Step-By-Step to Pre-Launching a Killer Course

Mike Harrington

Entrepreneur, Coach, Writer

e: mike@mikeharrington.co

t: @themharrington

w: mikeharrington.co

Matt Gottesman

Entrepreneur, Digital Strategist, Startup

Advisor

e: matt@mattgottesman.com

t: @startupgotts

w: mattgottesman.com

What’s the Big Idea?

What Do People Always Seem To Ask You For Help With

NOTE: YOU MIGHT NOT EVEN BE

GIVING YOURSELF CREDIT FOR

THIS!

1. Relationships & Dating

2. Travel Hacks & Strategies

3. Building Personal Relationships

4. Network at a Conference w/out Being Lame

5. Time Management & 80/20 Strategies

6. Gain Traction On Social Media

7. Negotiation for Freelancers / Consultants

8. Managing Digital Teams

9. Master the Influential Email

10. How to Charge More For Your Worth

What’s the Big Idea?

What Expertise Have You

Built

Validate Me! – The Challenge

Do Others In Your Circle Have the Same Pain?

How Can You Start This Conversation? Your Network Is More Powerful Than You

Think!

How Big Is the Market

You Want to Help?

Where Do They Congregate

Online?

10-15 Minute Calls

LinkedIn TrafficLinkedIn is really special. WHY?

Targeted Traffic

Where Do

Your Target

Personas

Live?

Helpful Content

Providing

Access to

More Info.

Gaining Feedback

Discussions

leads to Pain

Points

Make a List

Document

Pain Points

How Can I Help?

Interaction leads

to trust. Trust

leads to sales.

Helpful Content

Links to Resources,

Landing Pages,

Collecting Emails

Gaining Feedback

Discussion Boards

– Top Level or

Micro Niche

Make a List

Ask Open Ended

Q’s & Document

Pain Points

Reddit Traffic?Similar to LinkedIn

Forums & Private Membership SitesFertile Grounds for Your Target Markets. WHY?

Fellow Entrepreneurs

Been through the

same problems.

Have great advice

Built In Database

Potential Partnerships,

Resource Sharing,

Potential Target Market

Like Attracts Like

Self-Explanatory

Invest in Themselves

Track record of investing

in themselves to build

skills, solve problems &

grow their business.

Immediate Feedback

Faster response b/c

of established

relationships & trust

List of Example Forums:

1. Dynamite Circle

2. Fastlane Forum

3. Location Rebel

4. Digital Nomad Academy (DNA)

5. Warrior Forum

6. LinkedIn Digital Consultants

The “Pitch” – Copywriting w/ a Hook

Step 1: Identifying Your Own Tone & Messaging

• Friendly?

• Corporate?

• Authoritative?

Step 2: Listen to How Your Target Audience Speaks About Their Challenge(s)

• Take notes in Evernote using the words/phrases they use to describe their pain

Step 3: Creating Personas (Quick Hack to this)

Who is Your Customer Avatar / Personality?

What are their:

• Habits?

• Life situation?

• Desires?

• Fears?

• Needs?

• Where do they live?

• Where do they spend $

• What do they read?

• What websites do they

subscribe to?

• How do they like to be

spoken to?

The “Value Bomb”AKA – The Trust-building Giveaway Content

An eBook or Guide A Step-By-Step / “How-To” PDF A Free Email Course

Audio Content – Interview w/ an Expert

Capture Your Leads – Landing Page Essentials

Step 1: Choose Your Platform

• LeadPages

• Opitmize Press

• WordPress Landing Page Plugin, etc.

Step 2: Upload the course, PDF, eBook, or audio content

Step 3: Loop in your email integrations – Aweber, Mailchimp, etc.

Step 4: Write and load up your thank you emails – IMPORTANT. Make

them glad they “opted-in” to hear from you.

Step 5: Go into forums where you’ve interacted with your target audience,

give them the link - ask them) to download and give honest feedback.

Step 6: Have a feedback form locked and loaded (Google Docs)

PRO TIP: Make sure to use open ended questions, not just numerical

ratings. Open-ended questions = target market answers in THEIR OWN

WORDS. =)

The PR Campaign – Navigating the Digital “Press Junket”

1. Interviews

Reach out to influencers in your space, can you provide them a valuable

interview or case study that would benefit their audience?

2. Cross-Promotion with other Online Entrepreneurs in the Space

3. Get featured on Podcasts (use your network in the DC, etc)

4. Pitch a Guest Post - related to your launch

• Make sure it will benefit the blog owner’s readers)

• Target blogs w/ Medium – Large Viewership.

• Focus on benefit to the blog owner, not all about you!

5. Social Media Distribution

• After a guest post, podcast or interview happens – make sure to link to it

across all social media platforms.

• Ask that the host does the same, win/win.

Pricing – How To Hit the Sweet Spot

The power of low-risk, low cost

• Allows them to get their feet wet

• See immediate results, more apt to pay for more premium level

offerings – upsells, masterminds, higher production value, future

releases.

Incentivize earlier adopters with 2 main benefits

• Lower introductory price

• More one-on-one access to you

$37, $47, $97 model of pricing – Studies show these odd numbers work

Ask target market – If they pay X for a course, what value/results would they be

aiming to get ?

Example: If they pay $47 on a social media promotion course for real estate

agents, what specific results would they be stoked to have?

• More leads & closed deals?

• Less confusion and wasted time?

• Authority status?

Social Media – Amplify Your Message!

What Are Your Message’s Amplifiers?

#Social Media

Distributing your

offerings, giveaways and

message through Social

Hashtags

Relevant keywords to

your offer or subject

matter

@ Influencers to retweet

/ redistribute through

their networks

Influencers

The Art of Cross Promotion

What is Cross Promotion? Think…

1. Complimentary friends willing to distribute for you.

• Fellow bloggers

• Affiliate Marketers

2. Guest Blogging

• As alluded to earlier

• Keep it relevant to their audience

3. Links from their pages

• People who would be willing to give you some link “juice.”

• How can you scratch their back?

• Can you call in any favors?

• How would it benefit them or their audience?

• Something to think about – but we did NOT cross this bridge.

• Still an important topic to be aware of, and part of your post-

launch strategy!

• Blogger friends with an audience that trusts them? Win/Win

Affiliate Program Site (example)

www.sendowl.com

Affiliate Sales

To Be or Not to Be?

Wrap It. Ship It. Share It.

Our Wins:• Writing a relevant (free) eBook for our targeted audience.• Building a lot of interest around the book and eventual course,

due to providing value out of the gate• 74% conversion ratio from the landing page; due to HIGHLY

targeted traffic.

Our “Lessons” (read: Fails):• Niche down further – at first we focused on “all freelancers.”• Having the wrong “respond to” email address programmed into

Aweber = missed out on a LOT of engagement.

Our Pivots:• Niching down to focus on serving ONLY high end web

developers• Will focus on adding higher production value content (video,

screencasts, audio, etc)