a single source, nothing corroborates it

Run the whole launch on four or five emails

A sneak peek, a free sample, the announcement and a deadline note are enough structure to sell a product, and a short sequence beats an elaborate video launch you never finish. The value is in the ordering rather than the volume.

The method

1. 01

   Four emails are enough to run a launch: a sneak-peek interview a month out, a free sample a week out, the announcement on launch morning, and a price-deadline note that evening

2. 02

   Run a four-email launch: date announcement six days out, a full-details email the day before, an email on launch morning, and a next-day reminder that the launch discount is still live.

3. 03

   Run the relaunch as a sequence of short emails: an upcoming-plans note, a sneak-peek interview, a change-of-plans update, the it-is-live email, a four-hours-left reminder, and a twenty-minutes-left final call.

4. 04

   The launch sequence is one of the highest-leverage things you will build.

5. 05

   If you cannot build the elaborate multi-video launch, send the email sequence instead and launch anyway.

What it returned

• 53.4%

  Open rates 53.4%, 60%, 51.7% and 52.8%; click rates 16.4%, 35%, 22.9% and 20%; largest send 3,457 subscribers

• 6,000

  Launched to almost 6,000 subscribers on March 27th for about $7,500 on launch day and about $20,000 in launch week, $37,000 total to date

• 39.1%

  Open rates across the sequence ran 39.1% to 56.8% with unsubscribes from 3 to 88 per send

• $34,500

  She planned a Jeff Walker-style three-video launch, ran out of time, sent emails, and still did $34,500

Sources

• $26,679 in 24 hours: Stats from my latest book launchNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Using Email · 2012-12-21
• Lessons from building a blog to 10,000 subscribers in a year (video course)Nathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · The Lessons · 2013-08-19
• How a music teacher used Authority to make $34,500Nathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · What did you do to promote the book leading up to launch? · 2015-06-02
• How Samuel Hulick made over $37,000 with his self-published bookNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · The $7,500 Day, the $20,000 Week: Launching The Elements of User Onboarding · 2014-06-09
• An update on The Audience Building ChallengeNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · A few numbers · 2013-12-12