The Often Overlooked (But Essential) Component of Any Launch

Working as a design assistant for creative entrepreneurs entails many unique projects. I’m grateful that my days are varied and the work is always interesting. There are some weekly tasks – blog post related graphics, mostly, but a lot of my work ends up relating to launches.

Like you, clients of mine may be launching a new funnel, a new group program, a new course, etc. When you think about a launch I’m sure the first few things that run through your mind are… creating content, making funnels, webinars, other PR efforts, etc. Something that you probably don’t consider right away are all the visual components of a launch – and trust me, there are a ton!

"Don't forget the visual components of every launch!" (tweet that!)

In my experience, there are a few main categories every launch (whether it be a course, a new service, a product, etc.) absolutely needs. There are definitely more that would help make a launch even more successful, but these 4 are the top necessities.

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A SUB-BRAND OR IDENTITY

Similar to your main business, a course or challenge or whatever it is that you are launching could use a sub-brand or identity as a base for all the other visual components. Maybe your business, in general, is targeting young moms with kids under 5, but your course is even more specifically for young moms with kids under 5 who want to use all natural and organic things in their home. You want to pull away from your main branding, even slightly, to make that distinction clear. Maybe you’ll adapt your color palette slightly, or use one of your tertiary colors more throughout the launch, etc.

A lot of the projects I work on go ahead and create their own logo or mark for a launch, that way everything within this new program (or course or whatever) can use that.

Basically a sub-brand or identity can be intensely different or just a tweak, but either way it needs to be considered and intentional. What you should not do is just pick random colors and fonts and stylistic direction with no thought behind it.

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LANDING PAGE OR SALES PAGE GRAPHICS

We all know how important copy can be on your landing page or sales page for your new offering. Similarly, we also know how much people don’t love reading huge novels on a website, scrolling for hours, and being lost and confused about what they actually are supposed to be doing.

Not only can a designer work with your sales or landing page to make it flow well, have obvious hierarchy, and easy to understand “BUY NOW” cues – they can also add some custom graphics that help break up chunks of text and add an air of authority and professionalism.

Take a second and envision a great sales page (maybe one that got you to actually buy). Was it just hoards and hoards of text? Or were there icons to break down each section visually, maybe a fun border or pattern used throughout, and other visual cues to help you navigate around?

For me, a well-designed and impactful sales or landing page says, “I’m legit. This is legit. This is worth your money.” On the other hand, a sales or landing page that is clunky, stuffy, and wordy makes me think that whatever it is I am purchasing will also be clunky, stuffy, and wordy (and that’s not how I want to learn, work, etc.).

So while I agree that great copy is essential for these types of pages, I have to argue that it being visually appealing will make people actually read the copy and be impacted.

"Having a well designed sales or landing page can make or break your launch" (tweet that!)

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SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHICS + SHARING GRAPHICS

Once you’ve decided to launch something you definitely have to take the time to promote it, right? Social media graphics are key here, and even better, creating graphics that your purchasers/students/clients can share on your behalf is a fantastic way to get the word out.

Every single launch I’ve worked on has had a huge number of social media graphics – sized for every platform, designed/worded to sound like they are coming from the content creator, the user, and the guest experts (so everyone can share!), and using the ‘tweaked’ (or brand new) identity.

If you’re doing the whole online business thing, I know you know the value of social media – so I won’t write about that. But I will say that having beautiful visuals related to your launch to share on social media (and have others share) is going to impact your bottom line.

Similar to a sales or landing page, you want them to be well designed, intentional, easy to understand, etc. Clunky and unappealing graphics will do you more harm than good – you want to come across as high end, professional, and polished (so people will be more willing to spend their money).

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A WORKBOOK/PDF/DOWNLOAD

If your launch doesn’t include some sort of downloadable PDF/Workbook – it should! What a key way to get more subscribers, charge more (because people are getting more), and/or showcase that you are top-shelf quality because you have all the bases covered.

Creating workbooks is hands down my favorite thing to do. It’s such a great way to further your content and engage people more – and having something that is well designed will definitely help.

Just think, if you had a beautiful worksheet that went along with your challenge (or whatever) and people actually printed it out, posted it on social media, and used your hashtag… free advertising! You can even put the direction or idea to do that within your workbook or worksheet! Ask people to share it and do a small giveaway as an incentive. This is how things can go viral, okay!

Having some sort workbook or PDF is also great for advertising within all those social media graphics you are going to have as well. Instead of just saying, “get the XYZ solution” you can show the workbook and show how someone is going to get it. That resonates so much stronger with your audience (which means a better launch for you).

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Expand Your Team Part 2: What Does A Design Assistant Do?

Since tweaking my services to work as a design assistant I’ve been asked a handful of times… what does that even mean? What do you do? How do you work with people? The answer is pretty open ended, but it doesn’t have to be complex. Basically, think of anything and everything you create for your business that includes some sort of visual elements… I do that.

You might not think you have a lot of ‘those sorts of things’ currently in your business. I urge you to reconsider your visual impact. People remember visuals significantly more than just words (especially on social media). Having a cohesive and compelling visual impact will promote authority and reassure your audience that you are the expert. Your business will grow and your presence and impact will grow when you start bringing a more polished and professional look to the table.

"Cohesive visual presence will promote authority + reassure your audience that you're the expert." [Tweet That!]

Still not sure what a design assistant can do? Here are some ideas:

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SOCIAL MEDIA + BLOG GRAPHICS

This is definitely the main task that I take on for clients (and luckily one of my favorites). I know there are tons of statistics about this, and I’m not one for throwing out numbers, but I did a little research for this post. According to Hubspot tweets with images are 150% more likely to be retweeted – AKA 150% more likely to spread your message (and information) to other audiences.

So, that being said, if you don’t currently have images that tie into and support your blog posts being shared on social media – you are behind! A simple blog post graphic like what is at the top of this blog post is great because it is also formatted for Pinterest and makes re-pinning and sharing this blog post significantly easier.

A design assistant can be an incredibly useful asset in this regard – creating the original template can take a few hours and requires a good eye for taking your existing “look and feel” and re-interpreting it in the required sizes for a few different social platforms. Then for each blog post you create they can tweak the template for that post specifically, format it in the different required sizes, and send it back to you or to your social media assistant to share and get circulating on different platforms.

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CONTENT UPGRADES + DOWNLOADS

Now within those blog posts you hopefully are including content upgrades to help grow your email list with warm leads. Those content upgrades should showcase just how awesome you are – so the content should be stellar, but it should also LOOK amazing and easy to understand and use. Another circumstance where a design assistant could be a great addition to your team.

Writing blog posts is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your expertise and value to your audience or potential clients, but if you really want to see business growth and success the secret lays in creating content upgrades for download associated with those blog posts. The REAL secret to that is having the content upgrades be useful, memorable, shareable, and totally impactful. A key component in that is how good do they look? How well is the information showcased? How easy it is to use and better yet, will people do something awesome like post an Instagram of them using the upgrade? How fantastic would THAT be?

Well, if you take the time to develop all this content you better believe you should be making sure they look amazing – and that’s where a design assistant can come into play. You might have the best information in the world, but if no one looks at it or uses it, then what does it matter?

"Why spend time making amazing content if you're not going to present it in an impactful way?" [Tweet That!]

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COURSE + RETREAT MATERIALS

Another task that a design assistant can take on is polishing your course and/or retreat materials. These days it seems like you have to have a course or summit or retreat going on in your business – which is amazing and super exciting! But having these high value facets of your business NOT look polished and designed well is a huge error.

A design assistant on your team can take your existing branding and interpret it in a multitude of ways to cover your latest course or retreat. That way it still ‘looks’ like you, but it also reads as a separate exciting project and part of your business.

Not focusing on having these elements feel professional and high end can lose you sales. I definitely would be more likely to buy something that felt like the business owner put time and energy into making it high quality and perfect. It’s hard to ensure the course or retreat content is going to be worth the price, but having a professional and visually appealing look can set the groundwork of trust and reliability.

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CLIENT FACING COLLATERAL

An element that a lot of business owners will forget to hand off is their actual client facing collateral – such as onboarding documents, welcome packets, etc. We focus so much on what is super external (social media, etc.) but forget that our actual clients deserve to an outstanding experience with our business – starting with clean and easy to understand visuals.

If you don’t have client onboarding in place yet, that is something I would also take time to focus on. Think about all the information you need and want someone you work with to have and understand. Let your design assistant take that information and create a visual experience for clients. It can be a workbook or a series of worksheets sent out separately. This will only boost your client’s experience and therefore your reputation as being an organized, efficient, and easy to work with business owner.

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WEBSITE UPDATES/TWEAKS

Another part of my day to day involves small website updates and tweaks. I don’t offer full developing services, or anything extreme that is better suited for a developer, but I can go behind the scenes and help update press pages or featured in banners. I can update icons or logos, as those evolve. I can tweak how your category icons look, and so on. There are small visual details that will elevate your business and help you to showcase your professionalism and expertise, and that’s what a design assistant should be helping with.

Overall there are countless tasks that you can pass off to a design assistant that can give you back so many hours per day or week to focus on your strengths and growing your empire. If you’re ready to set up a consultation and see how I can help you, click here!

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