Chances are, if you’ve been in business a while, you’ve had a failed launch. 

This could be anything;

You released your book to crickets.

You launched your first program, and it was a dud.

You put out an offer, and nobody bought.

I’ve been there, and it can be devastating. 

If this is you, I want you to know that you are absolutely in the right place. It's totally okay for you to feel sad about it. 

And if that's not you, I want you to ponder where you’ve hit a speed bump in business and what you can actually learn from it.

I’m in a lot of business groups, and I’ve got a lot of business friends - actually, most of my friends are entrepreneurs now. 

So occasionally I’ll get a friend saying “Oh my God, we had such a bad launch and it was horrible”, and they’re really defeated about it. 

After telling them I’m sorry, I always ask the same question. 

Over the years I’ve learned how to decipher launch results and I’ve learned a lot about bouncing back and improving launches. 

So l want to share more about my failed (and successful) launches.

Because you know what? Having a successful launch isn’t about branding, or colors or pretty ads. It isn’t even (gasp!) about pricing! 

I’m gonna share with you my ultimate successful launch secrets!

The single most important launch question

In the 50s and 60s, when advertisers used to do campaigns in newspapers or direct mail. They would only ever expect to get 1 to 2% conversion, if that! 

If you're a friend of mine, you know, you can't come to me just for like, "Oh babe, I'm so sorry. That sucks." 

This is how a conversation normally goes when someone tells me they’ve had a failed launch:

"Yeah, that sucks. Okay. So what are your sales page conversion stats?" 

"Oh"

"Well, go find out, get some information, babe."

 "Ok so 200 people saw it and X amount of people bought." 

"Babe, it's right on track because, here's the thing. If you are selling something online, like a course where you just send people to a sales page and they buy it, one to 2% of people will actually purchase that thing. That’s a widely accepted good conversion rate and a great place for you to start. 

This might sound horrible and make you think "What's the freaking point?". But I actually see this as really empowering information, because if you don't have that information, you are going to sit there and go, "People don't like me. Nobody wants my thing." And you'll make up stories about your ability or you'll go in the wrong direction. 

Without knowing your real numbers you’ll doubt yourself, your offer or your branding. 

I've launched with very simple branding and very fancy branding. And to be honest, their conversion rates are the same. 

You might think, "Oh, it was the price because people said, 'I can't afford it.'", but you are going to get that response no matter what the price is. 

If you were charging $5 or $500 or $5,000, you'll get the same amount of people saying that they can't afford it. It'll be different people for sure. Different price points, attract different people, but it’s not necessarily the price that makes a launch underperform. 

So if you want 20 sales for your next launch, you can work back and reverse engineer the numbers to get a target for the number of people to see your sales page and the number of leads you need. 

This will then inform whether you need to invest in ads or bring on JV partners to help increase your reach. 

It’s just a normal marketing reality that not every single person is going to buy from you. The one to two stat is for mass marketing campaigns, if you are getting on the phone and talking to people about what you do, you can have 50% conversion. You could have 90% conversion depending on who you are, but you are never going to get a 100% conversion on most of your offers. 

Ninety-nine or ninety-eight percent of people will not buy. 

That can be really hard to deal with. But if you realize that it's not personal and you don't make up a story about it, then you have more information next time. 

When you see people having big launches, six-figure launches, million-dollar launches, it is a numbers game. 

Now, each sale is someone that you can transform their lives and help them. But it is also just a reality that, even though people say that they're going to buy, life happens and they don't. Even though people really need what you have to offer, they just might not have seen the offer.

So next time focus on your reach, leads and following through with your marketing so as many people see your offer as possible.

You failed, now what?

There’s no doubt that a failed or underperforming launch can be vey disheartening. 

Instead of sitting around and making up stories that "people don't like me, people don't want my thing. It's not the right thing." here’s what not to do:

1. Don’t scrap everything

Don't chuck everything out. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Most of the time, it's not about your thing. It's just that not enough people saw it. 

2. Don’t assume everyone knows about your offer so you can’t do it again

Maybe you only got one or two people join your coaching program and you feel like, "Oh, I can't launch it again because people will think it didn't go well or people will think I'm a loser for asking them."

Here's the thing: sometimes what you have to offer is really great, but it's just not the right time for people, or they didn't see it, or they didn't have the money at that particular time. It's absolutely not personal. 

So, look at what you can improve - send out a questionnaire and ask people why they didn’t buy. You’ll always get responses about the price or not being able to afford the investment, but it will also highlight areas where you can reduce friction or confusion. 

It's just a reality that it will just not be right for some people at the time. People won't always be able to afford you and that's fine. 

3. Don’t start from scratch.

Yes, make some tweaks to your marketing for next time, but don’t start from scratch. Don't get bored and just launch something else because you feel like nobody wants it. Like so many other leaders in our industry, you can launch again - the exact same thing in the exact same way, but at a better time and you may see much better results. 

So many people who were a “maybe” during your failed launch, could be ready next time. I see it all the time when I launch my Money Bootcamp. 

4. Don’t take it personally.

People have to get over a lot of blocks to take action in their business and buy a course. It’s easy for your potential customers to get derailed. They get embarrassed, they get tired, or they just forget to join - it’s not about you.  

Dust yourself off and go again

The great thing about relaunching is that you'll have less to do every single time. 

If you launch something and nobody bought, I'm still really freaking proud of you because you got through your resistance and did SO MUCH work to create all the moving pieces of a launch. Filming the videos, doing the sales page, getting out of your comfort zone, setting up those payment systems, writing those emails. There's so much work involved in that. 

They are real assets that you’ve created for your business forever more. You’ve planted a seed in the ground that could bear fruit forever.

Now think about if you got one person. I've seen people get one person and they refund them thinking they can’t run a program for one. 

No - that person is faith. That is proof that someone needs what you’re offering. And that person, has paid you to plant the seed, that could grow into a million dollars.

You might have wanted a hundred people and you got 10. That's so valuable. It's going to help you iron out the kinks in the program. Those early people are going to find your broken links. They're going to find your spelling mistakes and they're going to tell you which bits are confusing. 

Do you want 10,000 people joining in your first course when you haven't figured out those systems? 

Every time someone joins Money Bootcamp, we learn something new. I don't reinvent the wheel and or I’d break it. I take a note, and then the next time we do new videos or redo stuff, then that's when I make changes. 

Ok, hopefully, this helps you reframe that failure for you. 

I want to hear from you. I want to celebrate you. 

Tell me whenever you launch something. Tag me or DM me to tell me about your launches. It’s amazing to hear of people like us breaking through your resistance and making money. 

If you’re considering launching or relaunching I have one big recommendation - You can improve your next launch by investing in extra training or support. You can take the stress and uncertainty away from launching by following a proven system and learning from the mistakes that other launchers have made. 

And the BEST person to follow to learn what’s working in launching right now is my launch mentor, Jeff Walker. 

Each year Jeff shares his launch formula (the one I use) and the latest launch trends in a free workshop. Spending time to learn from Jeff is an incredible investment that will deliver an immediate return in your next launch.

xx Denise

Product Launch Formula 2025

Once a year my launch mentor Jeff Walker opens enrollment for his game-changing Product Launch Formula program and the doors will open again in September 2025.

I have personally implemented PLF in my business to generate almost $8m in revenue over the last 5 years. I've ran 15 six-figure+ launches using the Product Launch Formula including my biggest ever launch this year.

I partner with Jeff to promote PLF because I've seen the incredible impact of this system in my business and I highly recommend it to my community, customers and business contacts.  I also offer an exclusive "PLF Bonus" for anyone that joins the 2025 PLF Coaching Program through my affiliate link.

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