Your Pre-Black Friday Funnel

You have something amazing to reveal to your audience – an offer that’s going to make all the difference for the people you serve – and you’re planning to launch it on Black Friday. Go you!!

One of the biggest mental hurdles is behind you and you’re already ahead of most other live launchers – for two reasons:

1. You’ve moved past the planning stage and committed to a launch date. (Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a brilliant idea that got stuck in the procrasti-planning stage… 🙋🏻‍♀️)
2. You’re planning ahead for with time to prep and launch without the Black Friday Hustle Insanity.

Now let’s take a look at your copy plan and start implementing.

Live Launch Copy Phase 1: Your Pre-Launch Copy

Last week we talked about creating a strategic plan for your live launch. (If you missed that post, you can catch it here: What No One Tells You About Live Launching.)

This week we’re diving into that strategic plan to talk about the copy that needs to go out before your cart opens. Yep, that means getting the right people to join your list so you have someone to launch to.

You have a few options for lead funnels. If this will be the first time you launched this offer (meaning you do not already have the funnel built and tested), I highly recommend not choosing a webinar funnel for your Black Friday launch…

Why A Webinar Is Not Ideal For Your Black Friday Launch

 If you’re not already a pro at this (and sometimes even if you are), webinars take a looooong time to create.

Webinars require more copy elements… and those copy assets are longer and require design elements in addition to copy that’s precisely targeted and 100% on point. (Webinar slides, I’m looking at you.)

Webinars introduce a whole extra level of tech that needs to run smoothly… and once you’re live, you need a team member to make sure the tech keeps running smoothly.

Webinars take practice… and if you’re not comfortable speaking, that could take days of time, energy, and nerves.

Webinars often need to be run (and tweaked) several times before they convert well… which means you could miss out on the Black Friday bump.

Webinars for a live launch need to be run the day you open your cart… for a Black Friday launch, this means your webinar is on Thanksgiving Day. So if your audience is primarily in the U.S., your show-up rate will be low.

You’ll also be asking people to give up 90 minutes on a holiday weekend to watch a replay – instead of going straight to your competitor’s sales page where they can enter their digits without missing out on the family flag football match or making cookies with the kids.

The exception: IF…

• you already have your funnel ready to go and optimized and…
• you’ve run the webinar enough times that you know it will convert and…
• you have an audience of super-hot raving fans who buy everything you release without even bothering to read the whole sales page (and will carve out time to watch your webinar while the rest of the family carves the turkey)…

…then by all means, run a Black Friday webinar. But if you’re here reading this blog post, I’m going to guess you are not already in the two-comma club with your funnel, so let’s skip straight to the non-webinar launch.

Where should you be sending traffic instead?

High-Converting Lead Funnels For Your Black Friday Launch

Now that we’ve determined you’re going to make it easier on yourself and avoid the stress of a holiday-season webinar, let’s pick your lead funnel lane.

For this Black Friday launch, you are going to run traffic to either a lead magnet or an early-bird wait list.

Choose a lead magnet funnel if your opt-in is perfectly targeted for your perfect Black Friday offer buyers.

Choose an early-bird wait list funnel to build anticipation with a VIP segment of your list. You’ll be offering an extra bonus that’s only available to those early-bird buyers.

My personal favorite for a Black Friday launch is the early-bird wait list. Nothing helps build anticipation better than knowing there’s a special VIP bonus you’ll miss if you wait! When you’re competing for Inbox attention, priming your list to look for that bonus at a specific time/day gives your emails a better chance of being seen.

Here’s the copy you’ll need to prep for both of these lead funnel options:

Lead Magnet Funnel

• Your lead magnet – but not just any resource guide or checklist! Make sure your lead magnet is a perfect lead-in to the offer you’ll be launching, so you don’t end up with a list full of the wrong people.
• Opt-in landing page – this is your chance to frame the vibe and energy for your whole launch; don’t skimp on this page!
• Confirmation page – don’t forget to add next steps to connect! Invite your new connections to join your Facebook group, follow you on social, etc.
• Optional: tripwire offer – this will require adding an OTO page to your funnel.
• Delivery email sequence – don’t forget to add second-chance-upsell emails if you included a tripwire offer!
• Warm-up emails – this sequence is critical to ensuring good deliverability during your launch!
• Pre-launch email sequence – these emails prime people to look for and open your emails once your cart is open.

Early-Bird Wait List Funnel

• Your early-bird bonus – this will be delivered with the offer in your main funnel, but you will need the details fleshed out now so you have copy for your registration page and early-bird email sequence.
• Wait list registration page – use this page to start building excitement and anticipation for your offer!
• Confirmation page + email – don’t forget to add next steps to connect! Invite your new connections to join your Facebook group, follow you on social, etc.
• Warm-up emails – this sequence is critical to ensuring good deliverability during your launch!
• Early-bird pre-launch email sequence – this is where you’ll build excitement and anticipation to drive a surge of traffic on VIP day.

You’ll also need a plan to drive traffic to your funnel – and that means social media marketing and/or paid traffic (ads).

Social Media Marketing

• Scaffolding posts (and stories/reels) to help your audience gain a deeper understanding of the problem your USP solves – with pinpoint accuracy to resonate with your perfect clients.

Paid Traffic

• Copy + image creative for at least two ad sets – with additional micro-angles you can test if needed.
• Copy + image creative for retargeting ads to recapture your perfect clients’ attention.

Timing Your Lead Funnel Launch

All of this copy needs to start running well in advance of Black Friday so your list is as robust as it can possibly be before your launch date.

Launching is math – assuming your lead funnel has great copy and is flawlessly targeted to your perfect clients, it all boils down to a numbers game:

More eyeballs on your offer multiplied by your conversion rate = higher sales.
Fewer eyeballs on your offer multiplied by the same conversion rate = lower sales.

I recommend getting your lead funnel launched and live at least 6-8 weeks prior to cart open. This gives you time to gather the leads you need for a profitable launch.

For Black Friday, that means you’ll ideally start running traffic (organic or paid) by the end of September.

If you skipped the strategic launch plan step we talked about last week, you’ll definitely want to get that piece done ASAP. Give yourself time to write your copy and get design, tech, and automations in place over the next four weeks!

My Lead Funnel Is Live… Now What?

Next up after your lead funnel are all the copy pieces you’ll need for launch week – and it can feel like a LOT if you’re trying to launch as a pantser.

In next week’s post, we’ll dive into all the copy you need to have ready for your cart to open, so you can launch with confidence. Wouldn’t you love to spend Thanksgiving weekend watching those Stripe notifications pop up on your phone??

The following week we’ll go over the copy pieces that are often overlooked in a launch. When done correctly, they’ll help you keep bringing in sales and clients even after your cart closes, so stay tuned!

What To Do If You’re Feeling Overwhelmed

I know sometimes trying to see the strategic big picture for our own offers and launches can feel scary and overwhelming – and when it comes to all the copy pieces you need for a launch, you don’t know what you don’t know! So if you’re launching a Black Friday offer and the thought of all that copy is making your eyes twitch, I have the perfect solution!

When you work with me for done-with-you launch coaching, you’ll get:

• A 90-minute intensive 1:1 session where we’ll create your custom strategic launch copy plan
• A professional copywriter on call to guide you (in bite-sized, manageable steps) as you implement
• 8 weeks of video copy reviews and Voxer access for all your question
• Plus my signature template system to give you a head-start on all your launch copy

Wondering if done-with-you launch coaching is a good fit for your Black Friday launch? Book a free consult call and let’s chat – no pressure, no hype, and you’ll come away with a launch copy checklist detailing each piece of copy you’ll need for your launch.

Let’s make this the year of the stress-free Black Friday launch!