A day doesn’t go by where I don’t get an email, a call from a friend, or see someone somewhere online asking about the timeline of a product launch.

What amps me up when I see inquiries like this is simple – launches are very public events and all you really need to do is WATCH what’s happening to understand the timeline.  And .. understand that it’s not a simple 1, 2, 3 process… it’s usually a bunch of things happening all at once.

And if you were to watch you’d also see that the timeline for every single launch is slightly different – and thank god for that.

Instead of asking for a timeline to follow – start asking yourself, what elements do I need in place to pull off my launch?

The timeline is the easy part.  You have a start date and you have a finish date…and you decide where all those goodies happen in between.

All those moving pieces – now that’s where your head needs to be… that’s what you need to focus on.

The truth is – there is only a skeleton of a timeline for any launch and like I said, it’s often not completely linear – its the stuff you fill it in with that makes your launch unique and successful.

The only things you MUST make sure you do before you start the launch train IS THIS – know your launch goals, know your audience, know your offer, know your audience wants your offer, and have a plan to reach your audience to make the offer (that you already know they want!).

Here are just a few of those moving parts in the multi-layered launch timeline:

• Tell people you trust – like your mom or your friends
• Tell people you respect – peers or people on your team
• Send a survey to your list
• Ask lots of questions to your friends on social media, in forums…
• Listen + take notes on questions other people are asking about your topic
• Offer free calls, meet with people – find out if people want to buy what you’re selling
• Start writing relevant content in your blog
• Create 3-4 pieces of pre-launch content in a format that works to your strengths and that will resonate with your audience
• Send a few emails where you hint that something’s coming
• Leak your launch to social media. You tease A LOT
• Define your core concept
• Designing your product site + creating content
• Build your product site
• Set up a special optin page to capture anyone’s who interested
• Tell people about a special interest/wait list page
• Write your sales page
• Create sales webpage
• Set up product in your payment processor
• Put buy now button on your sales page
• Keep talking about your program – look for ways of bringing up conversations about your main topic anywhere your “peeps” are hanging out
• Answer questions about your topic in blog posts
• Tell your peers and partners to send people to the optin page
• People sign up
• Start sending even more targeted content to people who signed up on your interest page
• Offer free, useful content up the wazoo
• Offer a free webinar, call, or other types of content – format is important to what you’re offering and who your audience is
• Tell people how to take the next step
• Open the doors – make the sales page live

Now – if you want to go deeper into the launch timeline and find out how to piece all of this together, get on the list to find out when Fearless Launching is offered again!

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