Planning a course launch can feel like there are a thousand things to do and no clear order to do them in. It’s not easy, but it is manageable when you have a clear timeline to follow.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through a course launch timeline that covers every phase: the decisions you need to make upfront, what to build and when, and how to close the cart without losing momentum. Whether this is your first launch or your fifth, having a clear schedule is what keeps it from turning into a last-minute scramble.
Grab my free Course Launch Checklist to follow along. It covers every task in this timeline, so nothing slips through.
Decisions to make before you build your launch schedule
Before you set any dates or start creating content, there are a few decisions that will shape everything else.
Choosing your launch date
Your launch date isn’t just a calendar choice. It affects how much time you have to prepare, how receptive your audience will be, and how much runway you need for promotion.
A few things to consider:
- Avoid major holidays or periods when your audience is likely to be distracted or away.
- Think about industry events or busy seasons that might work in your favour (or against you).
- Work backwards from your cart-open date to make sure you have enough time for all the pieces (copy, design, tech setup, and promotion). Six to eight weeks of preparation is realistic for most people.
Understanding your audience
Before you write a single word of launch copy, get clear on who you’re launching to. What’s the specific problem your course solves for them? What objections will they have? What’s happening in their life right now that makes your course either urgent or easy to put off?
This isn’t about building a detailed persona document if that’s not your thing. It’s about being able to answer those questions clearly, because every email, social post, and sales page section will need to address them.
Avoid these common course launch mistakes. Most of them start here, before anything is built.
Planning your buzz-builder
Start warming up your audience at least a month before your cart opens. The cart itself is typically open for 5 to 10 days (long enough to give people time to decide, short enough to create a real deadline).
A buzz-builder (a webinar, challenge, live Q&A, or workshop) gives people a reason to engage before they’re asked to buy. Choose a format that suits you. A webinar works well if you’re comfortable presenting. A challenge works well if your audience responds to doing things step by step. The format matters less than the fact that you’re consistently showing up and building trust in the weeks before the cart opens.
Your course launch timeline, week by week
Here’s a realistic eight-week course launch timeline. Adjust the length based on how much you have to build. If your sales page and email sequences are already in place, you can compress this. If you’re starting from scratch, you may want more time.
Week 1: Strategy and planning
Before you build anything, pull together what you already know. If you’ve launched before, look at your data: what emails got the most clicks, where people dropped off, and which content drove the most registrations. If this is your first launch, look at what’s resonated with your audience on social or in your emails.
This week is also when you confirm your launch date, map out the full timeline, and decide on your buzz-builder format.
Weeks 2–4: Build your launch assets
This is the heaviest build phase. The main things to create:
Your sales page. This is where interest becomes enrollment, so give it the time it deserves. It needs to clearly explain what the course is, who it’s for, what they’ll get, and why now. The 9 elements of a sales page that converts is a useful checklist for this. Pull in testimonials, make the pricing clear, and don’t bury the call to action.
Your email sequences. Write your registration confirmation, the pre-launch nurture sequence, your cart-open emails, and your closing sequence (including the deadline reminder). Getting these done in advance means you’re not writing emails during the most stressful week of your launch.
Your lead magnet and opt-in. If you’re using a freebie to grow your list before the launch, build it now. My Ebook & Workbook Templates are designed to save you hours here. You can have a polished lead magnet ready in an afternoon without starting from scratch.
Tech setup. Get your checkout page, payment processor, and delivery set up and tested before week 5. Don’t leave this to the last minute.
Week 5: Finalise and start promoting
By the end of this week, everything should be done. Use the first few days to review, test, and fix anything that isn’t working, then shift your focus entirely to promotion.
Start teasing the launch on social media. Give sneak peeks of what’s coming, share relevant content that connects to the course topic, and begin warming up your email list. This isn’t about selling yet. It’s about getting people interested and paying attention.
My Social Media Launch Toolkit includes 50 caption templates covering every phase of a launch, 200+ Canva graphics, and a suggested posting schedule so you know what to post and when. It takes the “what do I even say?” problem off the table entirely.
For a more detailed content plan, How to create a social media content calendar for your course launch walks through the full approach.
Week 6: Host your buzz-builder and open the cart
This is the week everything you’ve built starts working.
Host your webinar, challenge, or live event and make it genuinely useful. People should leave feeling like they got something valuable, which makes the decision to buy the full course easier. If you’re running a webinar, my Slide Deck Templates mean you’re not starting from a blank canvas.
Open the cart at the end of your buzz-builder or in the 24-48 hours that follow. Send your cart-open email, post on social, and if you’re offering an early bird bonus, make sure it’s clearly communicated and time-limited.
Make sure you or someone on your team is available to answer questions throughout this week.
Week 7: Stay visible, answer questions, close the cart
The middle of a launch is where most people go quiet, and that’s a mistake. Keep showing up. Share testimonials, answer objections, address common questions in your emails and on social. Using testimonials effectively during this phase makes a real difference.
The final 24 hours are the most important. Send a deadline reminder email, post on social, and make the urgency real. If you have a genuine reason for the deadline (price going up, bonus disappearing, enrolment closing), say it clearly.
Follow up with people who clicked but didn’t buy. A simple personal reply to people on your list can convert a surprising number of fence-sitters.
Week 8: Review and reflect
Once the cart closes, resist the urge to move on immediately. Take a week to look at your numbers: conversion rate, email open and click rates, registration-to-enrolment rate, and where people dropped off.
What worked? What would you do differently? Document it now, while it’s fresh. This debrief is what makes the next launch faster and less stressful.
After the launch: what happens next
Here’s the thing about a launch timeline: it ends. The cart closes, the buzz dies down, and you’re back to your regular schedule.
But if your course is good, and the systems underneath it are set up properly, it doesn’t have to go quiet between launches. An evergreen funnel, a solid social proof system, and consistent traffic can keep your course selling even when you’re not actively promoting it.
That’s the shift from launching to having a course that sells on evergreen. If you want to understand what that looks like for your specific setup, grab The Evergreen Funnel Fix. It’s a free guide that walks you through all 3 layers of your course funnel and shows you where the gaps are.
Or if you’d rather talk it through, book a free Funnel Audit and we’ll look at it together.
Before you go, grab the Course Launch Checklist to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
