The Emotional Rollercoaster Of Promos
Jan 29, 2026
After being involved in over 50 product promotions over the years (whether it was a simple sale or a brand new product launch)...
I’ve realized something:
No matter how much you prepare, it’s going to be an emotional roller coaster.
I used to think the emotions I went through meant a few things about me:
I was a bad or unskilled marketer
I was a bit too emotional when it came to sales
I just wasn't cut out for selling stuff (or helping companies sell stuff)
But the longer I've worked in marketing...
The more I've realized something:
This is actually quite common.
I've met a lot of business owners, whether in real life or online, and the story always seems to be the same:
Promotions are a whole whirlwind of emotions. And when you go through them, you truly are "joining the club."
If I had known that earlier-
It would have saved me a whole lot of heartache.
(And probably made the promotions I was involved in more successful, too.)
So:
That's what this post covers:
The typical lifecycle of most promotions
Five strategies you can implement to stay calmer throughout a promotion lifecycle
Eight things that will make your promotions (and launches) more successful overall
Is this topic a bit "woo woo"?
Maybe.
But it's the real stuff that business owners deal with, and I'm certain it will help you navigate the emotions (and tactics) behind promotions.
The Typical Lifecycle Of A Product Promotion
It’s important to understand that most of your product promotions will follow a standard lifecycle.
(Important note before we dive in: this is true for any promotion that is less than a smashing success. There are of course promotions that blow your expectations out of the water. That bring in more money, generate more revenue, or create more customers than you ever expected. But this post specifically is about the promotions that underperform your expectations.)
Stage 1: excitement
Let’s be honest: product launches take a lot of work. Here are just a few things you might be involved in as the business owner:
Creating the product
Filming ad scripts
Creating sales page
Creating upsells or order bumps
Putting together a high ticket upsell
Talking with affiliates
Filming a VSL
Writing emails
A lot of work leads up to a product launch, and when you finally open the cart-
It’s a surge of emotion.
The excitement comes, and you start asking yourself:
What if?
Stage 2: panic
Unless people have been begging you to let them buy, it’s a common experience to be a bit disappointed in the initial results. There aren’t as many sales as you were hoping for. People aren’t as excited as you expected.
You look at your Stripe notifications, and where you expected to see a bunch of pings, you instead see…
Crickets.
This is where you start panicking, because you don’t know if people just aren’t buying…
Or if the problem is technical. (For example, a broken link on you sales page.)
Stage 3: slight depression
In 2025 + 2026, course sales are down. Across the board.
AI is making information cheap, and people just aren’t buying like they used to.
When you think about how much work you just spent preparing this promotion, and the last spike in sales hasn’t started yet (see the next point), it can really suck.
This is the worst part:
Depression that comes with the realization that unless you see a miracle, this promotion isn’t going to let you retire.
Stage 4: excitement as sales pick up
About 50% of your sales will come in the last 24-36 hours of your promotion. This is consistent across industries.
When this starts to happen (as it almost always does), you get excited again.
This excitement isn’t quite like the first stage (it’s maybe a bit more balanced), but it’s still great.
You’re making money, baby.
(Maybe not as much as you were hoping, but orders are still coming in.)
Stage 5: acceptance of the results
The promotion ends and you run the final numbers. Maybe not as much as you were hoping in your “best case scenario”, but still a solid result.
This isn’t quite sadness…
BUt amature acceptance of what happened.
This is the lifecycle of your typical promotion. Again, not the promotions that go gang-busters (we will discuss that on Thursday). But the stages of what over half of your promotions will look like.
Not amazing.
Not terrible.
But- decent.
Now, you may have noticed that there are a ton of emotions in this rollercoaster…
And not all of them are good.
This is where the "emotional regulation tips" come in:
How To Not Go Crazy During A Promo
Plan months ahead of time
I’ve been involved in promotions where they were kind of a last minute idea. Kind of like: oh it’s already the end of the month..well how about we sell something?
Those can be exciting and a rush of adrenaline. But normally they just suck.
If you want to experience less of an emotional rollercoaster with your promotions, it helps to plan. Months ahead of time. When you’re prepared, you’re calm. And when you’re calm, things usually go better.
Schedule your emails in advance
Since I work in email marketing, this one is particularly useful. Many education businesses generate most of their sales off the back of email. And the cool thing about that?
You can just load them into your ESP before your promo is even live.
(This assumes all your integrations with enrollment, etc are working as they should.)
Realize that it’s very hard to consistently have huge launches or promotions
The purpose of this post isn’t to depress you. You are more than capable of having awesome promos that generate you massive paydays. That can happen. (And if you follow the tips tomorrow, they will.)
But let’s be honest:
Some promos just don’t do as well as you were hoping. And that can happen for a number of reasons that are completely out of your control (AI, the economy, current events, etc). The point?
Being “on” all the time just doesn’t happen.
Treat everything as a learning opportunity
Going off the last point:
If there’s one thing that will make your promotions less stressful, it’s being a student of your business.
Everything (and I mean everything) can teach you something.
And when you stay open to learning, you’re able to apply those lessons to more successful promotions in the future.
And lastly:
Try to detach your business success from your sense of self
I don’t mean to be too “woo woo” here. And again, this isn’t to encourage you to throw in the towel
But you are NOT your business.
If you have a massive launch, that doesn’t make you some kind of genius. And inversely, a promotion that doesn;t bring in as many sales as you hoped doesn’t make you a failure.Everything is in flux.
And the business owner that is going to be more successful over the long run?
They’re the ones that take that to heart-
And are able to separate themselves from their business.
8 Tips To Avoid The Emotional Rollercoaster Of A Promo
#1: Pre-sell.
A big reason for failed product launches is that business owners do some version of the following a lot:
Have an idea for a new product
Convince themselves that people are going to love it
Spend months creating it without getting any kind of feedback
Launch it to the sound of crickets
You don’t want this. A great way to prevent it is simply pre-selling with email.
#2: Make your launch an event.
Jeff Walker (of “product launch formula fame”) recommends that you make a launch an event. Think about how Hollywood does things. Big parties. Marketing campaigns. All kinds of videos. If you have the team for it, do the same for your own launch:
YouTube videos
Instagram reels
A banner on your main website
An email series “warming people up”
Put in some extra effort-
And the results might surprise you.
#3: Give past buyers a special deal on your promo.
People like to feel special. By giving past buyers a special deal on your product, you:
Make them feel special
Make them more likely to buy
Do this enough, and your group of buyers starts to feel like they’re part of something exclusive, and will continue to buy basically anything you create. It’s a pretty awesome cycle.
#4: Survey your audience.
You need to gather data about what your people want. Too many business owners work in seclusion without getting information from their most valuable resource-
The people they are going to sell to.
So do something simple: ask people what they would buy before you start making it.
That said, what people say they will buy is often different from what they actually do. That’s why it’s also a good idea to:
#5: Copy other businesses.
Ideally, bigger than yours. These guys have it figured out. They have built a large enough audience and sold enough to take lessons to heart.
And if you look at whatever kind of product they are selling (cohorts are particularly popular these days), there’s a pretty good chance it’s working.
No use reinventing the wheel here. Take what works, put your own spin on things, and you’re less likely to have a flop.
#6: Get affiliates involved.
Other people have your future buyers in their audience. So get them involved. Depending on what you sell, give affiliates a 20-50% cut of whatever sales they bring in.
And make it easy for them to take part in your promos. Send over swipe copy. Prodict descriptions. Any images they can use.
Those are sales you get without much extra work.
#7: Improve your sales page.
Nobody wants to hear it, but maybe your sales page sucks. You can have the best product in the world, and if your sales page doesn’t do a good job of selling it?
Well-
You’re not going to sell anything.
Get a pro to take a look. After enough time looking at your own sales page, it’s hard to see glaring mistakes. A second pair of eyes can catch those mistakes - and improve them.
#8: Invest in list building.
Often, the big bottleneck to bigger promos is simple: you don’t have enough people to sell to.
Never stop growing your email list. It should be one of your top priorities at your business. More people to sell to = more sales.
Simple as that.
The Emotional Roller Coaster Of Promos: A Blessing In Disguise?
The emotional roller coaster of promos kinda sucks- especially when the end result isn't quite what you wanted.
But follow these tips-
And your keep your business nimble, moving forward, and most importantly…
Ready for a more successful promo the next time :)
…
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