Can You Have Too Many Launch Emails?

Are you about to launch something new? Whether it’s a VIP day or a course or a new template shop, launches are an involved process — you want to make sure you’re promoting the new offer properly so, you know, it sells.

Of course, your launch strategy takes a lot of things into account: Where your audience is most active, what kind of runway you have (will there be a webinar? A sale?), and how YOU want to show up.

There are so many launch formulas out there — and if you’ve ever been in a coaching program, you’ve probably got templates out the wazoo for things like promotional emails for your launch. But before you go and use that same ol’, same ol’ template that hundreds of other people are using… Ask yourself: Is this too much?

Is it possible to send too many emails during a launch?

Especially when it comes to email marketing during your launch (or even for a welcome sequence), there IS a thing as too much. Emails are needed to convey that need-to-know information about upcoming product/course releases, sales, and events. Not only are they responsible for making your target audience aware of what’s to come, but they also have an excitement element to them – one that shows your audience that you’re really jazzed about this new *thing* that you’re launching.

But it’s totally possible to send too many emails and create “launch fatigue” for your subscribers. Haven’t YOU ever received email blasts from a favorite brand about a sale and thought, “Good god, we get it”? Did you think about unsubscribing — or actually unsubscribe? So have we.

We don’t want you to burn your list while hosting a launch, so we’re going to walk through a few “must-have” emails that serve as a baseline for your launch. These will actually help butter your audience up so they’re not being blasted by sales emails without any idea of what’s to come.

We like to think of it as launch foreplay 😉

NOTE FROM LATASHA: One of the things I’ve heard people in “certain” coaching programs say is, “It’s ok to burn your email list. You don’t want people on your list who aren’t going to buy from you.” I get the sentiment. You don’t want to pay for folks who aren’t interested in buying from you.
But just because they don’t want THIS particular offer doesn’t mean they don’t want other things you offer. OR they might just be saving up to be able to buy from you. Don’t just blow that off and assume you’ll find only the people who “want” to be on your email list by sending them too many emails. Your coach is a dick if they’re talking about this. Yes, I said it.

Use segments to the best of your abilities

One of the things we love to do for launches to make sure they’re not overwhelming for your general email list or audience? Create different segments or audiences. For example, if you have a pre-launch event like a waitlist or webinar, create a special email set JUST for those folks. You can include more personal language like, “Because you attended my free training” or “You’re on our waitlist because you’re excited about XYZ.”

This feels customized and reminds people that they opted into this information. It also means you can send those lists more emails, because they’re actively interested in the offer or the information.

We also like to recommend that clients create segments from their entire subscriber list, creating a special email set for people who’ve been totally unengaged for the last 6 months and a separate email set for the people who are highly engaged. If you want to clean up your email list, you can let your unengaged folks know that you have a new offer coming up and they can be the first to hear about it by clicking an interest tag in your email. OR you can simply see who opens your emails and add them to the interested list.

From there, you can decide how many emails to send each person on your lists, so you don’t feel like you’re bombarding people who aren’t engaged AND still get results from the people who are.

Your launch email ramp-up

The best way to avoid overdoing your launch emails? Let people know they’re coming and give them a way to opt-out of the segment without leaving your entire list. What does this look like?

Typically, we tell our clients to include emails for:

Two weeks before launch: This email should act as a hint at what’s to come, you’re building something up.
One week before launch: This email offers a little more information, like the date of the launch, and when to expect more details.
Two days before launch: This email gives the best deets about your new offer. It might even start to establish some FOMO in your audience. This is where we also seed the “remove yourself from this list” option. Let people know that, if this offer isn’t right for them, they can stop being notified about it. We find that this helps create even MORE FOMO because people want to see what could possibly be so good, that you don’t want everyone to see it.
Day of the launch: This is a quick, celebratory “we made it” email that reminds your audience it’s go time. Give them the deets of your offer, how to get it, what the discount or promotion is, and how to buy it. Also, remind them they can be taken off the list if they don’t want to hear more.

Cart open/launch week email cadence

When you’re writing your launch email sequence, you’re probably going to feel like you’re overdoing it — or like you’re going to annoy your audience. Let us reassure you that this is probably not the case, especially if you’ve properly primed them, you’re using segments, and you’re allowing them to remove themselves from the list.

Another thing to note: If emails are too spaced apart, people forget — and one is NEVER enough. This is why we recommend 2 emails for launch day, 2 emails for close day, and 1 email a day in between.

What does this look like for a 7-day cart open, a launch with a webinar, or a 3-day sale on your new offer? Here’s the breakdown.

7-day cart open

2 weeks before launch primer
1 week before launch teaser
2 days before launch teaser (with opt-out)
Day of launch announcement (with opt-out)
Evening of launch announcement
Day after launch email
2 days after launch email
3 days after launch email
4 days after launch email
5 days after launch email
6 days after launch email
7 days after launch email – cart closing today
7 days after launch email – last chance!

Launch with a webinar

2 weeks before webinar – promote webinar
- NOTE: You will also need webinar reminder emails for those who register!
10 days before webinar – promote webinar
7 days before webinar – promote webinar
5 days before webinar – promote webinar
3 days before webinar – promote webinar
1 day before webinar – promote webinar
Day of webinar – OPTION to promote last-minute sign-ups
Day of webinar
- cart open emails to whole list
- promotion emails to webinar attendees
Evening of launch announcement
- cart open emails to whole list
- Last-chance discount or reminder of promotion to webinar attendees
Day after launch email
- cart open emails to whole list
- promotion emails to webinar attendees
2 days after launch email
- cart open emails to whole list
- promotion emails to webinar attendees
3 days after launch email
- cart open emails to whole list
- promotion emails to webinar attendees
4 days after launch email
- cart open emails to whole list
- promotion emails to webinar attendees
5 days after launch email
- cart open emails to whole list
- promotion emails to webinar attendees
6 days after launch email
- cart open emails to whole list
- promotion emails to webinar attendees
7 days after launch email – cart closing today
- cart open emails to whole list
- promotion emails to webinar attendees
7 days after launch email – last chance!
- cart open emails to whole list
- promotion emails to webinar attendees

3-day sale

2 weeks before sale primer
1 week before sale teaser
2 days before sale teaser (with opt-out)
Day of sale announcement (with opt-out)
Evening of sale announcement
Day after sale email
2 days after sale email
3 days after sale email – sale ending today
3 days after sale email – last chance!

While these are just examples, you can see how those emails sets can get pretty large. This is why it depends on the type of launch you have coming, your email subscriber segments and engagement, and how you present the information.

Also, these are by no means hard and fast rules for launch emails. You can really use whatever structure feels right for you based on your audience and the details of your launch. But what you do need to think about is walking the line between too many emails, anddddd not enough.

Too many and you risk being sent to spam or, worse, having people in your audience unsubscribe. But if you have too few emails, you might miss opportunities for sales.

Find your email sweet spot

As we’ve mentioned above, launch email strategies will look different for every brand and every audience. You’ll need to make sure your subscribers are actually seeing your emails, which means paying attention to open rates, unsubscribes, and clicks throughout your launch runway. If you notice numbers start to tank, you can always readdress.

The important thing, though, is knowing your audience, what they’re looking for, and how they’ve responded to email communications in the past. If your gut is telling you that mayyyyybe you should cool it with the emails, tone it down a little, take a few steps back…do that.

Trust your instincts, and use whatever experience that you have with your audience and your past marketing strategies as an indication of how you want to move forward.

If you want help mapping out your launch strategy, including how your regular content can prime people for an upcoming launch, we’d love to help. Contact us today to schedule a conversation and we’ll get to work mapping out your launch strategy — and writing the copy.