Are "Free Launches" dead? Listen to find out
Mar 01, 2022
Today, I am doing a little bit of myth busting around the launching world. You have likely seen ads and posts touting the virtues of the “paid launch” or having a paid workshop at the front end of your launch, or a paid bootcamp, or some kind of paid opportunity going into your launch. And you may be wondering, are “free-on-the-front-end” launches dead? So I decided to test it.
So paid launches typically come from something like a paid workshop, or a paid challenge (often called a “bootcamp”) where your audience is paying money to partake in your launch. And this is not something new, this is something that people have been doing for ages but it's something that people are really capitalizing on. I have seen so many trends come and go in the launch industry and it seems right now really talking about the value of paid launches seems to be the hottest new trend, right? People are saying that “Webinars are dead!” or “Five day challenges are dead!” and now you need paid launches in order to get people to buy your programs. Which I totally get and that’s exactly what I want to talk about.
On the upside, paid launches are really value forward, right? They’re typically something you pay less than $100 (usually wayy less) to be given some measure of value with a pitch at the end. This is something that I think some people feel a little bit sketchy about, because if people are paying into your launch, they think that it should be a no pitch paid opportunity. But in a paid launch, the pitch is kind of the point, right? Like that is part of launching your program is setting up for a sale on the back end. So if you're somebody who is like pitch averse, or is afraid to launch or sell to their audience, this can be a little bit softer of a launch mechanism, because also the people who are in it are people who have paid to be there, right? There's a little bit more skin in the game. There are people who have qualified them as buy or qualified themselves as buyers into whatever you have to offer. But getting to the bottom line - is this an effective way to launch? The answer is yes…but also no. When I tested the effectiveness of a paid launch I found that while these people were totally qualified buyers, my paid bootcamp was so value forward they didn’t feel the need to buy into my higher ticket offer because they had already seen the transformation they were looking for.
The key to a successful paid launch is making sure to communicate that this is a launch mechanism for something else, this paid thing is not a complete solution. Which then can become a slippery slope of expectations, right? With your audience feeling like “If she couldn’t even deliver on a solution here, why would I buy her even more expensive course?”. At the end of the day it really comes down to 1) Knowing your audience and 2) Launching in a way that is aligned with their needs. Your audience might need the “try before you buy” mentality that a low ticket paid launch provides. Or they may just want a Costco sample size of your teaching through something like a free workbook or webinar. Its all about testing, collecting data, and figuring out scientifically what launch mechanism works best for your audience.
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