304: How to create hype online

What if your next launch didn’t start with a “buy now” post?

In this episode of The Content Queen Podcast, I’m taking you behind the scenes of a client project where we created serious hype before doors even opened.

I’ll walk you through what we did, why it worked, and how you can apply the same approach to your own launch (if it aligns). 

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah.

⁠⁠⁠⁠LEARN THE DETAILS OF A CONTENT STRATEGY WITH MY FREE AUDIO GUIDE⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ Why launching is more than a moment

✨ How “building in public” invites connection and buy-in

✨ The simple video trick I used so the biz owner didn’t have to show up constantly on camera

✨ How one shoot day gave us MONTHS of content

✨ Why community-driven content is queeeen

✨ Easy ways to start hype-building today (even with a small budget)

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

304 - 1:12:2025, 11.35 am

[00:00:00] This is episode 304, and we're talking about how to create hype online. Welcome to the Content Queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur storyteller, digital nomad, creative content bootcamp, and founder of Content Queen. I'm here to teach you how to share your unique story, create content, and market your business with strategy through the channels that work for you.

Each week, I'll deliver a story to help you connect to a powerful strategy around marketing, business, and content creation. I'll also be joined by amazing souls and entrepreneurs. Who are here to share their own journey, along with actual steps, help you take your business to a whole new level through amazing storytelling, powerful and marketing and content strategy.

Let's do it. Hello, gang. All right. Let me take you back to not that long ago, I recently had a client come to me through a referral from amazing colleague and ex housemate and all the things who's gonna be on the podcast in a couple weeks and. Her client was opening a wellness space and they [00:01:00] needed branding and they needed obviously the marketing element of launching, and so I thought because they have officially launched, it would be a really cool opportunity to take you behind the scenes and share what we did.

So you can see how a community led content marketing strategy can truly create impact. So the goal was to, from a marketing perspective, was to build a wait list so that when they open their doors, there was hype. Now. I don't know about you, but the word launch I think was something that was used a lot in 2020.

In the online business world, there's a lot of programs created, how to do 6, 7, 6, and seven figure launches. There was a lot of marketing around how to launch. I think it got to the point where we got burnt out from live launching, and a lot of people actually don't do it that much anymore now. Is obviously a launch of a business, so it's a little bit different, but the strategy [00:02:00] and the concepts are all the same.

And I'm not gonna teach you a formula or a frame like a, you know, a copy my. Plug and play template on launching, like that's just not what I do. Everything I do is tailored. Everything I do for con clients is tailored to their business, to their personalities as well, to everything. So I challenge you after this episode, if you wanna create hype online, really step inwards and think what's gonna work for you.

Because I've had clients where they need to do a really short turnaround to build momentum. I've had some people that just can't do that. There's people that wanna send a gazillion emails out in the week of their launch, and there's some that do well by not doing as many. So it is really a personal experience and anyone online that's telling you to copy their formulas, it's what's works for them, it's how they operate.

Now, if you super aligned to them, amazing, and if you think you could do what they do, amazing, but. [00:03:00] I think it's important to just acknowledge the fact that not every person launches in their business the same. But I really wanted to share what happened. So the results were that we had 70 plus people on the wait list, um, for open week, uh, at least 50 testimonials.

I'll share why soon. 500 plus followers on Instagram in the first, you know, before even launching an opening. It's since grown. A full bank of content for us to use for marketing. So I'm gonna share five things that we did, and yeah, you can use what works for you and trash. What you don't think will. The first thing was we started early.

Before the space was even open, we built anticipation. So we sort of did this built in public concept, right? Using Instagram and email and a little bit of TikTok. But Instagram was definitely our main social media platform. We documented the [00:04:00] journey. We asked questions like, what paint color would you like to see on the walls?

Involving the audience really in a lot of the decisions, even though. Some of them were already made, but it was really a built-in public kind of vibe. And I did this from very early, even though the space had already started being built. When we started working and started posting on social media, I. I got collated all the information, and that sort of leads into 0.2, which is keeping it really simple.

So the owners weren't really super into content creation from a lens of like, it wasn't something that they naturally did all the time. One of the owners. What is very great for camera, but obviously needs more prompts and guidance and like reminders because we don't all remember to create content. It doesn't come natural to most people.

Even sometimes me, I'll be out and about like, oh yeah, I should film this, but now having Mitch with me and all the things we definitely never forget, so I made it really easy. I got them to [00:05:00] film just what was happening, what was coming up, and just sharing it with me. And what I did is I co-created a bit of a script.

So I learned who preferred scripts versus who didn't because they are founders and I kind of let their voices just kind of come to life and be present in the process. Um, but they didn't have to be on camera consistently. Now, what we also did is we caught out with them a few times, so we were in town if.

You do have support and people around you, it does really help. So we got content, et cetera, et cetera. The third thing we did is we nurtured a list. So each week, the wait list got updated on behind the scenes progress sneak peaks, and an invitation to share with their network. We really wanted to keep the buzz alive.

So whenever you are creating a wait list for something or you're building hype, I think it's important to remember. That you don't just say like, oh thanks, you're on the list. Good job. See you soon. Like, I think it is really [00:06:00] important to nurture that list and keep people informed. And that kind of touches on points one and two as well, like.

Starting early is always really good if you can. Now, if you look at like a launch, typical launch period, it starts well before you say you are open or your doors are open, or your course is ready for people to see, or your new product is out. It comes a lot in the behind the scenes and the pre-launch. So how are you teasing this?

Because it's not just all of a sudden you're launching something and people are like, oh, I didn't know that was coming. That sort of tease that prelaunch. That's how. Happened a lot with clients who are launching books, clients who are launching new products, they're a product-based business. That hype, that that hype before the launch is so important.

So if you are working on something in the background, just try and document the process. But again, keep it simple work to what works for you. Is it you just showing your face and quickly talking? Is it, um, filming B roll and doing voiceover? Like find what [00:07:00] works for you. But I will say this wasn't. Oh, we, it's just random.

I filmed something I put up. It was strategic. So when you are planning on launching something, you gotta think backwards from the launch date and anticipate when you're gonna start creating content, then getting into that process of maybe batching or there are things that you film in the moment, but having that plan is so, so helpful.

Then the fourth thing was we invited the community in. So we had an open day. Actually the owners had multiple open days where they got people to come in, give feedback, but we had, um, a content day session. It was like an open day, a week before the, the doors were gonna open one massive content shoot. It was chaos and it was so fun.

And there's some stuff on my Instagram that you can check out with the links in the show notes, but we got. Everyone to record a testimonial, which meant we had like 50 plus testimonials because I'm telling you, there was a lot of people on that day. So we have so many video testimonials. We [00:08:00] prompted people to leave Google reviews, so we gave them a free.

Session in the space longer than what they would probably normally have. And they were able to test things out, give feedback, and also experience it. We also asked them to obviously feature in the content, and we had a range of different people from moms and dads to athletes because we, the, the important thing about this space and the brand and what it wants to be known for is.

Being inclusive, no matter if you are an Olympian, which there was an Olympian there to, uh, there was actually a woman who was pregnant. So it's all, it was all about getting a wide range of people come in. So when you are bringing community in, if that's what you're gonna do, and maybe a campaign or something like that, just remember who's the other person on the, the other end.

And. What type of people do you need to bring this to life? So have a think about that when you're building that out. But I think bringing your community into any launch [00:09:00] is so powerful, whether it is. Your business mentors, your business colleagues, like people that could share it for you, ask people. So we obviously gave a free session in exchange for coming, but we asked them for a testimonial.

We asked them to give a review on Google. We asked them to be in the content. We also asked them that if they were going to post on social media of that day, if they could please tag us. And do you know what that has created? This amazing pool of user generated content that. Every time I seem to log into this Instagram, someone has tagged a beautiful aesthetic picture of the space and tagged us, and it has been awesome because we're building all this momentum now post-launch of people coming in and sharing their experiences, which is what you want off the back of launching something.

So how can you bring your community in? Can you ask previous clients if you have any? If, if you're not launching from scratch is what I mean to share about their experience, give a testimonial. Can you ask your business colleagues or [00:10:00] people that you could partner with, like bringing in a community to help you launch something is extremely helpful.

And I have been guilty of this time and time of again, again, of never asking my community to help share what I'm doing. And I think it's time we all stepped up. Put our big boy and big girl pants on and ask people to help us to share it for us. Ask our customers to leave reviews or clients like, let's do the thing, let's ask help.

'cause people are more than willing to help. They just don't know you need it. Right. And the fifth one is, we plan for long term. So obviously we created, like Mitch got really camera happy and he took like 2000 photos, which he still needs to go through to be fair, don't you? And we have hours of. Video content that we have shot, and now this business has a full bank of content for coming months.

I also wrote some long form SEO blogs of every modality in the space. So now we have [00:11:00] content that can work while we are not actively online, and we have seen an increase in search results. So coming up in search people finding us from search, and that helps from. That. So when you are launching, don't just think about the launch period.

Think about after the launch. So you've got post-launch, which is a little bit of like hype and, and people are still like sharing about it. But then after that, so even for example, one of my clients who has just launched a book, how do we keep that going? How do we keep the momentum? So now we're going into sort of like the business as usual type of content.

But we're still seeing the user generator content. We still have the testimonials, all that, that we are gonna drag out. You know, we didn't have to use it all in that launch period. So when you are creating lots and lots and lots of content for your launch, 'cause that's generally what happens. How can you keep using that and how can you keep that going?

And even if. You only launch a course or that product once or once a year, or once every three months or whatever that looks [00:12:00] like, you could still be doing things within it. You could be, if you just go straight to wait list again and people join it, you could be sharing about the results of that product, like keep it going.

Keep thinking about after the launch. Don't just like close the doors and then never think about it again. Share about it. I've been guilty of this too. I've done live launches of content bootcamp, live rounds, people come, da, da, da. And then in between the rounds I like don't talk about it. So now I'm trying to consistently talk about it on my social media so that people know it exists because you don't want people just to know it exists in that launch period.

So always think long term and especially if you have products. Depending on how many products and services you have, if you sort of start mapping out when you wanna like really draw attention to them, those create little marketing activations or bigger marketing campaigns. And then in your business as usual content, which is around kind of in, in between those campaigns, you start to share, you could share more about like results and maybe behind the scenes, but when you are planning a launch.[00:13:00] 

Please think about more than just a like two week period or one week period or whatever it looks like. Like build out something that. Is gonna create hype and pre-launch, and then obviously the full go launch, whatever you're doing, and then post-launch, and then anything after that long term just to keep that cycle, keep that momentum.

How we were able to build hype around this was pulling in all those levers, starting early, keeping it simple in terms of what was needed to be done, when it was needed to be done. Like you don't have to overcomplicate things. Uh, please don't nurturing the list. Inviting the community in and planning long term.

So there are five things that I would recommend thinking about when you are launching because yeah, often we just think that the momentum starts from launch day and it doesn't. There's so much going on behind the scenes to make it happen. I am going to do a [00:14:00] case study on this, um, more content. If you have any questions about this.

Type of work that we do. I'd love to know if you like this kind of stuff, because obviously I don't always share everything that I do with my clients, but I work with a lot of different clients. I've had a lot of different experiences, and at the moment there's really great momentum around a lot of. The clients we're working with from startups to, you know, um, brick and mortar businesses, services to online coaching and course creation from getting PR to launching research papers, launching books.

There is a lot going on behind the scenes at Content Queen and I don't often share it a lot of the time. So if you would like to hear a little bit more, obviously, you know, I can't share all the nitty gritty details 'cause I like to keep things. Very personal to the client's experience, but I do like to share what's happening, what we're working on.

We're doing some really, really cool stuff. We actually today just got an email for some branding that we're gonna [00:15:00] do for a gym that is rebranding. Um, just a fun Christmas project for us. And yeah, I, I, I love sharing the stories and the experiences and what I've learned because this launch was a really great launch.

Like we had such great momentum. The one thing was that I wanna highlight is the owners did the work and also there was a lot of backend tech set up from Leanne. Shout out to Leanne who's gonna be on the podcast. As I mentioned, she did a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure everything was like smooth sailing, which makes such difference.

The owners really showed up and they were really ready to make this work. As I said, they were getting people in really early. They're asking all the right questions and doing all the right things. So if you ever do get someone helping you, like trust the expertise, just give it your all, because that's what really builds momentum.

I had a client that. She just went 120% on her book launch and it paid off big time for her. So [00:16:00] the work and showing up is probably my sixth tip. Um, but that's what really does build the momentum. And if there are things in your launch that are blocking you. You can outsource them. Just do it because if you, if you just focus your energy on showing up, people sense that energy times a thousand and it'll pay off long term.

So any questions about our experience with this launch, please let me know. But be a content queen or king, and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business. Thank you so much for joining me today, and please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends.

You can do this by adding it to Insta Stories and tagging me at Content Queen Mariah, or just simply tell 'em about it. If you do rate and review on whatever platform you're listening to us on, it does help me get this podcast out there and share my message. Follow me on Instagram or TikTok and let me know if there's any topics you'd like me to talk about in the future.

I'm going to be having two weeks off the podcast for Christmas, but leading up into Christmas, we've got some great topics. I have a meta expert to come [00:17:00] on and talk about what is going on with meta because. You might have heard I had a lot of met experience, a lot of trauma. I actually had another account lost over on Friday and we got it back, and then the client that was never to be returned came back.

So I'm happy now, but I wasn't so happy on Friday. And we're gonna be talking about all things. I'm gonna be talking about what's happening in 2026 with content marketing. Lots, lots, lots. And I've got Leanne who is amazing at systems and we are gonna be chatting a little bit more about this client as well and our work together from just a behind the scenes of how systems and marketing work really well and how, you know, you can't just put out a masterclass and go, oh, yep, cool, that's out.

You've gotta have all the backend systems and things like that set up. So stay tuned and I'll talk to you next week. Bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment