How do I launch an online course or group programme?

Updated 23 July 2026 by Chanelle Segerius-Bruce

This walks through how to launch an online course or group programme, from the first warm-up post to the moment the cart closes. It's for anyone who has the offer built and no idea what order to do things in. You'll get the five phases and how long to give each one.

Most people who "just wing it" skip straight to the selling phase. They post an offer to a cold audience, hear crickets, and decide launching doesn't work for them. It wasn't the launch that failed. It was the three phases they missed before it.

Why learning to launch is worth it

Before the how, it helps to be clear on why this is worth your energy. Packaging what you know into a group programme and launching it changes your business in a few specific ways.

More money, more predictably. Teaching a group at once means you serve more people without adding more hours. Launch three or four times a year and you create pops of income across the calendar, plus steadier months as clients pay off their payment plans. I love that I've got payments coming in every month through Stripe because of a programme I open at set times of the year.

More time back. As the income grows, you can start handing off the busywork: admin, scheduling, social media. You become the CEO of your business instead of owning your job. That's the point. Your business should support your lifestyle, not consume it.

Less feast-or-famine. Maxing out on one-to-one work or done-for-you services is where the feast-or-famine cycle lives. A group programme smooths it out. It's the reason I can take four days off for Spirit Fest without the income falling over.

You can launch before you're ready. You don't have to build the whole thing first. Presell it (a beta launch), sell the spots, then create it as you go with real feedback from the people who've paid. Once you've run it a couple of times and gathered testimonials, you invest in the polished videos and the membership area, and you put the price up.

The 5 phases of a launch

1. The nurture phase

Build your audience and position yourself as the expert you are. Share genuinely useful content without selling. A Facebook group is a good home for this, and grow your email list at the same time, because you own that list in a way you'll never own your followers.

2. The prelaunch phase

Generate fresh leads and build momentum in the days just before you open. A challenge or a short free live training series works well here. This is where the energy starts to gather.

3. The teaching phase

Go live and give people "results ahead of time". Real teaching, not a thinly veiled pitch. Let them get to know you and get a taste of what working with you feels like. People buy your energy as much as they buy the thing you're selling, so bring it.

4. The selling phase

Now you open the cart. Early-bird pricing and disappearing bonuses give people a reason to decide now rather than "later" (which usually means never). This is the phase everyone wants to start with, and it only works because of the three that came before it.

5. The closing phase

Follow up with your leads and the people who've been circling. Create genuine urgency, remind them it's their last chance, and put a cart-close countdown in front of them. A surprising share of your sales land in the final 24 hours, so don't go quiet right when it matters most.

Map it out once, run it every time

The reason launches feel stressful is that most people rebuild the whole thing from scratch each time, in their head, at 11pm. The fix is to map every phase into a project template once, with the tasks, the emails and the timeline, then run the same plan on every launch and just improve it. That's exactly what turned launching from a panic into a process in my own business.

Frequently asked questions

How long should an online launch take?

The visible "open cart" window is usually around five to seven days. The phases before it, nurturing and prelaunching, run for weeks. A useful way to think about it: your launch was mostly won or lost in the month before you ever opened the cart.

Do I need a big audience to launch?

No. You need a warm, right-fit audience more than a large one. A small list of people who trust you will out-sell a big cold following every time. Focus the nurture phase on the people most likely to say yes, not on chasing numbers.

Can I launch a programme before I've built it?

Yes, and it's often the smart move. Presell it as a beta, sell the spots, and build it week by week with feedback from paying clients. You save yourself from spending months creating something nobody wanted, and the early cohort shapes it into what people actually need.

How often should I launch in a year?

Three to four times a year is a comfortable rhythm for most people. It gives you those pops of income without living in permanent launch mode. Between launches you're nurturing, so the next one starts warmer than the last.

What's the most common launch mistake?

Skipping straight to selling. Opening a cart to an audience you haven't nurtured, taught or warmed up, then blaming the offer when it's quiet. The offer is rarely the problem. The missing phases are.

Should I use ads for my first launch?

Not necessarily. For a first launch, prove the offer works with the warm audience you already have before you spend on traffic. Ads pointed at an unproven launch just help you lose money faster. Get one clean launch under your belt first.

Key takeaways

• A launch runs in five phases: nurture, prelaunch, teaching, selling, closing, in that order.
• Most launches "fail" because people skip the three phases before selling.
• Launching turns your knowledge into a repeatable, more predictable income stream and buys back your time.
• You can presell a programme before it's built and create it as you go.
• Map the whole launch into a template once, then run and improve it every time.