When you promote a new service or launch a new product online, how can you tell that your launch goals – the amount of people you want to buy your ‘product’ and how much money you want to make from it – are realistic ones?

Out of thin air

Especially the first time, it’s almost impossible to know what you can achieve from your launch. You’re kinda left to pluck a figure out of thin air and hope that you can reach it.

That either leaves you setting your sights too low or, most often – way too high.

Especially when we constantly hear about successful 5 figure launches from other online businesses.

Setting your objectives on the basis of other people’s success isn’t a good idea. If you don’t achieve these same kind of numbers you can easily feel like a failure, disheartened and generally like all of your effort has been for nothing.

Yes, 5 figure launches are common but there are so many parameters to consider, such as price points and a well structured marketing campaign. Plus, most often these big money launches are achieved by those who have done it before, failed a few times, and have an online following who are happy to help spread the word on their behalf.

A loyal community is the secret ingredient to a really successful launch or promotional campaign. Particularly if you’re launching a new product. This is what you want to have in place before you start to ensure your launch success. Here’s what I mean…

How to set your realistic launch target

Something I learnt early on when I joined Anne Samoilov’s Fearless Launching training is this clever little calculation to get a baseline number of what you can achieve from your launch…

• Figure out the financial goal you want to meet from your launch
• Figure out how many people that will mean buying your product
• Divide that number by .03
• The figure you get is how many people need to be aware and responsive to of your promo campaign

For example

• You want to make $5000 from your coaching programme that has a $500 price tag
• That means you want 10 people to join you on your programme
• Divide 10 by 0.03
• Which gives you 333

That’s 333 people that need to know about your product.

This doesn’t mean “I’ve got 500 facebook page likes, 300 Twitter followers and 200 email subscribers so I’ll reach my goal easily!”

It means taking a realistic look at how many of your social media fans, email subscribers and direct contacts will actually take notice of your offer with interest.

You also need to know that this calculation isn’t a guaranteed one but it will give you a quantifiable place to start from.

The 3 tiers approach to goal setting

A handy tip I learnt about goal setting from my dear friend, Kate Warren, is to approach goals using a 3 tier system.

Set yourself 3 goals: a ‘good enough’, a ‘brilliant’ and an ‘out of this world’ goal.

For example. You want to release a downloadable product that people can buy from your website.

You’d be happy with 50 downloads (this is your ‘good enough’ goal)

You’d LOVE to get 75 downloads (this is your ‘brilliant’ goal)

And, 100 downloads would blow your mind (this is your ‘out of this world’ goal)

Doing this means that if you hit your ‘good enough’ target early on in your marketing campaign you’ll have the drive to continue to your ‘brilliant’ goal and beyond.

And, as your launch comes to an end but you don’t manage to hit your ‘out of this world’ goal, you won’t feel like a total failure because you can still keep plugging away to reach your ‘good enough’ or ‘brilliant’ goal.

Something to remember about goals

Goals are not rigid. They are a framework to help you achieve what you want, keep you motivated and moving towards whatever it is you want, whether that’s

• 500 new subscribers
• 50 new participants in your online training
• 100 product downloads

Having a target in mind (or using the 3 tier approach) will mean you don’t aimlessly drift during your launch campaign or rely on crossing your fingers and hoping that you will achieve what you want.

Instead, it will keep you moving forwards and always thinking “what else can I do to make this launch a success?”

Because, there is ALWAYS more you can do.

Do you know what it takes to create success for your launch?

Before I launched my first online product, I thought I had enough knowledge to make it a success. It wasn’t until I got expert help that I realised how little I actually did know. And, it was this that made the difference between my product being a sell out success and a total flop.

If you dream of launching something or are scared of failing, creating online marketing campaigns for new services and products is something I LOVE to do, and I’d love to help you achieve success for your launch so get in touch.

Over to you

Do you have a launch success you want to shout about? Or maybe you have a reliable way to set your own goals. Share your experiences, good and bad in the comment below so we can learn from eachother!