens…

Instead of listing them out thought let me tell you how I fixed it.

We set up an abandoned cart email flow in Klaviyo to automatically follow up with potential customers.

The emails drove a 5-10% conversion rate for this launch and why I’m mentioning it.

I wasn’t doing it before because I didn’t know how or didn’t realise it was a thing…

But it is!

The emails sent after had urgency and scarcity.

Reminding potential buyers about why the course would work for them and why they needed to buy it NOW.

(we ran these during launch so we had the active bonuses that are now expired going as an offer to add urgency and real scarcity)

Honestly, learned a lot about digital products this year.

My launches have not been perfect or the most optimised but they have been fun.

Every time I’ve learned something new. Which is the biggest W for me!

And so to finish this email…

Here’s a gift from me utilizing exactly what I learned over the last year about launches.

If you missed access to the 5 bonus masterclasses that were made available to the 500+ people who bought Literally Academy last month…

I’ve got good news!

In November I’m going to host a live training teaching you exactly how to nail your first product launch using your personal brand on LinkedIn without being salesy.

This has been highly requested and I’ve taught this to my 1:1 clients leading up to a $100k+ launch for them.

So if you want to know my secrets…

Join Literally Academy and get an invite to the exclusive 60 minute call.

Grab your spot here.

That’s literally it kings and queens!

Lots of love, Lara