3 lessons from my community launch

Happy Wednesday! 

I took the day off yesterday after wrapping up the launch of the Newsletter Freedom community.

All in all, it went swimmingly.

My target was to enroll 50 new members.

And 57 people ended up signing up.

Which is pretty freaking cool ;)

Massive shout out to everyone who joined us 🙌

As you can see…

There’s been a lot of engagement already:

We’ve got people from countries including Canada, the U.S., Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, Portugal, the U.K., and more.

And in lots of different niches…

Like:

- Manufacturing
- Brain health
- Sewing
- GoHighLevel
- Communication
- Personal finance
- Sleep training for babies
- Masterminds for solopreneurs
- And more

Super exciting.

As with any launch, I like to compile a list of takeaways to carry forward…

Both for your benefit and mine.

So, without further ado…

Here are 3 lessons from my community launch:

***

1) People really are craving connection

I had several people reach out to confirm this was actually going to be a real community with the chance to interact with other members.

Which kind of surprised me.

Part of me was worried there might be some people in my audience with “community burnout”...

(and that may still be the case)

But it’s clear the demand for a more intimate space exists.

So I’m pumped to be able to fulfill that need, get to know my audience better, and serve them at an even higher level.

2) You are not the customer

This is a common mistake many entrepreneurs and marketers make.

They assume all of their customers are just like them.

Yet that’s often not the case.

Reviewing all the onboarding forms I’ve received is proof of that.

I expected more of the people who joined to be similar to me…

(former copywriters looking to build their own business & get out of client work)

And while there are several distinct avatars inside the community…

Truth is, the copywriter avatar is the smallest.

3) Fast action bonuses front-load your sales

Unlike the last launch I did for the Tiny Visual Book Funnel workshop about a month ago…

The sales for this were much more front-loaded.

50% of them came in the first two days.

And that’s because I was offering several fast action bonuses.

So naturally, once the two juiciest ones had been claimed…

Sales started to slow down.

Ultimately, I still think they moved the needle.

It’s just important to keep in mind so you don’t read too much into the sales cadence until the launch is over.

***

There you have it.

My goal is to grow the community to 500 members over the next 12 months.

It’s lofty, I’ll admit…

But like anyone else aspiring to world domination a thriving community…

I believe you gotta aim high.

Because in my experience, you rarely overshoot your goals.

And of course, I’ll be sharing plenty more insights on how to launch and grow a paid community along the way.

In the meantime, that’s all I got for ya.

Until tomorrow :)

Jim Hamilton