The Ali Dee Show

Ep 93: How to Build a Launch Strategy That Actually Sells

• Ali Dee • Season 1 • Episode 93

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Ever experienced the crushing disappointment of launching a product you're excited about only to hear crickets instead of cha-chings? You're not alone. Product-based business owners everywhere are making the same critical mistake..posting their products with zero strategy and hoping for sales magic.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Ali D Show, the show for product-based business owners who are ready to turn their passion into profit and build a brand that actually sells. I'm your host, ali D, and I've sold millions of dollars in products and currently have my brand in retailers across the globe. Now I'm teaching you to do the same Each week. We'll dive into real talk, proven strategies and behind-the-scenes tips to help you grow your sales, scale your systems and create the business and life you've been dreaming of. If you're ready to go from overwhelmed to sold out, you're in the right place. Let's dive in. Hello, welcome to the Ali D Show. Okay, I already know that this episode is going to become one of your faves, because this is such an issue that I see across the board with product-based business owners, and it's how to go from cricket product drops, cricket launches, to actually launching the right way so you can get a crap ton of sales from your product launches. So if you're out there and you're like, yeah, I've hyped myself up for a launch and then I'm still getting crickets, I just want you to know you are so not alone, and it's why I'm creating this episode. So we're going to break down why most product-based business owners totally miss the mark when it comes to launching and what you actually need to be doing instead. So in this episode, I'm going to break down the three-phase launch three-phase launch that you need to start implementing. Literally, I just had a client use this last week and she went from $0 launches to doing a launch using the three-phase system and making $1,200 in sales in less than an hour. Okay, zero to four figures in less than an hour, and that was just the first hour. So this thing is freaking magical and not magical in a sense that, like you know, you got to wave a magic wand and hope for some fairy dust to land on your launch. Magical because it's a strategy you can implement and reuse every single fricking time you launch to generate sales for your business. So are you pumped? Yeah, because here's the deal. I know what happens is you have and if this is you, you're going to be like, yep, this is so me. But listen, I've done this too. Okay, that's why I know about this.

Speaker 1:

But you have, like, let's say, you get a cute product that you either like maybe you create it, or you have a new arrival, you know arrive at your store, your warehouse, and you open it up and you're like, oh my God, this is so cute, like I want to drop this ASAP. So maybe, like that day, or even like the next day, you get your makeup on right and you're like, oh, I'm going to steam it, I'm going to get it all ready, or I'm going to get the packaging ready, or whatever that looks like for you and you're like, and then I'm going to post about it, I'm going to launch the sucker, it's going to sell out. So that's what you do. Like literally, you get the product and you almost immediately launch it with no plan, no, like you know, blueprint, you're just like posting and hoping that someone's going to see it and that people are going to actually buy it.

Speaker 1:

So many things wrong. No offense, I again. I've been here too with this plan and this is literally what 99% of the people do. And then you're confused, you're sad, you're depressed, you're disappointed because you launched your super cute new thing and nobody bought it. So then you know, you know what the next step is of this phase, of the failed launch phase. You start second guessing everything. You're like okay, well, maybe it was the pricing, maybe the product isn't cute enough, maybe it's me and I'm like, I'm like not cool enough for social media. I don't have the personality or like, maybe. And then all of a sudden you're you're like second guessing your entire life plan just because you had a failed product launch when, in reality, you did not set yourself up for success in the first place, my friend. So this is the good news is that you can actually fix this pretty quickly, and this podcast is gonna be the means to get you there. So are you super excited? Okay?

Speaker 1:

So I talked about you need to have a three-phase launch. What most business owners do is a one-phase launch, the launch phase but they skip the two phases that go before the launch phase that actually set you up to make money. So you ready to learn what those are? Get your notebook out, save this episode. I don't care what it tastes, but you got to fricking. Do this your next launch, okay, and you're going to see like a night and day difference Again.

Speaker 1:

Anytime I've helped anyone with this launch phase plan, the results blow their mind and I'm like listen, it's not because I'm like again, a wizard over here, it's literally because you weren't doing jack squat before and now you have a freaking plan. Okay, your plan was just to put on makeup and talk about it. That doesn't work right. So first, again, we have three phases. The first phase I need you to know about and really get good at is the prep phase. Okay, and really get good at is the prep phase, okay. So the prep phase can happen anywhere from like four to six weeks out, maybe less, depending on you and your business. So if you're doing weekly drops, this is too far out. But if you're doing like a drop, like every couple of weeks or once a month or whatever that looks like for you in your product-based business, again, everybody's totally different.

Speaker 1:

But this, this framework, will work for any business. You just need to adjust the timing of the launch to fit you and your business, okay. So maybe for some people it's a few days, maybe for some people it's weeks, but I'm going to go with like, if this is your first time ever doing a real launch, this is what I want you to do, okay. So even if you like have products coming out every week, you can do your own, your, your like regular thing. So the next few weeks, as you're working on your quote unquote first real launch, which is going to happen four to six weeks for now. And here's what you're doing in the prep phase. Okay, this is where all the pre-planning goes down. So this is where you get super clear on what your messaging is going to look like for your launch. This is also where you start planning your content.

Speaker 1:

Yes, four weeks in advance, planning your content, shooting your content, getting your video, getting your B-roll, thinking about your email graphics, what's going to go on your offer details so you're creating all these what we call assets in the business ahead of time. Okay, this has to be done in phase one. How many of you are like the day before, scrambling to get your content and your pictures and your graphics and your video ready? And it's like the day before your quote unquote launch day, right? No, my friend, if you want to have a successful launch, if you want to do four, five, six figure launches, you need to have it planned way in advance, four to six weeks out. So what this is, what's going to happen, is you're going to start shooting and filming your content. It's going to give you time to edit it, to go okay. Well, I actually need this angle. Well, I want to do this. I want to talk about this Like it gives you some time to really get into the creativity of the thing and to get it done without feeling rushed. So it's nice and pretty and clear, okay. Again, if you are writing captions the night before your launch, you are in trouble, all right. So that's what goes down in the prep phase. Another important thing that's going to go down in the prep phase that I want you to know about is this is when you're adding all your product, with the product photos that you're taking in the prep phase, to your Shopify dashboard or wherever you sell your stuff. Okay, you can keep it hidden until the launch date and, by the way, I think Shopify has an option now where you can actually set your launch date so you don't like.

Speaker 1:

There's been times before I've done launches and forgotten to hit publish on the products. Right, how many of us have done that? Okay, we're not perfect over here, we're just, we're just doing our best, but sometimes we forget to publish. And then, like my social media girl's, like, hey, allie, the products aren't live on the website. And I'm like oh, she is, because she's got people DMing her like how do I buy it? How do I buy it? How do I buy it and I'm like, uh, allie, so now that is not my job anymore, we have someone else do that. But also there is a way for you to schedule when the products go live now. So all that needs to be done in the prep phase.

Speaker 1:

Okay, your products are ready on Shopify. This is also going to help you moving forward with your messaging in the next phases of your launch. You've already written product descriptions, so you've already really gotten into the nitty gritty of photographing the product, thinking about the messaging how does it relate to your ideal customer? What is the transformation that it's offering? What does the product description look like? All that, since that's being done in the prep phase, your next phase is going to be so much more effective and easy because you're going to have done all the planning.

Speaker 1:

Okay, again, four to six weeks before your launch date. This is what you're doing and the reason why I say four to six weeks, because if you're trying to plan a content, shoot or get models, or whatever the case may be, you need to give yourself a little time, like, maybe you need to book a photographer, maybe they're two weeks out. So that's why I'm saying this is a good initial prep phase and kind of what I want you to give yourself this very first time, using this launch tactic, this launch framework give yourself time, time, time, time. Okay, we wanna get it good. So that's prep phase. That's phase one.

Speaker 1:

After prep phase is over, we now go into the pre-launch phase. Now pre-launch phase is usually around seven to 10 days before your launch date. Seven days is kind of a good initial marker because it's enough time to get your people like excited and hyped about the product, but not so long that it drags out and they're bored and they're over it. So again, depending on you and your business and what products you sell, seven days is a good general lead time to give yourself to actually to launch day. Okay, so seven days up to the launch day is our pre-launch phase. What are we doing in the pre-launch phase?

Speaker 1:

This is literally where all the freaking magic happens. You nail your pre-launch phase, you nail your launch day. If you suck at your pre-launch phase, which you your launch day. If you suck at your pre-launch phase, which you may suck at it the first few times, your launch is still not gonna be great. So your job is to do this, to put in the reps, to learn to figure out the strategies so that you can really nail the pre-launch phase.

Speaker 1:

I'm just speaking the truth here. Okay, I don't wanna tell you that everything's going to be like super honky dory without giving you the truth. I'm all about the truth and authenticity in here, and like pulling back the curtain on what works. If you, if you go through the pre-launch phase and you still don't have a good launch, your pre-launch phase was not good enough, which is okay, all right, that's the whole thing here. We're just like practicing learning, tweaking, figuring it out and, listen, let's set the expectations that your first launch will possibly not be the launch of your dreams because you are doing this for the first time. It's just like anything right Post. Like go look at your first piece of content you ever posted. Right, we have to get good at this to really have a great launch, and this is for.

Speaker 1:

So, for example, the woman that I work with the reason why she was able to have a $0 launch to a $1,200 in the first hour launch was because she was working directly with me on this and out there, like, if you're just listening to this, you're DIYing it. It's going to be a longer learning curve, but I was literally telling her exactly what to do in her pre-launch phase. Now go make this. Now you need to post that. Now you need to screenshot this, like I was like literally voice noting back and forth her entire pre-launch phase and that's why it was so successful. So I want you to understand that this is again.

Speaker 1:

If you're DIYing this and you're out there and you're just going to figure it out on your own, you will. If you want my help, of course you know you can DM me. We can talk about maybe planning a launch for you or something like that. Maybe you can book a strategy session. I don't know. We can figure it out. I'm always here to help, but this is a particular private client, like long term. So we just have this. You know, we can voice note back and forth inside Telegram thing. So that's what I want to do is set the expectations as well. Okay. So the pre-launch phase again is set the expectations as well, okay.

Speaker 1:

So the pre-launch phase again is where all the magic happens. This is where you're building the hype. This is where you're starting to drum up interest. This is where you're, behind the scenes, getting the momentum really fricking rolling. Okay, you're teasing the products. You're showing what they are, you're posting video, you're talking about why it's going to transform their lives, whatever the case may be. Okay, maybe it's a pair of jeans and it's going to give you your best ass ever or whatever, I don't know. Okay, that's for you and your creativity and your messaging to figure out, right.

Speaker 1:

But that's what's going on in the pre-launch phase is you're flooding your feed and your Instagram stories and your TikTok wherever you sell. Okay, facebook, you're starting to tell what all the product is that's going to be launching on launch days, even if you have one product like it's one candle you're launching. Or two new scents, you're going to follow the same thing, even if it's a, you know, a collection that has five items, whatever the case may be, for seven days leading up to the launch day, you are pumping those items. So you're showing them and you're doing all the things that we talk about, you know, in this podcast and in my community on how you sell products. But what you're doing in addition here that makes this so next level and you really lean heavy into this is social proof, okay. So what I always say is create a wait list for the drop so you have somewhere to direct the people that are excited in the traffic that's building and the momentum and the DMS. You have somewhere to send them before the product even launches. That way, they're off social media and they're into your database, because otherwise we're going to be depending upon social media on launch day to actually get the feed into the people that are most likely to buy. And what do we know about social media is we? It's very hard to get our stuff in people's feeds, even if they're following us, so don't put your eggs in Instagram's basket and hope that on launch day, your post is going to be seen by your people, right? We want to make sure that they're going to know your launch day because you've removed them off of the platform into your own database. So you're going to have a wait list and all seven days in the pre-launch, you're driving people to that wait list, which is like a landing page on your website or something like that. Okay, that's what the whole focus is is getting them off the platform onto a wait list, because now, when launch day comes, you'll be able to reach them without question and without hoping and praying that these social media platforms are gonna deliver your perfect launch day content into their feeds, right. So that's what we're doing. We're also building a crap ton of social proof and FOMO the entire seven days.

Speaker 1:

So let's say you post a reel and it's B-roll of your product. And let's say it's a candle, right, and the candle's like glistening. Maybe it's a girl that's like, maybe it's a fall candle and she's like walking around in a pumpkin patch or whatever the case may be, I don't know. That's your job. You build the excitement in your content, right. But let's say the call to action for that reel is comment the word waitlist to be the first one to get access or dibs to our new limited edition cozy fall scent. So in that one thing, what we're doing is we're creating a call to action. The call to action is comment the word waitlist. Once they do that, your job is to then either manually DM them and give them the link to join the waitlist, or you can set up an automation, like a many chat automation, where anyone who comments the word waitlist on your post is going to automatically get a DM from you with the link to join your waitlist.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and then, as those comments start rolling in or people start DMing you maybe they're responding to your stories with the word waitlist. You start screenshotting that. Right, you're creating social proof here that people are actually commenting waitlist, like people are excited about your stuff and then someone's going to wait. I want to be excited too. I need to be excited. I love cozy, false sense. And then they comment waitlist and it builds this whole momentum thing.

Speaker 1:

And if you haven't done this before and you're like Allie, I don't believe it, I'm telling you this is the way. There is no other way. This is the way. Fomo, social proof, getting them off the platform is the way to have a successful, crazy successful launch. Okay, it works, it works, it works, it works, it works. Do not even second guess. It Do not go. I don't know if that's gonna work for me. It's gonna work for me, it's going to work for you.

Speaker 1:

Now, and will it maybe take a little time for you to figure out how to do this? Yeah, but that's okay, we're in it for the long haul. We don't build million dollar businesses overnight. We don't have four or five, six figure launches overnight. Okay, we get good at it, we build this stuff.

Speaker 1:

So the whole pre-launch phase this is. I know this is a lot for one podcast, but it's really important that you understand this. I've also created an entire training on this that is like literally mind-blowing, inside Trendsetter 2.0, which is going to be launching late August. So if you want any information on that, just DM me. But there's going to be. This is one of the like multitude of trainings that's going to be coming up soon in Trendsetter 2.0, but you can get it here right now. Okay, I know you get what I'm saying, but I just want you to know you will have access to like a full training on this. So, pre-launch phase we're building hype, we're building interest, fomo, social proof, we're getting people off the platform to your wait list.

Speaker 1:

Okay, again, this is the whole key and other ideas that you can, you can like do during your pre-launch phase is you can even like answer questions, like question boxes. You can do polls, you can, um, you can actually address any objections that people may have, like oh, I don't know if the candles never smell good for very long, right, that's like maybe an objection someone has. So you can even put in your content like we have the longest smelling candles in the entire universe, right? Or again, like jeans never look good on me. These jeans make everybody's ass look good. Okay, whatever the case may be, you can address these objections that you know people normally have for your type of product in this content as well. Holy shnikes, this is going to change the entire game for you. Literally, this is going to change the entire game.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and then the third phase. So, phase one, prep, phase two, pre-launch most important one Okay, phase two has to be fricking killer. And then phase three is your launch phase. The launch phase is the day that the carts actually open and things are available to buy. Now can you see how you can't have a successful launch without doing phase one and phase two? And if you're just doing phase three like so excited new arrivals dropping on Friday and it's Wednesday or Thursday, you miss the whole window to create the FOMO, the social proof, the waitlist, the objections, all the things that get people to buy on launch day. Now, if you're super established you're like, I don't know, kylie Jenner or whatever and you're a super major celebrity, their launch plan's probably a little different, but it's probably not right, because they're still creating that FOMO, that social proof that I want it, that it girl thing leading up to the launch. They also have a celebrity to help back it. Right, but we can do this too, without being a celebrity, without being an influencer. It all goes back to this phase.

Speaker 1:

So the launch phase again, you're opening the carts, okay, the products go live. You're emailing daily now about the products You're talking about. You know what are the things people have purchased so far. We're screenshotting that. We're showing what people are ordering. Of course, we're making sure we're cutting out their names and addresses and anything. You wanna keep this anonymous when you're showing social proof, but we're showing what are people buying. What are people like, what are they commenting, what are they saying. All that gets screenshotted and added to reels, to stories, to carousels.

Speaker 1:

Like you, for the next seven days in your launch phase, you are blasting the fact that everybody and their mother wants your stuff. Maybe you sold out of something? Okay, so we're sold out of the first scent. We only have four left of this scent, okay. You're creating urgency, scarcity. You're using all of the tactics that we learn about here Launches. It's not just about magically wanting everything to sell out, it's about preparation and planning. So, again, most people skip the first two things entirely. Right, we're not going to do that anymore. We're not going to do that anymore because we know how to do it. Okay, so that's the three phases of launching.

Speaker 1:

This was like the quick version that I could fit into a podcast episode that I feel like you can actually save. This now put it into action. And here's another thing I want to tell you If you want to learn more about launching. I know I said that it was going to be in Trendsetter 2.0, but I'm also hosting a free 14 day challenge 14 days, me and you working together, where I'm going to teach you all of the frameworks, including launching, including content strategy, including sales strategy, email literally everything under the sun you need to learn about in order to start getting 10K per month in sales for your online store. So, if you have a brick and mortar, you're doing 10k 20k in the store, but your online sales are stuck at like 1 to 2k. This is for you If you're someone who's recently launched a store or you're thinking about launching a store and you're at zero dollars. This challenge is for you If you're someone who's maybe been at it for a couple of years and you're still not seeing the sales that you want to see and you're still kind of stuck maybe between 2 to 5K per month and you want to be doing 10K per month in online sales. This challenge is for you, and I want you to tell your friends about it too.

Speaker 1:

My entire goal of this community is to actually get as many women in the world to understand what it takes to build a seven-figure business, and it starts with learning how to do five-figure months right 10K per month in sales. This is our initial building blog that I want you to really, really work towards, and we're doing this inside the free challenge. You know what I'll do. I'll put the link in the show notes here, but if you go to any of my social media, like Instagram, tiktok, you will see that the link for this challenge is in my bio. All it is is alidceocom slash challenge. That's what it is. So type in A-L-I-D-E-E-C-E-Ocom backslash challenge and it'll take you right to the page to enter your email and your name so you can get inside the free challenge.

Speaker 1:

We're starting in August, so I'm going to give like a solid three, four weeks to get as many people inside this challenge as possible, because I want to like you got to hear about my dream for a second I want to teach the masses on how to do this stuff. I am so obsessed with teaching you how to grow your own seven figure business, like so, so fricking obsessed. I love this work more than anything. I love when you guys DM me and tell me like, oh my God, allie, I tried the strategy from podcast episode blah, blah, blah and it's fricking working. I'm like I know girl, I know, by the way, we're almost at episode 100 of the podcast. I think this is like 92, 93, something like that. So, anyways, okay, you got the three phase launch plan. Go back and listen to this again.

Speaker 1:

Again, we're going to be talking this about talking more about this inside my free challenge. There'll be a full training on this again. So if you're like, eh, I still want more, the free challenge is the place to go. Okay, I can't wait to see you in there. And when you join the challenge, do me a favor, say, dm me and go, allie, I'm in the challenge so I can follow you and celebrate you Like I am not just a nameless, faceless person out here I know it's feels like that because it's a podcast but like I'm literally a real person who loves hearing from you, like I love it. So please DM me, let me know you're inside the challenge. I hope this podcast is going to change the game for you. I know it will Start implementing this right away for your next launch and I can't wait to hear the results. Have a great day.