Whether a launch has failed or succeeded, there are three things you want to make sure you do afterward every single time.
1. Review the data
The first thing you need to do after a launch is actually review the numbers and look at the data.
How many people were on your list before you started your launch? How many people are on there now? Did they come in through the webinar? What were your open rates? What were your click-through rates and your conversion rates? If you did a webinar, what were the show up rates? We wanna get really granular as much as possible and look at all of the details and numbers that go into your launch.
(Side note: Open rates are not as reliable as they used to be since Apple did its huge update last year. It’s just not tracking them like it used to. Click-through rates have remained reliable, however, making them more reliable than open rates right now.)
The purpose of reviewing the data is to make sure we understand everything that actually happened. There are lots of moving parts when it comes to a launch, so we wanna look at all of the data we possibly can and evaluate it.
2. Celebrate the Wins
After we review our data, next I want us to find and celebrate our wins. Some of those wins will be related to the numbers you just analyzed. Maybe you met your launch revenue goal. Maybe you had great conversion rates. Maybe you grew your list by 50% or even doubled or tripled it. Celebrate the heck out of that!
We definitely want to really celebrate those number wins, but we also want to celebrate the wins that aren’t quite as obvious as well. Look beyond just the numbers and the revenue to think about what else happened.
What were other wins that you had? Did you show up to your webinar and just totally crush it? Maybe it didn’t convert, but you felt good because it was the first time you actually ran a webinar and you had people show up. That’s amazing! Celebrate it.
I had a client once that absolutely crushed her launch. She had brought in hundreds of new members to this membership. But the biggest win that stuck out to her is that she didn’t cry during this launch for the first time ever and this was her fourth or fifth time to launch! She didn’t cry the entire launch period because she had me come in and help her set up the strategy, write the copy, get everything ready to go, so she wasn’t stressed in the way she had been for past launches. So that was a huge win!
And that’s the kind of win that we don’t always think about when we’re looking at our launches. We focus so hard on the numbers and the revenue and what’s happening there, that we don’t look at the other pieces outside of it. But it’s important to celebrate ALL our wins, both big and small.
3. Learn from your mistakes
After we review and analyze our launch data and celebrate our wins, the next thing we want to do is to look at, and learn from, our mistakes, even if you had a hell of an amazing launch.
I have a client that I did a launch with and she had her first six-figure WEEK as a result of this launch. But even with a super successful launch like that, there were still mistakes made because we all make mistakes. We’re human. Maybe we misspoke during our webinar. Maybe the emails didn’t go out when they’re supposed to or the automation was messed up. It’s important to review that and ask, “what went wrong here? What could we do better next time?” Even if you crush your launch, there are things you could always improve on next time.
BONUS! Getting an outside perspective can help
After every single launch it’s important to 1) analyze the launch data, 2) celebrate our wins, no matter how big or small, and 3) review those mistakes so we can learn from them and grow. Oftentimes, however, it’s hard to do this on your own. You need an outside perspective to help you see things clearly. That’s where I can help.
I offer launch debriefs where I use my form to help you make sure you’re looking at the right numbers, the right information, and the right data. You fill it out and then we get on a call and we look at it and talk it through.
In a launch debrief we’ll look at each part of your launch and talk about what happened. Where were your open rates higher? Where were they lower? Where did your unsubscribes go up?
(Sometimes it’s good if our unsubscribes go up because it means they’re self-selecting off our list because they’re not interested. This means we can stop paying for people that don’t want to work with us!)
We’ll also find and celebrate your wins together. Sometimes you need an outside perspective to come in and help you see all the good things that happened in your launch. You may be disappointed in your 40% open rate and not realize that 40% is actually pretty amazing! Launch debriefs help you discover your wins and mistakes so you can learn from them in a way you might not have been able to on your own.
Not only do I recommend that you do a debrief using these three steps after every single launch, but I also recommend doing funnel debriefs quarterly with your list-building funnel or any evergreen funnels you have running. We want to make sure we’re always looking at our funnels, reviewing them, checking that they are functioning like they should, because we don’t want to be losing money anywhere along the way.
I also offer debriefing sessions with other service pros. If you’re a copywriter and you had a client have a launch that totally flopped, and you think to yourself, “I don’t know what happened,” I’d love to come in as a strategist and help you figure it out and help you plan the next steps so it can go better next time. (And you don’t have to take my copy. My copywriter hat will go over to the side!)
I’d love to work through these three steps with you to analyze your launch or funnels—I think it’s super fun! I usually have a couple of spots available for a launch or funnel debrief. Interested? CLICK HERE to connect with me and schedule your session or reply to this email with any questions!