Unpack It: How to Plan and Execute a Pre-Launch Video Series

When you’ve got a premium product, service, or course to deliver to your audience, you don’t just plop it online and wait for sales to roll in.

In fact, the common method of launching a premium product, service or course is to prepare and deliver a video series to your audience. Why? Because it works.

If you want to prime your audience with a pre-launch video series, you should know that it’s important to prepare and plan before you execute as there are a variety of moving parts involved with creating and releasing a successful video series.

Step one: The basics

Start by deciding how many videos you want and how you will deliver them. You’ll also want to decide if your video series will include the sales portion, or if you plan to deliver that live.

Once you know these details, decide on the spacing between each of the videos. Think about how long each video is likely to be and make sure you give enough time for your audience to consume the videos and complete any additional homework you’ve included.

Step Two: The timeline

Once you have the basic framework for your video series, decide on your timeline. You’ll want to build in some time to promote the series and collect signups.

It’s also important to consider how long it will actually take to create the videos before deciding on a launch date. We will go more into this as we go on but for now, start with your ideal date!

Nail down the dates for each video and your cart open date.

Step three: The inventory

This is where it’s easy to go astray when creating a video series. Often, my clients focus on the videos and forget the rest of the pieces they need to create.

So, start an inventory of all the things you need.

To get you started, here’s what I usually create for a three-part video series:

  • Registration page
  • Thank you page
  • Confirmation email
  • Video 1 page
  • Video 2 page
  • Video 3 page
  • Video 1 delivery
  • Video 2 delivery email
  • Video 3 delivery mail
  • Video 1 worksheet
  • Video 2 worksheet
  • Video 3 worksheets
  • Sign up graphics
  • Sign up social media
  • Sign up Facebook ads
  • Any additional graphics, social, or ads you want during the promotion

You may also consider adding reminder emails in between videos or additional call to action emails depending on the length of your series. This is by no means an exhaustive list but it gives you a good place to start when planning out your own.

Step four: Time to execute

Now that you’ve identified everything that you need to create, you can start executing. Make a project plan with deadlines for all of these items, based on your launch date.

As your first goal, consider what you need to complete to start collecting sign-ups. Once you have those, you can start promoting it to your existing audience and attracting a new one.

Then, move on to anything you’ll need in order to effectively deliver your video series. In a perfect world, you’ll have all of these completed before the first video launches.

Be sure to get the help you need to execute effectively, whether it’s from a copywriter, a designer, or a techie – getting the skills you need is essential for success.

Step Five: The set up

Here’s where you’ll dig into the back end.

You want to have a method to house each video and any associated downloads. If you can’t use your website, consider a landing page builder like Leadpages or the page builder of your choice.

You will also need an email autoresponder that you can integrate with your registration form. This is also how you’ll deliver the video emails.

If you’re including any worksheets with the videos, make sure you have a way to host and deliver them. And, you also need a way to host your videos, whether that’s on your website or on a service like YouTube or Vimeo.

Step Six: Test

Once you’ve created the content and completed the setup, it’s time to test. If time allows, go through the entire sequence in real time ahead of your audience.

If not, check every email for grammar, spacing, and layout plus be sure to test every link! I also like to have multiple people test during this stage whenever possible so if you have team members, ask them to help. If you don’t have team members, ask people you trust to help you ensure your emails and pages are solid.

Step Seven: Go live!

Now you are ready to share your video series with the world!

Any launch, big or small, is a huge endeavor so don’t underestimate the time and resources you will need to plan, produce, promote and release your video series.

Be realistic about what you can do on your own and what you need assistance with. And remember, it’s not just what you can do but what you should do. Even if you have the skills to do every single step yourself, that doesn’t mean you should do it.

You will have a far more successful launch if you focus on your true talents and outsource the other elements.