Estimated read time: 7 mins

Hey %FIRSTNAME%, 

I love my mother in law, and she’s very gullible. 

She told me the other day she has an “opportunity” to invest $500 now and get a new car later 🤦‍♀️

I gently explain that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

You and I, we know a thing or two about “too good to be true” — so many of us started businesses because other people make it look and sound so easy. 

Standing at the precipice of a digital pool of potential, you jump in and quickly realize, “it’s a cold plunge, WTF is going on!?” 

You have to work harder and put yourself out there in a much bigger way than what you may have been led to believe before you jumped in. 

& maybe the biggest challenge? 

When it comes to what launch strategies are working, nothing stays the same for very long. 

If you’ve been in the online business world for a hot minute, you’ll remember a few years ago when it seemed like around every corner there was a new free training on everything from sourdough to darning socks 🥖🧦

Today, what you’re probably seeing is a subtle move away from free and into low-ticket paid conversion events. 

Workshops, bootcamps, and challenges for under $97 typically leading into a program or course with a $2k+ price tag. 

When I switched from free training > paid workshop series my own sales conversions increased by 243% and 67% of my ad costs were covered before I even opened the doors to my course. 

It can feel next to impossible to keep up with what’s working currently, but that’s what you’ve got me for 🥰

Curious how you can use this strategy for your next launch? 

Let’s get into it.

What you’ll learn in this article:

🍵💲What it means to monetize your pre launch and how to know if it’s right for you 

🍵💲4 reasons to run with it: from stronger relationships with your prospects to lower ad costs and everything in between

🍵💲Who it works best for, what NOT to do, and 3 things to keep in mind when you’re designing your pre launch monetization strategy

The tea: How and why to monetize your pre launch

First off, what IS a pre launch and why is it important? 

When you launch, your offer is available to purchase. The pre launch phase is what happens BEFORE you open the doors to buy. 

It *ideally* spans 30-60 days and is all about addressing objections before they even have a chance to arise. Often during a pre launch, creators will be promoting content that’s tangential and aligned to what they’re launching. 

Ex. Let’s say I’m launching a course on how to write a book. My pre launch content might include things like: 

• 5 reasons you ARE ready to write your book 
• How to make time to write when you’re busier than a squirrel in summer 
• How to land a book deal 

Later in the pre launch phase is when you would start to monetize with a low-priced (under $97) product that aligns with the bigger offer you’re planning to launch like “How to Outline Your Book in a Weekend”.

What it means to monetize your pre launch

Normally in a launch you run a “conversion event” — a webinar/training/masterclass where you take the captive audience you built during your pre launch DEEPER. 

During a conversion event, you teach, serve, and sell. It’s your chance to be “in the room” with the people most likely to buy from you.

Let’s run with the example above (launching a course on how to write a book). 

An example conversion event might be a training on how to outline your book in a weekend or how to leverage AI to outline your first book in 3 days. 

You know full well that if a potential student writes their outline, they’re one step closer to writing their book — and if you prove to them that it’s easier with your help, you’re one step closer to making the sale. 

You have 2 options here: 

1. Run this training for free. 
2. Charge a nominal amount for the training ⇐ This is the path to monetizing your pre launch

Why would you WANT to do the latter and charge for the training instead of offering it for free?

💸 Launching is ~expensive~ whether you run paid ads or not. Everything you do is unpaid labor with the hope that it’ll pay off in the end. Why not get the pay off sooner? 

💸 Money talks. You’ll attract people who are more serious and committed to the end result you’re guiding them toward. 

💸 It gives you a chance to prove yourself to your potential clients and customers. If they feel the initial money they spent with you was worth it, they’re far more likely to spend more. 

💸 If budget is a concern for some of your audience (which it likely IS) you give everyone a chance to experience a win without breaking the bank. This feels good AND it helps participants who don’t join your bigger offer initially to plan for the next time. 

Why is this strategy working so well for online launches RIGHT NOW?

Personally I think people caught onto the “too good to be true” promises of most free webinars. 

When you pay for something, and when a creator has that up-front revenue — there’s a higher change you’ll get something WORTH paying for. 

It’s not just a thrown together free thing. There’s more structure and better value — or at the very least a perception of those things. 

Not to mention the internal influences at play. 

Everybody’s doing it because everybody HAS TO. 

The paid advertising ecosystem has changed so much for everyone. 

If a creator is relying on these channels to attract the right people, they’re largely paying 10-20x what they were a few years ago.

What to keep in mind if you’re planning to monetize your pre launch

As far as the offer goes, you want to make sure it’s… 

✅ ALIGNED with whatever you’re selling and ideally helps give your people a sense of “I’ve got this” 

✅ SPECIFIC. You’re not giving away the whole pie here, focus on the one piece that if they could make some progress they’d feel far more capable of tackling the entire pie. 

✅ TIME BOUND. This leads into your launch so whatever you’re promising needs to be do-able in a pretty tight timeline.

Common Qs around pre-launch monetization

Who does this work best for?

• Online businesses selling a premium course or group coaching program ($2k+) 
• Higher ticket markets in general — think B2B, finance, etc. 

Who is it not the best fit for?

• Super price-sensitive markets (if you’re in one, you’ll know) 
• Online businesses launching lower ticket offers — if your offer is under $1k you likely don’t need to monetize your pre launch 

What happens after the launch wraps? 

You could make your new offer evergreen and sell it as a stand alone product or tuck it away for your next launch.

Sip on this…  

🧋 This is why I send you memes 🫶