In mid-November, I ran a promotion to attract at least five new members to Virtual Networkers (my virtual networking group for women entrepreneurs), and wow, did I learn some valuable lessons!

My money mindset mentor Denise Duffield-Thomas teaches us that no launch is a failure because there are always lessons for the next launch. I love this reframe, because my recent Virtual Networkers promotion didn’t meet my goals. Instead of feeling miserable about it, I immediately went into “what did I learn” mode, and these lessons are priceless.

In this week’s blog post, I will outline the five key lessons I learned from my recent Virtual Networkers promotion. My intention for this blog post is twofold: (1) To help you remember that every launch and promotion contain important lessons, and (2) To learn what I learned in hopes it’ll help your marketing, too. Let’s get to it!

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When we hosted our Love and Learn Party (when women entrepreneurs can learn more about joining Virtual Networkers) in September 2022, we had such great success, attracting nine wonderful women entrepreneurs to our virtual networking organization. I wanted to continue the momentum, but I didn’t want to host another Love and Learn Party right away (they are time intensive).

I decided to try something else—a huge virtual coffee date party where we could invite guests, and at the end, I would give a short presentation about joining Virtual Networkers, along with a discount code to save 20 percent off the first year and almost $1,000 in signing bonuses.

My promotion plan

Here’s how I promoted the Ultimate Coffee Date Party:

• I named it the Ultimate Coffee Date Party, hoping that the title would pique people’s interest and enthusiasm.
• I announced it to my members three weeks before the event so they could save the date and start spreading the word.
• I began promoting the event two weeks before hand, constantly promoting it through social media, personal invites, and email marketing. This included creating Event Pages on Virtual Networkers’ LinkedIn, Facebook, and Alignable pages.
• I got out there and networked at other organizations to broaden my circle.
• My members shared Virtual Networkers’ social media posts too.

On the day of the party, we had 13 current members and two guests attending. Admittedly, I wanted a lot more guests. With a goal to attract at least five members, I needed about ten guests. Nevertheless, we had a great coffee date party, and our two guests stuck around until the end. I am so grateful!

After the party, both guests reached out to me to let me know that they loved the coffee date party and Virtual Networkers, but they couldn’t join at this time (just bad timing—nothing else!).

I wasn’t going to give up on this promotion, though. The discount code and signing bonuses were good for another 48 hours, so I promoted it on social media, as well as emailed past guests and speakers twice about the promotion. I also asked my current members to share Virtual Networkers’ social media posts and tell the women they had invited to Virtual Networkers meetings about our promotion.

Despite all these efforts, we did not attract any new members to Virtual Networkers. Zip, zero, zilch!

The lessons I learned from this promotion

When we didn’t get any new members, I let myself be bummed for about 30 minutes. It’s okay to feel disappointment, just don’t stay in that emotion.

Ready to find the positive, I grabbed my journal and brainstormed what I could improve upon for my next promotion. I discovered five key lessons:

#1: It wasn’t my product

Virtual Networkers is a proven product. I already have 55 members in Virtual Networkers, many of whom have renewed time and time again. It feels good to acknowledge that I don’t have a product problem.

#2: It wasn’t my promotion

I promoted the hell out of this coffee date party, using all aspects of social media and email marketing, plus personally invited women entrepreneurs to attend. I put it out all on the table, leaving nothing behind.

#3: It is a visibility issue

I need to turbo charge my visibility marketing. Even though I was able to network outside of Virtual Networkers before the event (yay!), I need to continue to meet new people and broaden my circle. The more women I meet, the more future Virtual Networkers I meet.

#4: Virtual Networkers’ growth is up to me

The success of Virtual Networkers, ultimately, rests with me. Yes, our members and presidents help out tremendously by talking about Virtual Networkers to their peers. And they do a wonderful job! But, at the end of the day, Virtual Networkers is “my baby,” and I am responsible for its growth. Any promotion, shares, and word of mouth marketing from my members are icing on the cake—but I have to build the cake for them to ice!

#5: Find out why women entrepreneurs didn’t join

Finally, while I know why our two guests couldn’t join, I am not sure why my past guests and speakers didn’t take advantage of this offer. I don’t want to guess. So, I created a survey to ask them. I am particularly curious if women didn’t join for financial reasons. I stand by the value of the price of Virtual Networkers ($299 annually), but I also get that we are experiencing worldwide inflation. Are women entrepreneurs having to make tough choices about where and how they are investing in themselves? I asked on my survey, and if so, I will figure out a way to help.

What lessons can you take away?

I’m spelling this all out in hopes you’ll be inspired in many ways:

• To remember that no launch or promotion is a waste of time because there are always lessons
• To remember to analyze your launches and promotions to see what worked and what didn’t
• To continue to increase your visibility because it’s really the key to your success
• To know you’re not alone—even marketing mentors run promotions that didn’t attract more clients!

If you launched something recently, grab your journal and write down how you promoted it, what went well, what could have been improved upon, and your overall lessons to apply to your next launch. Put these findings somewhere so you can review before you plan your next launch or promotion. You’ll be so glad you did!

Loud Women launch and promote, despite the results from previous launches and promotions. We learn, we adapt, and we persist. That’s how we will change the world. I am rooting for you!

More resources

Here are some other resources that will help you with your marketing and mindset:

My mentoring program, the Loud Woman Marketing Strategy Session, where we create a marketing plan that will increase your visibility and confidence to market to your ideal clients

My book, That First Client, which will teach you how to create an effective marketing system that will always attract clients to your business

My book, Loud Woman, which will inspire you to get Louder in your life and business

Check out my latest blog post about marketing, getting clients, and the Law of Attraction

Virtual Networkers, my global virtual networking organization for women entrepreneurs

Get More Clients Track, a year-long program that will teach you how the fundamentals of marketing so you’re always attracting clients

Manifest More Clients Track, a year-long program that will teach you how to use the Law of Attraction in your marketing

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