This is my first Infusionsoft launch story.
It’s not the typical success story – I don’t have a mansion, or a handful of sports cars in a six car garage.
But it is a success story.
I have a business that is largely powered by automation – which frees me up to do what I love, create content, support my members, and travel.
Sara and I (and Gatsby) took a road trip in July. We covered 3000 miles in 24 days – 19 of which we slept in a tent.
I simply couldn’t have taken that amount of time away from the business without knowing automation would have my back.
But during that road trip I also used Infusionsoft to (re)launch my CB Trilogy course (it’s bigger and better than ever, baby).
It was the first time I’ve done a concentrated “launch” like this.
And the launch went well – it actually exceeded my expectations.
I’m certain I didn’t do everything right, but I thought I’d recap my experience in case it helps you.
I sent promotional emails to 5 segments of my database (and also my OG members).
The groups were segmented by what I knew about them (blog and nurture subscribers, IS Starter Kit customers, etc) and also how recently they’d engaged with content of mine.
Infusionsoft Launch Campaign
This was the campaign structure I used – you can see the different groups each have their own start trigger, and their own sequences.
Then, all the way on the right – the entire campaign stops if they buy the Trilogy, the All Access Pass (which includes the trilogy), or if they unsubscribe (more on that in a sec).
The reason I broke these groups out into individual sequences was so that I could speak to them based on our relationship (novel idea, right?).
Pro Tip: Once Infusionsoft rolls out Liquid Content you’ll be able to offer personalized messaging based on tags or contact fields within a single email.
I changed some of the copy – emphasized different parts of the course – and included a sentence telling them exactly why I thought this course would be a fit for them.
The emails progressed through the different aspects of the course – highlighting what was new, and why it was valuable.
Lesson: Giving subscribers choices gives them more control over the messages they receive – resulting in higher engagement, and fewer global unsubscribes. In the screen shots above you can see the option to opt-out of just this campaign if anyone wasn’t interested.
And lo and behold – it worked.
Launch Results
The campaign had open rates averaging 34% across the different segments, with colder groups at 27-29%.
Everyone received three emails – but I also structured the campaign to include an additional nudge for the folks who opened and clicked in the first two emails. As you might guess, this extra email the highest overall open rate (51%).
Lesson: Engagement snowballs – structure your campaigns to bubble up the most engaged contacts, and avoid overwhelm by pacing emails appropriately for those who aren’t engaging.
Open rates and engagement are nice – but this was all a sales play.
I had 18 orders come in during the launch (and 24 total during the trip). Here are the order totals broken down by list segment:
Here’s the breakdown of orders by day during the launch – the “pre-launch” started on the 12th, and the actual launch was the week of the 15-19th (highlighted in yellow).
These numbers on their own aren’t staggering, but when you think about the fact that this happened while we were hiking, canoeing, disc golfing, and generally sleeping on the ground – it’s pretty powerful.
The reality is that the income from this launch didn’t change my life – I haven’t cracked some magic code that’s going to allow me to retire and summon sales by waving a wand (accio sales!).
I love what I do – but I also love what it lets me do. And that’s a testament to Infusionsoft, and to automation.
Launch Lessons
Here are my take-aways from this process:
1. Automation doesn’t mean impersonal
This is one you may have heard me say before – but automation doesn’t have to be a compromise. It’s only cold and robotic if it’s done poorly. The timing of this launch wasn’t ideal – but the trip had been planned months in advance, and with the campaign builder update coming out in June I didn’t have too many options. I care a lot about how I show up for my audience – and I take a lot of pride in being myself, and weaving my personality into Monkeypod. And it was comforting to know that the experience people were having was something I had designed – the copy was my language, and that they had agency in deciding whether or not the emails were useful to them.
2. Turn adversity into opportunity
This whole launch process started because Infusionsoft updated their campaign builder interface. Initially I was annoyed – because overnight they had made my CB Trilogy course “feel” outdated. So I begrudgingly began the process of updating my course – and I’m glad I did, because this gave my the opportunity to re-imagine it completely, and ultimately relaunch it.
3. Success is relative, and personal
Like I said, I know I didn’t do everything right here. And if I were to compare my Infusionsoft launch numbers to some of the heavy hitters out there they’d be laughable, but in relaunching this course I set new records for my all-time best day and week with regards to course sales. You can’t measure how much you’ve grown by tracking how tall someone else is. Growth is measured by progress over time, and progress is personal.
The final point I’ll make is that not all “successes” are going to be financial. This final day of this launch was the first time I’ve seen my inbox filled with order receipts – and don’t get me wrong, that was cool. But as important was acknowledging the fact that I was able to engineer and oversee this entire process without compromising the trip Sara and I had planned.
Sometimes the dividend automation pays is in time savings, peace of mind, or freedom and flexibility.
Dude, I love this article. Love how you weave the cool capabilities the software gives you together with your authentic voice.
I love how you tell the truth about where you are at and don’t try to make yourself seem like anything other than who you are.
Bravo!
Here’s to more sales while we are disc golfing, sleeping in tents, hanging out with our loved ones, and enjoying our lives!
And congratulations on generating thousands of dollars in sales contributing to your people!
Thanks Tobin – appreciate you taking the time to read, and leave a comment. I’m growing. Not always at the rate or times I wish I were, but growth is still growth. And I try to remind myself that as long as I keep getting better then I’m doing something right.
This launch was an eye opening experience for the simplest of reasons – like, of _course_ marketing works. Of course it does. But it was still pretty humbling to see my inbox filled with order receipts.