Here’s something nobody really talks about in the online business space: the math of launching.

If you run two launches a year (which is honestly A LOT for a solopreneur) and each one takes about three weeks of active launch energy, that’s six weeks of the year where you have a clear marketing job to do. You know what to post. You know what emails to send. You have a runway, a cart open, a cart close. It’s stressful, but it’s structured.

That leaves approximately 46 other weeks where most founders are just… winging it.

And I don’t mean that in a harsh way. I mean that the marketing education space has done a really thorough job of teaching you how to launch and a remarkably incomplete job of teaching you what to do with the rest of the year.

That’s what I want to talk about today.

The Problems With Launch-Only Marketing

Launch strategies are valuable. I’m not here to talk you out of running them. But when launching is the only marketing strategy you have, a few things start to happen and (spoiler) none of them are great.

Your audience goes cold between launches

You disappear after cart close, spend a few months heads-down delivering, and then resurface six months later asking people to buy something. Except they’ve forgotten who you are, or why they liked you, or what problem you solve. The trust you built during your last launch has quietly evaporated. So you have to re-warm them from scratch every single time, which makes every launch harder and more exhausting than it needs to be.

Your revenue becomes feast-or-famine

When your entire income strategy depends on two or three launch windows a year, you become acutely aware of just how much is riding on each one. That pressure doesn’t make for better launches. It makes for stressed-out founders who over-engineer their runway and burn out before cart even opens.

You become invisible to new people

Launches are really good at converting a warm audience. They’re not great at building one. If you’re only showing up during launch mode, you’re not doing the work that brings new eyes to your business in the first place. You’re just selling to the same people, over and over, hoping they’re still paying attention.

The missing piece (and the thing that fixes all three of these problems!) is between-launch marketing. And it’s genuinely the thing I care most about teaching.

What Between-Launch Marketing Actually Is

Between-launch marketing is everything you do to stay visible, build trust, and grow your audience during the weeks and months when you’re not actively selling something with a deadline.

It’s not a consolation prize for the off-season. It’s not “just post some value content and hope for the best.” It’s a real, intentional strategy that keeps your business moving forward even when there’s no launch on the calendar.

Here’s what it looks like in practice:

It’s showing up with a consistent point of view

Not just tips and tricks, but an actual perspective on your industry that people start to associate with you specifically. The kind of content that makes someone think “oh, this sounds like her” before they even see your name. That kind of brand recognition doesn’t happen during a launch. It gets built in the quiet weeks in between.

It’s nurturing the people already in your world

Your email list. Your existing followers. The people who’ve bought from you before. Between launches is when you deepen those relationships and when you share what’s on your mind, what you’re working on, what you’ve been thinking about. Not to sell anything. Just to stay connected.

It’s creating content that compounds over time

Blog posts that keep getting found on Google. Pinterest pins that circulate for months. A podcast back-catalogue that new listeners binge on a Saturday afternoon. Content that doesn’t disappear after 24 hours, but keeps pulling people into your world long after you hit publish.

It’s keeping a low hum of visibility around your offers

Not a constant hard sell but a gentle, consistent presence that reminds people what you do and how you can help. Mentioning an offer in a newsletter. Linking to a freebie at the end of a blog post. Showing a behind-the-scenes look at how a client result happened. The kind of soft selling that doesn’t feel like selling at all, but keeps your offers top of mind.

The Mindset Shift That Makes This Easier

One of the biggest reasons between-launch marketing doesn’t happen is that founders don’t feel like they have “permission” to show up unless they have something to sell.

Like, what’s the point of posting if there’s no launch? Why send an email if there’s no offer attached? Who cares what I think about [insert your signature topic here] if I’m not launching a course about it?

Here’s the reframe I want to offer you: your audience doesn’t follow you for your launches. They follow you for you. Your perspective, your personality, the way you explain things, the way you make them feel like someone gets it. The launch is just the moment you invite them to go deeper. But the relationship that makes them want to say yes? That gets built in the in-between.

Launch strategies teach you how to sprint. I teach you how to jog.

And jogging—sustained, steady, intentional forward movement—is what actually builds a business that lasts.

A Simple Between-Launch Marketing Framework

Here’s how I think about structuring between-launch marketing so it’s actually doable and not just another thing on your list.

One long-form anchor piece per week (or every two weeks)

A blog post, newsletter, podcast episode, or YouTube video. Something with some depth and staying power. This is your primary content creation effort and everything else gets pulled from it.

Two to three social posts per platform you’re active on

Repurposed from your anchor piece, or standalone thoughts and observations that fit your content pillars. These keep you visible day-to-day without requiring a fresh idea every single morning.

One email per week to your list

This is non-negotiable for me. Your email list is the most valuable asset your business has, and between launches is when you nurture it. Not every email needs a CTA. Some weeks it’s just a story, a thought, something you noticed. Let your list hear from you like a person, not just a business.

A low-key offer mention woven in naturally

Once or twice a week across all your content, make sure there’s a path for someone to take the next step with you. Not a hard sell. Just a reminder that you have things that can help, whether that’s a freebie, a low-ticket offer, a link to book a call. The between-launch period is actually when a lot of your warmest leads will convert, if you give them an easy door to walk through.

That’s the whole framework. Four moving parts, working together, every week. It’s not glamorous. It doesn’t require a launch runway or a fancy funnel. It just requires showing up with intention consistently enough that when you do launch again, your audience is warm, paying attention, and actually excited to hear what you have to say.

What to Talk About When You’re Not Launching

Okay, but what do you actually say out there? This is the question I get most often, and I get it! When there’s no launch to build toward, it can feel like there’s no obvious direction for your content.

Here’s how I think about it. Between launches, your content has one job: build the relationship and establish the authority that makes your next launch feel like a natural next step instead of a cold ask.

That means:

Teaching the concepts that lead to your offers

If you sell a strategy template, write about why having a strategy matters. If you sell an audit, write about the signs someone’s marketing isn’t working. The content that lives around your offers is the content that pre-sells them without a single “buy now” in sight.

Sharing your perspective and lived experience

Your opinions about your industry. What you’ve noticed with clients. What you tried that didn’t work and what you learned. What you genuinely believe about your industry/unique perspective. This is the content that builds real connection and makes people feel like they know you before they’ve ever paid you a penny.

Answering the questions your ideal client is actually asking

The “is it just me or…” questions. The things she Googles at 11pm when she’s spiraling about her strategy. The things she’d ask you if she had five minutes with you right now. Content that meets her exactly where she is—that’s the content that builds trust faster than anything else.

Staying visible without always being loud

Stories, Threads posts, a casual newsletter… these are the low-effort, high-connection touchpoints that remind your audience you exist without requiring a full production.

If you want a structured place to plan all of this out, Marketing HQ is the $47 Google Sheet system I built for exactly this. It’s where your between-launch content strategy actually lives so you’re never staring at a blank page wondering what to post in the quiet weeks.

The Compounding Effect Nobody Talks About

Here’s the part I really want you to hold onto: between-launch marketing compounds in a way that launch marketing simply can’t.

Every blog post you publish gets indexed and found. Every email you send builds a little more trust with the person reading it. Every Threads post or Instagram caption that resonates makes your name a little more familiar to someone who might become a client six months from now. Every freebie download starts a new relationship that you can nurture over time.

None of this is flashy. None of it has the adrenaline spike of a successful launch week. But it builds something that launches can’t: a warm, connected, growing audience that actually wants to hear from you and is already halfway sold before you ever open a cart.

The founders I see building genuine, sustainable momentum (the ones whose launches keep getting easier and more profitable!) aren’t the ones who launch more. They’re the ones who never really stop marketing in between.

Enjoyed this post? You might also like:

→ What Integrated Marketing Actually Means and Why It Matters for Your Business

→ The Difference Between a Content Plan and a Marketing Strategy

Ready to build your between-launch marketing strategy?

☁️ Start with In The Loop: the free seven-question quiz that tells you exactly what’s getting in the way of your marketing right now. 

💻 Or grab Marketing HQ: the $47 Google Sheet system where your whole between-launch content plan lives.