We need to talk about ad budgets, "sales", "affiliate marketing", "closing" - and what that actually means when it comes to the launch of your new course.
Even before FB fiddled with their algorithm, iPhone allowed people to "opt out" of seeing ads, every Tom, Dick & Harry got in on the action (me included!) - you had to have a product worth selling.
Even if you have a $20k budget to run ads to your course - if it's NOT what people actually want then it doesn't really matter how many times they see the ads - they're not buying.
... and it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with ad-agency standard branding or professionally-edited videos!
Now I'm old enough to remember seeing ads for cigarettes - you either smoke or you don't - an ad doesn't make you want to buy a packet of cigarettes if you don't want to smoke!
Throwing more of your hard-earned cash at ads isn't going to force people to buy.
And... there is a difference between marketing & selling.
Frequently newbies think they can "sell the shit out of their course" if they just hire a few VAs to cold call/discovery calls - well the thing is, unless your phone is ringing off the hook and frankly you need an extra pair (or two) of hands on board to take all those payments - then that's a shit strategy.
The most amazing sales person in the world (which a $2/hr VA isn't!) is not going to be able to sell what isn't SELLABLE.
It's as simple as that:-
If your product isn't great and hasn't been MARKETED BRILLIANTLY (and the buck stops with you!) - then you can't sell it.
Offering affiliates 30-50% commission isn't going to sell it.
More ads won't sell it.
I see a lot of people signing up for affiliate programs and thinking that their affiliates can sell it and the course creator will just hand over a chunk of cash as a "thank you".
But the thing is - your affiliate sellers are NOT there to figure out the strategy of your marketing - come up with the copy and make the offer irresistible - that's not their job. Their job is to take your offer to their audience and spread your message further - but if you've got no message...?
You need to wind this back and make sure your marketing for your course is SHIT HOT - and no amount of brilliant "salesmanship" can make up for poor marketing.
HOW TO LAUNCH WITHOUT AN AD BUDGET
Simply:
- Your course needs to be fucking amazing. You need to put your heart & soul in to it. Not scrape someone else's ideas. This has to be YOU bringing your interpretations and ideas to life.
- You need to be able to explain to your audience exactly what the course does and the transformation it provides. Right now Something A is happening to them - and after your course Something B is going to happen.
If that stuff isn't CLEAR you can't sell it.
Whether you promote your offer directly to your audience by newsletters, videos, your Social Media channels or whatever - there needs to be a full explanation - and certainly a sales page - and if your sales page sucks? ROCK SOLID IT!
So before you throw $$$ or get desperate and hire people to sell the UNSELLABLE - sell it to your ORGANIC audience. Sell it to the people on your list and the people in your audience.
If you can't sell it to the people who already know you and are in your world - then there's something off either with the course - or more likely - the marketing message itself..
All of that is tweakable.
Always tweakable.
You don't give up - you just figure it out. 🥃
But throwing good cash after bad is never a good idea!
