How to Plan and Write Launch Emails for All 4 Stages of a Product Launch

Why do top sales calls garner a 30-50% conversion rate... but our sales emails convert at 1-2%?

Answer:

In a sales call, you can establish rapport and spend 10, 20, 30 minutes with a lead.

I spent years as a sales advisor, selling language immersion programs ranging from $200-$4,000 to students around the world at a 40% conversion rate. In that 1-on-1 setting, I was able to:

1. listen to their wants and needs, 

2. get to know their unique situation, 

3. clear up any doubts they had and 

4. find a tailored solution for them. 

All of that BEFORE EVER asking for their credit card.

But who’s to say you can’t mimic a 1-on-1 sales call
with your emails? 

Garrett, CEO and co-founder of Coschedule, attributes much of the success of his multimillion dollar company to the strategic building of an email list and creation of key email sequences. 

He shared with Copyhackers that:

“Email has been the largest contributing factor to our growth by a factor about 300%... Put another way, every $1 we invest in email turns into $3.”

It’s also how Copyhackers reports they’ve been able to repeatedly produce 6- and 7-figure launches.

Studies show that email brings more sales than other outlets. Source. Source. Source. 

So when my client, Clever Programmer, asked me to announce to his list of 100k (and growing) that he’d be launching an online course, I was stoked. Except for this tiny problem:

Your product launch announcement isn’t actually exciting for most of your email list. 

It’s super exciting for you and for a small portion of your die-hard fans. 

But what about the rest of them? 

The lurkers? 

The I-don’t-think-it’s-right-for-me doubters? 

The I-just-wanted-the-free-sample subscribers?

They’re gonna need more than your excitement and personal stories.

That takes planning. 

And that’s exactly how strategic emails helped 10x Clever Programmer’s Open Cart day go from “meh”...

Only .05% open rate from an unengaged email list

To “now we’re onto something”...

… just 5 months later. Leading to a 6-figure product launch, overall.

Here’s how I plan emails for product launches

Without planning, your vision is just reverie. You become so excited after such time developing, you almost start to assume it’ll fly off the proverbial shelves.

Such borderline-arrogant excitement can bring even the largest of companies back down to earth come launch day (looking at you, Amazon Fire Phone).

“The biggest problem we’ve encountered is lack of preparation,” say Joan Schneider and Julie Hall, co-authors of The New Launch Plan. “Companies are so focused on designing and manufacturing new products that they postpone the hard work of getting ready to market them until too late in the game."

Or as the team at Coschedule put it bluntly: 

“Your company has been working on this new product for months or maybe even years, so why would you wait until the last minute to plan your marketing campaign?”

I get it. Preparing and running a launch can feel like a marathon. But it’s more like a relay, with every deliverable dependent on the next. 

That’s when an editorial calendar, like Trello, comes in handy. Here’s a snapshot of my Trello board for the Clever Programmer launch emails: 

When planning a launch campaign - and the emails that go into it - you should prepare for these 4 stages of the launch:

1. Pre-Launch (which we’ll tackle now, more detail on the rest to follow)

2. Live Challenge + Webinar (AKA free stuff)

3. Launch (w/ Early Bird Special)

4. Closing: Final Sales Push

My Trello is organized by date, albeit a bit sloppily (for a better way of organizing sequences in this tool, check out this tutorial straight from Joanna.)

A bigger team with lots of moving pieces and team members may benefit from a more robust system in place, so everyone has access to the pieces they need.

For a lesson in the importance of setting up a launch command center (and 7 things it should include), check out this Copyhackers Tutorial Tuesday with Abbey Woodcock.

No matter which system you run with, create a timeline by working backwards from your goal launch date.

It should outline the core message/goal of each email, cover the 4 stages from building awareness to encouraging purchase action, and include dates so your relay stays on track.

1. Pre-Launch: This is all about building rapport with your list and generating early hype 

Throughout a launch, you’ll always be establishing a connection with your list. That said, you can get a head start in the rapport-building department by upping the tempo of your emails to your list before your launch actually starts.

This is the pre-launch. 

You use it to get your audience once again stoked to see you in their inbox. 

If your launch is going live, like, tomorrow (for God knows why), there are some quick tips to personalize your messages:

“Make emails personal by using the customer's name, keeping your body content concise, and have an actual employee’s email in the reply area that they can respond to,” says Kelsey Taber at Boast.io. “Customers and potential customers are more likely to engage in your email content if they feel they are having a genuine conversation.”

Friction-Free Commitment: Get them excited before you’ve even peeped your product 

Now just because I said your excitement isn’t enough doesn’t mean excitement isn’t a huge ingredient to a successful email launch.

“No one’s gonna come along for the ride if they don’t care about the destination,” says Ry Schwartz in 10x Launches. “Further, we need our prospect to have a hint that the ride is going to get them where they need to go. They don’t need to know the ‘how’ [your product] right away. That comes later,” says Ry, adding that it’s important at this stage that they actually don’t know about the offer because that adds friction to the excitement.

Now if that delicate dance has got you like:

Help is on the way...

For my client launching a 15-week e-course for hopeful JavaScript developers, a quick look at his private Facebook group gives us loads of insights:

Insights and Voice of Customer data can be found in Facebook groups

The gold mine of comments on Facebook—from both new and loyal followers—was an easy look into why someone would want to sign up for an online JavaScript course. Three messages came up repeatedly:

• Money/Prestige: I have a business or computer engineering background. I need a leap in my career that allows me to support my family.

• Knowledge: I’ve tried to learn to code before, either via free online tutorials or through an expensive program. Either way, I was left confused and want to understand.

• Community: I want to learn from someone who understands me/someone who cares. I need motivation and ongoing support.

If this is your first launch, there is no need to have a backlog of comments to find your messaging. Assuming you have a decent list to eventually sell to, which is essential for a launch, you can find your golden nuggets by conducting interviews with your prospects or sending a survey to get insights as to why they’d want a course or product from you. 

When you do that, really listen to them. I mean, really ask them the tough questions about what led them to you. Because behind it all, these are people who have been through hell, just like you and me, and are following you and your words for a deeper reason.

Digging into the messages I found above, I learned that:

They didn’t just want money, they were people with mounds of student loans; people who never want to be in that soul-sucking feeling of debt ever again.

They didn’t just want knowledge, they wanted to prove to themselves that they were good enough to succeed at the sought-after field of programming; that they just needed someone to help it all “click.” 

They didn’t just want community, they were students who had been burned by over-priced courses or online forums that made fun of them for seeking out help, so they needed a safe space to grow. 

You’ll need those minute details, also known as the moment of highest tension, for the coming emails.

But first, back to the excitement.



My client’s launch happened in the thick of Coronavirus...nothing exciting about that. Many had just lost their jobs and were looking to make money online… maybe via an outlet they’ve always dreamed of doing but never had the time/motivation to do so? Yeah, solid.

Here’s an excerpt of the first teaser email I sent:

Snippet of a teaser email

It went on to tease a solution to this big problem and give them a chance to turn their COVID-19 lemons into lemonade. The friction-free solution? A free 5-day JavaScript course.

Should You Give Away Prizes and Free Stuff for a Launch?

Tl;dr - it doesn’t hurt.

Apple had people emptying their piggy banks before the features were even announced. 

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter had people buying plane tickets before the theme park even opened. 

That’s called hype. 

Now if you don’t have Steve Jobs or a successful franchise creating hype around your new launch, you can give the crowd something everyone loves: something free. 

“For a product to take off quickly, you need to create a feeling of expectation and excitement for its release, starting weeks in advance,” says Estela Viñarás of Cyberclick. “One of the most popular techniques to do this is through pre-launch giveaways and contests. Whatever option you choose, try to find systems that make it as viral as possible, by, for example, making users have to share their participation on their social media.”

Here’s a snippet of the free challenge announcement we sent a few days later:

The kickers were the prizes: mentoring opportunities and free courses given away like candy. Zombie brains not included.

Then, some empowerment.

What exactly does that mean? It’s diving into those deep messages we chose earlier. 

As Ry Schwartz puts it brilliantly again in 10x Launches, “We get hyper-specific about why the old way of learning does not work for so many people. That there’s a BETTER way to do it and that [you are] the BEST fit person to teach it to them. This increases their ability to respond to us, and renews optimism and motivation.” 

Here’s a snippet of a pre-launch email I sent:

Now this email is important for various reasons.

1) Although, at this point we’re STILL not even mentioning a paid course, it’s setting it up as the “new” way to do things. Free, messy tutorials? Boo. Expensive, hardcore bootcamps? Boo. A move-at-your-own-pace moderately priced online course with a Slack community? Ding ding ding!

2) It’s vulnerable. Getting confused is easy to do in an online world. And getting confused can make you feel a bit small. So we want to agitate this wound, but come right in with an “I get it… here’s my story and how I fixed it” so we never leave the prospects feeling bruised without a sliver of hope. 

We want to relieve them of any past issues and old ways of doing things and shine the light on a brand-spankin’ new option.

You’re going to be tackling some pretty big feelings of self-doubt, maybe even shame or guilt from your prospects. You’ll have to negate some misconceptions or perhaps a wandering eye to your competitor.

And because you don’t have the luxury of being on a phone call, where those ifs and buts naturally arise, you’ll have to slip them into your email copy. 

Now you may be thinking: wouldn’t the big concerns and roadblocks come up when I launch my product? You’d think, but nuh-uh. 

If you’ve done your job right, they’re already on board with you by the time you open the cart and the biggest objection they’ll have is oh, but, moneyyyy. 

To tackle their doubts with the email, you can use an FAQ email (more on that later), use a selected doubt as an entire email topic, or, my preferred method, slip it into the copy where you think it would come up in conversation. 

Use your phone/in-person experience talking with your prospects and structure it as an actual question. As if you were reading their minds. Kinda like I *tried* to do three paragraphs up.

Here’s a better example in an email:

Live Challenge: The free Facebook course which has garnered more than 1,000 faces

The prospects who are in the course are our warmest leads, so they’ve been segmented into a group with those who have shown their interest in products (list:11k).

The rest of the email list (100k): still leads, still engaged.

Anyway, this pre-launch challenge was all about social proof.

“If you’ve ever launched a new product or a company, then you know how hard it is to convince others to try your product or book your service without any proof of how it’s helped others,” says Adespresso. “Social proof, like reviews, testimonials or even the number of sales to date, show that other people have taken the leap and chosen you to help solve a problem.”

Here is an email snippet:

Launch: Product Is Now Available!

The launch is officially the first moment the product is now up for sale. There have been about 10 days of shifting beliefs and motivating them to believe their desired outcome is achievable… now they’re ready to be a part of the solution.

This sequence is coaching progress and sustained momentum. No one wants to lose momentum, especially when they’ve come so far. 

If you’ve successfully gotten your prospects to ride the waves of change with you, this open cart sequence should flow freely and lead them to the shore.

They’d be making a huge mistake, losing all their hard-earned progress (both internal and external), by going back to the island. 

Ok, so, “flow freely” = during your open cart announcement, you don’t interrupt them with some urgency like “you’re doing great sweetie but OMG there’s a shark behind you NOW you only have 7 DAYS TO GET TO SHORE OR YOU’RE GONNA DROWN!” 

For the love of God, don’t get pushy straight out of the gate. Let them come to you.

The Open Cart Email

Here’s a look at the original announcement email from the first launch:

As if they were begging for a lifesaver and you were so selfless enough to save them. 

No. It’s not about you and it’s not about your product. It’s all about your prospects.

And while we’re at it: you don’t need to scream the product at me by using a huge font (I’m looking at you, too, TV commercials).  

Here’s a look at the launch email we sent this time around:

From drab…

To fab…

My client decided to use a promotional discount for those who signed up within the first week of sales. 

A promotional tactic, like a discount, helps encourage those who are ready to buy to take action right away (and according to a recent study by Coupons.com, suggests they can directly impact happiness and help handle stressful situations). 

More money in your pocket. More social proof available at your disposal. 

The key here is also to discourage those who may be stalling by showing them there is something real to miss out on by waiting until the last minute and giving them a brief bitter taste of FOMO… something they may not want to taste again by the time you close your cart. 

Sales: Following-up with your prospects after you have opened your cart

Now that there is some friction, the need to take out a credit card and make a purchase, we’re not asking them to rethink their past ways of doing things; no longer asking them if this is something they want and are willing to work for. 

They’ve already said “yes” to the outcome either via joining the challenge or simply opening the emails and following along. We’re asking for re-commitment. 

We’re still tackling the same themes, but now as a tangible outcome to reach out and grab.

This is not the time to add in new themes or ideas.

Here are some emails you can sprinkle in for the sale:

The FAQ email

I don’t know what it is about FAQs, but the traditional format irks me. For so long, they’ve been designed by the perspective of the business owner using it as a way to answer what they think their website visitors want to know and writing them out in the most clinical fashion (which is not how people ask questions, btw), truly underutilizing one of my favorite avenues for showcasing your product’s value.

“Your FAQ page isn’t just there to address common questions about your business,” says Braveen Kumar for Hubspot. “An FAQ section done right can serve several functions, from: 

• Alleviating purchasing anxieties that your product page copy doesn’t directly address.

• Relieving some of the burden on customer support by publicly answering common questions.

• Earning trust by demonstrating product expertise and explaining your business model.

• Delighting customers by creatively answering their questions.

• Proactively prevent customer complaints and negative reviews.”

Because we were running a live Facebook challenge, I had access to real-time worries and questions from the prospects. As I was in the groups and in the live webinar, I took the frequently asked questions dripping in from those sources in order to craft a hyper-relevant, long-form FAQ email. 

Testimonials/Case Studies

This goes deeper into the social proof we have been sprinkling throughout. They can be time-consuming but make great sales emails and the content you’ll gather can serve you for years to come—in email, in social media, on your sales pages, etc. If this task sounds a bit daunting, check out this clear-cut post from Coschedule to help you scout for the right person, how to interview them and how to put it all together. 

I used two types of case studies in this launch: 1) long-form case studies i.e., an entire email dedicated to one person’s story and 2) smaller snippets from students in the challenge who were getting quick wins, i.e. landing their first client or finishing a new project.

What’s interesting is that while the long-form case studies converted believers, it was the quick wins that garnered better CTR most likely because while we are coaching them on the idea that they can change the trajectory of their life, many people can’t think that far ahead.

It’s never a bad idea to give your prospects something tangible they can win with right away. Which leads us to our next idea...

Future Pacing

Remember when I said that we were going to deconstruct their old ways, their old beliefs, so that YOU could be their new solution? Now’s the time to be their new solution.

We’re putting them into the shoes of a real customer, so they can visualize their new life easily and vividly. 

Closing: The last 48-hour push before closing the program <-- OK these WERE urgency emails.

A countdown timer, a couple “closing soon” subject lines, some warnings that the program will be closed until this time next year. 

I mean, urgency works here. There’s a reason why Cyber Monday garners more than $50 billion a year – because once those deals are gone, you’ll need to wait a year to see them again.

Sweeten the deal and make a big investment easier to swallow with a hint of risk aversion:

These emails, exactly as you see here, played a huge role in creating a six-figure product launch.

It doesn’t take years to develop trust with your audience. We saw new prospects coming onto the scene and we saw lurkers finally poking their head in to interact with the team. We saw referrals and we saw loyal customers coming back for more. 

Sell them ideas and motivation, hype them up, get them on board with a new way of solving their problems, resolve their concerns, and then and only then do you consider selling them your actual product.