Here at Momstyle, we recently launched the 30-Day Digital Product Challenge. I always like to share the results of my launch, in the spirit of transparency and learning. Because during a launch, things rarely go as you expect. This launch was no different.
The Product Concept
The idea for the 30-Day Digital Product Challenge emerged from me watching mamas get hung up somewhere in the digital product creation process. While it’s great that the Digital Product Workshop is available on-demand, it hasn’t sold incredibly well. And I was also seeing evidence that the women investing in the Workshop were not following through on the implementation.
I asked myself: How can I help women follow through on this goal all the way to the end? The answer I came up with was the 30-Day Digital Product Challenge.
(As an aside, product development for an online business has always been like this for me. Create. Launch. Learn. Adjust. Repeat.)
But while I have a bad habit of diving into creating before vetting my idea, this time I posted the idea in the Momstyle Your Business Facebook group for feedback. The first version of the idea offered the Workshop + Challenge at $167.
The feedback I received was that the daily action steps and support were the most valuable and also that $100 felt like an upper limit for what people were ready to invest. I un-bundled the Challenge from the Workshop and offered it at $97. I also decided to limit participation to 25 total people, so that I could be sure to provide a lot of value to all participants.
The Launch Plan
With the product idea in mind, I started forming a launch plan. Another goal I had for the month was to grow my email list and Facebook group. I’d had great results doing both in January using a free, 5-Day Challenge so I decided to adjust that challenge and offer it again.
I decided on 3 days instead of 5 for a couple of reasons.
- First, during the first challenge, participation waned after the first couple of days. I felt I had built in too many brainstorming tasks and not enough planning and getting ready to implement tasks.
- Second, I work Tuesday – Thursday. During the last challenge, there was a lot of interaction in the group on Monday and it was difficult for me to keep up with it, since it’s a day I mostly spend with my girls.
I also tweaked the challenge to make sure that the ending point of the challenge – planning out a single idea – flowed very nicely into the starting point of the paid challenge – implementing the idea.
The launch plan emerged as follows:
- Promote 3-Day Challenge via Facebook ads, local blogger meet-up, and posting in Facebook groups.
- Pre-announce 30-Day Challenge to email subscribers who have expressed interest in this type of offering. (This resulted in 2 sales very early, which was a huge confidence boost.)
- Deliver 3-Day Digital Product Challenge (Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday), showing up 100% and helping participants work through their ideas and roadblocks.
- Promote 30-Day Challenge with Facebook posts and email.
- As new participants register, update the sales page to indicate the number of spots left. Also add a comment to the thread in the Facebook group. This creates social proof that others see the offer as worthwhile.
- At the last minute, added in 3 Facebook Live events to pilot this new option within Facebook groups. I made sure to reinforce parts of the free challenge and speak to the forthcoming elements of the paid challenge
(To learn more about planning your launch, check out the Digital Product Launch Planner.)
The Launch Stats
- Email List Size – Approximately 500 total, 124 signed up for the 3-Day Challenge.
- Approximately 40 challenge participants registered via Facebook ads ($225 spend).
- Sales = 10 total, $970 in revenue.
- Conversion rate = 2% on entire list, 8% on challenge list.
What I Learned
- Running a challenge Tuesday – Thursday really helped me be present and available, especially on the first day of challenge, since Monday is not a work day for me.
- Thinking through the connection between the two challenges made the offer and promotion feel like an expansion of the work we’d already done. This made it feel more comfortable for me to promote, and I’m assuming was a more natural transition from a buyer perspective as well.
- I sense that the similarity in names between the 3-Day Challenge and the 30-Day Challenge could have caused some confusion. I’m not sure it was crystal clear what the difference was, and this could have impacted sales. I remember again and again that names are everything when it comes to digital products!
- Inside the group, I received a critical piece of feedback that will help me rename the free challenge for the next time I offer it. The feedback was “I feel I have an idea that will actually sell.” Next time, I’ll also be swapping out day 3 for an action step to help hone in on an idea more likely to sell.
- One thing still puzzles me. After a strong pattern of sales, there were 0 sales on the last day, despite an email and 3 Facebook group posts. I still have no idea why! I’ve never had this happen in my history of launching digital products. Typically, nearly half of my sales occur on the last day. Time will tell whether this was an anomaly or something to do with the launch plan itself.
As you can see, launching is about learning. I learn something every time I launch, no matter how the results match up against my goals.
What questions do you have about this launch? What lessons have you learned from running your own launches?
>>Learn more about launch sales
To learn more about planning your launch, check out the Digital Product Launch Planner. You’ll learn exactly how to structure your offer to kick-start the selling process, how to communicate with your audience about your offer, and what to do before, during, and after your launch.
Click here to learn more about the Digital Product Launch Planner