What does a Launch Manager do?

Did your last product or service launch go as smoothly as you’d hoped?

Oh, maybe you’ve never launched something before and this is your first time?

Ok, let’s talk.

Preparing for a launch is a bit like preparing for a new baby. There are so many things you have to do WAY in advance to make sure everything is ready by the time the baby (aka. your product/service) arrives!

The nursery (your product sales page or course platform) needs to be equipped and decorated! Clothes and accessories (landing pages) need to be acquired. The e-invites to the baby shower (webinar) need to go out!

Ask any parent-to-be/entrepreneur, and they’ll tell you baby/launch prep is one of the most exhausting things they’ve done in their lives. (Of course in the parents’ case, they actually have a baby and learn the true meaning of the word “exhausted,” but that’s a different story…)

If you want your launch to go off without a hitch, it can be worth investing in a specific type of Virtual Assistant experienced in launches: a Launch VA.

The sole purpose of a Launch Manager is to ensure that the debut of a new product or service goes off without a hitch… And they take care of all the deliverables to make that possible.

There are two key parts of your launch that any good Launch VA should be able to help you with: Strategy and Support.

Let’s break it down:

Strategy (AKA What’s the Plan?)

Developing a Timeline

Setting up a launch can be a long, long road with many stops along the way. A Launch Manager can develop a comprehensive roadmap that will help you identify key dates and milestones that you need to meet to make your launch date.

This timeline can then be imported into a product management tool to make sure that everyone on your team, virtual or otherwise, is always kept in the loop about when aspects of the product are due. This kind of organization is necessary for the smooth launch of any kind of product or service.

Related Blog: Understanding The Sales Funnel For Your Online Business

Sales Funnel Design

A sales funnel can have a lot of moving parts, so it’s critical that you hire someone with an understanding of how they all work together. A sales funnel can include your social media strategy, content marketing, email marketing, website, free opt-ins, and many other components, all designed to funnel people to your new product’s sales page.

Note: your Launch VA should not be the person to create all of these components.

Hire specialists, like a graphic or web designer, a Facebook Ads Specialist, and a copywriter (if you decide you don’t want to write the copy yourself).

The job of a Launch VA is to coordinate all of these pieces, to make sure they come together into one cohesive sales funnel, not to create each piece from scratch themselves.

Related Blog: Need Help Figuring Out Your Sales Funnel?

Email Marketing Management

Getting the word out about your product is one of the most important parts of a launch. All of your clients and contacts should be anticipating your new product or service way ahead of time, counting down the days until it becomes available. One of the best methods of achieving this is a comprehensive email marketing strategy (a significant part of your sales funnel).

A Launch VA can help you outline an email sequence that would be automatically sent out at specific intervals to your email list. The trick here is that you don’t want your followers to feel stuck in spam city, so make sure to give them a way to opt out of the promo sequence without opting out of your list entirely.

Support (Let’s make that plan GO!)

If your project has a technical component associated with its launch, you might not have the skills or patience to deal with any technical snafus that might occur.

You need an experienced Launch Manager who knows what they’re doing in a technical crisis, not someone who is frantically searching Google for a solution at each tiny hiccup.

In addition to planning all the ins and outs of your launch, your Launch Manager should help with the following:

Setting up Landing Pages

The goal of any sales funnel is to build ultimately sell your product/service and your landing pages are key to doing that.

Whether you’re doing a “webinar to sale”, a “3-part video series to sale”, a “get on a call to sale” launch, a combination or something else entirely, you’re going to need great landing pages to help move people through the sales process.

A regular VA might be able to throw up a general purpose landing page, but your Launch VA will be able to ensure it’s connected to the rest of your funnel properly and will think about what happens to it once it’s part of the launch is over. For instance, does your webinar registration page automatically redirect to the reply or does it offer people a chance to get on a waitlist.

Your Launch VA will also make sure your landing pages are equipped with the appropriate analytics and pixel tracking so that you can retarget people who have visited your landing page for further follow-up.

Technical Support

When you’re launching a webinar, one of the nightmare scenarios is that a necessary technical component breaks.

Maybe there’s something wrong with your mic, or no one can comment in the chat, or your slides aren’t visible.

When you’re in the middle of delivering a webinar, you can’t just take 10 minutes to troubleshoot the problem yourself. Rather than attempt this impossible multi-tasking headache, hire a Launch VA to handle the technical side of things for you.

They’ll handle all of the technical aspects of the webinar so you can keep your eye on delivering your content. Think of this as kinda like having a stage manager for your launch! You don’t see the Rolling Stones troubleshooting while they’re performing, do ya? ????

A Note On Managing Ads

Although Launch VAs are fantastic in many ways I do not recommend having one manage your ads! A good ad specialist keeps up to date on all the updates of Google AdWords/Facebook’s ever-changing algorithm, interprets data and helps optimize your ads as needed. Leave this one to a specialist!

These are just a few examples of the countless things that a Launch Manager can do for you, and one thing they shouldn’t do! If you’re about to launch a product or service, or even if you’re considering it, then a Launch VA can be an invaluable resource.

Just remember, make sure that you hire someone who is entirely focused on product launches, rather than a general purpose VA. That can make all the difference between a successful launch with raving fans and a product or service that leaves you hearing nothing but cricket sounds!

Have you ever launched a product or service? Was it fab, or did it flop? I’d love to hear all about it, so please leave me a comment!