The Simmonds Signal

Alternate education for creators (that school can’t teach you)

Micro Writer → Micro Brand → Micro Business

Last week, my team and I launched the Microcreators community.

The only 2 launches I've done before this were for the Digital Identity cohort - high ticket price of $2,500.

Microcreators is my first low ticket offer so I had no idea what to expect.

It was unknown territory for us (and wow, did we learn a few hard lessons).

I want to share what went well, and what didn't, incase these lessons help you earn more money on your launches in the future.

Here's the behind the scenes breakdown:

1) Refine Your Offer in Beta

Microcreators was in beta for 8 months before it launched publicly.

In that time, we worked with our beta members to create the best community possible.

Which required some not so fun changes:

• Moving community platforms from Heartbeat to Circle

• Restructuring the mastermind calls (3 times)

• Simplifying the systems and resources

• Adding video tutorials to all resources

• Testing which chats were needed for the private Telegram group

This was tons of work (on top of writing content, creating Micro Writer, and running cohorts).

But it paid off big time.

The new members loved how simple, thought out, and organized the community is.

Saying it's leagues above every other community they joined.

Never go public with an offer until you've refined it in beta.

2) Nail Your Front End Offer

Do you know the difference between a front end and back end offer?

I thought I did.

But I didn't truly understand it until yesterday.

Front end offers are what you market to the public.

They're often low ticket products, communities, or systems marketed to a beginner audience.

Contrary to popular belief, the goal of them isn't to make money (at least, not usually).

What? But how does that make any sense?

Front end offers are designed to increase brand awareness and spread like wildfire through word of mouth marketing.

The money you make on them is just a bonus.

So where is the money made?

Back end high ticket offers like high ticket coaching, elite masterminds, etc…

I made the mistake of including back end offers as a core part of the front end offer.

Leading to less sales off the bat.

So what did I do?

On the 3rd day of the launch, I added an affordable $49 /month community tier.

This increased my final day revenue by nearly 25%!

Plus, members are already messaging me asking if they can join the elite masterminds on the back end.

Front end offers for volume. Back end offers for profit.

3) 1 Person, 1 Problem, 1 Promise

Each offer you create needs to target ONLY:

• 1 person

• 1 problem

• 1 promise of value

This makes it easier to market because you know exactly how to speak to your customer.

Unfortunately for me, I made the original offer of Microcreators for too many people.

I offered learning to write viral content, attract an audience, build a brand, and provide a blueprint for making money online.

The community delivers on all these promises but…

… People were sceptical of such a broad offer.

I got messages from people asking if this really is the right solution to help them make money compared to my competitors who were offering to only help them make money (with a guarantee attached).

Compare this to Dickie Bush and Nicholas Cole's Ship30for30.

Which only teaches people to become digital writers on the front end.

Once their customers complete that goal, then they offer them PGA to help them make money.

This tip pairs perfectly with the previous tip of separating your front end and back end offers in your marketing.

Only solve 1 problem, for 1 person with each offer.

4) Timing + Positioning = Profit

The first 3 days of my launch were slow… Very slow.

I reached out to my audience in the DMs to see why they weren't buying (and even asked my newsletter list).

Their objection to buying surprised me…

… Over 80% of people had two reasons for not buying:

1) They recently bought courses - timing

2) They didn't understand how Microcreators was different - positioning

Microcreators launched right after Dan Koe's mental monetization course and his Kortex sprint.

And alongside a few other offers in the same week.

People only allocate a small amount of money per month to online education and personal development.

If I had launched a month sooner, my timing would have been better.

Now I'm keeping track of all the major launches my 'competitors' are planning.

I'll never launch around the same time again.

Lastly, having a unique selling proposition is everything.

In the past 12 months, X and LinkedIn have become flooded with online courses.

Most people I talked to said they don't want more courses, they want systems to put that knowledge into practice.

Lucky for me, I built Micro Writer and Microcreators as systems first, with a companion course to show members how to use the systems.

My marketing moving forward will focus on systems, not courses.

To summarize, launch the right product and the right time.

Timing + positioning = profit.

5) Your Pre-Launch is Everything

My most profitable launch so far was Digital Identity V1 in September of 2023.

Leading up to the launch, my team and I have only one question to answer:

"How do we make Digital Identity so exciting that people talk about it at the dinner table?"

This led us to crushing the two week pre-launch.

• Hogwarts houses inspired by influential creators

• 14 spaces with top creators

• University level curriculums (for the first time in a creator focused cohort)

• Video walkthrough of the curriculum

The launch ended with $144,000 of revenue.

Digital Identity V2 we slept on the pre-launch and sales were much slower because no one knew we were launching.

For Microcreators I stepped up my game, doing about half of what the DI V1 pre-launch was.

It made a big difference in sales but I know I could've done better.

Pre-launches create excitement and market awareness.

You need other people talking about your offer for it to do well.

Pre-Launch is where the profit is made.

A few other quick lessons I learned:

• Launch an educational email course 2 or 3 days before the launch with a link to the product on the final day. This drove sales on the last day.

• Start a waitlist 1 to 2 months in advance. Provide bonuses to people who join. Plug the waitlist under all top performing social media content and in your newsletter.

• Add bump offers and upsells to increase revenue. Roughly 50% of our revenue came from upsells, not the core offer.

And there you have it.

My hope is that these lessons help you nail your next launch.

And if you're interested in joining the Microcreators community, here's what the members are already saying:

Click here to join.

-Taylin John Simmonds