In this episode, I’ll share my online membership launch review and how I almost quit during launch week. It was a hard launch process, but in the end, one of the most fun launch weeks I’ve ever had.

We will cover my launch stats, lessons my team and I learned, and what the week looked like for the launch of my brand new membership, the Online Marketing Club.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcast or Spotify!

The OMC is for small business owners who are selling online offers and want to leverage the power of online marketing to grow their business and hit higher revenue goals. Enrollment opens four times a year during the first week of every quarter.

Launching OMC

We went big this launch with plans for a webinar and a five-day launch week. The webinar took place on Thursday, and the official launch ran the following Monday – Friday. Webinar attendees received a bonus upon purchase, and a fast action bonus was available for the first 24 hours of launch week.

Audience Statistics

Going into launch week, I had 23,500 active email subscribers. We normally see 40-40% open rates and .5-1% click rates. Additionally, I had 20,000 Instagram followers and 95,000 YouTube subscribers. Out of those platforms, I most heavily lean into my email list for launches.

Change of Plans

Everything was running smoothly until Hurricane Helene hit the day before we opened registration for the webinar. I live in upstate South Carolina, and we were hit pretty hard. We lost power for several days and internet for even longer. Even though the damage we experienced was minimal compared to many others, it still took a toll on my business and my ability to work during those important days.

I didn’t get to promote the webinar in the big way that I hoped. Registration was moving slow. The night before the webinar, I still had no internet connection at home. Panicked, I asked my team, “Should we just cancel the webinar?” I began to wonder if we should cancel the entire launch.

Low-Interest Levels

Only 200 people were registered, which, compared to past webinars where at least 500 and up to 1,500 people signed up, felt like a failure. If the registration rate was an indication of people’s interest level, I thought this membership might not be something anyone even wanted.

My wi-fi was restored late that night. We pushed through and hosted the webinar, and here’s what happened!

How the Launch Went

A total of 301 people registered. Between the hurricane and being toward the end of a big election season, I think a lot of outstanding factors affected this registration rate.

We held only one class and had a 35% show-up rate, which was higher than our previous average. 

I changed the webinar structure. It still offered tons of value but had encouragement and inspiration mixed in. 12 people jumped in during the webinar (a 13.75% conversion rate). Six more people joined while watching the replay. 

During the first 24 hours of launch week, those who joined also received access to my Instagram course. 39 people joined that day. 

For founding members, the membership costs $37/month (it will be priced at $47/month moving forward).

Launch Week Summary

Launch week ended with 102 founding members inside the Online Marketing Club. This came to a total of $7,714. $910 was from upsells and order bumps. Additionally, 11 students used a coupon code offered to those who participated in a previous group coaching program.

My expenses included $105.91 on Facebook ads (lead to three sales), I continued to pay for EverWebinar which is a program I already used in my business, and lastly, I paid my two team members. 

I spent about 44 hours on the launch (some before Maternity Leave and some after). My team member spent 29 hours on it, and my integrator spent about 30 hours. 

Revenue Numbers

By the way, if this launch breakdown is helpful for you, then let me tell you about my Revenue Numbers download! I‘ve generated over $150,000 total from the first launches of 6 different courses. Get the full breakdown of the numbers, including expenses, audience size when launching, & hours of work it took! Click here to grab the PDF! 

Here are 5 lessons I learned from this launch.

1. If you’re launching something during a political year, have a “bare minimum” goal. 

Normally, I set goals for what would be good, better and best results from a launch. For this launch, I set a bare minimum goal of 50 members. While I did not hit my “good” goal of 150, I was still proud to double what the bare minimum number of members I wanted to see was.

2. Setting early deadlines is important.

Normally, our team works down to the wire for a big launch. This time, we set a finish date of 10 days before the webinar. That gave us space to add in special, creative touches and try new things. It also was a HUGE help when the hurricane hit and we lost precious work days.

3. Push through when conversions aren’t strong.

When registrations for my webinar were slow, I began to question a lot of things. Was I out of tune with my audience? Was this membership something I thought would be great and helpful, but not really something anyone wanted or needed?

My team & my family encouraged me to keep going. I’m glad I did, because I am confident that this membership fits my offer suite well and does a great job of continuing to serve my students in a way they need.

On top of that, it’s playing the long game for my business. Although the launch total was not one of my biggest, it created recurring revenue in my business.

4. Lean into a new webinar strategy.

My webinar had less educational content than others. It was still packed with value, but offered a lot of encouragement, too. It converted well!

5. Fast-action bonuses work well.

This element of urgency drove people to jump in rather than sit on it and wait. We saw great conversion rates in the first 24 hours of the sale.

This was one of the most fun launches I’ve ever had. We had great feedback all week long, and I felt so connected to my audience.

Thanks for checking out my online membership launch review! We would love for you to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts!

See you on Monday at 7 AM!