Online Course Launch Failed? Here is How to Fix it

You have worked so hard in building an online course, recording each lesson, and making sure that everything is perfect for your future students.

But when the big day comes when you launch your brand new online course, nothing happens. Maybe you get one or two people to sign up, or maybe no one at all signs up.

It can be extremely demoralizing to launch an online course or a product you have been working on for so long and get zero results.

When this happens, many online course creators jump to the wrong conclusions and start doubting themselves, thinking they are not an expert and succumbing to imposter syndrome.

Failure is a completely normal and natural step in growing a business. If you have recently launched your first online course and it didn't go well as you expected, don't beat yourself up!

Instead, start analyzing what went wrong, and you can improve for your next big launch.

This is exactly what we will do in this blog post, so keep reading below to understand which mistakes you could have avoided in your online course launch and how to get back on your feet and prepare for a successful launch!

Unfortunately, there is no quick recipe for success: after a failed launch, the best thing you can do is sit down and carefully retrace your steps and find out what could have been improved and plan a clear course of action for the future.

So instead of telling you what to do, we will break down all the possible mistakes you could have done before the launch and offer a way to solve these problems so you can start planning your next launch!

You Didn't Build an Audience

You cannot get any online course sales if nobody even knows about your launch. Before launching an online course, it is a good idea to take the time to grow an audience interested in your products and what you are teaching.

Building an audience is not easy; it takes time and dedication. The good news is that your audience doesn't have to be huge for you to start selling your online course: it only needs to be engaged.

Do you have a following on social media? Maybe you have built a community? Do you have an email list of people interested in your products?

If you don't, this is what you should focus on before your next launch.

Recover from a failed launch by building your audience

Ok, you have identified a potential cause of your failed launch. What now?

Here are some ways you can start implementing now to grow your audience organically:

• Start a blog writing about topics your ideal audience is interested in
• Share videos on YouTube about the same topics
• Post on social media
• Grow your email list and send informative emails
• Create a free community to discuss your topic with others
• Join other communities, write guest blog posts, be a guest on a podcast

Learn more about growing your audience organically in this article from our blog: Get Your First $100k Without Paid Ads: How to Grow Your Online Course Business Organically

If you do this consistently enough, you will start to grow an audience of people who want to hear from you and are interested in what you are teaching, so by the time of your next launch, they will be ready to purchase your online course.

You Didn't Validate Your Idea

Validating your online course idea means collecting data from your target audience about the interest in your product and whether or not people are willing to purchase it.

It is a great practice to validate a course idea before you start building the course. This way, if the idea is not validated, you did not waste any time and resources on building the program.

Validating your course also means collecting feedback on what your ideal students would want to see, what kind of lesson they want and do not want, what kind of price they are willing to pay and so on...

Did you do this before launching your course? Did you ask your potential customers for feedback?

If not, this could be what you should focus on before your next launch. So let's see how you can be better prepared and validate your idea now that your course is already made:

Recover from a failed launch by collecting feedback

Validating your online course idea goes hand in hand with growing an audience, as you get to collect feedback and better understand the interests of your ideal customers.

If you were promoting your online course to your email contacts before the launch, try to get in touch with them to find out what it was that prevented them from feeling confident in making the purchase.

Send out a survey or contact your ideal customers directly and ask targeted questions. For example, ask open-ended questions about topics they want to learn more about, what they would want from an online course and what they are currently struggling with. You could even offer these selected customers a great deal to enroll them in your course as "Beta students" and offer you feedback in return.

Once you collect all this feedback, improve your online course according to their suggestion before your next launch.

Related article: How to Pre-Sell Your Online Course and Profit Before the Launch

You Targeted the Wrong Audience

Another reason why your online course launch didn't go according to plan could be that you are targeting the wrong audience.

Maybe you are using paid advertisement and looking at the wrong audience, or you are promoting your course in the wrong groups or communities online, or maybe you grew an audience by offering free products and these customers do not resonate with a paid online course.

If you have a large audience, but they are not engaging with you or offering any feedback, you might be targeting the wrong people.

Recover from a failed launch by doing more market research

The best way to find out where your ideal audience is and who they are is to carry on market research: this lets you to better understand your target audience and evaluate how to succeed in a chosen market.

Check out this article from our blog to learn all about conducting market research and identify your target audience: Why You Should Do Market Research Before Starting an Online Course Business + How to Do it

You Didn't Communicate The Value of Your Course

If you have read other articles from our blog, you probably noticed how we always mentioned the importance of focusing on the result of your online course.

What happens if I buy your online course? What will I learn? How will it change my life?

These are questions that your audience should be able to answer when they look at your website or landing page. If the results you are providing with your online course are not clear, potential customers might not be inclined to purchase your course.

Recover from a failed launch by focusing on the result of your course

The most powerful way to communicate a result is by including it in your course title: by reading your title, a potential customer should be able to immediately identify your topic and the results they’ll get by participating in your course.

Remember that your customers aren't looking to buy an online course; they are looking to buy the result, the life transformation that the course will offer them. So make sure you clearly communicate the result you provide! Learn all about this here: How to Choose the Perfect Name for Your Online Course

You Had the Wrong Price

Choosing the perfect price for an online course is something that puzzles many creators. Usually, creators tend to make the mistake of choosing a low price for their online course, even if it offers an incredible amount of value to its students.

Other times creators choose a price that does align with their target audience, and they simply cannot afford it.

If you did everything right before the launch: you grew an engaged audience, validated the idea, did market research and communicated the result of your course, but still nobody bought your course when you launched, it might be a pricing issue.

Recover from a failed launch by choosing the best price for your audience

What you can do now is find the ideal price point that your audience can afford, and they are willing to pay.

Again, you should conduct market research to answer these questions:

• What is the maximum amount your audience is willing to pay?
• What is the social status of your target customer?
• Do they usually shop online?
• Do they prefer a one-time fee or installments?

To learn more about online course pricing, check out this guide from our blog: Ultimate Guide to Pricing Your Online Course (With Earnings Calculator)

Conclusion: You Didn't Fail if You Launched

So your launch didn't go according to plan. That's ok! You can try again in a couple of months!

If you understand what went wrong, you are already one step closer to having a successful launch. Now you can start improving your course and marketing strategy from what you learned.

In this article we didn't mention that one of the biggest mistakes creators make is simply not launching their online courses. But guess what? You did it.

Many creators get into the mindset that their course is not good enough, and they spend months tweaking their content and trying to make their program perfect without actually launching and collecting valuable feedback from their audience.

You actually launched your online course, and even if it didn't work as you wished, you have learned valuable lessons that will help ensure your next launch is going to be a success.