In this episode, I’m busting the myth that you need a huge audience to have a successful launch. I share why a smaller audience can actually be your superpower, especially when you focus on building genuine connection and trust. Through a real client example, I show how a list of just 130 people generated over £10,000 by refining the offer and aligning it with what the audience truly needed.

I also walk you through the simple strategies I recommend before, during, and after a launch—from warm-up content and personal outreach to DMs and follow-ups based on engagement data. The key message is that small audiences can convert incredibly well when you lean into personal connection, intentional effort, and learning from post-launch feedback.

With a smaller audience, I can create more personal conversations, deeper trust, and stronger relationships that often lead to higher conversion rates.

Personal DMs, voice notes, direct follow-ups, and warm conversations can make a huge difference when growing sign-ups and increasing sales.

The feedback I gather from people who didn’t buy helps me understand objections, improve messaging, and make the next launch even stronger.

 

Connect with Teresa on Website, (Grow, Launch, Sell), Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, Subscribe to my Youtube

 

Everyone thinks that you need to have a big audience in order to succeed in the online business. And while I won't disagree, it's a numbers game, it doesn't mean that you can't have a successful launch with a small audience. In today's episode, I'm gonna be sharing with you the things that are your superpower when you have a small audience to help convert more people.

If this is the first time that you're seeing me welcome, my name is Teresa Heath Wareing, and I help course creators, membership owners, and coaches grow their online business. After being in the online space and having my own business for 11 plus years, I have seen everything there is to see and have been behind the scenes in some very successful launches.

Within my programs, I have helped hundreds of online businesses launch and grow their business. And in these episodes I help to give you some of the strategies, the tools, and the tactics that are working right now in the online space so that you can grow yours As an online business expert, it is remiss of me not to talk about the fact.

It is a numbers game. [00:01:00] If you've watched my videos before, if you've listened to the podcast, you know I will talk a lot about expected numbers, and it always starts with that first initial thing of how big is your email list. And then from your email list, a percentage will go onto your launch list and from your launch list, a percentage will buy.

And that percentage can seem pretty small. And it is. And often people get very disheartened because they go and do a launch and they don't get as many sales as they would like, and they think that they've done it wrong. And then when they come to me and I ask them their numbers, I actually realized that the percentages are bang on where they should be, or in some cases even better than they should be.

And the key thing at the beginning was they didn't have the numbers in the first place to get those bigger numbers. However, I want to talk to you today about how you can still achieve a really successful launch. With a small number on your email list, just like the amazing Rosanna Sanna worked with me where she had put together an offer that didn't feel right, and we tweaked it and changed it, and we made sure that it really [00:02:00] aligned with her, her audience and what she wanted to deliver.

We put out her offer in a launch through a challenge to her list of only 130 people, and she managed to finish that launch making over 10,000 pounds from a teeny tiny list. So it is possible, yes, I always want you to grow your audience, but it is possible to make good money from a small audience. And in fact, I'm gonna show you today how it's your superpower.

So let's talk about how you can maximize your launch. And I'm gonna be covering off two main areas. Before the launch, IE is you're trying to get people to sign up to your launch experience and then actually selling, because obviously the more people we can get into your launch experience, the better.

Okay, so before the launch, what can you do to help maximize as many people in your audience to get onto your launch experience? Well, one of the things I teach is talking about pre-launch content. The more you can warm people up, the better. So if you are literally one day talking about one thing, and then the next day [00:03:00] saying, join my webinar or join my challenge, then it comes a bit out of nowhere.

So doing pre-launch warmup, doing content that warms your audience up ready is a really good idea, and I would recommend that to any one of any audience. Size the difference when you have a smaller audience is what I would put in that is some engagement and is some outreach. So during that pre-launch, how can you engage with people that are following you online?

Can you start conversations not about come and join my launch, but just genuinely doing good engagement on social media. The second thing you can do is once you actually start talking about your launch. Experience IE your challenge, your bootcamp, your masterclass, whatever it might be, is you can actually go and do personal outreach in your dms to tell people about it.

Now, I would say doing this personally is much, much better. Again, if you haven't got a massive audience. That's way easier to do when someone has a bigger audience and they do that. Sometimes someone on their team reaches [00:04:00] out and it just doesn't feel the same. Also, it's a blanket outreach and that doesn't feel nice.

Whereas if you are having a conversation with someone and you then happen to say, oh, by the way, I just wanted to check that you'd seen this, or, you know what we were talking about the other day, well, I'm actually gonna be covering it in this. Thing. It's so much better, and the likelihood of them signing up to your launch experience is so much better.

The third thing you can do is you can go out to your connections and ask them to share it. I don't do this every time, and I wouldn't necessarily suggest for every single launch unless you have the loveliest connections ever because it's going to wear a bit thin. But if you are just starting and your audience is.

Small. Then why not go to the people you know online, your friends, your business colleagues, and say, is there any chance you could share this with your audience? Could you literally just share the post for me or could you talk about it or could you mention it on your stories, whatever it might be. Ask them if they can share it.

And like I said, when you've got a smaller audience to get them to help you do that. And the first instance is really, really helpful. And finally, why [00:05:00] not go and ask anybody that you've worked with, if they know anybody that would be good for this masterclass, for this launch experience, for this bootcamp, whatever it is that you are doing.

Go and have a conversation with someone that you've previously worked for and said, do you know anybody that you think would be interested in this? And could you refer them to me? So again, these are very manual things, which. Always sound a bit odd when I talk about an online business 'cause it's all about scale.

But in the early days, we have to do these things. There's a story about the people that own Airbnb that in the first few years of owning Airbnb, one of the things they identified was the photos weren't very good. So they personally went out and photographed people's places. There's. Talk of the person that owns Uber, of actually going and doing Uber and driving Uber so they can experience what it's like in the early days.

Even when the business ends up being massive, they're not working at scale in the early days. They're doing things that can't scale. And the beauty of having a small audience and the beauty of getting started is that you [00:06:00] can do those things. 'cause once you scale. You can't do them as easily. Okay? So those are the four things that you can do to actually get them to sign up to your launch in the first place.

So let me recap them for you. So the first thing is doing that pre-launch content, but when you have a smaller audience, do some outreach and engagement and some building the conversations just in the dms anyway, not specifically by the launch. But doing some engagement to help your own social media get further out there.

Number two was personal outreach. Once you've started those conversations and you have then announced you're doing a masterclass, webinar, bootcamp, whatever it might be, actually go back into those conversations and personally outreach people to let them know that you're doing it. Number three is to go to some of your connections and ask them if they'd be willing to share that you are doing this launch experience.

And number four is to go back to some of your existing or previous clients and ask them if they know anyone specifically that your launch experience might be suitable for, and would they mind referring you. Okay, so once people are actually in your [00:07:00] launch experience and you're going through it, how can you then help them convert to buy, and what kind of things can you do when you do have a smaller audience?

Because the number of people coming into your launch is gonna be small, and therefore we wanna maximize the purchases as much as possible. One thing I would say in my experience of working with hundreds of launches is that the smaller the audience, the actual bigger percentage take up, we tend to get.

Because you can actually have that more personal touch. So in order to actually help people convert and buy number one, the first thing that you can do is go and follow everybody that took part in your launch experience. Again, that list is going to be fairly small because you have a small audience. So let's say 50 people sign up for your webinar.

Literally get that list and go and find those 50 people on social media and connect with them then, because you are connected with them. Number two on my list is make sure that you are putting the sale conversations and the reasons to buy out on your social media and out on your. Stories. Yes. The chances of someone who [00:08:00] isn't in your launch experience, then buying can often be slimmer, but we're trying to think of those people we've already connected with that are in your launch experience.

It's another touch point. It's another place to see, so make sure you do that. You do some stories. You talk about your actual offer on your social media. Number three. Send personal voice messages to the people who are in the launch experience. Now, this is something that I've done before. I really don't like it if I'm honest.

I find it quite uncomfortable, but I make myself do it because it opens the conversation so it. Even if they don't buy, it's giving you a real insight to what they thought of the launch experience, to what their objections are, what they're dealing with right now. So I would send a voice message that said, hi, whoever it was, and I do that to make sure they know that this is a actual message for them.

Thank you so much for being in the webinar, the bootcamp, the challenge, whatever it is. I really hope you've enjoyed it. I loved meeting you in there. I would love to know what you think about [00:09:00] joining whatever it is that you're selling, and if you have any questions, I would love to have a chat with you about them.

I would always add something like, this is not any sales pressure. I'm just genuinely interested. I think you'd be a great fit if I genuinely think there'd be a great fit. So you could do that for pretty much. Anyone that came through your launch experience, again, small list means yes, you'll probably sit down for an hour or two and do it, but promise you it'll be worth it.

And then finally, the fourth thing that you can do, because not everyone answers their dms, and maybe you didn't connect with them on social 'cause you couldn't find them. Keep an eye on the emails that you're sending and look at who's clicking, who's opening, and maybe think about sending them personal emails off the back of that.

So if someone has gone and clicked, maybe drop them an email that isn't a broadcast one that is directly from you. That's. Says, Hey, I saw that you clicked. I'm just wondering if you got any questions. It's all about opening those conversations because when we open those conversations, we understand what's maybe holding them back, what their concerns are, why they might not [00:10:00] buy, and it just helps you then for future launches.

And again, once your launch gets big, we can't do that. That's much, much harder to do. It's gonna take way more time. So those eight things, the four before you actually start selling, and then once you start selling, will really help you convert and maximize those sales online when you have a small audience.

One thing I wanna note. When you finish the launch is try and still outreach to those people and find out why they didn't buy. Again. If you can open a conversation and have a conversation with them, then it's really gonna help. Next time you launch. It's really gonna help you get ahead of those objections or tweak your offer to make sure that some of the things holding them back are now in the offer going forward.

I would do this a couple of ways. I would make sure that you send out a quick survey. To everybody on email, but also I would try and have conversations maybe in the dms. You could even offer them an incentive to jump on a call with you to explain maybe why they didn't buy this [00:11:00] time, which like I said, then comes brilliant information when you are then doing your next launch in 2026.

This personal connection, this. Personal outreach is really winning when it comes to launching and when you have a small audience, you are the most perfect place to do it. I know it's not the easiest thing. I know it can feel uncomfortable. I too don't like it when I do it, but I promise you what you will gain in sales.

And in knowledge will be worth every single second you spend on this. I want you to stop seeing your small audience as a disadvantage, and I want you to start seeing it as your superpower because you can do things that people with big audiences can't, and that means you can actually get a much bigger percentage conversion than maybe people with big audiences can't.

I really hope this has helped and inspired you to go out there and have those conversations and have that personal touch when you next launch. Also, if you are launching and you want some help in terms of what to do when, and a bit of a to-do list, then make sure you download [00:12:00] my launch toolkit. If you are watching on YouTube, then you can just scan this QR code here.

If you are listening on the podcast, then go to teresaheathwareing.com/toolkit and get your free toolkit today. I will see you in next week's episode.