Why Launching a Course is a Lot Harder Than You Think

Mar 4

I started a "goals" series last month, but this month is even more exciting because we hosted our first launch of the year! I'm sharing with you what goals I had for the Video Strategy Academy 3.0 launch and whether we hit them or not!

I mentioned for January's recap that creating goals is a conscious effort on my part to see what's been accomplished. I personally like to plow through projects and never stop to reflect or celebrate wins. This is my attempt to do so! So… let’s talk about what happened in February 2022.

Goal #1: Updating My Metrics

The first thing I did in February was update my metrics. I'm not big on setting specific business metrics goals, but I wanted to start tracking whether my numbers were growing or not and what needed to happen to grow.

One of those metrics…revenue. This means you're tracking the amount you've made per thousand views. YouTube analytics allows you to follow this number while tracking playback-based CPM (or how much advertisers paid per thousand playbacks being monetized).

They'll also share your estimated monthly revenue, revenue sources, and which videos made you the most money.

Since we ran ads for 18 days in February to help with the Video Strategy Academy launch, we thought it mayyyy be important to note.

Like I said, I'm not huge on keeping a close eye on these numbers, but they are good to know. You gotta know if your business is growing or not.

Goal #2: Blogging

Another focus this month — blogging. I started working with Latasha Doyle at Uncanny Content for this one. Her team has been publishing two blogs every week, all of which came from my YouTube videos. That's the power of repurposing content!

If you don't know, blogging is pretty important to boost your SEO. It's also another place to point your CTAs, so they're not always directed at your videos. And because not every piece of content on every platform will reach every single person, it's a great way to reach an audience subset you may not be reaching on social media.

They've done a great job with it, too! We've been directing our Pinterest content to our blogs, and the numbers have ramped up.

Goal #3: Posting to Instagram

I knew February would be a busy month, but I didn't want to forgo showing up consistently online.

Because I plan everything out every 90 days, it's so much easier to stick to this plan because it gives me an idea of what I need to be doing in a digestible amount of time versus trying to do it all at once.

My goal for posting to Instagram was to get 15 posts. I was one short at 14. I hadn't posted since February 17 (the day before the VSA 3.0 launch ended), and that's okay. I'm still patting myself on the back.

I don't think we, as business owners, do this enough because we tend to focus on the failures or numbers we didn't hit. Life happens. You get tired. Recognizing the effort you did make is important too.

Goal #4: Tracking Podcast Downloads

A new metric I'm looking at is podcast downloads for my Video Reframed Podcast.

It's a space for me to get more vulnerable and open up about what life as a mom and business owner is like while cranking out massive amounts of video content. I love podcasting because it's a way for me to speak about certain topics — from personal to YouTube strategy — without the camera.

Sometimes it feels more like a conversion than a recording (and yes, I know you can't talk back to me while I'm recording, but I just pretend you do anyway. No shame!)

In fact, I'm going to be dropping an episode this week (March 7, 2022) that talks about the side of launching no one talks about and how it ACTUALLY goes on the backend. The emotions, the tweaks made at the last minute, all of it!

A Sneak PeEk

Lucky you! I'm dishing out a sneak peek of that episode right here!

Launching is a BIG DEAL, and the one we did last month with VSA 3.0 was unlike anything I've ever done before.

It was hard as hell. You can have everything completely planned out and still have to make tweaks. Like, it's 1 am, and I'm going to pull my hair out because I haven't slept in days, kind of tweaks.

When you launch something for the second, third, or fourth time, it gets a tiny bit easier because you have a launch template and know what to expect. But was I satisfied with this? Oh no. I was like, "Trena, you've gotta ramp this up." So, I did. And do I regret it? No!

It ended up being a great launch, but not until I…

RE-SHOT the videos from the last challenge and edited them by myself (the enneagram 3 in me just took over, and I couldn't stop myself.)
Edited the sales page to include the new additions to the course
Got all the new email promos out to my list

On top of that, I started getting sick right as the doors were closing, and so did my kids. I wanted nothing more than to hide in my bed.

Whew, what a week. But I did cut out some things we did last time, like opt-out of the usual live webinar — this was day 5 of the YouTube Game Plan Challenge, which I also used to negate the ad spending we normally have.

My goal was to hit 100, and we got 90, so not too shabby!

We even made it to Marketer's Heart and hit up all four major theme parks at Disney. If you want to catch more about Marketer’s Heart, check out this video here, where I talk about my experience speaking on stage.

A Look Ahead: March Goals

Again, I plan everything out 90 days at a time, so I set all this up back in December. And it looks like I have plenty to tackle! First up — new weekly content for VSA 3.0. I'll be filming new videos every week and publishing them on Monday mornings.

Last month, I also wanted to work out more to focus my mind and body. I stayed pretty consistent and lost about 8 pounds. I'm hoping March goes just as good, if not better! I'm planning for this month to be a more laid-back month, but you know what happens with plans…stay tuned to see how it goes.

Want to Know How I Increase My Sales While Doing All This?

A good strategy is necessary for seeing your business thrive. Using evergreen content and sales funnels has helped me grow my business…by a lot.

In this video, I share the strategies that have been the catalyst for increasing my sales by 200% in just one month. I cover all the new features YouTube has recently rolled out, how to lock in your content plan for social media, and how I approach my video content planning.

If you want to rev up your sales next month, it's a must-see.