Close these 3 copy gaps to make your next launch super profitable
After you’ve lived on planet earth for a while there are just some things you know to do. These are usually based on experience and save you a lot of headache and pain because you came prepared.
For example, when you head into a restaurant with your toddlers, you immediately move all sharp objects, glasses full of water, and anything breakable out of reach?
Or, when you were in college and your best friend wanted to hit every bar on Kirkwood Avenue? You knew to go ahead and pack Advil, a pair of flats, and a bottle of water.
It turns out that launching is very similar.
After doing it a few times, there are things you know you need to do to get better results. So, today I’ve rounded up three gaps I see all the time with my clients that cost them money and time, and how to close them to make your next launch super profitable.
If you’re wondering who the heck I am and why I’m the person you should trust with tips for your next launch, here is all you need to know about me right now. I’m Hannah, a copywriter and content strategist obsessed with helping coaches and service-based entrepreneurs fill their online courses and book out their services through story-focused emails and done-for-you launches.
Using my signature story-first approach, my clients get amazing results (like 201 people on their waitlist from ONE email and one social media post, growing their audiences by thousands, and maxing out capacity in their courses).
There is only ONE rule for this blog, and it is crazy simple: You’ve got to take action.
Everything you’ll read here is a small nip or tuck that you can take action on and complete in 10 minutes or less. My goal is for you to stop leaving money on the table by sealing up your launch’s money black holes (especially the ones you don't know about).
But you’ve gotta actually, you know, do it.
Okay, without further adieu . . .
Nip & Tuck #1: Beef up these neglected pages for a more engaged audience that takes action faster
Without a doubt, one of the biggest gaps I see in marketing and something most entrepreneurs don’t give a ton of thought to is thank you pages.
These little guys appear any time someone in your audience takes an action to let them know the action has been completed. So, after they opt-in to your lead magnet, buy something, or answer a question or poll, they’re directed to a thank you page.
Normally, thank you pages look something like this:
Or this:
Or this:
Those are the standard messages your email service will make up for you, and friend, that is a HUGE waste of space.
Your new subscriber is SO EXCITED to be on your list. They are SO EXCITED to hear from you! And they have already said yes once by opting into your lead magnet (which means they’re more likely to say yes again if you ask.)
So, let’s turn your thank you page into something that either gets you valuable voice of customer data or makes a sale!
Here are my two suggestions for your thank you page.
No 1 – Send them to a one-question survey.
Sending them immediately to a one-question survey is a great way to understand what was going on in their heads when they first said, “Yes.”
As marketers (because yes, you’re a marketer too), we want to always join the conversation that’s already happening in our audience’s head, and what better way to do that than to ask them?
Here’s what I recommend you ask in your one-question survey:
What was going on in your [life/business] that led you to sign up for [name of your freebie]?
For example, if I’m a parenting coach for moms, I would say, “What was going on in your life that led you to sign up for the “No Yell Challenge”?
Or, if I were a business coach, I might say, “What was going on in your business that led you to sign up for the Business Blueprint Checklist?”
When we ask this question, we’re getting exclusive insight into the exact thing they were struggling with that made them decide YES, this is the thing I need. We can take their exact words (and desires) and use them in all our marketing to make sure it resonates on a “How did you get in my head?” level.
You can use Google Forms, Typeform, or whatever other platform you prefer to catalog your answers. Then, when it’s time to launch, you can pull out their comments to make your sales copy hit straight home.
No 2 – Set up a tripwire
Admittedly, this one requires a little bit more time to set up, but it’s a great way to reuse a masterclass, course, or product that you’ve already created. If you’re not familiar, a tripwire is a strategy that gets your audience to buy something small/discounted to get them warmed up to buy something more expensive in the future.
For example, a tripwire might be a $97 masterclass that you knock down $47 for one hour. It’s important that the tripwire connects to what your audience really wants and has a time limit.
Here are some tips for making them super effective:
Add a timer (I’ve seen them for anywhere from 10 minutes to 24 hours)
Don’t make the tripwire available at that price anywhere else
Create a punchy sales page
A tripwire is a fantastic way to add a few thousand dollars to your bottom line completely passively and can cover ad spend (if you go that route with your launches).
Regardless of whether you choose a thank you page survey or tripwire, please please don’t let your thank you page be wasted space. Keep your new subscriber engaged a little longer, and either get some valuable info or boost your bottom line.
Nip & Tuck #2: Edit this page to turn every whoops into a new subscriber or launch waitlister
Let’s start this one with a big promise: I know the secret to a long-lasting, happy marriage and I’m going to share it with you here. It’s also a small tweak that I’ve only seen a few other entrepreneurs do and it’s widely effective.
First, the secret to marriage.
I married my highschool sweetheart. Cue the *awwws.*
(Though, honestly, our relationship could’ve been a villain origin story because I dumped him not once or twice but FOUR times and he was still sure he wanted to get married.)
Early on we discovered how to always make things work. And it is this (yes, we’re still married by I call him my first husband so he remembers the stakes):
Did you catch that?
The 404 error message.
“Sorry, babe, I didn’t get your message. There was a weird error message!” (This actually does not work ever, but it makes him laugh enough that we can all move on with our lives pretty quickly.)
Now, this is something that I’ve seen maybe two people do before, and they were both multi-eight figure earners.
But y’all, we’re bringing the secrets to light.
As you change your launch strategy, try new things, introduce new challenges, and change your marketing, you’re bound to miss a link or web page here or there.
And when you do, an error message pops up.
But did you know you can customize that?
Instead of leaving your subscriber feeling annoyed that the thing they wanted wasn’t available, give them another option.
I recommend you send them one of three places:
1 – Your launch landing page
2 – Your normal lead magnet page
3 – A blog post, podcast episode, or resource with information that is relevant to what you’re launching and what they might be looking for.
This way, you can keep your subscriber in your world and potentially get more sign ups for your launch!
Your message can be as simple as something like:
“Hey! It looks like this page is no longer connected, sorry about that! If you’re looking for resources around [thing they want that’s related to your launch], grab my [name of lead magnet/blog post/resource] right here!”
Simple, no?
Onto the next one!
Nip & Tuck #3: Use this normally boring email to earn your subscribers’ loyalty from the get-go
Raise your hand (tequila, chocolate milk, or, in my case, Vanilla Diet Dr. Pepper) if you’ve ever been scrolling when a post from the resident family heretic, Uncle Bob, pops up.
(If you don’t have a resident heretic Uncle Bob, it’s usually someone from high school that you forgot you were friends with.)
The caption reads: SEE?! I TOLD YOU ALL IT WAS TRUE!
He then begins to expound on a *completely insane* conspiracy theory. You look at the link he’s posted under the caption and see the website: www.RealTrueFactsIPromise.com
Cool, cool, cool, Uncle Bob, that sounds like a super legit website with super legit information. 🙃
But we see this all the time, don’t we?
It’s a phenomenon you’ve probably heard of called confirmation bias, where we seek or interpret the things around us to confirm what we already suspect or believe . . . like pulling up sketchy websites to prove our point.
You’ve seen it a bazillion times. In social media, fake news, religion, and especially if you work with people in the online space.
We (the people in the online space) harbor all kinds of biases that we’re seeking to confirm. Sometimes, they’re negative – enough money won’t ever be available to me, I can’t cut it as an entrepreneur, or I don’t know enough to do XYZ.
But sometimes, we are seeking to confirm something good, and when you recognize those moments and confirm those feelings for your audience, you’re building a deeply connected bond they won’t soon forget.
One moment where the GOOD confirmation bias shows up is when your subscribers opts in to your launch. When you’re marketing and selling, part of your role is to help your audience see how they are already qualified and ready to take the next step (working with you).
And one of the most effective (and most often wasted) ways to do that is through the initial confirmation email you send to your audience when they join your lead magnet or opt-in.
It typically looks like this:
I think we can all agree that this generic message is boring and a waste of launch real estate.
So, instead of sending them a boring confirmation email, edit the text to validate what they secretly hope is true about themselves.
If you’re a business coach, that might look like validating that they are already on the right track because they’ve started their business, seen some success with clients, and believe in themselves enough to join your list and download your thing.
If you’re a wellness coach, that might look like noting their commitment to losing weight or getting healthy by downloading your free guide.
No matter what you do, you’re looking to confirm that they are already on the right path, and it will benefit them to keep going on that path with you. We’re coaching them on staying consistent with the positive actions they’ve already taken.
Here are some questions to ask yourself that might help you figure out what you can confirm about them:
What past decisions have your ideal clients made that you can use to empower them?
What past experience have your ideal clients made that you can use to empower them?
How can you show them that opting into your list was a really smart decision? What does it say about them?
It’ll take less than 10 minutes to put this email together but it can have a HUGE impact on subscriber loyalty.
BONUS Nip & Tuck #4: This is the KEY to great copy
This bonus nip and tuck is less of a tweak you should make and more of a thing you might want to start doing if you’re not already.
Freshman year of high school I had a really awkward conversation with a guy.
The guy, Alfred (not his real name), who was enormously sad.
“I get that you don’t want to go out with me,” he said. “I was just wondering why.”
Oof.
I feel like it’s a fair question, but awkward freshman year Hannah had NO clue what to tell him. We were both in all the academic clubs, and I had snort-laughed when he turned to me one day and said, “Have you heard about the sick chemist? If you can’t helium, and you can’t curium, you’ll probably have to barium!”
He thought we’d make a great match, and maybe we would have. But I thought he was a dork (Pot, meet kettle) and he had a terrible goatee/circle beard happening around his mouth. And, if we’re being reeeeally honest, I had a crush on one of the football players.
But the main reason I didn’t want to date him is because he stood me up. I had waited an hour for him to show and ended up in tears, ruining my heavy-handed mascara and too-peach blush (so maybe it was for the best 🙃).
As he stood there in front of my locker, I decided to be honest and told him the reason was that I didn’t want to get stood up again. He was hurt but understood.
“Thanks for the feedback,” he’d said before slumping away.
The thing I want you to take from this horribly awkward adolescent experience, is that getting feedback is KEY for moving forward and making money in your business, and I am constantly FLOORED by how many coaches and service providers leave this out all together in their launches!
After you’ve closed the cart, if you don’t have a downsell, it’s super important to send out a general feedback email to find out why people didn’t purchase.
Here’s a quick fill-in-the-blank one I made for you. (No opt-in required)
Gathering this information is going to be massively helpful in your launches going forward. It lets you know exactly where to focus and hone in on your marketing the next time to convert ever more.
So, take five minutes, fill in the blanks in the template and start capitalizing on all that info.
Alright, y’all. How are we feeling?
Which of these are you most excited to implement? Tell me in the comments!