The launch mistakes that are losing you money and customers with Nicola Moors
On this episode of Process to Profitability, I'm talking with Nicola Moors about mistakes people make when they are launching and what you should be paying attention to to make sure that your launch is successful.
We have a great conversation, not just about copywriting, but also just about data and metrics and what you as a business owner can do to improve your launches and the profitability of your business.
Nicola Moors is a launch strategist and copywriter. She creates profitable funnels fueled by data, research, and a ton of advanced conversion strategies. Her data-driven approach to messaging and funnels with her funnel fuel formula has gotten her client results like a 68% increase in sales page conversions, a 13% conversion rate on warm and cold traffic for a sales page, and up to 85.4% open rates on launch emails. If you know anything about metrics, you know those are all amazing results, and we talk a little bit about how to look at those metrics in this episode.
She's also written about funnel optimization for Entrepreneur, Digital Marketer, and Medium. Throughout this episode, Nicola shares lots of insights, so make sure to check out her website and her Instagram if you want to learn more.
[00:01:26] Hi, Nicola. Thanks for joining me.
[00:01:28] Nicola Moors: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so glad we finally found a time to make this work.
[00:01:34] Samantha Mabe: I read your official bio at the beginning of the show, but can you tell us a little bit more about who you are, what it is that you do, and how you have been profitable in your business.
How Nicola serves her clients
[00:01:47] Nicola Moors: Yeah, of course. So I'm a launch copywriter and launch strategist. So I have two sides to my business. My main one, um, my bread and butter. And I would say the thing that I just love to do is I work on done for you launch projects for my clients.
[00:02:04] So I tend to work with on business owners who are launching, um, Masterminds, digital products, courses, all of the good, fun stuff. Um, and I help them strategize their launches, really dig into the messaging and the audience, because even though these business owners, you know, it's not their first time launching, right? They've done this plenty of times before the, the, the ones that I tend to work with. Um, but I find that they could always get deeper with their messaging.
[00:02:31] So that's really what I do. I am going really deep into their research, looking at the audience. I start off every project with a launch debrief, looking at their numbers because even though I'm a good writer, numbers are actually, I'm really good at them. I dunno why, but I actually got better grades at maths in school than I did English, so I dunno how that works.
[00:02:53] I start off every project looking at numbers. So really, um, numbers and data and research is the backbone of all of my projects. And I would say writing the copy is really like the minimum part of the project really. Um, but I get great results for my clients and I think that is because. I work so heavily with the numbers and, and the data and neither of those lie. Um, so that's my first part of my business.
[00:03:17] And then I also sell digital products. So I have a digital product teaching copywriters and business owners how to nail brand voice and how to really like pull out your personality into your writing. And then I have another one, um, which teaches co-writers and business owners how to actually debrief their launches.
[00:03:36] So that's the profitability of my business. I have the two separate streams.
How Nicola came to include so much research into her copyriting process
[00:03:42] Samantha Mabe: When you started copywriting, did you always do all of the strategy and debriefing and kind of looking at the numbers, or did you just offer copy at the beginning?
[00:03:52] Nicola Moors: Just copy. I fell into the track that most copywriters fall into, which is I ignored the research, so my poor copywriting clients that I first worked with, because I just went in and started writing. And I honestly, like, I, I'm so ashamed that that's what I did, but that is what I did.
[00:04:15] Um, luckily I learnt quite quickly early on that you do need to do research and, and when I say research, I don't mean, you know, obviously I did the research where I looked at my, um, Uh, client's business. I looked at their offer. I read like some reviews from their, um, previous customers, but I didn't go too deep into doing surveys and interviews and. So web and looking at what the cold audience is saying and their competitors, you know, there was none of that strategic stuff. Um, so I did do the initial research. Um, I used to be a journalist, so that sort of comes naturally to me anyway. Um, but no, I just focused on the copy and the strategy.
[00:04:55] And I think at the start, if I had offered strategy, I think I, I would've been too scared. I would've known what I was doing. Whereas now, you know, I've done enough launches that I, I know what I'm talking about, I like to think. And, um, and that's the part that I actually really love is like having that bigger picture, sort of 30,000 foot view of the launch and just being able to go into it and say, okay, this is what we need to do. And a couple of years ago, No way would I have been able to do that. Definitely not.
Your business will always evolve
[00:05:23] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, I think so many of us start off that way. Like when I go back and look at the websites I designed when I started my business, I'm like, I could do this so much better now. In some ways it's like I feel bad they didn't get the skills I have now, but at the same time, you know, you're growing, you're changing, you're charging more money, and that's all part of the entrepreneurial journey.
[00:05:45] Nicola Moors: Exactly, we're all evolving. And I guess at that time I wasn't charging the rates I am now, so I feel less guilty about it. Um, they got a steal to be honest. Um, I think at one point I charged like 20 pounds for a website page. Honestly, it was, that was my first, first client.
[00:06:02] Um, so yeah, it's just all about evolving and continuously learning and growing your skills and that that's the beauty of being a business owner. You don't have to stay stagnant. Your offers don't always stay the same. You don't always stay the same, and even your clients can change as well. So yeah, that, that is the beauty of it.
The top mistake business owners make when launching: having unrealistic expectations
[00:06:18] Samantha Mabe: So today we're talking about launching and really, you know, that strategy piece that you do. So what are the top mistakes people make during their launch to kind of get us started, to help people kind of get an overview of when they're launching, what might the mistakes be?
[00:06:39] Nicola Moors: Oh, I love this question. Um, so number one I would say is having unrealistic goals. That could be goals in terms of revenue or new customers, generally it tends to be the revenue goal. You know, I feel like everybody goes into a launch and thinks, okay, I wanna have a 100 K launch. Um, and that's great. And I think, you know, we need to have big aspirations in life. That's really important.
[00:07:03] However, is it realistic for you and your audience size? So what I always say to people, and, and actually when I work with clients and they tell me their launch goals, I actually reverse engineer their goal. And, and I'll show how to do that in a second, but I reverse engineer their goal and say, okay, if this is your goal to get, okay, let's say a 100K, for example, um, this is how many leads you would need to get looking at your sales page in order to hit that revenue goal.
[00:07:29] And then when I break it down like that, for them, generally, they're like, okay, that's. Let's change that goal. Um, and so the way that I do it is it's a bit of a maths equation. So just for like simple numbers, let's say you have $10,000 as your launch goal, your product is $500. That means you would need to get 20 sales to hit that 10 k presuming that you don't have any order bumps, et cetera.
[00:07:57] So with 20 sales, if we look at an average conversion rate, and I, and I tend to go with 1%, generally it is higher than that. That's 1% I would say is the whole list. But I think if I go with 1%, no one's gonna be disappointed, so I say 1%.
[00:08:12] Um, so if 20 customers is your 1% conversion rate. That means you would need to get 2000 eyeballs on your sales page in order to hit that goal. Now if you've got a list of 500 people, then getting those 2000 eyeballs might not make sense for you and, and that's okay. Like the beauty of doing this before launch isn't to shame you into having like unrealistic goals. It's really just so that you can, you know, come up with something that actually makes more sense for you.
[00:08:42] Or maybe it means that you need to increase the price of your offer and offer more value so that you need less sales to hit that goal in order to make it match your email list. Or you need to spend longer on list building.
[00:08:55] So it doesn't mean that you are right or wrong in having this goal, it just means that we might need to come up with a different strategy in order to help you get there.
[00:09:03] Samantha Mabe: I love that one. I, I have friends in business now who are launching and their goals are like, I just want like five people. And to a lot of people that might sound really low, but at the same time, when you think about it, it's like that is realistically what they can do. Those are the people they can serve. And these 10K, a 100K launches are not what an average business owner is making. That's just what social media tells us we need to have.
[00:09:33] Nicola Moors: Yes. I'm so glad you've said this. This is like another one of my points, and actually I'll talk about this later, but yes, like people see on Instagram, oh, so-and-so's having a million dollar launch, so-and-so's having an hundred thousand dollars launch.
[00:09:45] Okay, yeah. That's the revenue they're bringing in, but how many refund requests are they getting on the back end of that? What's their profit margin? They've probably spent a fuck ton of money on Facebook ads and probably a copywriter and other stuff. So even though that's somebody they're bringing in, probably isn't the money they're taking home.
[00:10:03] And that's really what you need to be looking at is okay, instead of like the revenue that I'm gonna bring in, how can I increase my profit margins and make sure that, number one, I'm helping as many people as I possibly can and making sure that most of that money stays with me and in my bank account.
[00:10:17] And I love that approach that your friends are taking of looking at the number of people they want to help instead. Okay, I wanna, I wanna get five students rather than the money they want to bring in. It just feels, it just feels a lot better as a business owner to look at it in terms of impact rather than, than in terms of money.
[00:10:33] I, I guess it goes back to, you know, having that why that so many of us talk about if you chase the money, um, it just sometimes doesn't help you in business. Whereas if you chase helping people and making an impact, the money will follow that.
You need to have a lead strategy to have a successful launch
[00:10:49] Samantha Mabe: All right. So what are some of the other mistakes that you see?
[00:10:52] Nicola Moors: Oh, okay. So not having a lead strategy. So the number of, in fact, I'll give this one example of a launch I worked on, um, and worked with this business owner, helped her with her sales page and midway through. The launch. Um, she'd actually had a, a goal that she told me and I said to, okay, you need to hit this many eyeballs on the page to get this number of sales.
[00:11:17] Um, midway for the launch, she's like, Nick, we're not hitting the goals. I'm really disappointed. Like, we're nowhere near what I thought we would be. So I'm like, okay, um, enjoy my launch projects. I'm always on hand to offer advice, help. You know, it's a very stressful time. So I'm there to look at numbers and tweak any copy if, if needs be, during the launch.
[00:11:33] So I dive into, I think it was Kajabi or wherever everything was housed, and started going through the numbers. Emails were being opened about what I'd expect. Click through rate was about what I'd expect. The sales page, um, not many people were going onto the sales page. They were clicking the emails, but not, there wasn't a lot of views on the sales page. However, when you looked at the number of sales, the conversion rate on the sales page was about 7%, and the average probably three, five if you, if you got really good sales page and I'm like, "holy crap, this is amazing. Like the. This is working. Like we just need to get more people seeing the page and get more people opening the emails." Because that's what was happening. She didn't have enough leads going through the funnel, so she was never gonna hit those goals.
[00:12:21] And I think too often in launches, people are so focused on, okay, how can I make the sales page better? Um, do I need to hire a copywriter? And they'll spend thousands of dollars on a copywriter and then they never actually think about, okay, well how am I actually gonna get people into the funnel?
[00:12:36] And if you think of a funnel like an actual funnel like this, um, with the majority of people coming in at the top, that means with things when you're looking at leads, things like your opti and your Facebook ads. Are you using social media to drive people into the funnel? Blog posts, for example, you need to have a big chunk of people at the top there. So that when it funnel, they funnel down there's so many people, there's gonna be enough people left at the bottom to get the sales and get the number of students that you want.
[00:13:04] But if you've not thought about who's coming at the top or how are they're gonna come in, or you've not optimized that bit at the top, then the funnel isn't gonna work. It's you're gonna get a drip of people coming through.
[00:13:14] Um, and so yeah, having a lead strategy is so, so important. And I think it's often something. People think about after they've launched, when they've realized what went wrong and they're like, oh shit, I probably need to change that for next time and grow my list.
[00:13:28] Um, whereas if we're continuously list building all the time and trying to push people into the funnel, even if they stay in our email list and they get sold to later on, you know, in six months time, but you're nurturing them that whole time, it's still gonna work. But you need to get them into your list in the first place.
[00:13:45] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, I love that point. I talk about that with websites too, is. A website can be designed wonderfully. It can have great copy that somebody wrote for you, but if people don't ever see it, it's not going to do its job. And the designers and the copywriters are not the people, they can't make people come to your website magically. You have to do that piece of the strategy.
Reduce stress during your launch: don't depend just on a launch to be profitable in your business
[00:14:11] Nicola Moors: Exactly. It's, it's so important, but it's just so easily overlooked. And I get it, like launches are very, very, very stressful things.
[00:14:19] You know, I did my first launch last September after months of working on clients' launches. And it was only then that I really understood how exhausting and stressful doing a launch actually is. And mine was fairly low key. I only did emails, I didn't do a webinar, I didn't do lives on Instagram. Um, and even that was stressful enough, so, yeah, I get it.
[00:14:41] And I think people put a lot of, because they are stressful and they wanna get so much revenue out of them, there's a lot of emotional, mental, and sometimes physical energy that goes into these launches. So you know, they feel like they have to make it work.
[00:14:55] And actually, if you come to a launch and instead of thinking, you know, oh, this is all my eggs in this one basket, this launch needs to work so I can hit my revenue goes goals for the year or whatever. If you come into the launch and think, okay, I'm gonna treat this as an experiment to see if this strategy works for my audience, see if this piece of copy, to test if this offer and this bonus is, um, gonna help my audience convert more. If you treat it like that, instead you're less attached to the outcome, and that means that you, moving forward, you can review what's happened and make more strategic decisions based on the truth and what works for your audience rather than basing it on fear-based or emotional, um, because you've become so attached to the outcome.
[00:15:39] Samantha Mabe: So are there any other mistakes you see people making?
Talk to your audience to learn how to improve your launches
[00:15:44] Nicola Moors: Not talking to the audience. So after every single launch, have a post-launch survey in place.
[00:15:51] So during the launch, every single time someone clicks on anything in an email, make sure you're tagging them. So if somebody clicks on your sales page, you could tag them. Let's say, well, you were selling a course, for example, so you'd put like, um, course interest or name of the course interest whenever they've clicked on that, and that means that later on during the launch, you can then segment some of the launch emails just to that part of the audience, um, because you know they're interested.
[00:16:20] And what you can also do is after the launch, send a survey out to people who were clicking on the sales page but didn't buy. So you would just do that in your, um, email provider. So send it to everybody who had that tag and remove anybody you bought.
[00:16:35] Ideally, you'd have it in automation where that once someone bought the tag was removed from them. That sounds complicated, but it, it really isn't. Um, but yeah, you would then send that survey out to that segment to find out what it, what it was that they didn't buy for. And you want to know things like, are they looking at something else? How else would they solve that problem that your course or offer would solve for them? Is it gonna be Google? Is it gonna be another course? Are they're looking at something else?
[00:17:02] When you're launching, you have to remember that your number one goal is to make sure that your audience picks your thing over somebody else's. And so if they're not buying from you, you need to find out why and what it is that they're going after instead, so that then you can position your offer as being better or faster or whatever than that of a thing.
[00:17:20] But I think this is a key part of what's missing from people's launches or they do it, but their surveys aren't optimized as well as I would like. Um, so I think asking really specific questions like that is really, really key.
The email marketing software Nicola recommends
[00:17:34] Samantha Mabe: Because I know people are gonna wonder, is there a email software provider that you like or any that work better than others for all of this tagging and automation?
[00:17:47] Nicola Moors: So I use ConvertKit and I find that it's super, super easy to do all of the tagging on the automations, and that is coming from me and I am allergic to technology. I'm so bad.
[00:17:57] I once had a landing page in ConvertKit that was converting, and I'm not even kidding you, but 80%, I think it was like 78% or something like that, and I deleted it by accident and I called to ConvertKit. I know it was a very sad day. Contacted ConvertKit and they said, yeah, now there's nothing we can do. And I was just like, okay, that's life. Like what can I do?
[00:18:21] At the moment I do use ConvertKit, but early next year I am looking at switching over to Active Campaign and that's because from what I can see, I've not used Active Campaign just yet, but I can see that they have a lot of good features.
[00:18:35] What I love with Active Campaign is it has a thing called conditional messaging. So, when you're sending emails to your launch, you will, I always recommend that you send different emails to different segments. So if people are on the wait list for your course, for example, they would get a slightly tweaked email, maybe referencing the fact they're on the wait list and they had that initial interest.
[00:18:57] So in Active Campaign, what you can do is have the one email in there and then you can highlight a paragraph and say, This paragraph is just going to people who are tagged with this certain segment.
[00:19:09] Whereas in ConvertKit you can still do that, but it has to be separate emails, so you have to set up the email different times, um, which is still easy enough to do, but it's a bit more aic.
[00:19:20] I think the main thing is just to have your tag set up in there and have a system. So I have like a spreadsheet so I know what each tag means because there's nothing worse when you look at a tag and you've no idea what it means or where it's come from. And I have, um, like where they're coming from as well.
[00:19:38] For example, I'm, I'm joining a bundle later this month, so I know that certain people in this tag are coming from that bundle. Um, it just helps me if I ever wanna target that segment in the future.
[00:19:47] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, it's so smart to have like a spreadsheet because I have been in so many people's emails getting stuff set up and I'm like, I don't know what, do you know what any of these tags mean? Is there any reason you're even collecting this information?
[00:20:02] So it, you have to be strategic when you're doing that because otherwise you've got so much data that it doesn't mean anything.
[00:20:10] Nicola Moors: Exactly. And to be fair, like you can always, I think it is better to overt tag if you even any, even if you don't use it, you can just delete it a few months later. But yeah, make sure you have that spreadsheet that tells you what the tag means, because like you said, otherwise, it means absolutely nothing.
[00:20:24] When I, I actually cleaned up my tags, um, a few months ago and I was like, what am I doing? ? I don't even know what this is.
Don't compare your launch to someone else's
[00:20:35] Samantha Mabe: All right. So are there any other mistakes that people tend to make during launches before we get into some of the other topics for today?
[00:20:45] Nicola Moors: I mean, I think they're the main three I would say. I think if I was to say another one, it probably is, um, comparing your launch to somebody else's.
[00:20:55] I think a lot of people online, when they're launching, they'll have a team of people or they're spending thousands of dollars on Facebook ads, or they're doing X, Y, Z.
[00:21:06] And you have to remember that you can't compare your thing to theirs because you don't know what their infrastructure is behind their business. And I, and I think it's too easy to fall into that track when people are doing that, especially the comparison trap.
[00:21:19] So yeah, I think that's thing, that's my final tip is just don't, and final mistake, I guess, is just don't compare yourself to other people. Um, like you don't know what their profit margin is, for example, or even if things are converting for them.
When should you hire a copywriter to help with your launch?
[00:21:32] Samantha Mabe: So you mentioned in one of the mistakes that people spend a lot of money, um, like we just said, they might spend a lot of money. You don't know what the profit margin is. They might hire a copywriter. Do should everybody hire a copywriter for their launch if they want to make more money?
[00:21:53] Nicola Moors: I am gonna be controversial here and say no. Okay. So I need to, I think I need to back up here and explain, do a bit of context. Context is very important.
[00:22:01] So the reason I teach Launch debriefs is because I see a lot of business owners who aren't familiar with their numbers, either they don't know what they mean. Let's say they have a click through it, that's. Less than what they'd expect. They don't know like how they can change that or improve it.
[00:22:18] And so because of that, they just don't do anything about it and think, okay, we'll just leave it. And, um, Let somebody else figure it out, and that's okay. I get it. Like numbers can be scary, especially if you don't know what they mean. But that's why I really wanna empower people to like know what their numbers mean.
The importance of looking at your data and knowing where you need to make changes
[00:22:36] Nicola Moors: Because often when I said before, when a launch doesn't go to plan and you've, you've got so much emotional energy into it, what often happens is you will have an emotional, emotional based decision afterwards where you think, okay, it must be the copy. And nine times out of 10 when a launch doesn't work, people actually blame the copy, which isn't always necessarily the case.
[00:22:55] And so instead of looking at their numbers and thinking or seeing rather, where the numbers are falling short in their funnel, they just presume it's the copywriter or the copy, spend thousands of dollars in hiring somebody else or getting their old copywriters to fix the copy. When actually, if they looked at the conversions, they might see that that sales page was converting higher than normal. They need just to get more people in the funnel.
[00:23:18] And also on the back end of that, a lot of copywriters when they start doing projects, they don't look at the numbers in the beginning anyway. So they don't know that that sales page is already converting really well. And they just think, okay, my client wants me to rewrite this, I'm gonna rewrite it. Instead of actually seeing, okay, what are the numbers telling us?
[00:23:35] And that's why I start every single project with that debrief, because if I know something's working, why would I change it? I'm gonna keep it as it is and tweak something else instead and see if that conversion rate can go up.
[00:23:46] So that's why I don't think you always need to hire a copywriter for your launch. Look at the numbers and if the numbers say to you, let's say you have a, you have a funnel.
The three things that every funnel needs to be successful
[00:23:55] Nicola Moors: Now with any sort of marketing, there's three things that need to happen in order to make that funnel successful. Firstly, you need to have the right audience, so you need to be targeting the right people. Secondly, your offer needs to be right. You need to have that product market fit. So that means that your offer, um, is solving a problem that your audience actually wants solving. Then thirdly, then it's the copy.
[00:24:19] So often when a funnel isn't working, people jump straight to the end of those three instead of going back to the beginning and saying, okay, looking at the audience, then the offer and then the copy.
[00:24:29] Now, if you've done all of those things, and if you've got a product that has sold before, you know that you've got product market fit. So I'll just double check that you are targeting the right people, maybe with Facebook ads or your blog posts. Are they using the right language that's, um, getting the right kind of people in? Um, if all of that's working, then look at the copy, and that's where you might need to hire the copywriter.
[00:24:51] So I'm not saying that you never need to hire a copywriter. What I'm saying is if you are aware enough of your numbers first, and the numbers tell you that, yes, the copy needs changing, that's when you need a copywriter or you can even hire a copywriter or somebody else to look at the numbers for you.
[00:25:07] But I just don't think it should be decision that's based off emotion and fear, um, because your launch hasn't gone as planned because copywriters are, are expensive. You know, we're not cheap. Um, and there's a reason for that because if you have a sales pace that works, you can use it over and over and over again, like many launches. So you're gonna get such a good ROI on that copywriter. Um, but yeah, know your numbers and then see if you actually need to hire somebody.
Should you hire a copywriter for your first launch?
[00:25:32] Samantha Mabe: Do you recommend that people do a launch, like first before they hire anybody to help, to just make sure that they've got that product fit, the right audience, and that it's going to sell?
[00:25:47] Nicola Moors: That's a tricky, that is tricky to be honest, because oftentimes if you work with somebody who at least knows marketing, um, and can help you optimize the offer, see, a lot of what I do isn't just writing the copy. It's, I'm looking at the offer. Can we optimize it based on what the audience has said? So if you have somebody that can do all of that, they could help you with that initial launch.
[00:26:08] However, the problem is, it's gonna be a much more expensive cost in the beginning rather than. If you do it first and then see, so it's that sort of like chicken and egg sort of debate, like what comes first. Because if you had that person in the first place, it could convert higher. Um, but then you could still do it in your own and check anyway.
[00:26:29] But what I would say is if you have, I mean obviously we all have an audience in our businesses, but if your audience is asking you for something continuously, do some more research, send a survey to them, get 'em more intel. What is that they actually need help with? And then, throw a sales page, you don't even need to make the thing. Just put up a sales page and see if you can pre-sell the thing before you make it and just see if you get any interest.
[00:26:54] So I would do it in like the minimum viable way possible, um, just to get like some interest. And once you do it, then you can build the thing and have a proper launch.
[00:27:03] And then once you've done that a few times, maybe that's when you bring in the copywriter.
[00:27:07] Um, I think the beauty is a lot of business owners can already write copy for themselves. Whether it could be better or not, a lot of the times it is still converting for them. So I think I would use your skills and do it yourself before hiring someone. But then it is that chicken and egg debate, isn't it?
[00:27:27] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. But it makes sense that if you are creating something your audience is asking for, the copy is not going to be quite as critical to getting them to convert, because you've already kind of built that relationship there.
[00:27:41] You're basically saying, look, I built this thing that you asked me for, and then you're trying to sell it to make sure that that's actually what they want, and you can move forward from there as you're building your lead strategy and bringing in more people.
Having the right offer means solving a problem your audience wants solved
[00:27:55] Nicola Moors: Exactly. And having the right offer for the right audience is way more important than having like the best copy. Because if you an offer that isn't right for your audience. Let's say they're not interested in having that thing solved then having the best copy in the world isn't going to change that, isn't gonna sell the thing. So yeah, having a better offer is way, way, way more important.
[00:28:19] And to like give you an example of, um, like the problem, for example. So a problem that I have right now, my car desperately needs cleaning, and I've tried to get it cleaned several times over the last six months, but the place I normally go to has been shut. Now that is a problem that I have.
[00:28:35] However, we all have problems. Not every single problem that we have, we actually want to be solved. So if I had somebody targeting me now on, um, Facebook, for example, um, telling me to come to their drive-in car wash, I dunno, three miles away for X amount, am I going to do it? Probably not because I don't have, like, yes, I would like to get it solved, but I've got other things I need to get done in the meantime. And it's not the most pressing thing for me right now.
[00:29:03] However, if I was going to pick up my granddad to take him for lunch, for example, my granddad loves cars and he, um, likes to look at my car and check it for rust. I know that if I picked him up, he would take one look at my car and think Nicola needs to clean her car. And I feel like I was disappointing him. So that is like a circumstance where I would want to get the car clean and get that need solved and that problem solved.
[00:29:29] So even though your audience might tell you they have a problem, it's your job to find out if it's something that they really need solving or if it's something that, yeah, it's a problem, but I'm not too bothered about it right now. And that's the difference.
[00:29:41] And a lot of business owners offer is actually solving a problem that the audience doesn't really care about being solved right now. But in the right circumstance, they might. Um, but we're looking for the thing that they really, really, really want to be solved right now.
What data should you be looking at during a launch?
[00:29:55] Samantha Mabe: All right, so we talked about this a little bit, but when people are looking at a launch and they're planning all of this, what data should they actually be looking for?
[00:30:07] Like, what is the most important things for them to track as they look at it like a previous launch and maybe during what's going on and what can they just, you know, not worry about, leave to the side.
[00:30:21] Nicola Moors: Okay, so I would look at click through rates on emails. Um, and I know there's this debate at the moment about whether to look at open rates because of everything that's been going on. I would still look at them, but I wouldn't use them as like a, like a metric that you're going to solve. But just keep an eye on them just so you can track them. Um, so keep an eye on open rates, click through rates definitely look at.
[00:30:43] Um, and conversion rates. So I do conversion rates throughout the whole funnel. So conversion rate is basically not just to a sales page, but landing pages. So it's looking at, um, how many people are taking the action that you want to take. And the beauty of doing the conversion rate throughout the funnel is that you can see where in the funnel people are actually dropping off, or where the conversion rate is much higher and much lower.
[00:31:07] And if it's much lower, then you know that people are dropping off at that point, and you need to resolve that section of the funnel. So look at that.
The importance of customer retention in running a profitable business
[00:31:15] Nicola Moors: Customer retention is another big metric I would look at. So once your launch is finished, how many people are asking for a refund? If a lot of people are asking for a refund, then that tells me you don't have a sales problem, but you have either a marketing problem, and I'll explain why in a second, or customer service problem.
[00:31:33] If in your copy you've promised people they're gonna get X, Y, Z in the course, and they join it and that problem isn't met, that's when they might ask for a refund. So that's why I say that you might have a marketing problem. Or if they join a course and the customer service is rubbish again, that might be another reason why they ask for a refund. So look at your customer retention rate.
[00:31:53] And a good thing to do is drop in surveys or one question, um, one questions when people try and leave, like, Hey, what's going on that made you want to leave my course? Or something like that. Again, just to get that data and see how you can resolve the situation.
[00:32:09] Looking at retention rate, super, super important. There was, there was a study I read a few months ago and it was, um, it found that a 5% increase in retention rate can lead up to 95% increase in profits, because once you're looking after people that are already buying from you, they're more likely to buy from you again. So it's super easy to sell to them again with new products or new offers. That's a really important one to look at.
[00:32:35] Profit margin, again, we've mentioned that before, but that's a really important one and I would look at that, again still look at revenue, but I think profit margin is even more important. The thing with profit margin is you might find that your initial launches might be higher once you've paid for the copywriter, for example. But then the next launch, if the copy converts, you won't need to have that, um, outlaid there. So you'll find that your profit margin will jump up the next time anyway.
[00:33:01] Um, so I'd say they're the main ones. In terms of ones that you don't need to bother about, I would say it's things like vanity metrics, you know, things like number of followers you've got. Things like looking at the number of leads you've gotten into your funnel it's important, but it's, it doesn't make the success of your funnel. Because even if you had like 2000 people join, but your conversion rate's really low, um, then you're still no going to get that many sales. So it's important, but take it with a pinch of salt and use it more as a tracking thing so you can see like what sort of, um, strategies are working to get leads in.
[00:33:36] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You're kind of looking at your funnel to see which pieces are working, where things might need tweaks, where you can put in more effort. And then, the other stuff, what's important there, like for leads is just, do you have enough people who are gonna get their eyes on something? Not I need to have a hundred thousand followers on Instagram because it looks really cool.
[00:34:03] Nicola Moors: Exactly. And because if you're not converting those followers, then it really does mean nothing.
[00:34:08] Samantha Mabe: And I love that you mentioned the customer retention, cuz we don't talk about that or think about that as something that you're really concerned about. It's all about your launch and how much money you can make, how many people you can bring in. But if those people aren't gonna stick around and they're not enjoying your course, if you're not giving them what you promised, then you're not going to have a successful business.
[00:34:33] Nicola Moors: Exactly, and, and too often people are focused on how they can get new customers rather than how they can look after the current ones.
[00:34:41] You see this all the time in businesses, like for example, if you are buying like an um, renewing your phone contract or buying, um, new internet, they reward new customers over the old ones or the current ones. So they make it super hard if you want to renew your contract and get a better deal, they make it super hard.
[00:35:01] Whereas if your coming in as a new customer, they make it super easy for you. And to me that makes absolutely zero sense because when you look at customer loyalty, somebody who's been with you for years and years, They're very unlikely, if you look after 'em, they're gonna be very unlikely or it's gonna be nearly impossible for them, to go to somebody else. So it really is like easy cash every single month.
[00:35:21] So to me, it makes no sense that you would almost penalize those other customers that you've already had. It just doesn't make sense to me, but I guess people probably look at it, oh, they've bought for me once. They're probably gonna buy for me again. Well, if you don't look after them, then not necessarily .
[00:35:39] Samantha Mabe: They do the same thing here for internet. Our plan expired. I was like, okay, you've got these great new plans, can I get it? And they're like, no, you can't. We're like, okay, well if, if you can't do what you need to to keep us, then why would we stick around?
[00:35:53] So is there anything we didn't cover that you think would be helpful about launches and metrics and data before we wrap up today?
When launching, compare your standard metrics to your launch metric
[00:36:04] Nicola Moors: Um, I think the main one, I really wanna say, and I don't think we've mentioned before, correct me if, if I have, when you are debriefing your launch, um, it's really important to look at your current metrics in your funnels.
[00:36:18] So whenever I'm debriefing a client's launch, I always ask for their like, welcome sequence and other email sequences that they've sent before. So I can compare their, their like standard standard. Usual metrics compared to their launch ones. Now with a welcome sequence, they tend to perform higher anyway so I do take those with a pinch of salt, but it's good to know.
[00:36:37] Like I said before, your only competition should be yourself, so it should be your previous launch or like, what's going on in your business. Can you make that better? So I look at industry benchmarks with a pinch of salt. I, I do use them, but then I, I tend to compare them with my clients' actual metrics. Um, and that's what's really important to me, you know, is can we get better on this each and every single time that we launch?
The importance of being yourself in business
[00:36:56] Samantha Mabe: Awesome. Well, I always like to wrap up by asking people what the most impactful decision they have made in their business has been.
[00:37:08] Nicola Moors: I love this question, and I was given this some thought before, and I have to say it's doing things that feel right for me instead of copying strategies because other businesses are doing them and thinking, oh, if they're doing it, it's gotta work.
[00:37:24] So an example of that is Instagram marketing. So I realized this year I do not like marketing myself on Instagram. It just doesn't feel right to me. Um, all of my copywriting clients, and I do mean literally all of them, are referrals.
[00:37:41] But I had a stage where I was like, okay, are the launch copywriters in my space are advertised in their launch copywriting services and Instagram? I did the same thing and I realized how much I hated it. It was such a time suck, like writing the captions and doing the graphics and talking about myself and I hated it. And you know what? I didn't get a single lead from it. It didn't work for me. And I decided that instead of just keep doing it, I'm just gonna sack it off. It didn't feel right. I didn't enjoy it.
[00:38:08] But what was working on Instagram was selling my products on Instagram. So I still post on there, but I've come to realize that my audience that I'm targeting don't necessarily follow me on Instagram or might not be looking for a copywriter on Instagram, and that's okay.
[00:38:22] Things like blogging as well, so I used to do that when I first started out. It's what you're told is like one of the things that you really should do. I was like, started doing it and I was like, actually, I hate this. I really, really hate this. And so I approach it now in terms of repurposing content. So I will record, um, guest expert sessions. I will reuse posts I've written for like other publications, reuse podcast recordings, things like that ,um, and write blogs from those. So I'm not writing from scratch cuz that's the bit that I hate. I'm just doing a bit of editing and just making things sound better. I think that's really what really made a huge impact and just making me feel a lot happier.
[00:39:01] Another thing, um, I am not a morning person. I hate getting up early and for so long I fell into the trap of thinking if you were. If you wanna be a successful business owner, you have to work nine to five or seven till seven or whatever. And that's just not me. I'm a bitch in the morning. I don't wanna talk to anyone before 10 o'clock in the morning. And I've just sort of leant into that now and been like, okay, that's what works for me. I live in the UK anyway, all of my clients are American, so it actually works better for me to start work at 10 and 11, maybe work a bit late on the days I have calls or podcast recordings, et cetera.
[00:39:37] And I'm just a much happier person because I'm still doing what I like to do. I'm doing it on my terms and to suit who I am and I'm not forcing myself to get up. I tried to do the 5:00 AM club for about two days and honestly thought I was gonna die by the time it got to the afternoon. I just could not function as a person.
[00:39:55] Samantha Mabe: I love that answer. I mean, I, I think there was a book at some point that was really popular that was like, you should get up at 5:00 AM to start work and that that would not work. I have a toddler who's up at five. If I tried to sit down and work at the computer, we, we would be in a disaster zone.
[00:40:11] But, I love that you have really figured out and embraced like, I'm gonna do what works for me and that's what's gonna help my business flourish because that's what's gonna help me in my life.
[00:40:24] Nicola Moors: Exactly. And I just feel a lot more rounded, a lot happier and and better person because of it. Because I'm not trying to fit other people's mold and instead I'm doing what works for me.
[00:40:32] And you know what? I tried those other things, they didn't work and that's okay. Like I'm not gonna, you know, sit and stress about it or think about it. It didn't work and that's okay. I'm just gonna move on and do what does work for me.
Connect with Nicola online
[00:40:44] Samantha Mabe: So where can people find you online if they wanna connect? If they want to kind of check out what you do and the things that you offer.
[00:40:53] Nicola Moors: So I'm always on Instagram . I have a bit of an Instagram addiction and I love sending voice notes. So I'm at Nicola Moors on Instagram and my website is nicolamoors.com.
[00:41:04] Samantha Mabe: All right, well we will link to that in the show notes and thank you so much for coming on the show today.
[00:41:09] Nicola Moors: Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been so much fun chatting.
Make sure your website is set up to generate leads for your funnel
[00:41:17] Samantha Mabe: I loved chatting with Nicola about launches and strategy. One of her big points was that you need to look at your lead strategy as you are figuring out what your launch goals are. So we talk about this in the episode, but if you have a launch goal of a certain amount of people or money, you need to make sure that you're going to have enough leads in that funnel.
[00:41:48] This is something I've covered on the podcast before where you've really got to look at each piece of your funnel to make sure that it's working and kind of reverse engineer where your mistakes might be coming. If you take a look at that data and you notice that people are not converting once they are on your website, I would love to help you create a site that is designed to convert along with the amazing copy that you've written.
[00:42:18] You can get a free website review where I can look at just that at lemonandthesea.com/review.
