Everyone who has not bought
Warm-ups through final hours, all timed against the close date. The moment somebody purchases they leave this audience — immediately, not on the next sync — and the rest of the launch stops reaching them.
Course launch email sequence: open cart to close, written out.
Ten complete emails with subject lines, ready to copy: two warm-ups, the announcement, the teaching and objection sends, the logistics email, two deadline emails written to be honest, and the split after the cart closes. Each one carries its timing, what it fires on, and what to change for a first launch, a repeat launch or a cohort with a start date.
10templates
03launch variants
12min read
What you are taking away
- Ten complete launch emails with subject lines, ready to paste into any tool
- The two warm-ups that stop the open-cart email reading as an ambush
- A teaching email, an objection email and an FAQ email to carry the middle
- Deadline emails written to be honest — the consequence named rather than implied
- What to do about social proof when you genuinely do not have any yet
- The post-close split: buyers into onboarding, everyone else back to normal
- A five-email minimum for when the calendar is against you
Before you paste anything
A launch is one audience shrinking, not one list receiving ten emails.
Every send below goes to the people who have not bought yet. That group gets smaller every day the cart is open, and keeping it accurate is the difference between a sequence that reads as attentive and one that reads as automated.
Everyone who has
One email, fired by the purchase itself rather than by the calendar. Somebody who buys in the last hour should receive it in that hour, not the next morning with the rest of the cohort.
The brackets are the work
Everything in [brackets] is yours to replace, including the parts that read as instructions rather than copy. Those are deliberate: a template that writes your teaching and your objection for you produces ten emails that say nothing, and the two emails carrying the middle of this launch are exactly the two nobody can write for you. Swap the brackets for merge fields where your tool has them — field names differ by platform, so these are written in plain brackets rather than any one product’s syntax.
The copy button gives you the subject, the alternate subject, the send timing and the body as plain text. Paste it wherever you send from, then read it aloud once. If a line would be strange to say to one person, it is stranger to send to four hundred.
The whole launch
Timings assume a cart open for about a week. They are a starting cadence to adjust against your own audience rather than a schedule to obey — but running it once as written gives you something to adjust from.
| When | |
|---|---|
| T−7d | Warm-up oneTeaches the problem. No offer, no link, one postscript. |
| T−1d | Warm-up twoOpens tomorrow, who it is not for, and the launch opt-out. |
| Day 1 | Open cartTerms, link, close date. Scannable in fifteen seconds. |
| Day 2 | The teaching emailOne complete idea, given away. |
| Day 3 | The objection emailA real objection, answered honestly. |
| Day 4 | FAQ and logisticsThe mundane questions that stall people. |
| T−48h | Forty-eight hoursThe consequence named, plus two qualifiers. |
| T−3h | Final hoursLink, terms, time. Nothing else. |
| On purchase | Buyer onboardingFires on the purchase. Never waits for the close. |
| Close +24h | Non-buyer close-outLoop closed, teaching returned, one question. |
T−7d → T−1dBefore the cart opensBlock 01 / 04
Two emails so the announcement is not an ambush.
Most launches begin at the open, which means the first thing a quiet list hears from you in weeks is a request for money. These two sends fix that for the cost of a Tuesday: one teaches, one warns.
They also do something the cart emails cannot. The first establishes that the problem is real before anybody is being sold a solution to it, and the second gives people a graceful way out of a fortnight of selling they did not ask for. A launch opt-out costs you a few sends. Not offering one costs you the subscriber.
T−7d
Warm-up one: name the problem
01 / 10SubjectThe [specific mistake] that [quiet consequence]
AltWhy [the common approach] stops working
FiresScheduled. To the launch audience. No offer and no link in the body.
[First name] — Most [audience] handle [the task] by [the common approach]. It works until [the point at which it stops working], and then it stops working quietly — which is the part that costs money. [Four to eight sentences teaching the shape of the problem properly. Not a preview and not a tease. Somebody who reads this and never buys anything from you should be better off for having read it. If you cannot write that, you do not have a launch yet — you have a price.] The short version: [the one-line reframe you want them carrying into next week]. More on this soon. [Your name] P.S. [One sentence naming what you have been building and roughly when they will hear about it. No link. This is a heads-up, not a teaser.]
Why it is sent then
The first of two sends whose only job is to make the open-cart email land on people who are already thinking about the problem. It teaches and then stops. The postscript is the sole mention of the launch, and it exists so the announcement is expected — an announcement to a list that has not heard from you in a month reads as an ambush, and people unsubscribe from ambushes.
Change it for
- First launchThis email is carrying more than it looks like. With no student results to show, your teaching is the proof — make it the best free thing you have written this quarter.
- Repeat launchSuppress everyone who already owns the course before this send, not just before the cart emails. Existing students receiving the warm-up is the first sign of a sloppy launch.
- Cohort start datePut the start date in the postscript. People who need to move a calendar around want the date earlier than people who do not.
T−1d
Warm-up two: opens tomorrow
02 / 10SubjectOpens tomorrow: [Course name]
AltTomorrow — and who this is not for
FiresScheduled, one day before the cart opens. Same audience, minus existing students.
[First name] —
Tomorrow at [Time] [Timezone] I am opening [Course name].
What it is: [One sentence. The outcome, not the format.]
Who it is for: [The specific person, described closely enough that
they recognise themselves.]
Who it is
not for: [Answer this properly. Name at least one group who
should not buy it, and why.]
Price: [Price, and payment terms if there are any.]
Doors close: [Day, Date] at [Time] [Timezone].
[Starts: [Start date] — cohorts only.]
Nothing to do today. It opens tomorrow and I will send you the link.
There will be about [number] emails over the next [number] days. If you
already know this is not for you, [the opt-out — a link that removes
them from the launch only, not from the list]. No hard feelings; I would
rather you stayed subscribed than sat through a fortnight of something
irrelevant.
[Your name]Why it is sent then
Two jobs. It turns the open-cart email into an expected event, and it is the honest place to let people leave the launch without leaving your list. Naming who the course is not for is not modesty — it is the line that makes everything else on the page more believable, and it prevents the refunds you would otherwise process in week three.
Change it for
- First launchThe opt-out line matters most here. A first launch to a small list is more likely to irritate people than exhaust them, and the ones you let out gracefully are still subscribed at the next one.
- Repeat launchAdd one line on what has changed since the last cohort. The people who did not buy last time are on this list and they remember what was in it.
- Cohort start datePut the start date and the weekly time commitment in the block. The late objection on a cohort is almost always the calendar rather than the price.
Day 1 → Day 4The cart is openBlock 02 / 04
Four emails, and only one of them is about the course.
The announcement carries the logistics. The three after it carry the argument, and each one is aimed at a different reason somebody has not bought yet: they have not seen the quality, they have an objection, or they have a practical question they feel silly asking.
Sent as one message these three collapse into a long sales email that gets skimmed. Sent as three, each one is short enough to read and specific enough to answer somebody. That is the whole reason a launch is a sequence.
Two of them cannot be written in advance. The teaching email needs your best material, and the objection email needs an objection you have genuinely heard — which is why the reply invitations in the earlier sends are not decoration. If your list is quiet, ask the question directly and write the email from the answers.
Day 1
Open-cart announcement
03 / 10Subject[Course name] is open
AltDoors are open: [Course name]
FiresOn cart open. From this send onward, anyone who buys is removed from the remaining launch emails immediately.
[First name] —
[Course name] is open: [Sales page link]
The short version:
What you get: [Module count] modules covering [the arc, in one
clause], plus [calls, templates, feedback, community
— list only what actually exists today].
What it costs: [Price]. [Payment plan terms, or nothing.]
How it runs: [Self-paced from today, or a cohort starting [date],
[length] a week for [number] weeks.]
Doors close: [Day, Date] at [Time] [Timezone].
Refunds: [Your policy, in one sentence, in the same words the
checkout uses.]
Who it is for: [the specific person].
Who it is not for: [the group who should skip it].
[Two to five sentences on the change this is supposed to produce. Write
it the way you would say it to one person who asked you about it at
dinner. If it reads like a brochure, rewrite it as speech.]
[Sales page link]
Questions — reply to this one. I read them and I answer them.
[Your name]Why it is sent then
The announcement is a logistics email that happens to sell. The people most likely to buy on day one are already convinced, and what they need is the link, the price, the close date and the terms in something they can scan in fifteen seconds. Save the persuading for the next three emails, which go to the people who did not act on this one.
Change it for
- First launchPut the close date in the first three lines. Nobody has learned yet that your deadlines are real, so the date has to be visible from the start — and then honoured.
- Repeat launchIf the price has changed since the last cohort, say so here and say why. Somebody always kept the old email.
- Cohort start dateLead with the start date rather than the close date. For a cohort the calendar is most of the offer.
Day 2
The teaching email
04 / 10Subject[The one useful idea], in full
AltSomething you can use today
FiresDay two, to everyone who has not purchased.
[First name] — Here is one complete piece of [Course name], free, today. [The teaching. A full idea with nothing held back — a framework, a process, a diagnostic, a worked example. It has to be finishable this afternoon by somebody who never buys anything. Six to fifteen sentences, or a short numbered list.] That is [the module or section this comes from] of [Course name]. The course takes it through [the larger thing this is one piece of], and covers [the two or three things this example deliberately skipped]. [Sales page link] — [Price]. Doors close [Day] at [Time] [Timezone]. [Your name]
Why it is sent then
The strongest argument that the course is worth buying is a piece of the course. One complete idea, given away, proves there are more of them — and on a launch with no student results yet it is the only proof available. This email is also what earns the three sends after it; a sequence with nothing useful in it is a broadcast with more steps.
Change it for
- First launchSend the strongest thing you have rather than the safest. Holding back your best material to protect the course is the most expensive instinct in a first launch.
- Repeat launchTeach something the previous cohort told you was missing, and say that is where it came from. It demonstrates that the course moves.
- Cohort start dateTeach what week one covers, and say so. It makes an abstract start date concrete.
Day 3
The objection email
05 / 10Subject“[The objection, in their words]”
AltThe honest answer to [the objection]
FiresDay three, to everyone who has not purchased. Behavioural variant: a separate version to people who visited the sales page and did not buy.
[First name] — The question I get most about [Course name] is some version of this: “[The objection, written the way people actually write it to you.]” The honest answer: [Three to seven sentences answering it properly. Not a reframe and not a deflection — the answer you would give a friend who asked. If part of the objection is correct, say which part is correct.] And the part where they are right: [name the situation in which this course genuinely is not the right purchase, and say so plainly. The people that disqualifies were never going to finish it, and everybody else will believe the rest of this email more because of it.] [Sales page link] — doors close [Day] at [Time] [Timezone]. If yours is a different question, reply and ask it. You get me, not a sequence. [Your name]
Why it is sent then
The middle of a launch is where people stop reading, and the fix is not more urgency — it is answering the thing that is actually stopping them. This only works with a real objection: one you have heard, in the words you heard it in. A manufactured objection you find easy to dismiss is transparent, and it teaches the reader that the rest of the launch is theatre.
Change it for
- First launchYou may not have heard the objection yet. Then ask for it — send the question instead of the answer and write this email from the replies. A launch with no objection email never finds out why people said no.
- Repeat launchUse the objection the last cohort raised most, and answer it with what you changed in response.
- Cohort start dateThe objection is usually time. Answer it with the real weekly commitment in hours, and what happens to somebody who misses a week.
Day 4
FAQ and logistics
06 / 10SubjectEverything about [Course name], in one email
AltThe practical questions, answered
FiresDay four or five, to everyone who has not purchased. Also the page you link from every other email.
[First name] — The practical questions about [Course name], in one place. What exactly do I get? [Module count, format, length, and everything that is not video. List it plainly.] How long does it take? [Total hours, and the pace you would actually recommend.] When does it start, and when do I get access? [Immediately, on [date], or on a drip schedule — say which.] How long do I have access? [The honest answer, including any end date. If it is “as long as the course exists”, write that rather than “lifetime”.] What if I fall behind? [What actually happens. Recordings, catch-up, the next cohort.] Is there a payment plan? [The terms, or a plain no.] What is the refund policy? [The policy, word for word as it appears on the sales page and at the checkout.] Do I need [tool, prerequisite, experience level]? [Yes and what, or no.] Who is this not for? [The same answer you gave on day one. Consistency here is worth more than persuasion.] Doors close [Day, Date] at [Time] [Timezone]: [Sales page link] Anything missing — reply and ask. [Your name]
Why it is sent then
Late in a launch most non-buyers are not unconvinced, they are unsure about something mundane: when access starts, whether they can catch up, what the refund policy really means. This email removes those one at a time. It also outlives the launch — it is the page you link from everywhere else, and the answers should match the sales page exactly.
Change it for
- First launchAnswer every question you have been asked, including the ones with awkward answers. The awkward ones are why people are hesitating.
- Repeat launchAdd “what has changed since last time” as a question. It is the one returning readers open the email for.
- Cohort start dateInclude the full call schedule with times and timezones, and say what happens for people who cannot make them live.
Proof
Social proof, and what to do when you have none.
Every launch template you will find assumes you have student results to quote. Most first launches do not, and the gap between those two facts is where people start inventing things. There is a better answer, and it is not a weaker one.
Real proof is anything you could show somebody who asked to see it. That test rules out the fabrications immediately, and it also rules out the softer versions — the composite student assembled from three people, the student count that quietly includes free signups, the single outstanding result placed where it reads as the ordinary one. None of those survive a question, and the person most likely to ask is the person about to buy.
Proof you can use
- Results from real students, in their words, with their permission on file
- Your own documented results in the thing you are teaching
- The work itself — a sample lesson, the full curriculum, a recording of you teaching
- A student count, when the number is real and you would be comfortable showing the list
- A refund policy you honour, which is a proof claim in its own right
- The questions you have been answering publicly for years
Never, at any launch size
- Testimonials you wrote, rewrote beyond fixing typos, or assembled from several people
- Screenshots of results that did not happen, or that happened to somebody else
- Student counts that quietly include free signups and people you gave it to
- “Join [number] students” when the number is the size of your mailing list
- One outstanding result presented, by implication, as the expected result
- Borrowed proof — a client outcome from your services implied as a course outcome
- Countdown timers that reset on refresh, or “3 spots left” on an unlimited product
First launch, no students
Say it is the first cohort, then show the work.
The proof available to a first launch is the sample lesson, the complete curriculum, your own documented experience in the subject, a refund policy you will honour, and the fact that you are visibly answering every question in the inbox. That is a strong position, and first-cohort framing makes it stronger because it explains the price rather than apologising for the absence. A fabricated testimonial does the reverse — it borrows credibility you have to give back with interest the first time somebody checks.
When you do have results
Use the student’s own words, with their permission, and be careful about what the result implies. One person’s outcome is not an expected outcome, and presenting it as one is the most common way an otherwise honest launch drifts into a claim it cannot support. If you do not know what is typical, do not imply that you do. Rules on testimonials and results claims differ by jurisdiction and are stricter than most creators assume — worth confirming what applies to you before the page goes up rather than after.
The most durable proof is the least dramatic: students who finish. Completion is slow to accumulate and impossible to fake, and the systems that produce it are covered in course completion systems. Launch two is much easier than launch one, and this is why.
T−48h → T−3hThe closeBlock 03 / 04
Two emails, and a deadline that has to be true.
A meaningful share of a launch’s sales arrive in the last day, which is why these two emails exist — and why they are the two most likely to be written dishonestly. The difference is entirely in whether the deadline names a real consequence.
“Doors close Thursday” is honest when the page comes down on Thursday. It is dishonest when the page stays up, the price stays the same, and the only thing that closes is your willingness to mention it. Buyers cannot always tell the difference the first time. They can always tell by the second launch, and the cost lands on every deadline you set from then on.
So pick a consequence you are willing to enforce and write it plainly: the cohort starts, the price moves, or you are not opening it again until a stated month. All three are real. Then hold it — including on the launch where holding it costs you sales, which is the launch that decides whether any of your future deadlines work. The full reasoning, including what to do about replay windows and evergreen timers, is in the deadlines guide.
T−48h
Forty-eight hours
07 / 10Subject48 hours: [Course name]
AltClosing [Day] — what to check first
Fires48 hours before the close, to everyone who has not purchased.
[First name] — [Course name] closes on [Day, Date] at [Time] [Timezone] — 48 hours from now. What happens then: [the literal consequence. “The page comes down and the next cohort starts in [month].” “The price goes to [price].” “Nothing else changes, but I am not opening it again until [when].” Write the true one, and only the true one.] If you are deciding, two things worth checking before you do: 1. [The first genuine qualifier — the situation, level or resource this actually requires.] 2. [The second one.] If either of those is a no, this is not the thing to buy this week, and I would rather say so now than refund you in three weeks. [Sales page link] [Your name]
Why it is sent then
The deadline email is where launches go dishonest, so this one is built to be checkable. It names the actual consequence of the deadline instead of implying a vaguer and larger one, and it spends half its length disqualifying people. A deadline is only worth having if it is true — extend it once and every deadline you set afterwards is discounted by everybody who noticed.
Change it for
- First launchThe consequence is probably “I will not run this again until [month]”. That is a perfectly good deadline. State it exactly rather than reaching for something that sounds bigger.
- Repeat launchIf the price is going up, show both numbers and the date it changes. If it is not going up, do not imply that it is.
- Cohort start dateThe consequence is the start date itself, which is the easiest honest deadline there is — the group starts without them.
T−3h
Final hours
08 / 10SubjectClosing at [Time] [Timezone] tonight
AltLast few hours — [Course name]
FiresTwo to four hours before the close, to everyone who has not purchased. Optional behavioural variant to people who opened the 48-hour email or visited the page.
[First name] — [Course name] closes at [Time] [Timezone] tonight — about [number] hours from now. [Sales page link] [Price]. [Payment plan, one clause.] [Refund policy, one clause.] [Access or start date, one clause.] That is the whole email. If it is a no, it is a no — you will get [the normal thing you send] on [day] as usual, and this will not come up again until [when]. [Your name]
Why it is sent then
The last email is short because everything persuasive has already been said twice. What is left is the link, the terms and the time. The closing line is doing more work than it appears to: telling people explicitly that the selling stops tonight is what keeps the non-buyers subscribed, and the non-buyers are most of your list.
Change it for
- First launchSend it. The instinct on a first launch is to go quiet at the end out of embarrassment, and this is the email that most often produces the last few sales.
- Repeat launchKeep it nearly identical to last time. A recognisable final email is itself a signal that your deadlines behave the same way every launch.
- Cohort start dateRepeat the start date in the terms block. Some people buy in the last hour precisely because they finally checked their calendar.
Where a tool decision changes the plan
The final-hours email must not reach somebody who bought this morning.
Suppression during a close is not a nightly job — purchases keep arriving right up to the deadline, and every one of them has to leave the launch audience before the next send goes out. On a stitched stack that is a checkout in one tool and a list in another, reconciled by hand at the worst possible moment. In Agorix a purchase can remove somebody from a sales path and begin fulfilment and onboarding on the same customer record — see how connected marketing works.
Start your 14-day trial 14 days · $0 due today · Payment method required · Cancel before first charge and pay nothing
On purchase → +24hAfter the closeBlock 04 / 04
Two audiences that must never receive the same email.
The cart closes and the launch splits in two. Buyers need a start; everybody else needs the loop closed. These are the two emails most often merged into one congratulatory broadcast, and merging them wastes both.
The buyer email is the only genuinely behavioural send in the pack: it fires on the purchase, not on the close, because somebody who bought on day one should not wait a week to hear what happens next. It is also the first email of a different sequence altogether — onboarding — and where that sequence goes from here is its own guide, student onboarding emails.
The non-buyer email is the one people skip out of tiredness, and it is worth more than it looks. Most of your list did not buy. What they remember about this fortnight is set by the last thing they received from you, and a launch that ends with a clean close-out reads completely differently from one that ends with a countdown and silence.
On purchase
Buyer: what happens next
09 / 10SubjectYou are in — here is what happens next
AltWelcome to [Course name]
FiresOn purchase, immediately. This email never waits for the cart to close, and buying it triggers removal from every remaining launch send.
[First name] —
You are in. Everything, in the order you need it:
Access: [Login link, or “access opens [date] and you will get an
email that morning”.]
Starts: [Date, or “now”.]
First step: [The single thing to do first. One thing, not five.]
Calls: [Schedule with timezones, or “none”.]
Community: [Link, or “none” — say which.]
Support: [Where to ask, and how quickly you answer.]
Receipt: [What the charge appears as on their statement.]
Refunds: [The policy, in the same words as the sales page.]
[One short paragraph. Not a pep talk — the honest version of what the
first week looks like: roughly how much time it takes, where people
usually stall, and what to do when that happens.]
Reply to this with [the one question that helps you help them — “what
are you hoping to have working by [date]?”]. I read every one.
[Your name]Why it is sent then
Fires on the purchase rather than on a schedule, which makes it the most genuinely behavioural email in the pack. Its job is to convert a payment into a start: the statement descriptor prevents the confused chargeback, the single first step prevents the paralysis, and the reply question gives you segmentation you will use for the rest of the programme.
Change it for
- First launchIf anything is still being built, say what and say when it arrives. Buyers forgive a schedule; they do not forgive discovering one.
- Repeat launchPoint returning students at what is new so they do not re-watch what they have already seen.
- Cohort start dateIf the start is weeks away, say what happens between now and then — including “nothing, and that is deliberate”.
Close +24h
Non-buyer: the launch is over
10 / 10SubjectThat is the launch done
AltBack to normal — and the thing I promised
FiresTwenty-four hours after the close, to everyone who did not purchase.
[First name] — [Course name] closed [yesterday / on Day]. Normal service resumes. Two things before it does. First, [the teaching from day two] is still yours. Here it is again in case it got buried: [link]. It works whether or not you ever buy anything from me. Second, if the timing was the problem rather than the course: [when it opens again, or “reply and I will tell you when the next one runs”]. No list to join and no countdown — I will just tell you. And if you have thirty seconds, I would genuinely like to know what stopped you. A few words is plenty. It changes what I build next. Back to [the normal thing you send] on [day]. [Your name]
Why it is sent then
The last email of a launch decides what your list thinks of launches. Closing the loop, returning the teaching and asking one honest question turns a non-buyer into somebody who is still reading at the next one. Skip it and the most recent thing your list remembers about you is a fortnight of selling that stopped abruptly.
Change it for
- First launchThe replies to this email are the single most useful thing a first launch produces. Ask properly, and read all of them.
- Repeat launchTag the people who reply with their reason. Two launches of that data beats any survey you could send.
- Cohort start dateName the next cohort date if you know it, and say plainly that you do not if you do not.
Mechanics
Seven settings that decide whether any of this lands.
The copy is the visible part. These are the settings around it, and a launch with good copy and wrong mechanics performs worse than the reverse — usually because the emails arrived somewhere nobody looked, or arrived at somebody who had already paid.
- Buyers come out of everything, immediately. The worst message in a launch is a final-hours email arriving for somebody who paid on day one. The suppression has to be instant and automatic — a nightly sync is not fast enough during a close, when purchases are still arriving in the final hours.
- One from-name, and make it a person. Every email in this pack is written as one person talking to one person, and a brand name in the from-field undoes that before the subject line is read. Whoever the from-name is, keep it identical across all ten.
- A reply-to that a human reads. Four of these emails ask for replies, and the replies are the entire research budget of a launch. The objection email is written from them. A no-reply address on a launch throws away the only thing you get for free.
- Say how many emails are coming, and let people sit out. A launch sends more than your normal cadence. Naming the number in the second warm-up and offering an opt-out from the launch only — not from the list — costs you a handful of sends and saves you the unsubscribes you would otherwise never get back.
- Do not discover your deliverability during a launch. Ten sends in nine days to a list that normally hears from you monthly is exactly the pattern that gets filtered. Warm the sending domain, clean the dormant segment and check where your last broadcast actually landed, in the week before the warm-ups rather than the morning of the close.
- One link per email. Every template above has a single action. Adding the podcast, the blog post and the affiliate offer to a cart email does not add clicks — it splits them, and the split always comes out of the one that mattered.
- A timezone on every deadline, every time. “Midnight” with no timezone is the most common launch support ticket and the source of the one refund request nobody feels good about: the person who tried to buy an hour after it closed. Write the close time out in full in all four emails that mention it.
When the calendar is against you
Five sends and one split, run properly.
Ten is the full launch, not the minimum. Five emails cover the moments that carry the result, and five run well beats ten run badly.
- The heads-up. So the open is expected. Cheapest email in the sequence and the one that protects your list.
- The open-cart announcement. Terms, link, close date. The people who were always going to buy are waiting for exactly this.
- The teaching email. The only proof a first launch has, and the email that earns the two after it.
- The 48-hour deadline. Names the real consequence and disqualifies the people who should not buy.
- Final hours. Short. Link, terms, time, and an explicit end to the selling.
Plus the split, which is not one of the five and is not optional: buyers get the onboarding email on purchase, everybody else gets the close-out the next day.
Common questions
Six questions about the launch sequence.
How many emails should a course launch sequence have?
Ten covers a full open-to-close launch: two warm-ups, four while the cart is open, two deadline emails, and the two-way split after it closes. That is a maximum rather than a target. If the calendar is against you, send five — the heads-up, the open-cart announcement, the teaching email, the 48-hour deadline and the final hours — plus the post-close split, which is not optional at any size.
How long should a course launch cart be open?
Long enough that somebody sees more than one email, short enough that the deadline means something. Five to seven days is a common working window and it is what the timings here assume. What matters more than the length is that the close date is announced up front, written with a timezone every time it appears, and then held — the reasoning behind honest deadlines is worked through in the deadlines guide.
What do I do about testimonials if this is my first launch?
Say that it is the first cohort, and sell on what you can actually show: a sample lesson, the full curriculum, your own documented experience in the subject, and a refund policy you will honour. Never invent testimonials, never assemble a composite student and present them as one person, and never let a mailing list size stand in for a student count. First-cohort framing is an asset because it explains the price. A fabricated testimonial is unrecoverable the first time somebody checks.
Should I extend the deadline if sales are slow?
No. Extending a deadline you announced converts every future deadline into a suggestion, and lists learn that faster than most people expect. If the launch underperforms, the useful response is to find out why — from the replies, and from the answers to the non-buyer email — rather than to buy a few extra sales at the cost of every launch after this one. The same principle applies to replay windows and evergreen timers, which is why the deadlines guide treats them as one problem.
Should buyers keep receiving the launch emails?
No — and this is the failure that does the most damage for the least effort. Anyone who purchases comes out of the remaining launch sends immediately, not on the next sync, and goes onto the buyer onboarding email instead. A final-hours email arriving for somebody who paid three days ago reads as carelessness at exactly the moment they are deciding whether they were right to trust you. What replaces it is covered in student onboarding emails.
What should I send people who did not buy?
One email, twenty-four hours after the close: the launch is over, here is the teaching from day two again, here is when it opens next if you know, and what stopped you? Then go back to your normal cadence and stay there. The non-buyers are most of your list, and the way a launch ends decides what they think when the next one starts.
Keep going
What comes before this sequence, and after it.
GuideHow to presell an online courseRunning this sequence before the course exists, without misleading anybody.GuideSell courses with webinarsWhere the audience for a launch usually comes from in the first place.Template packStudent onboarding emailsWhat the buyer email starts, and the sequence that follows it.PlatformMarketingAudiences that update when a purchase changes what somebody should receive.
From ten emails to a launch that runs itself
You have the sequence. Agorix is the system that sends it.
The sales page, the checkout, the launch audience that shrinks as people buy, the onboarding that fires on the purchase, and the course waiting on the other side — on one customer record, so the split at the close is a rule rather than an export.
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