Summer Launch Secrets: How to Leverage Podcasting for Maximum Impact with Melanie Battistelli [Ep. 88]
Click play to learn how to leverage podcasting for a summer launch:
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Here’s what to expect from this episode:
Are you planning to launch something this summer? You might not be in the classroom anymore prepping for a big test, but you do have a podcast and want to know the best ways to leverage it for a successful launch.
Whether you're launching an online course, a membership, a new TPT bundle, or a new service, this episode is just for you. Because today, I have Course and Launch Strategist Melanie Battistelli on to talk all about how you can use your podcast as a big part of your runway leading up to your launch.
Melanie and I talk about how you can use your podcast as a market research tool to decide what to offer to your audience, what kinds of episodes to create and other things to incorporate in your podcast in the weeks leading up to your launch, and how long your launch runway should be. (Hint: Now's the perfect time to start your runway for a summer launch.)
Melanie gives so many good things to think about and ways to intentionally plan our launch. Let's get to the interview!
And remember to grab her Complete Course Launch Checklist freebie!
Meet melanie:
Melanie is a wife, girl mom, former teacher, certified online business manager, and soon-to-be-certified course and launch strategist. After leaving the classroom in 2022, Melanie has become passionate about taking her love for learning and educating others by helping course & membership creators launch their programs. Melanie also specializes in hiring freelancers for busy CEOs and streamlining their systems in their business processes. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, two girls, their dog, and their cat.
Topics Covered:
Using your podcast as a market research tool (and actually paying attention)
What a launch runway is and how long it should be (ideally)
How to leverage your podcast in your launch runway
Strategies and tips leading up to your launch
Advice for people who have never launched before
Resources mentioned:
Connect with melanie:
TODAY'S FEATURED PODCASTER:
Caitie Cupples, from Catie Cupples Teaching, is a former second-grade teacher and K-five instructional coach. She helps elementary teachers amplify their impact on students’ lives by building compassionate classroom communities that bring joy into daily teaching and learning.
She loves guesting on podcasts and getting to chat with other amazing educators on their shows. So If you're looking for a guest to come onto your show, she'd love to talk about how teachers can sustainably build classroom community all year long or how they can integrate social-emotional learning into the school day.
You can reach Caitie on Instagram @caitiecupplesteaching.
Connect with Sara:
Related episodes:
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Sara Whittaker 0:00
Hey there, welcome back to podcasting for educators. If you are planning to launch something this summer, whether that's an online course a membership, a new TPT bundle, a new service, whatever it is, then this episode is created just for you. Because I have on Melanie baddest le to talk all about how you can use your podcast as a big part of your runway leading up to your launch. Melanie and I talk about how you can use your podcast as a market research tool to decide what to offer to your audience. What kind of episodes to create and other things to incorporate in your podcast in the weeks leading up to your launch, and how long your launch runway should be. Melanie is a wife girl mom, former teacher, certified online business manager and soon to be certified course and launch strategist. After leaving the classroom in 2022. Melanie has become passionate about taking her love for learning and educating others by helping course and membership creators launch their programs. Melanie also specializes in hiring freelancers for busy CEOs and streamlining their systems in their business processes. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, two girls and their dog and cat. Be sure to check the show notes for this episode to get Melanie's free launch checklist. And you can find the show notes at podcasting for educators.com/episode 88. Let's get to the interview. Your Podcast is a powerful tool that serves your audience and your business. But how do you manage it all bring in new listeners and convert those listeners into customers. That's what this show is all about. Welcome to podcasting for educators. I'm Sara Whitaker, classroom teacher turn podcast manager. And I'm here to help you get the most out of your show, all while making an impact on other educators. All right, we are here with Melanie Melanie, welcome to the show. I'm so glad that we're sitting down and talking today.
Melanie Battistelli 2:04
Yeah, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
Sara Whittaker 2:07
Me too. Now, can we start off by you just telling us a little bit about your background in the education space and how you've kind of shifted now into supporting business owners with their business and their launches?
Melanie Battistelli 2:23
Yeah, of course, I was a classroom teacher, I taught high school history at the AP level for about Yeah, this would have been my 12th year 13th year teaching. So I feel like that really played a role when I started helping out with lunch management just because if you've ever which, you know, a lot of teachers have, at this point taught a course with a large test at the end like an AP course, or any kind of state test, you kind of have to start from the data that test and plan backwards about all the things that the students need to know. So that is a skill that I was really able to transfer to lunch management pretty easily after, after I did a few launches. I started to see the parallels there.
Sara Whittaker 3:12
Okay, that is awesome. I love how like, we can take our skills as teachers and apply them into the business space, because I don't know about you. But when I was in the classroom, the thought of doing anything else, like you feel like you're kind of just boxed in to being a classroom teacher for the rest of your life. But there really are so many things that we learned during our teaching that can help us in business.
Melanie Battistelli 3:33
Yeah, it seemed impossible, but it I mean, it seems impossible until you do it. But teachers have so many transferable skills, that once you get going like you start to see them.
Sara Whittaker 3:46
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Now, I am very excited because today we are going to be talking about summer, because I talk a lot on this show about how summer, if you're in the education space, summer is a really great time to leverage your podcasts because we tend to see downloads really increased during the summer, the trend seems to be that you know, teachers and other educators are home for the summer, they've got a little bit more mental space to build your podcast and really learn from you and build a relationship with you. And so there's so many ways that you can use your podcast to really bring in a lot of new people during that time. And I know a lot of you listening, you maybe you have a course or a membership or maybe a new bundle that you're working on, or something that you are planning to launch during the summer. I know that that's a really popular time to launch your offers. So today Mellie and I are going to be getting into how you can use your podcast as a launch runway. So I'm really excited to get your perspective because you've really seen a lot in the in the launch space about like what works and what doesn't. And I'm just excited to kind of pick your brain so Let's kind of start at square one here, whether you already have an offer in mind that you're going to be launching, or whether you're still kind of in the decision phase. How can people listening use their podcast as a market research tool to help them decide what they should offer their audience in the first place?
Melanie Battistelli 5:21
Yeah, that's a great question. So I've helped a lot of people with various sort of stages of launching whether people already have a course that's really established and doing really well, you can still use your podcast or guesting on a podcast to help you with that launch. Or if you're thinking about what maybe you want to create a course or a membership, and you're not sure, which would be the most beneficial to you, of course, like financially, but also like to your audience, because you obviously want to help people as well, at the end of the day. So the first thing that I would say is start to like, actually pay attention to what people are asking you in your DMS, your email, your TPT store, but like, actually pay attention, I don't just mean like, write it on a post it and like put it on your desk. I mean, if you're using a project management tool, which you should be, but if you're using a project management tool, like clickup, or Asana, or my I'm really into air table right now for organizing data, like I use a sauna personally. But to kind of have data organized and displayed and categorize I actually treated myself to to air table recently. So that would be like my recommendation. I've heard a
Sara Whittaker 6:46
lot of people say that recently, like how they have their kind of like you said, you use a sauna. In addition to air table, I've heard a lot of people say that. So I need to check out air table.
Melanie Battistelli 6:55
Yeah, I can totally show you that I use it for like organizing data, because it's even better sorting than Google Forms. It's like easier to like visually see. So if you had to pick one air table also has a free option. But I swear I'm not an affiliate for air table or anything. But they, they do have a free option too. But really actually, like pay attention to what your audience is saying. So copy and paste their exact language into somewhere that you can see it, store it and like, use it. Because that'll kind of help you to see over time, what people are asking you about. And you'll be able to see what they're struggling with what teachers are struggling with. And you'll also be able to hopefully see what their goals are and what they actually want to achieve. So pay attention to what people are asking you. But like really pay attention and actually organize that information. Don't just like make a mental note. Because we all know how mental notes work out they disappear. Oh my
Sara Whittaker 8:03
God, I know I've been guilty of that. Like you put something on Instagram, you put your question sticker up people answer you get all this great information. And you're like, Oh, well, I'm going to remember this for when it comes time to sit down and plan out whatever I'm creating, and then that time comes and you're like, Oh, I probably should have put this somewhere.
Melanie Battistelli 8:21
Yeah, you will not. And that is a great thing that like if you have a virtual assistant, like, you don't need to do that, like they can do that for you. If they have access to your Instagram, your email, your TPT store. You know, a lot of people have virtual assistants that have access to that. So that's the first thing that I would say. And then if you have your own podcast, like an email list, actually ask your audience what they want to hear from you. So you can ask questions like, What are they struggling with? What is the biggest challenge in their classroom, if you already have an idea for a course and you maybe want to see if it's a, you know, a good idea, something that's going to be a good fit with your audience, steer them in that direction and see what kind of response you get like, what is your biggest struggle with classroom management, for example? And if nobody answers, or very, very few people answer, then you might, you know, want to rethink is this something that like my audience actually wants to see from me? And then I guess one final tip that I would have, if you already have a course or a membership that you've launched, but maybe you're not happy with the results, or didn't do so well. I would suggest doing a little bit of competitor research. So actually looking at other people's courses memberships who are offering something similar and seeing like, are your price points similar you don't have to match theirs but if you're charging four times as much Ah, for what appears to be to the consumer, a very, very similar membership or course, like, that could be a reason why it's not selling. And then also just kind of looking at across the market, like, what are some things that maybe other people are offering in their course or membership that you're not? And like, where can you close those gaps? Like maybe they offer live support or live coaching, and you don't, but maybe that's something you feel like you have the capacity to do. So it's not about like copying what other people are doing. But just seeing if you can see the gaps and fill in any of those gaps.
Sara Whittaker 10:39
Yeah, I think that's a really important point. And I think it's something that a lot of us forget to do, or just kind of skip over is that market research piece. And you mentioned, like, yeah, looking at the prices of things, because that can be kind of, I think we get really like personal about things that we're creating and launching. And I mean, for good reason. But if you have this really high price point in mind, and you're seeing that, like your direct competitors, who you know, that your audience knows about are, are way less than Yeah, it might be time to kind of like reevaluate things or be able to present it in a different way that really shows off the value that you're providing. And you also mentioned something that I thought was a really important point about when you're documenting these responses that you get from people in these questions that you get from people, not just like taking that note, but also making sure that you're using that exact language like literally copying and pasting, I found that to be really helpful for me when I launched my first course, because when it came time to write the sales page, I used that exact language. And it made it just made the whole process like so much easier.
Melanie Battistelli 11:46
For sure, because you want people to feel like in a non creepy way as possible that you're like, inside their head. And a lot of Yeah, and a lot of people like missed the mark on that, because they're making a mental note of like what people said, but like, they're not actually really writing down. Like I just did some recently for like for myself for thinking about, like what people say when they go to launch a course. And the word overwhelmed came up probably eight to 10 times. Yeah. So like, if I ever, you know, launch my own course, I will use the word overwhelmed, because that seems to be a common theme. When people you know, start from scratch, at least.
Sara Whittaker 12:29
Yes, yes, absolutely. I did. Last month, I did a podcast listener survey. And one of my questions on the survey was, if I could dream up a helpful resource for you, what would it be? And that was, it was great, because I got such great responses. And I picked a few of those. And then I put on my Instagram, like, which of these would you like, as a new freebie that I that I'm going to be creating for you? And I got like, so many messages from people like oh my gosh, I like can't choose, these are all like, things that I'm looking for? And I'm like, exactly, because you told me these things.
Melanie Battistelli 13:06
Yes. You just don't remember that you told me these things. Exactly.
Sara Whittaker 13:10
Exactly. Yes. I love it. Okay, so if you've got an idea of what you want to create a new feel really confident that it is something that your audience needs and wants? How can we then use our podcast as part of a launch runway? And can we even back up a little bit, actually? And can you kind of like tell us, for anybody who might not be familiar with that term launch runway? Like, what is that? And what kinds of things does that typically include? And then we can talk about how we can use our podcast for it.
Melanie Battistelli 13:43
So once I feel like once you start understanding, like the concept of a launch runway, you accidentally start seeing them like everywhere. Yes, like, like everyone, you know, on Instagram, or Facebook, but I genuinely generally spend most of my time on Instagram, who's thinking about like launching something eventually, or putting an offer out into the world, you can kind of tell when they start to, you know, ramp up and talk about whatever topic but usually, you want your launch runway in a perfect, perfect world, I guess you would want it to be about 12 weeks. It can be less, I mean, it can be eight weeks, it can be six weeks, can be four weeks, it can be any amount of time, but generally, I guess the more time, the better. Because you want to start to make sure that your audience is seeing you as an expert in whatever you're talking about. And that takes you know, that can take some time but and it feels exhausting, right. And I talk to some of my launch clients about this like oh my god, I really have to go on my stories again and talk about behavior management. Yes, you do. Because you want to be the person who went Your audience thinks of like, Oh man, I need help with, you know, my student behavior. Oh, right. So and so was always talking about behavior, I bet they have something. And oftentimes it takes you know, statistics statistics say that it takes seven to 10 times of hearing somebody say something before they actually like remember it and take action. So, so that's kind of like the first part of the lunch runway is just, it's less, it's less formal, but it's you talking about whatever topic from that you want to make your course your offer about from all sorts of angles. I generally call that the pre pre launch runway. Because it's when you're kind of establishing yourself as an expert. So your podcast episodes, could be something like misconceptions about whatever topic you're talking about. So I'm just going to stay with behavior management in the classrooms. I just launched a course on that I didn't, but I helped somebody launch a course on that recently. So misconceptions about student behavior in the classroom, quick wins to help you get better results from your student behavior in the classroom, maybe how to stop this problem behavior with this simple trick. So you want to provide lots of different sorts of ways that you can approach this particular topic, like a personal story about how you're currently in the classroom or used to be in the classroom. And this is why you really got into talking about behavior. So the pre pre launch runway should, in terms of like podcasting, be all about, like your particular topic that you want to launch your course or offer on from different angles. And this is also the time that you could probably look into trying to sort of strategically guest on other people's podcasts, who maybe don't offer the exact same thing as you but could be something complimentary to get more people into your world.
Sara Whittaker 17:11
Yeah, I love that idea. And I think that, like specifically, podcast guesting, really ties into why it's so important to make sure that you are giving yourself you know, 12 weeks, ideally, leading up to your launch, because if you are going to have a strategy, like podcast guessing as part of your launch runway, you don't know when your episode is going to air. So you really do have to think and plan backwards. Because if you're going to be reaching out to a podcast host Do you might do an interview in March, but they might not air it until May or June. So really thinking ahead is so important. So I'm really glad that you brought that up. I like the idea of having that 12 week, runway. What do you ever work with people who absolutely refuse to get on Instagram stories or like show their face in any way? Like? Yeah,
Melanie Battistelli 18:08
I do. I do, actually. So I have a client right now who is launching her first course in June. And she doesn't have Instagram. Oh, Anna. Yeah, that's that's what I discovered kalo. Interesting. Oh, my gosh, I'm a little bit scared. And I am I'm a little bit scared because I've never, I've never launched somebody with somebody who has basically refused to go on social media. She is pretty well known in this space. And she does have an email list of about 12,000 people. So that's I mean, yeah, really helpful. Like, email list is really your biggest moneymaker generally time and time again, and engaged email list is? Well, I don't want to say Trump's social media. But like, if she didn't have an email list and wouldn't get on social media, then I don't think we'd
Sara Whittaker 19:03
be working. We'd have a problem. Yeah.
Melanie Battistelli 19:06
But yeah, she doesn't have an Instagram. She has a Facebook page, but like she never wants to show her face. She also does not want to do and we'll talk about this when we talk about the actual launch because there's a couple of different like, strategies you can choose. But she doesn't want to go live for any part of that either, like refuses, so check back with me in July. I'll let you know how it went. I expressed my concern but she still will not go live. So we'll see how that goes. It's an experiment that I'm unwillingly doing but I will do it she does have a great course but I am a little nervous about her not being willing to show up.
Sara Whittaker 19:51
Yeah, yeah, no, that's interesting. I'm I will be checking back in with you. So for that, but I mean, I will say Like now that there are some other mediums like, I know, I work with people who they don't get on social media very much they have social media, but they don't really get on their Instagram stories, but they have their podcast, and that is interest builder. And that's, if you, and that's talking about time, like we were before, that's another reason why, you know, I have, I have people that have come to me and said, I want to start my podcast like tomorrow, because I have a course that I'm launching in a month or two months. And I'm like, Well, ideally, we would have started your podcast six months ago. Because you do need that you need that lead up time, you need that time to build trust with your audience, especially if you're not on places like social media. So I think there are, like ways where you can show up in different places like everybody has their preferences, but giving yourself that time. It's just something that that continues to pop up as something that's really important.
Melanie Battistelli 20:57
Yes, definitely. I mean, some people like hard numbers, like I would not work with a client until their email list, for example, had at least 250 people on it.
Sara Whittaker 21:10
Whether or not you don't have anyone to sell to Yeah, right.
Melanie Battistelli 21:13
You can't launch to I mean, you could but I would not recommend launching to an audience of absolutely zero. So yeah, like six months ahead for a podcast, if you want to launch a course in six months. I mean, that's, that's great. This year, I had people come to me really, really early. Like I booked three summer launches into, like, this summer in 2022, which is kind of crazy. Like, but you know, to some teachers, really, there's two types of like teacher printers. I feel like really plan ahead or like, Can we do this tomorrow?
Sara Whittaker 21:44
Yeah. Yes, yeah. Yeah, it's nice to have that that time. Okay. So let's get into like the strategy of things, what would what are some of those strategies and tips of what we should be focusing on leading up to the launch?
Melanie Battistelli 22:02
Sure, yeah. So we talked about for the pre pre launch, right, that's where you're establishing authority and building trust with your audience. And I mean, ideally, if you like, so let's just say for example, if you're wanting to launch a podcast six months before you launch your course, I mean, that's great. That's a great timeline. Because then you can spend, you know, the first three to four months really starting to build that trust with nurturing your audience, providing them wins, tips, examples, your personal story and getting to know them. As we get closer to the time that you would want to launch your actual course or membership. That's where I kind of my names aren't exciting, but I would like to call it instead of the pre pre launch, I would just call it the pre launch phase, often aliens things better. But so I
Sara Whittaker 22:53
at least it's clear, I simple and clear to the point well, good.
Melanie Battistelli 22:57
It's simple and clear. Yes, so about four to six weeks out is where I would start to kind of structure your episodes to talk about the actual launch catalyst or the training that you want to do. So there's a couple of different ways that you've probably seen people launch their courses, a lot of times with live webinars, right where you can sign up for a time and show up. And then you know, announce your course at the end of that, you could also do a video series, which is basically a live webinar but broken up into three to five days that you kind of leak out the videos 10 to 12 minutes, basically at a time. And you could do that via email or you could ramp it up a little bit if you wanted to create like a pop up Facebook group and kind of funnel people into that for like engagement community still building that like no trust factor. So during your podcast at that time, that four to six weeks when you're trying to kind of fill up either your live training or fill up your Facebook group and you're inviting people to like get ready to come to your training, whatever you know, strategy that you choose to do. This is where you can start kind of talking about it a little bit more in your podcast like the benefits specifically of what your training is going to be and actually have you know the call to action be like inviting them to join the group your email list, sign up for your training. You could talk about your like why more specifically you created this exact, you know, training like what prompted you to do this. You could invite and this I've seen like firsthand be pretty powerful invite former students or people who've gone through a training of yours before for like a guest interview. This is also if you were thinking of doing like a private podcast. asked is a lead magnet. This is where I would introduce that about four to six weeks out and have that you know recorded and you could invite people to you know, basically subscribe to your to your private podcast, which I've seen actually I feel like they're becoming more and more popular. And it's it's a great lead magnet. I mean, I've I've signed up for a couple of of myself.
Sara Whittaker 25:22
Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're they're absolutely wonderful. And they seem to do really, really well. I've done one before that funneled into a mini course that I have. And it did really well. I, I think the appeal is? Well, first of all, I feel like I've kind of seen this shift this year, because traditionally, a webinar is what we see most people do, and a lot of them are still extremely successful. But I feel like there's this shift of people wanting to find another option. Besides the webinars specifically, for people who might not want to be on video live, like we were talking about before. So a private podcast, I feel like it's just such a great option. If that is you, you really want to be able to do something that's kind of pre recorded, but still offering a lot of value still building trust with people, an email list builder. So I think that's a really great option for people now. So you mentioned having that like training of some sort, before doors open to whatever it is that you're launching, do you also recommend having like prior to that having another kind of like new lead magnet, like something like a PDF before that, or not so much?
Melanie Battistelli 26:33
I think it just depends. So here's like, what I always tell my clients and like also, myself, every launch is basically a test and an experiment. So I don't want to give like a hard and fast answer, like yes, you need to create a brand new lead magnet before every lunch, you don't, I would make sure that you have at least one that is directly related to your course though. And then just really, again, kind of like the market research, pay attention to the data. Like if you're running Facebook ads, for example, make two different opt in forms, one that's organic traffic, people who are coming to you from Instagram and your podcast, and make another one for Facebook ads. Because if your Facebook ads are not performing well then stop spending money on the lead back. If you're organic, if your organic traffic is great, like you might as well not, you know, waste the money on Facebook ads. So it's also really just paying attention to how everything is going but not again, not just like making a mental note, like literally writing it down in a spreadsheet or an Asana or, you know, somewhere that you can go back and refer to it. So because you're not launching every month, right? It's usually three to six months to a year in between launches. So you're not going to remember, right with great detail like what did well the previous time. So I think as long as you're keeping track of what's doing well, then you don't necessarily need to reinvent the wheel each time. But something that I have seen with a client that I've that I've launched with four times, she's in the the TPT space, we have tried to change up her launch type based on the time of year because like you were mentioning earlier in the summer, teachers have more time or you know, mental space capacity. So we tend to do webinar launches. We did a challenge launch in October, where we leaked out a video series and she recorded her webinar and broke it up into 10 minute videos. So you know, busy teachers could watch or listen to the 10 minute videos on the way you know, to and from school rather than having to carve out an hour an hour and a half for a webinar. So you also just I guess have to think about like your audience. And I mean, a lot of us were former classroom teachers, right? Like you remember, you don't just have an hour and a half to hang out in the middle of the day in October. You got to you got to make it like fit your audience. So that's where again, like a private podcast, I haven't I haven't tried that like with a client yet as a lead magnet. I'm not working with anyone right now that does have a podcast. But I mean, I think that could be super, super successful, especially during the school year for teachers.
Sara Whittaker 29:28
Yeah, that's such a good point is to think about the time of year that you are launching. And I mean, if you're somebody who's listening, and you're getting ready to do like your first launch, it is an experiment like Melanie said, and you have to have you know, do it figure out what how you want to do it launch. Make sure that you're recording that data so that you have something you have that benchmark that you can compare your next launch to and if things are working, then keep doing it. But if if they're not working any more than you might need to switch things up. I know I've talked to some people who and worked with some people who, you know, before they started their podcast, they would run a lot of Facebook ads leading up to a launch. And then they would experiment once they had their podcast for some time, their next launch, they didn't do Facebook ads, and they just use their podcast, and they had the same results. So they're like, Okay, well, if I can, if I can have the same results without running ads, then that's great. But then another person, they might need those Facebook ads. So it really is dependent on you on your audience on what you're offering. And it is all an experiment. So love it.
Melanie Battistelli 30:41
Yeah. And I think I think that's hard for a lot of teachers who were, or x, you know, teachers who were very much like, just tell me what to do. Just tell me the steps to take and like, make it work. I wish I could, but like, everybody's audience is different. And every person is different. And if you've liked, like, I'm working with somebody now who launched, hasn't launched in a year and a half. And her course, has been on evergreen, and she wants to try a live launch again this summer. But she has she wrote absolutely nothing down the first two times she lived launched and she can't remember. I mean, it's not her fault. She just, you know, you don't know what you don't know. Absolutely. But she has no idea what what she did. You know, she kind of remember she thinks she did a webinar, but like, there's no evidence of that. So that'll be check back with me again in July or August, about how that one goes. But yeah, each each things an experiment. And it's, you can follow a method as best as you can. But you're still an individual and your audience is still a collection of individuals. So what works for one person might not necessarily work for everybody else.
Sara Whittaker 31:55
Yes. And I just I really like I could not agree with that more. And like I have people who come to me who I'm not working with maybe we're just doing like a strategy call or something. Or they messaged me on Instagram and say like, I have this many downloads, is that good? And I'm like, That is not a question that I can just give you a yes or no to like, there's so much that goes into that, like I would really need to look and see like, what what is your data on month to month? How many people are on your email list? Are you getting an ROI from your show? Like there's so much that goes into questions like that, and that it's just proof that yes, like you said, you can have kind of like this framework that you follow, which is so helpful for all of us we need, we need a little bit of direction with something like a launch, especially when it's the first time but you do have to you just kind of have to see how it goes and then be willing to tweak things and try again and continue that process. Yes, exactly. Well, is there anything else that we haven't gotten to in terms of using your podcast as a launch runway that you wanted to touch on?
Melanie Battistelli 33:06
Um, the last thing I think that I would say is when you're so we talked about the pre pre launch and then we talked about the pre launch when you're you know, trying to get people into whatever method or strategy you're using to launch your course or your membership. I would also just be super specific because usually if you're have kind of an open and closed cart period, meaning like people can only enroll in your course generally for I guess the industry standard is somewhere between seven and 14 days usually 10 days being kind of the middle really like strategically plan what podcast episode is going to come out during your cart open period Yes, whatever you can get that is the most powerful generally it probably would be a former student like think of your shining star student if you have if you have a former lunch see if you can incentivize them in some way and they might just do it you know, because they probably love you if they're your star student. And you know, who doesn't you know, being asked to be on someone's podcast is generally like oh my gosh, yes. So I would try and get them to come on for an interview and really have them speak to the transformation what their life was like before your course or membership and all the ways that it has improved after because social proof is something that you can't make up fake or really replicate especially when it's coming directly from you know someone who's experienced it it's it's much more powerful hearing it than like even seeing it on a sales page with like somebody who you don't know his picture like hearing them talk about it. So that would be like I guess my top recommendation if you can schedule an interview with your star, star star Wouldn't for your current open period. And if you've never launched before, then you know, you might not have a star student. But I would then if you don't have anyone to like pull from to ask the interviewer, I would try and focus on, you know, actually, I'm changing my answers and speaking, I would see how the lead up part to your launch is going and see what kind of objections you're getting. Like, it's too much money, I don't have enough time, like see what people are saying, who are in your kind of launch space. And then if you've if you've got the time and the bandwidth, take the time and record as close as you can an episode addressing like objections that you're seeing. That's a
Sara Whittaker 35:51
great tip. Yeah, I love that. So when you're planning things out, leave that white space for that kind of like, last minute episode that you could sit down and record to handle the objections. That's a great piece of advice. Perfect. Well, I feel like you've given us so many good things to think about, and ways that we can really sit down and like intentionally plan out our launch. And by the time that this episode comes out, you all have a good amount of time to really make sure that you're planning out your podcast episodes in a super intentional way. One, one question I meant to ask you before, do you recommend that people do a waitlist before like leading up to their launch.
Melanie Battistelli 36:34
So I've heard mixed reviews on this. Personally, I always have my clients do a waitlist, just because especially if it's new, it's nice to see the kind of traction that it's getting. Yeah, I would also recommend though, like when you're doing the waitlist, again, I'm gonna say keep track of the data, you can see the actual weather, you know, you throw it up in flow desk, ConvertKit WordPress, like wherever you're putting it up, make sure that you're tracking what you're doing. So you're tracking, for example, you want to make sure that you can track the pageviews like how many people are landing on the waitlist and looking at it, and then how many people are actually like opting in each day. And those numbers when you divide the number of people opting in each day divided by the views will give you the conversion. And if you're using Facebook ads, again, make sure that it's two separate so you can separate your organic traffic from your your paid traffic, because then you can make adjustments right i We're actually doing this right now with with a client and it started off really well. She was converting send an email, first day the waitlist was open, send an email to her list it converted it 50 or 55%. We were like, Whoa, right? Yeah, that's great. I want this people want this. So you know, also then make a little note, like sent email to list this day. So you don't just look back in six months, and you're like, well, people loved it. I wonder why, like, there is a reason. Yes. But you know, it has in his teetered off over the last week. So yesterday, I went into her waitlist, and I changed the headline. So we're gonna give it a couple of days. And see because it was like 50, and then it like dropped down as low as 10%. And I was like, well, it's not good. So I'm, I'm gonna see if the if the headline, you know, made made is gonna make a difference over the next couple of days. But I guess the other thing I would say I'm off on a tangent now. But the other thing I would say is when you go to change something, try to just change one thing at a time. That's such good advice. And yes, give it and then give it 24 to 48 hours, I would say 48 hours, because if you change the headline and the copy, and like the picture, like well, what
Sara Whittaker 38:58
worked? Yeah, yes, that's so true. And I think sometimes I'm sure people like if they see that it's not working. That might be their first reaction is like, oh my gosh, I have to change everything. But yeah, doing one thing at a time. I love that.
Melanie Battistelli 39:13
Yeah, so anyway to a waitlist. I would personally say yes, that it's a good it's a good measure to kind of test the waters and see what people are thinking. I mean, I'm not worried because like I said initially 50% of the people who clicked and looked at the waitlist joined. So I mean, that's a good number. But yeah, we'd like to we'd like to keep that up but it's yeah, it's it's a good kind of temperature taking of the audience.
Sara Whittaker 39:41
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like I love using weightless personally because I also feel like it's just like that validation to you have like, Okay, this Yes, I am on the right track. This is good. Right. Agreed. Okay, perfect. Well, I just have a couple of kind of just for fun questions that I asked. Yeah. My guest if you are ready. So number one is if you could interview a favorite childhood star just for fun, who would it be?
Melanie Battistelli 40:09
So I was a huge Dawson's Creek fan. Oh, yes. Growing up, in my personal humble opinion, better than One Tree Hill. Oh, I say I know. That's a dividing statement. It's divide isn't
Sara Whittaker 40:27
Team One Tree Hill? I know. I mean,
Melanie Battistelli 40:28
I like them both. But I feel like I would love to talk to Katie Holmes just like, for a lot of reasons for just so many reasons. But that's who I would talk to.
Sara Whittaker 40:41
Oh, that's a really good one. My husband is actually obsessed with both of those shows. Recently, recently, rewatched them and he watched them growing up to which I just love. So those are, that's a good choice. I like it. Alright. And then do you have any favorite podcasts that you're listening to and loving right now for business or for fun?
Melanie Battistelli 41:07
Um, so actually, I think you and I just talked about this the other day, but I have been listening to for a little bit systemize your life with Chelsey Joe Moore? Yep. And I also really like Megan, some roles, who I cannot think of what the actual podcast is called right now. But her name is Megan Summerall. It's about productivity and like work life. Harmony. She doesn't use the word balance. No, I like by like a lot. Yeah, really into her. And I haven't said, I haven't listened to any podcast for fun. And I feel that. But I did used to be like a big crime junkies fan like before kids, but yeah, I'm sure that's an answer you get all the time. But I'm one of those big crime junkies fan before kids, we can't really listen to that, like, with kids nearby.
Sara Whittaker 42:00
I know. We I also am a fan. But I really only listen to those now when I'm on a road trip. And so my husband and I will like we'll have Adeline plug in her headphones and like watch her own thing. That we don't listen to it.
Melanie Battistelli 42:16
Yeah, we used to listen to that those on road trips to like cereal. Yeah, I listened to all that stuff. pre pre children.
Sara Whittaker 42:24
Yes, I know everything changes when you have. Well, Melanie, this has been so great. Thank you so much for coming on, and just sharing all of your launch expertise with us. It's been really great.
Melanie Battistelli 42:38
Yeah, thanks. It has been super fun chatting with you. All right,
Sara Whittaker 42:42
Melanie. And before we head out, can you just let everybody know where they can find you online?
Melanie Battistelli 42:47
Yeah, absolutely. I mostly hang out on Instagram. You can find me over at Duxbury digital. And if you would love it to grab my launch checklist. If you are thinking about launching a course this summer. I think Sara will link it in the show notes. But you can also find it at Bitly slash launch freebie.
Sara Whittaker 43:08
Perfect. Yes, we will put all of that in the show notes and in the episode description for this episode. So you can just easily click on it and grab it because that sounds like it would be a really helpful resource. Thank you again. Thank you. Before we sign off, let's check out this week's shout out. Each week I'm sharing a voice message from a fellow podcaster and they could be your next podcast guest after listening if you'd like to collaborate with them. You can reach out using the information in the show notes from today's episode. If you're interested in being featured head to podcasting for educators.com/voice Happy collaborating
Caitie Cupples 43:52
Hey, my name is Katie from Katie couples teaching and while I don't have a podcast yet, I love guesting and getting to chat with other amazing educators on their shows. I am a former second grade teacher and K five instructional coach and I help elementary teachers amplify their impact on students lives by building compassionate classroom communities that bring joy into daily teaching and learning. If you're looking for a guest to come onto your show, I'd love to talk about how teachers can sustainably build classroom community all year long or how they can integrate social emotional learning into the school day. You can reach me on Instagram at Katie couples teaching and grab my info and Sarah shownotes. Thanks.
Sara Whittaker 44:31
Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. To keep this conversation going connect with me on Instagram at podcasting for educators. I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting. If you're looking for support and launching, managing or growing your podcast, check out my online course the podcasting for educators prep school at podcasting for educators.com/prep school. I'll see you here next time.
More about Podcasting for Educators:
Podcasting for Educators is the podcast for TpT authors and other online educators. It's a show that will help you get your podcast in front of those who need it most - teachers, counselors, literacy specialists, SLPs, parents, and more! Each week, Sara Whittaker and her guests will share top tips and actionable strategies that you will need in order to launch, manage, and grow your podcast. You’ll learn how to leverage your show to build long-lasting relationships with your audience and promote your TpT resources, courses, and memberships, all while providing valuable and accessible content!
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