4 Steps To Help You Navigate A Failed Launch

We’ve been talking a lot about launching. Why? Because launching is multi-layered, so there is a lot of turf to cover. 

If you need a refresh on what a launch is, I’ve chalked it up to putting something new out there –whether it's an event, a podcast, a blog, a mastermind, a course, a coaching offer, or a new product. If you’re promoting something, then you're launching. At least in my book.

In previous episodes, I’ve walked you through what works and what doesn't work when it comes to launching, the top mistakes I've made in my own launch, and how to get in the right mindset before you launch. Do you know what's missing? 

A solution if you mess up your launch. 

What happens if you made a mistake? We all do it. So then what? What do you do? 

I've made mistakes. But it's important to talk about how to respond to those mistakes. I've now launched a couple of times and every time I do it, I learn something from my mistakes. We don’t talk about this enough when it comes to launching 101, and this conversation needs to happen. 

But first, I want to preface this conversation by saying your launch failed or flopped, this does not define you. I have to remind myself of this, too. The rejection just feels like it's right in front of you. You work really hard to build these connections with people and you pitch your thing and you're so excited about your offer or your course. For someone to just be like, I'm good –it just hits you between the eyes. It's harsh sometimes, so I want to encourage you to try to separate yourself from the outcome because it should not define who you are. 

People don’t realize how hard it is to launch. It's difficult. So I want you to learn how to navigate through if it doesn't go your way and how to make it better. 

To help you out, I’m giving you tips on how to respond, how to react, and what to do if you're in a scenario where you've launched, or you've put something out there and things just didn't quite go as planned or mistakes were made. We're going to talk about what to do after that happens. 

So let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. 

4 Steps To Help You Navigate A Failed Launch

I'm giving you four steps (with extra bullet points in between) to help you navigate what to do if your launch fails or hasn’t gone the way you wanted. Don’t worry. We're going to salvage it. We're going to fix it. Ultimately, we're going to make it better for you. 

1. Give Yourself Space To Process

The first thing I want you to do after you've launched or promoted the thing and maybe nobody signed up, I want you to first give yourself space to process it.

When a launch doesn't quite go as planned a lot of business owners want to scrap the whole thing, start over, and build something else. I've done this before and I would argue it’s probably one of the worst things you could do. We don't have enough data yet to know what happened and it's too raw and real in the moment for you to know what changes to make and why. 

So give yourself some space. Whether that's a week or a weekend, whatever you need, give yourself space to process what you just put out there –and just feel it for a minute. If you are someone who is in a place where you actually really need the money and people did not sign up or they didn't buy your stuff listen to Episode 121. I talk about your mindset going into launching. Don’t put yourself in a position where you have to make this launch work because I find that can really cloud your mindset and get in the way of getting your launch off the ground in the way that it should. 

Don’t let this define who you are as a business owner. But also be honest with yourself and just feel for a little bit before trying to change anything.

2. Focus On What Did Work During Your Launch

From there, once you're feeling ready to make some shifts and adjustments, I want you to really focus on what did work during your launch. To help you out here, I broke it down into three main things:

1. Were people engaged? 

Maybe you actually had people commenting on your stuff or responding to your emails. If you're meeting face to face, maybe people were asking more questions when you would describe the thing that you're promoting. If people are interested in what you were doing, that's a win. Especially if they say things like, oh, wow, I really need that. Or, oh, I know someone who would benefit from that. This means you're on the mark and on the right path. So that's great. 

2. Did you just freakin do it?

I have had clients who have gone from not launching anything to launching something. Maybe they didn't have as many signups as they had hoped in that very first moment they put it out there but they put themselves out there. And that's something they weren't doing previously. I would consider that a win. So did you do the damn thing? If so, you should celebrate that!

3. Did you make some new connections?

Maybe people weren't engaging, but were you getting new followers? Were you getting new subscribers to your email list? Are you getting new people asking about you and your services? Awesome. 

All three of these things tell us something. They tell us we're on the right path and we just need to refine our process. And that is a good thing. 

So pay attention to what worked, whether you journal it, type it out, or voice message yourself, whatever your process is, I want you to audit what worked. 

3. Audit What Didn’t Work During Your Launch

Now I want you to audit what didn't work. Ask yourself, what didn't quite work out? And what can you do about it? Be honest with yourself here and be proactive. Where were there some gaps in your launch? 

When I look back at my launches and things I've put out there and not had success with, I know there was interest. The content I put out there was being seen. I was being consistent. But there was a gap between people commenting, liking stuff, sharing it, and then actually hopping on a call with me. 

So then I have to ask the tough question of myself, why? Was it because I wasn't pushy enough? I can tell you the answer. It's because I didn't push a call to action. I didn't encourage them to take action as definitively as I thought it was. Back then, I barely showed up. I barely showed my face. I barely asked for business. I was nervous about showing up. I didn't really know what to say. 

So here are three things you can ask yourself to audit what didn’t work.

1. Did people have any interest at all?

When you put out content, was there interest at all? And if there was no interest at all, then that's where you revisit your content. What am I putting out there? How often am I posting? Am I engaging with other people? Or am I just posting and hoping people comment on my stuff?

Those are the questions you need to be asking yourself. If you're relying on one social media platform to pave the way for your entire business, very rarely does that work. Sometimes people get lucky. But more often than not, that's not the case. 

So I encourage you to really revisit where you are showing up and how often you're showing up. What could you have done better? 

2. Did they have interest but maybe not take action? 

If you have zero interest and no one has commented on the thing you've been talking about, but you’ve been taking the right steps, then it's a question of your messaging. 

Maybe your people don't quite understand what you're saying. Maybe you’re overcomplicating it. A great way to work through this and find a solution is through interviews. Reach out to people who have bought your product before and ask a couple of questions. How did you find me? What did you like about me? Why did you choose to buy from my business?

The more you can interview and get data from your existing and past clients, the more you will help you use their own words to sell to future people like them. Odds are they're probably your target market and so you want to speak their language. 

Let’s say you had some interest, people were commenting or messaging but wouldn't hop on the phone. Okay, great. Let's figure out why. How are you responding to those comments and those messages? What are you asking people to do? What are you saying to them?

If they’re commenting and messaging you, there is something that you have in your messaging that is resonating with them, which is an awesome first step. We need to get them either on the call or through the funnel or whatever your process is there. 

If there is a gap for some reason, maybe there's no sense of urgency. Maybe the way you're communicating your product or service is like it's available anytime, all the time. There's a reason your people aren't taking action, and we have to find out why.

It could be that they're intimidated. If you're in a service-based industry where you help people, it can be extremely intimidating for someone to comment. Hey, Kelsey, I love what you're about, and you write back, Thanks, let's hop on a call and talk about it. That may be too much for them. Too much action for them. Maybe they're overwhelmed. Maybe we need to spend more time nurturing relationships with people.

Giving yourself space away from the launch, giving yourself time to process, and looking at what worked and then looking at what didn't work or what could have been improved (in that order) is key. At the end of the day, you have to remember this is your first time doing this, even if you've launched in general before –this offer or product or thing you're putting out is new. It's your first time, so you don't have a lot of data. So give yourself a little bit of grace here. 

When my launch didn't work, I was like, Oh, I'm launching the wrong thing. My messaging is off. I didn't have a good plan. I wanted to change everything. But my coach was like, Whoa, you don't even know what worked and what didn't because you threw everything at the wall and nothing stuck. So now you're like, I need to throw different things at a different wall. That's not going to get you there. 

3. Did you lose momentum?

So this last question I want you to be honest about is, did you lose momentum? Meaning you can go through the motions, you can make the little templates on Canva, you can have them scheduled in the Later app. But if you don’t show up, show your face, communicate with people, follow up with people, email with people, hop on calls with people, network, talk about just this one offer versus your entire business –if you don't do those things consistently when you're emphasizing your new offer or product, it probably distracted from what you had going on. 

I've been guilty of it and this is something I struggle with because I have my hands in so many different pies. I have a lot of balls up in the air. It's hard to be strategic about what to launch when. Sometimes I'm promoting multiple things at one time. And that's okay. I just have to work through that. Because that's the situation I put myself in, and I enjoy all the things I'm doing and they're not going away. So I have to own that. 

But you have to ask yourself this question, did you lose momentum in your launching? It's not just about showing up when it's brand new and shiny and talking about it. It's not just about showing up at the end as your sale comes to a close or your event is about to happen or whatever your urgency is. There's different ways to build urgency. You have to come up with a solid plan to maintain that momentum through the whole thing. 

I think that's something that we don't realize is it takes a lot of mental energy to show up when you're tired, or you have life stuff going on. So how do you show up and show excitement when no one is taking action on your offer? When you're feeling like a complete utter failure on the inside? That is hard. 

That's why I hammer home the point of being obsessed with what you're putting out there and taking the time to get in front of the right people. So that way, when you go through all these steps, you're creating a higher likelihood that this launch is going to go the way that you want it to go.

Ask yourself those three questions. Did people have any interest at all? Did they have interest but maybe not take action? And then, did you yourself lose momentum along the process? Knowing the answer to these questions can help you to know where to adjust. 

4. Create a Plan To Move Forward

After you've given yourself the space, after you've looked at what has worked, you've looked at what didn't work; you're going to do this last step: you're gonna plan out your next steps. 

Maybe you already had your entire launch calendar for the year. Maybe you don't know what you're doing tomorrow. Whatever end of the spectrum you fall on, once you've audited this launch and you've learned some things from it, like what went well and what could be better, now it's time to revisit your plan. If you don't have one. Great, we're gonna make one. If you have one. Great, we're gonna refine it.

Launching, when done right, works. I have multiple client case studies that prove promoting something and talking about it over and over again, and talking about it in front of a room of the right people works. 

But there is such a thing as burning out your people. I have also done this, so don't be like me.

Always Give Value

You need to create a strategy to just serve your people. Just serve your ideal client. What does that mean? It means giving them free stuff that helps them.

When you're looking at content on social media or emails that land in your inbox, we can all suss out the people who are just saying things to say things and it's probably written by ChatGPT. But every once in a while, you get that little nugget, whether it's a quote, or a graphic, or an email in your inbox that you just needed or got tons of value from it (for free). Then you imagine what you’d get if you paid for something of there’s. That's what we want people to feel. 

We want to help them. That's why we're all in business here. We want people to live better lives, whether our products or services help them do that or networking communities that can help them do that. We want people to succeed. In order for them to do that, we need to just give them stuff and be okay with it. There's no secret sauce to keep behind paid walls. Give it away for free. The more stuff I’ve given to people has always come back and better served me. 

So I'm not threatened by sharing too much. I share everything. And if I'm not threatened by giving away free stuff, neither should you be. 

A lot of what I talk about on this podcast is a lot of true stories, things I actually help clients with. So if you really wanted to save yourself $10,000 and just get to work, roll up your sleeves and do the thing you could. But I can guarantee you if you want to get there faster and more efficiently, with even more support, you want to hire an expert. That's the difference. 

At the end of the day, you have to serve your people, especially after you promote a new thing –that’s a great time to focus on just serving them. But when you're serving them, I want you to actually come up with a plan. Don't just turn the faucet on full force and just share all your content pillars, share all your random Instagram thoughts. Don't do that. 

Actually have a plan of who you're teeing up the ball for next. Envision the exact target audience client that you want to speak to when you launch your next thing. 

In the months where you're not launching something, still have a plan. Give free content to your people, give tips. Maybe do a hot seat coaching, if you're a coach. Maybe do a free product giveaway if you have some extra inventory. Think of ways to just give something away for a month, maybe even longer.

Redefine What Success Looks Like In Your Launch

You also want to make sure you define (or redefine) what success means. There are multiple ways to be successful in a launch. It doesn't all necessarily have to point to sales and revenue. That should be the goal, but if it's the first time you're putting something out there, define different measures of success. Maybe it’s a number you’re trying to reach. It could be getting on three new calls with a potential client. That can be a win even if they don't say yes now. 

3 Steps To Take Now To Make Your Next Launch A Success

So now let’s talk about the next steps to take if your launch didn't go as planned. We talked about how to audit it, what to look at, what to improve for the future and now we're talking about what you literally do now. 

1. Plan It Out

So step one, plan it out. If you launched and you lost momentum, we have to come back to you, and we have to take care of you. Maybe that's revisiting your habits, maybe that's going back to your routine. Maybe that's introducing some collagen or greens, or some other self-care supplements into your life that can help you take better care of you and feel better. 

What little things can you do to make sure you're taking great care of yourself? That way, when you go into your next lunch, you feel good. 

2. Don’t Change Up Your Entire Launch

When you plan out your next launch, try very hard to not change everything. You may have the desire just to scrap everything and start over, and I encourage you not to. We are not reinventing the entire wheel. There's not enough data to know what worked and didn't. 

We did the audit. So you probably know some things you would do differently or do better. But I highly encourage you to try to keep as much of it the same of what worked, and refine it a little. Just do it again. 

Focus for a month on growing your community and helping your people out. Don’t ask a thing from them. If you focus on that for a whole month, and then you come back and you launch your thing again, I guarantee you, you're gonna have a completely different launch experience. 

3. Focus on your self care

I already mentioned this, but a big piece of self-care is mental and mentally preparing for this launch. Episode 121 is all about your mindset going into launching. Another thing to keep in mind is life stuff. 

I don't launch during the holidays. I'm with my family. I'm not launching during my wedding month. I'm not doing anything new during my wedding month. 

Set yourself up for success. Don't plan a launch when you have personal stuff going on that's going to disrupt you. Don't plan to launch when you're moving or you're uncertain of where you're going to live or your partner is going through a new job change. Or you're going on a bunch of vacations. It's going to be really hard to show up with that momentum and maintain consistency. 

Be strategic. Even if that means pushing off a launch. I had a launch plan for 2023. And then I got engaged, I actually wiped a bunch of launches off my calendar. We're really focusing on quality this year and that's it. We're not launching anything brand new as of right now. Because we're really just focusing on making our systems better. That's it and that's okay. 

I'm here to help people. That's what I care about. And I really believe that launching can be a big headache for people. It has been for me. In the beginning, I struggled. 

So at the end of the day, promoting your stuff is important and I want to give you the tools to do that well and do it in a way that feels genuine to you, but still have some sort of process to follow. 

Ask yourself those tough questions, what worked, what didn't work? What are your next steps? This is what will help get you on the right path to launching in a way that feels good and ultimately leads you to success. You’re going to define what that means so you know where you're headed.