You have your goals, you have your plan, now it’s time to do the work to launch! This is exciting and exhausting so my number one tip for when you’re in launch mode is to have that be the only thing you’re working on.
You want it to be the top priority.
I get it – this can be difficult when you’re working with clients! I recommend that you have a conversation with your clients to see if they’re going to be working on a launch around the same time you are so you can plan accordingly. Knowing is 90% of the battle with project management and planning.
Do: Avoid Burnout
Project management for your launch is going to play an integral role in the success of your launch. So you need to plan ahead. One item I see come up frequently in the online world is focus on the business side of things but forget about all of our family and personal obligations.
Reach out to family and/or friends to arrange for childcare, talk with your SO about needing extra help with household management, outsource whatever you can so you can be laser-focused on your launch.
Delegate as many tasks as you can allow you to avoid burning out. Doing this will allow you to create space. Now, you *might* be expecting me to tell you “YES!” you can fill this will all the items on your to-do list!!
Nope – not all all. I challenge you to first understand how you recharge. It doesn’t matter what it is – if it’s watching an episode of Selling Sunset or going on a 15-minute walk – make sure you plan that into your day! Recharging yourself and creating peace during a stressful and busy time is one of the most important things you can do. You want to be sure you stayed excited about the launch.
Since there are so many tasks when planning and executing a launch it is very easy to end up having content fatigue. Whether it’s from writing the content, creating the content, or sharing about the content in 1:1 settings.
Do: Share Your Launch
In order to have the most successful launch you possibly can it’s imperative that you not only share about it socially but talk with the people in your audience who are showing interest in your product. You want to connect with them personally because that is showing them that you have a genuine interest in their business, and therefore, success!
People want to be courted and they need to know that your program/service/offer is a great fit for them! There is a lot of discussions around the benefit of evergreen launching and creating passive income via digital products but I do see incredible success when we spend the time with personal outreach. Show people you want to work with them!
Don’t Forget to Set Up Your Systems
- Set-up a kanban style for your launch. The first column is “Details” should hold all the in’s and out’s of the launch.. For example; Project details, Team details, Content details, Where are you Marketing, etc.
- This will allow you to launch much easier next time because all of your social, links, and images will be in one place.
- Project Management is one of those things that takes a lot of time at the start but saves you even more day after day.
- Then it’ll be the “Icebox.” This is the baseline for the launch. Who are your partners, what does the calendar to launch look like, what is all of the copy that needs to be written, final review, videos, etc.
- As you work through each task you’ll move it through your kanban statuses of “In Progress, Review Needed, Ready to go Live, Done – Woohoo!, Evergreen, How Did We Do?”
- This last “How Did We Do?” status is your debrief of the launch. This is where you look at all of the analytics for your launch and see how things went and where to improve so you can continue to fine tune your product and have a more successful launch each time.
Once you have your project mapped out in your project management platform you can go through and set due dates, applicable tags and dependencies. This allows you to see what tasks need to happen not only to launch on time but in order for the project to flow efficiently.
Do: Have Someone Else Manage Your Launch (if you can!)
If you’re a solopreneur then you are the person who is running. Otherwise, if there is anyone in the backend of your business, even if it’s a virtual assistant, they should be managing the launch. You create the project management with the due dates and then their sole job becomes ensuring those due dates are being hit and to follow up with the assignees who have missed due dates.
Putting it all together
I have worked on multiple launches where two sales may come in on Day One but sixty sales come in right before cart close. So maintaining a strong social media presence throughout the life of your launch is crucial. Want me to take a look at your launch board? Schedule a call with me here.
Watch the video on Project Management for Your Launch here