Do you have an online course or service to launch? A lot of my clients are realising the benefits of adding these to their website as another money stream, whilst utilising their knowledge and experience.
Successful selling is all about knowing whether there is a market for what you are offering - it may sound obvious but sometimes you might not be giving your target market what they really want. Offering a Power Hour, based on the subject of your course or service, is a really great way to speak to your target market on a one-to-one basis because you can use it as market research and find out where their struggles are (and you will get paid for it!).
When you confirm you have a market, you need to figure out if this is a hot, warm or cold audience:
a HOT audience (current clients) will buy from you within 0 - 30 days
a WARM audience (subscribers) will by from you 30 + days
a COLD audience (people how don't know you exist) will buy from you 90 + days
So can you see why, if you don't have an audience you can't turn up on day one and expect to sell anything in less that 90 days. It can actually take up to one year from someone finding you to buying from you - but now I'm going to give you pearls on how you can potentially speed this process up.
How to Make Sales Within 30 Days of Launching
People who launch anything and make sales within weeks of launching, only do it because they have the audience for it. It's that straight forward.
So when you compare yourself to another person who has successfully launched (for example, an online course), please review their situation before you beat yourself up.
Which audience do you have and what does this mean for your course?
COLD - this tells us you will need at least 90 days of marketing before someone will buy from you - but please be aware that it can take up to ONE YEAR from finding you to buying from you. These people need to know you, like you and trust you and to do this authentically takes time. And a lot of self belief.
WARM - this tells us that you could make a sale from 30 days, as long as you are marketing your content correctly and it's something your warm audience need. These people will already know and like you, so they just need a bit more convincing to trust you in order to buy from you.
HOT - this tells us that you will make a sale around 30 days, as long as it's something that your audience needs. These people will need less convincing because they already know, like and trust you, having bought from you before.
It all depends on what your course is and who it is for. Even if you are an established business with a hot audience, it doesn't mean that your current clients would benefits from the course, so you may be starting with a cold audience.
For example: if I launched a course on how to design a website, my current hot audience wouldn't buy this because they already have a website from me. My warm audience, however, would be more inclined to buy. But if I launched a course on how to maintain your website, my hot audience would be top of my list for sales.
Now you need to ask yourself:
How many do I want to sell / how much money do I want to make?
Do I have enough people on my mailing list?
How to Grow your Audience and Convert to Buyers
If you have a COLD Audience
The quickest and simplest way of growing an authentic audience, whilst being able to make money in the process is to offer dedicated lead magnets that are related to your course, for a fee. This will give people tasters of what you're offering and they will develop trust with you quicker (feeling more comfortable to buy from you in the future).
Lead magnets such as:
Blog posts - content related to your course material
Power Hour - offer one to one chats for a fee, discussing a problem that you resolve during your course
Demonstration / Presentation - a snippet on how to achieve something
Challenge - a fun day challenge on a topic related to your course
E Book / PDF Download - a How To Guide
You need to be able to upsell your course from all of these lead magnets.
TOP TIP: Don't spend your time writing your online course or service to it's completion, have enough detail to market it but get going with your lead magnets to build your audience.
If you have a WARM Audience
Followers don't equate to buyers! Subscribers are people on your mailing list who have engaged with you on a one to one basis, by personally leaving you their details basically wanting more of what you have to offer.
Your warm audience will still need some 'warming up', so:
again offer lead magnets
create direct social media ads, selling the benefits
high-value social media content relating directing to your course
TOP TIP: Make sure the content you are posting about your service / course hits the mark with your warm audience and specifically targets a problem they want to solve.
Marketing Top TIPS
Make you are clear about what it is you are selling: i.e. the features of the course and how it will benefit your clients life, along with the details such as the duration, what's involved and the price.
Check out my blog post on What EXACTLY is it your do for a Living? to help you with this
Make sure your marketing sales funnel is kept short - create links to a landing page on your website that will give the viewer all they need to know and then a BUY NOW button.
WHAT NOW?
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BIG KISSES
Claire x