Have Your Launches Stopped working? Is Instagram A Slog?
You’re probably stuck in this launch cycle…
Launches not working like they used to?
Do they feel like harder and harder work, and more and more of an emotional rollercoaster… for fewer and fewer sales.
Sick of seeing your reach on Instagram drop and drop and d-r-o-p ~ and worried you’re relying on it a bit TOO much for sales?
Has your relationship with Instagram has got more and more rocky over the last few months…
You're probably stuck in the launch cycle… but there is a way out!
I see so many entrepreneurs… like SOOOO many… stuck in the launch cycle loop.
And listen… I’ve been there too. And all it led to was BURNOUT - a whole year of it…
So… let’s figure out IF you’re in the launch cycle… and if you are…
Let’s make sure you ~escape~ the launch cycle without the burnout part, and find a more sustainable approach to marketing in your business.
Because, launch & social media fatigue is a THING!
Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Here's how you got into the LAUNCH CYCLE...
When you ran your first launch, your audience were primed, ready, and excited to see what you had to offer. You were stocked up on energy and excited to sell your product. And as a result, you had a successful launch.
But launching is exhausting.
Chances are you needed some time after that to recuperate your energy levels.
… And as a result you took a break from your marketing routine. After all, you’d just had a successful launch, yay!
A few months later, it’s time to launch again.
But this time things didn’t feel quite as easy. Your launch didn’t get quite the same reception as the first one, not as many sales either.
And the launch roller coaster ~ YAY! a sale. Followed by excruciating tumble weed for a day or two ~ leaves you feeling seriously drained.
You don't have the mental energy to create any content for your ongoing marketing after that launch.
Again, you NEED a break to recharge your batteries.
A few months later, you need to stir up some more sales, top up your business account, so it’s time to get back to launching…
And the launch cycle continues.
Or should we call it a downwards launch spiral?
Oh & social media sure ain’t INNOCENT in all of this…
Instagram is a hamster wheel, a never ending churn of content creation, sharing, engaging - and back to creation.
You’ve always got to be there, running on that hamster wheel to make things happen - follows, sign ups, clicks, sales.
This creates a situation I call… the Instagram handcuffs.
This is where you’re feeling exhausted, frustrated and bored of creating endless pieces of disposable content, that often only has a shelf-life of 24 hours - meaning you’ve got to show up EVERY DAY to do it all over again.
Not to mention how social media can make you *feel* - Am I right or, amirite!?
I recently did some audience research on how my kinda people are feeling about social media - here’s what I heard…
It’s disheartening when it feels like you’re shouting in a room where no one’s paying attention.
The content creation treadmill for disposable content feels exhausting and down heartening when it doesn’t get the traction you expected.
I’m spending too much time on insta for small gains
Hate the game of social media - having to beat the system and gamify it - all feels fake, like you’re back in highschool trying to fit in with the cool gang and listen to the same music.
Every day the first thing on my todo list is post to social - it feels like it’s overtaking everything.
Other people’s opinions become a voice in your head and it constantly distracts you from work/ makes you question everything
Relying on social media so heavily is kinda scary!
Yeah… that’s not an *OVERLY* positive review!
Thing is - you’d like to make social media an OPTIONAL in your busines BUUUTT… right now it’s where where your clicks, sign ups and sales are coming from. AKA the Instagram handcuffs.
Is social media working for you as a business marketing tool? Or are you working for social media?
And it makes complete sense why we get stuck on the launch cycle and in the Instagram handcuffs.
We’re sold the sell-out, 6-figure launch success story.
We’re taught how to have a successful launch on podcasts and across Instagram.
We’re pressured to post every day on Instagram, and create content that only lasts 24 hours.
We gobble up all of the launch ‘hacks’.
On Instagram there’s literally a hamster wheel keeping us stuck there - we’ve GOT to keep creating content for the platform to keep delivering results (even if they are smaller and smaller results).
OH… and social media companies are purposfully getting us addicted to socials - those red hearts, the lives popping up in our notifications, the flagged DMs - all designed to get us hooked and staying on the app for longer because… the more time we spend on social, the more ads they can show us, the more money they make - sorry, not sorry… to be cynical!
This intensive marketing routine is a TRAP. A trap that ultimately drives us to exhaustion, and potentially, burnout.
That’s where I was at the end of 2021. Relying on launches and Instagram for my sales, but also feeling totally drained and exhausted by it all.
My story is proof that you can escape the launch cycle and build a business that’s sustainable, freedom friendly and ever better than before!
Here’s WHY the launch cycle doesn’t work
When you go through a cycle of:
- Launching (selling)
- Followed by exhaustion (meaning you don’t have any energy or creative inspiration to maintain your consistent marketing routine)
That means you’re not attracting NEW people to your brand, warming your audience up, serving them, giving value, growing that all important know like and trust factor with them and priming them for your next launch.
So, effectively you are only ever SELLING to your audience.
Here’s an example:
Your first launch. Your product is brand new to your whole audience. A percentage of them buy - yay! (But they aren’t going to buy that product again - in most cases) and a percentage of your audience decided - nope, that offer isn’t for me. So you can count that portion of your audience out for your next launch.
If you’re not growing and nurturing your audience between launches, that effectively means that with the next launch you run, you’re launching to a smaller audience.
When you get stuck in a cycle (or should we call it, downward spiral) of launching and burning out, then launching again and burning out...
You end up launching to a smaller and smaller audience each time, who are less and less engaged.
Oh and here that is, all explained in a 1-minute video with a cheeky diagram - if you’re a visual learner like moi! 👇
Ouch!
That’s why the launch cycle will never serve you in the long run.
Ready to escape the launch cycle and the instagram handcuffs?
If you want to build a business that’s sustainable long-term, that enables you to create freedom in your work and lifestyle - you need to escape the launch cycle and replace it with the automated, freedom friendly marketing approach.
To give this a whistle stop tour of a Freedom Friendly Marketing approach looks like… there are three key elements…
Starting at the bottom of your marketing funnel you have your sales funnel - an automated system you put in place to serve your audience and drive sales without having to be there, in person hustling for every click, sign up and sale.
At the next step up along your marketing funnel, you have your website - working for you as an automated audience building & sales machine by intentionally directing your visitors to opt-in to your lead magnets (that lead to your sales funnel).
At the top of your marketing funnel you have your DISCOVER marketing - that feeds the rest of your marketing funnel.
When you have a Freedom Friendly Marketing system in place - rather than hustling to drive sales, you can shift your focus to working on filling up your marketing funnel - and letting your automated sales systems do the rest.
Want a more in depth breakdown of the sustainable way to do marketing? Read my post on my automated, freedom friendly marketing approach.
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