If you have an irresistible product or service offering that’s ready to be launched into the world, then this online business launch checklist is for you!
This article is part of a series in which I show you how to monetize your own unique skills or knowledge to create a profitable online business.
Using a 4-step framework, I show you how to:
- uncover a profitable niche and validate your business idea
- attract your ideal customers
- create your irresistible offer
- successfully launch your business
If you haven’t checked out the previous articles in this series, you can find them here:
- How to Start a Skill- or Knowledge-Based Online Business
- How To Find a Profitable Niche and Validate Your Business Idea
- How to Attract Your Ideal Customer Like a Magnet
- 5 Steps to Creating an Irresistible Offer
Assuming you’re all caught up, you’re ready to launch! In this article, I’ll share my online business launch checklist.
You can learn more by watching this video or reading below.
(This post contains affiliate links, which means—at zero cost to you—I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you for your support!)
Why You Need an Online Business Launch Checklist
There are often a lot of moving parts to a launch. Whether you’re launching your very first product or service or even your tenth or twentieth, a well thought-out and executed product launch plan is critical to creating a successful business. This checklist is that plan.
Further, you can reuse this online business launch checklist for any new products or services you develop in the future to help ensure a successful launch every time.
In this article, you will learn how to:
- map out your online business launch plan
- create a marketing plan
- set your launch goals
- setup your infrastructure
How to Map Out Your Online Business Launch Plan
It’s always a good idea to map out your launch plan before you begin executing it. These 5 steps will help you map out your launch:
1. Choose a launch date
Picking a date for your launch day gives you a deadline and makes it real. Additionally, you can work backwards from this date to make sure you have time to complete all of the other steps in your plan.
2. Decide whether your launch will be “limited” or “evergreen”
A “limited launch” means that your launch will only be available for a limited time with clearly defined “open cart” and “close cart” dates. After the close date, your product or service will not be available for purchase unless you reopen it at a later time.
An “evergreen launch” means that your target audience will be able to purchase your product or service at any time from now until some time in the distant future (should you decide to stop offering it).
My first offer as a business owner was a “limited launch.” It was available during a 14-day open cart period. After 14 days, I closed the virtual doors until a few months later when I offered it again.
One benefit of a limited launch is that having some time between launches allows you, the business owner, to work out any kinks between open cart periods. After doing two live launches I made my course available as an evergreen offer. It’s now available for purchase at any time.
3. Decide how you’re going to deliver your product or service
If your offer is a digital course or other online product, you’ll need to consider what platform you’re going to use to deliver it.
If your offering is a service such as a coaching program, how will you communicate with your clients? Will you use Skype, Zoom, or some other platform?
4. Decide how you’re going to accept payment for your new product
There are a variety of payment processing platforms available, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Some common payment processors are:
5. Decide on your accounting/bookkeeping process
Before your cash register starts ringing, you’ll want to make sure that you have an organized way of recording your transactions. Will you hire a bookkeeper? Will you use a spreadsheet or Quickbooks?
Even if you start by using a simple spreadsheet, be sure to have an organized way to record your transactions. As a business owner, this will be a HUGE benefit, especially around tax time.
Create a Marketing Plan
The next step in the product launch checklist is to create a marketing plan. Your marketing plan will serve as a roadmap for the strategies you’ll use to promote your new product to your target audience.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, “If you build it, they will come.” They won’t! You’ll need to think about how you’ll get the word out. The idea is to get your target audience primed so that your irresistible offer is top of mind.
A solid organic marketing strategy might look something like this:
- 4 Weeks Pre-Launch
- Create content on your website to support your new product
- Create videos on your YouTube channel to support your new product
- Create an ad on your podcast to promote your new product
- Social Media Strategy — Repurpose content from those channels mentioned above to promote your new product on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc.
- Email Strategy — Send weekly emails to your audience offering free content that ultimately relates to the offer that you’ll be launching
- Launch Day Communication
On launch day, how will you let your target audience know that your product or service is ready?
Will it be through:
- Email?
- An invitation to a pre-recorded or live webinar?
Here is the launch day communication plan I used (it worked extremely well):
- I sent out a series of emails to my email list inviting my target audience to attend one of four live webinars.
- During the webinar I shared valuable free information with the attendees so that, even if they didn’t purchase my program, they walked away with some useful tips and ideas. Just because they didn’t buy today doesn’t mean they might not come back at some point in the future. Giving them information that’s useful is a great way to stay top-of-mind with them.
- About two-thirds of the way through my webinar, I presented my offer.
- Those attendees who were interested in the offer were directed to a sales page where they could purchase my product.
- Anyone who didn’t purchase on the live webinar was sent a series of follow up emails that continued to promote my program.
The launch lasted 2 weeks, after which time I closed the doors until I reopened them again several months later.
Of course, there are multiple ways you can launch your product or service. You don’t necessarily need to create a webinar. You could do a simple email sequence that sends customers to a sales page. Consider what would work best for you and formulate your plan from there.
Set A Launch Goal
Once your plan is in place but before you start executing it, set a launch goal for yourself. This can be really difficult to do if you’ve never done it before. One way to set goals is to begin with the end in mind. How much revenue would you like to generate overall? Be as realistic as possible using real numbers to help guide you.
For example, typical conversation rates for webinars can range anywhere from 3.5% to 25% depending on several factors, including the value of your product/service, your pricing strategy, and how warm your leads are.
If you’re hosting a webinar to help launch a product you’re selling for $500 and your goal is to generate $100,000 on your first launch, you’ll need to sell 20 offers to hit your target. If you’re expecting a 5% conversion rate on your webinar, that means you’ll need to have 400 people attend your webinar (not just register, but actually attend).
Using a formula like this can help to give you a rough ballpark to work toward. Try not to sweat these numbers too much, though, especially if this is your first launch. Your conversions should increase over time as you gain experience, so go easy on yourself. You should be looking at this whole experience as a chance to experiment and grow.
Set Up Your Infrastructure
Once you’ve got your overall launch plan—including your marketing plan and goals—in place, make a list of all of the software and tech you’re going to need.
Some things to consider are:
- an email service provider
- a landing page for your sales page
- webinar software/hosting
- a digital course hosting platform
- sales funnel software
- bookkeeping software
After getting your software setup up, you’ll need to start to:
- build your sales pages
- write your email sequences and set up your funnels
- set up your payment gateway
- set up your business bank account. Make sure you’ve got a separate business bank account, even if you haven’t registered a separate legal entity. Minimally, open a separate bank account (even if it’s under your own name) just to separate your personal money from your business.
It’s Launch Day!
Finally, once all of this legwork is done, it is time to launch. Woo hoo, this is the moment you’ve been working toward for weeks, if not months, and it’s finally time to pull that trigger!
Once your product is out in the world, don’t forget to give yourself a massive HIGH-FIVE and take a moment to relax. Then get ready, because you’ve still got some work to do post-launch.
Post-Launch
After you’ve launched, be sure to conduct a debrief to determine whether you achieved the goals you set for yourself in the planning stage. Some metrics you should pay close attention to are:
- How many offers did you sell?
- What was your conversion rate?
- Did you reach your goal? Looking at your numbers, why or why not?
- What can you do to improve your metrics next time?
- Is there anything you overestimated?
- Is there anything you underestimated?
You’ll learn a lot after your first launch, so really spend some time reflecting honestly on the entire experience. Be sure to document your findings so you can use them to help you refine your whole process for your next product or service.
Some Final Words of Wisdom
I know this sounds like a lot of work, and frankly, it is! There’s no way around that. If it’s in your budget, I highly recommend getting a little help from a virtual assistant.
A good virtual assistant can help you with:
- writing emails
- setting up funnels or email sequences
- answering customer emails
- helping you monitor the chat in your webinars
- a million other little things that you’ll need to do
If an assistant just isn’t in your budget yet, that’s okay, too. It is possible for you to do this on your own. I did my entire first live launch on my own, and while it was a ton of work, I did manage to pull it off successfully. By the time my second launch came around I had the money to hire an assistant who helped me quite a bit.
Finally, go easy on yourself! No matter the outcome, you will take something useful away from this experience. You are a human being who is learning and doing something new for the first time, and it’s not going to be easy. Give yourself grace and congratulate yourself on your efforts, regardless of the outcome. If you have success, no matter how small, revel in it! You deserve it!
If you’d like all of the information I’ve been talking about in this series in written form, I invite you to download my free guide, The 4-Step “No Time to Waste” Online Business StartUp Blueprint.
