At Market St. Creative
We love getting a good look at how other businesses do things, and we always find something we can carry over into our own business. We thought it would be fun to share a little behind-the-scenes here at Market St. Creative and show you our process for launching a guide.
We’ve now developed five different guide templates just for sleep consultants, and we’ve honed our process and made it better each time.
Here are the steps we take, from creation to putting it out into the world!
Step 1: Gather Ideas and Input from Our Audience of Sleep Consultants
We have a very active audience on Instagram, and our goal is to always give the people what they want! This is market research 101 - make sure the product or service you’re providing is something that people actually want to buy!
Here are a few ways we gather this information:
Email surveys to our email list as well as current and past subscribers of the Market St. Shop
Utilize polls and question stickers on Instagram
Have conversations with other sleep consultants - either on our tutorial or accountability calls with our subscribers, clarity calls with potential clients, or in the DMs on Instagram
When we have a gauge on what people are looking for, we may ask further clarifying questions…for example, when we launched the Infant Sleep Guide template, we polled our followers for must-have topics that we needed to include in the guide. It ended up being pretty robust, but we also know that if you don’t like everything included, you can simply delete that section. We’d rather include more than enough than not enough to give you what you need.
Step 2: Erin Drafts an Outline
Once we have all our market research completed, I (Erin) draft an outline of the guide. This is simply the headings of each section with main points to cover or prompts to include.
Step 3: We Get Input from Our Team of Sleep Consultants and Confirm Market Research
I then share the draft of the outline with our team of sleep consultants. Our team is composed of a professional designer and 3-5 sleep consultants at any given time, so there’s a vast amount of knowledge with varying backgrounds and from a variety of certification programs, so we feel the knowledge we possess as a whole really helps us cover every topic in each guide really well.
We make sure we’re not missing anything from our market research and add any final details or talking points to the outline.
Step 4: Jenna Designs the Guide Based on the Final Outline
Finally…the fun part!
I give Jenna the go-ahead that she can start the design, using what we’ve provided in the outline.
We are big believers in that YOU - your voice and your personality - are the most important piece of your brand. All our guides and templates are designed with this in mind, giving you prompts to take it and make it yours.
You will not find us selling done-for-you content templates because selling the same words that everyone else is selling is NOT how you market yourself and stand out in the ever-growing field of sleep consulting. If you do what everyone else does, in the same way, everyone else does it, people aren’t going to want to work with you…there’s no reason to choose you when they can go with literally anyone else! You’re devaluing your knowledge and expertise and casting a shadow on who you are and your lovely personality when you purchase templates with done-for-you content.
Jenna provides the beautiful design that you can rebrand and we give you all the prompts you need within the design to complete it.
Now, if you’re like, but I don’t have time to complete it and make it sound like me?? We’ve got you covered - keep reading!
Step 5: We Market the Guide and Prep for Launch
I (Erin) then focus on the launch promo and getting the word out about the new guide. We usually do this a week or two leading up to launch day. Most people know we’ve got something up our sleeves from the market research process.
We’re big into email marketing so you’ve probably received an email or two from us! ;)
We also post about it on social media and share within our own professional groups.
Step 6: We Set Up the Back-End Items on Shopify and HoneyBook
While Jenna is finalizing the design for the guide template, Erin, Katie (one of our content creators), and Melissa (one of our VAs) prep everything we need from the back-end.
Melissa will get the product listed in the shop and scheduled to be released on a certain date and time.
I’ll set up a discount code or promo code in Shopify once the product is ready to go. We add any final links or codes to our marketing emails.
Katie will decide on options for guide completion projects and get that set up in HoneyBook so people can choose to work with her to help them complete the guide. She’s also the brains behind any of the guide-specific email sequences available for purchase or promo.
Like I mentioned before, we’re big believers in taking these templates and making them yours so people want to work with you! Katie is the one who can help you make your guide semi-custom if you find you don’t have the time or talent to complete it yourself.
Step 7: LAUNCH THE GUIDE!
Now for the most nerve-wracking moment of the whole process - hitting publish or waiting for the clock to countdown to zero for liftoff!
We sit back, scan for any tech issues - you know there’s always something with an online business - and wait.
Step 8: Sit Back & Watch the Sales Come In
This is the fun part…
…making money!
We know we’re providing a service and a product people want, and it’s so fun to get that confirmation everytime we see a sale come through.
And do you want to know the best part?? YOU can have this feeling too!
We design these guides with you in mind so that you can launch a helpful product to your audience in the same way we do!
In 3 easy steps, you can do this exact same thing:
Purchase your guide template
Rebrand and complete the guide by adding your content in your own voice (or have Katie help you with this part)
Get it on your website and start marketing it!
Sit back, my friend, and watch the sales role in. Oh, and, after your customers read your guide and really see who you are and indulge in your expertise, they may even want to hire you for your one-on-one services or buy your course because you were able to take this guide, show them who you are, and help them solve their problem.
Sounds pretty good, right? We can’t wait to see what you turn these guides into! Happy selling!