Nobody Saw Your Launch. Launch It Again.

You launched the thing. You posted it. You emailed it. You even told your mum. Nobody bought. So now you’re wondering whether the thing is any good. Maybe it isn’t. But before you change a single word, check one other thing first. My take: don’t read a quiet launch as a no until you know how many people saw it.

A small room

Here’s a real number from a small business’s accounts I looked at recently. Between 20 August and 12 September the business put out 78 posts across four networks. The middle one was shown 29 times. Not 29,000. 29. A post shown 29 times has barely been seen, let alone judged. If your launch was shown a few dozen times and nobody bought, that’s not a verdict on your product. It’s a small room.

Three numbers, not a feeling

Pull up your last launch. A new product, a new service, a fresh set of dates. Then find three numbers:

• How many people saw it.
• How many of them clicked, replied or got in touch.
• How many of those bought or booked.

If you sell a thing, that’s saw it, clicked through to the product page, ordered. If you sell your time, it’s saw it, got in touch, booked.

Pick one launch and one date range, and use it for all three numbers. Count only the clicks, orders or bookings you can link to that launch, and mark anything you can’t tell. The first is on the post’s own stats page. It may say “impressions” (times shown) or “reach” (people), so note which. The second is in your link stats, your website analytics or your inbox. The third is in your orders or your diary.

Write all three down. If you can’t find one of them, that’s useful too. Next time, decide where each number will come from before you post.

The biggest drop is your first clue

Compare your three numbers to each other, not to anyone else’s. They’re clues, not an exact count of people lost. Take each one against the one before it, and look at where the biggest share seems to disappear.

• Few people saw it. Then your launch hasn’t really been tested yet. Don’t touch the product or the price. Launch it again, differently.
• Plenty saw it, few clicked. Look at the words first. Write a sell line: what it is, who it’s for, how to get it. Then put it where the launch was.
• Plenty clicked, few bought or booked. Look after the click: the page, the price and the booking step. Open it on your phone, like a stranger, and try to buy or book. Wherever you get stuck, a customer might too.

How to launch it again

Say the first one was the problem. Few people saw it. Here’s how I’d run it a second time.

• Tell your list first. They asked to hear from you. Email them, or message your past clients, before you post anywhere.
• Change the doorway, not the thing. Same product. New photo, new first line, new reason to care.
• Tell people what’s different this time. A new batch. New dates. A season. Make it a real reason, and never an invented deadline.
• Use a different format or time. If the first try was a photo, try a short video or plain text. If it went out at 9am, try lunchtime.
• Look again in two weeks. Same three numbers. Compare them with the first time.

Two made-up examples, one for each kind of business. If you sell a thing: a mug maker launches a new glaze with one post, “New glaze just landed.” Nobody buys. The second launch is an email to the mailing list: “A hand-glazed mug in a new colour, for the tea drinker who has everything. Order at the link.” Same mug. New doorway.

If you sell your time: a wedding photographer opens the 2027 diary with one post, “Now booking 2027.” Nothing. The second launch is an email to everyone who ever enquired: “I’ve opened my June and September 2027 dates. Reply and I’ll send the details.” Same diary. New doorway.

(Yes, I’m telling you to say the same thing twice. Do it once, differently, and watch the numbers.)

Your one job this week

Find the three numbers from your last launch and circle the biggest drop. No new post needed. Just the three numbers on one piece of paper. That’s the whole job.

The week in brief

• Shopify now lets you redesign your whole store by chatting to it: a tool called Canvas, announced on 1 October. At launch it doesn’t support third-party themes, app blocks or translations, and a theme edited in it stops getting theme updates, so try it on a duplicate first.
• Google updated its guidance on AI content on 1 October: fact-check and review all AI-generated content before publishing, including page titles, search snippets, structured data and image alt text.
• A Google spam update started on 24 September. If your search traffic wobbles, note the date, wait until Google marks it finished, then compare.
• Royal Mail parcel stamps went up on 5 October: a second class small parcel bought with a stamp went from £4.25 to £4.60, while the franking rate stayed at £4.25.
• Staff now have six months, not three, to bring an employment tribunal claim, from 1 October, according to Acas.