How to grow your audience before your next launch
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Launching a course is both exciting and challenging, especially when you’re balancing everything from content creation to tech setup. As someone who’s been down this road, both as a launch manager and someone who’s built a business with digital products, I totally get how important (and challenging!) growing your audience can be before you even open the doors to your course.
This guide covers a variety of strategies that will help you build your audience effectively, whether you’re a first-timer or an experienced coach looking to expand your reach. From participating in bundles and virtual summits to leveraging podcast guesting, social media tactics, and even mixing in some ads, I’ll cover both free and paid ways to attract and engage potential customers who are eager to learn what you’re offering.
The goal is to make sure that when your course is ready, the right people are lining up to see what you have to offer. By following these practical strategies, you’ll set up a launch that not only meets your expectations but hopefully exceeds them. Let’s open those doors with confidence and make your next course launch your most successful one yet!
Why Growing Your Audience is Important
Before diving into audience growth strategies, let’s talk about why it’s so important to grow your audience before launching a course. Simply put, the size and engagement level of your audience directly impact your launch success. Your launch goals might include hitting a specific revenue target or reaching a certain number of enrollments, and knowing your sales page conversion rate is key to achieving these goals.
To find your conversion rate, divide the number of buyers by the number of visitors to your sales page, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage. A good conversion rate is often between 2-5%, but this can vary based on several factors.
Once you have your conversion rate, you can figure out how many visitors you need to meet your goals. For example, if your revenue goal means you need 100 sales and your conversion rate is 2%, you’ll need to divide 100 by 0.02. This means you need 5,000 visitors to your sales page.
Understanding these numbers lets you better plan how much effort you’ll need to put into growing your audience and attracting potential customers before launching.
Knowing Your Target Audience
To effectively grow your audience before launching a course, it’s important to know who your ideal customer is. This involves creating a clear picture of your target audience, including details like their age, interests, and problems they face. Doing some research can give you helpful insights into what your audience needs and likes, so you can adjust your content and marketing to connect with them better.
To create content that really speaks to your audience, focus on solving their problems, sharing useful information, and showing that you’re a trustworthy expert in your niche.
Building an Email List and Nurturing Subscribers
You can launch an online course with a small email list. But as you’ve seen above, if the numbers aren’t there to reach your goals, you will need to grow your small audience.
Offering lead magnets, such as free resources or mini-courses, can help capture email addresses and build your email list. Nurturing subscribers with valuable content and insights will keep them engaged and interested in your upcoming course launch. Using email marketing to promote your course launch can help you convert your email subscribers into paying students.
Are you a health or wellness coach? You may be interested in these 37 lead magnet ideas for health and wellness coaches that you can use to attract new leads to your business.
But lead magnets in and of themselves don’t grow your audience. You need to get in front of new people who don’t already know about you and have them take action so you can continue to get in front of them in the future, like sign up for your email list or follow you on Instagram. Emails have a higher conversion rate than social channels, so having them join your email list is always the better option.
So, how do you get in front of new people?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
You can continually get in front of new people who are actively searching for what you do by publishing blog posts, podcast episodes, or YouTube videos that are related to the topic of your product or program.
Apart from regular search engines like Google and Bing, you can also use SEO to get in front of new people on YouTube and Pinterest.
Together, these channels bring me the majority of my traffic, and if you’re not using them, you’re missing out.
But getting traffic to your sales page is not the same as getting traffic to your website.
You can sometimes get quick results with optimization, but it can also take a while, so it depends on your launch goal and situation:
- How optimized is your site currently?
- What are you already ranking for?
- How much time do you have?
- How much new optimized content can you make before you launch?
SEO is good for your evergreen pages and blog posts but usually won’t help a lot in getting traffic during a launch.
Collaborations and Affiliates
Collaborate with other business owners who are helping an audience similar to yours but have a different kind of offer. If someone sees you as a competitor, they might be hesitant to collaborate. But if what you offer adds value to what they do, that’s gold. If you’re a copywriter, you could find designers who are working in the same niche as you and cross-promote each other’s free or paid offers, or you could run a joint webinar or workshop with them.
Additionally, affiliate partnerships can help you reach more people by connecting with your affiliates’ audiences. In an affiliate program, others recommend your products or services, and if someone makes a purchase or signs up through them, they earn a commission. This commission is usually cash, but it can also be extra months, credits, or other rewards.
Participating in Bundles
Working together with other experts in your field for bundle offers can help you connect with each other’s audiences and broaden your reach. By cross-promoting with courses or products that complement yours, you can attract potential students who might be interested in what you offer.
If you have a low-ticket offer, joining a free or paid bundle can give a massive boost to your audience. These partnerships are a smart way to efficiently expand your reach by tapping into each other’s audiences. Keep an eye out for courses or products that align well with yours for successful cross-promotion. A helpful place to find bundle opportunities is the Bundles of Bundles Facebook group.
Need to create a low-ticket offer to participate in bundles? Learn how to make a fillable PDF workbook using free tools.
Speaking at Virtual Summits
Virtual summits, typically spanning a couple of days with multiple speakers, provide a platform to showcase your expertise with a single overarching theme. In the Bundles of Bundles Facebook group I mentioned above, people are also regularly looking for summit speakers.
If there isn’t one in your niche, you can host your own! Planning and organizing a virtual summit can be an effective way to showcase your expertise and attract a wider audience. Inviting industry leaders as speakers can draw their followers to your event, expanding your reach.
Presenting at summits gives you the chance to share valuable content and connect with potential students, ultimately guiding them toward your course.
If you’re strapped for time and don’t have the network to put together your own summit, you could also run a webinar or workshop with a business friend.
Save time creating your slide deck in Canva with my templates!
Guesting on Podcasts and Guest Blogging
Finding podcasts and blogs related to your niche and offering yourself as a guest can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field. By sharing your knowledge on relevant podcasts or blogs, you reach new audiences and drive traffic to your sales page or opt-in freebie.
Check out the Podcast Guest Collaboration Community – Find a Guest, Be a Guest Facebook group for opportunities across different topics.
Social Media Tactics to Grow Your Audience
Creating engaging and shareable content on social media can significantly increase your visibility and attract potential students. To connect with your target audience, use relevant hashtags and join in on community conversations.
Right now, Instagram Reels and interactive content are popular ways to grow your audience. While the success of Reels can vary, some have found them helpful in reaching more people.
Also, using Instagram Stories and polls can boost engagement and help build a community around your brand. Taking time to respond to comments and messages and using live sessions can help create a loyal following.
Just keep in mind that turning views into sign-ups on Instagram can often be lower compared to other traffic sources.
Using Paid Ads for Audience Growth
Another way to drive more traffic to your sales page during a launch is advertising, like Facebook and Instagram ads, but they can be tricky.
Using ads can help you reach potential students by targeting their interests and demographics. By setting up focused ad campaigns on platforms like Facebook and Google, you can connect with people who might be interested in your course.
These ads can also be used to grow your list before a launch.
Additionally, retargeting visitors to your website and engaging with similar audiences can broaden your reach and improve your chances of converting potential students.
It’s important to monitor your ad performance continuously and make adjustments to get the best results from your advertising efforts.
I recommend you only start using those once you’ve at least made some sales from free, organic traffic so that you know for sure that your sales page is converting well. How do you know? Track your conversion rate in Google Analytics, then see how it measures up against benchmarks and what you can do to improve your conversion rate.
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