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The road to beginning a successful online business is full of hard lessons. I’m kicking off the new year with a story about learning, making mistakes, and succeeding anyway. I’m sitting down with the founders of Hmong Baby, a couple who, after experimentation and validation, were able to have enormous success with their products. Welcome to 2018!
Hmong Baby is a brand that helps bring the Hmong culture together, spreading and preserving that culture by teaching kids about it. They started out with flashcards, and they recently launched their first board book. Awesome!
I’m super stoked to introduce Mykou and Touger to you. They’re going to talk about how they got started with this business, why, after a number of failures, they landed on this idea, and what inspired them. They’re sharing the ideas behind some of their recent launches and campaigns, what apps they used to boost their success, and more. This might give you some ideas of possibilities for expanding your business and growing your brand, so listen close. I’m so excited to kick off the new year with you—let’s get started!
I’ve got a couple of quick announcements today too:
The machine of SPI has been well-oiled and running smoothly for the past couple years, but I know that in order to grow you need to be proactive, not reactive. This year’s theme is Higher Value, and we’re going to shake things up a bit. I’m going to dive deeper with the questions I ask, to find out what helps people find success, or to help them through my coaching process, or teach you something more in-depth if I’m doing a solo episode.
The AskPat Podcast will be changing format when it comes back in February, going from a daily show (five days a week) to a weekly coaching call so that I can get more specific, one on one, with my guests. Learn more by listening to AskPat Episode 1000, or by visiting AskPat.com, where you can apply to be on an AskPat 2.0 coaching call!
I’m also boosting my presence in the YouTube space. Why? (Besides the fact that there are people in that space who I’d like to reach.) The people on YouTube who are teaching similar things that I teach . . . I don’t like the way they do it. I don’t like the way they teach, the way they bait people into paying for the information they need. Somebody needs to step in and teach the information freely so that people can get some quick wins down before they realize that they need to invest time and money into their businesses. I want to go in and be the top search result for things like “passive income,” “how to build a business,” and “how to work from home.” Head over to SmartPassiveIncome.com/youtube to subscribe. I’m going to be launching five videos a week, starting in February. See you there!
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Don't weep for those cashiers. They're headed to more productive, better-paying jobs. And you're headed to better customer service.
7 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Shoppers in Seattle recently got a taste of the future with the debut of Amazon Go. This new store offers a retail experience like no other: Customers walk in, grab items and walk out -- no cashier required. Thanks to hundreds of cameras and sophisticated software, the store tracks which items customers take and bills their Amazon accounts for the total.
Remember those once-ubiquitous gas station attendants? In some ways, Amazon's shopping revolution resembles those attendants' demise. Both scenarios represent the same process, where economic growth through increased productivity leads to a new understanding of the value of labor.
Today, we pump our own gas, and nobody thinks twice about it. Now, shoppers in Seattle don't need cashiers.
Certainly, for entrepreneurs, Amazon Go and its new vision of shopping offers exciting opportunities for the future. But, when cashiers become as unnecessary as gas station attendants, where will that labor go? And what will this shift say about the evolution of tech?
A matter of priorities
Austrian economist Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992) defined capital as "those non-permanent resources which [cannot be consumed directly] to contribute to the permanent maintenance of the income at a particular level."
His definition is a mouthful, but von Hayek was on to something. True, cars don't automatically fill up their tanks when they pull into gas stations; people still have to interact with fuel pumps. But pump technology has become so intuitive that the value of a gas station attendant is lower than the value of that same labor in another industry.
What's more, those attendants want to work elsewhere where they can make more money.
The same situation will soon be true for retail cashiers. While these employees once memorized prices and did math in their heads, today's cashiers drag barcodes over a scanner and place products in bags. Anyone and anything can do that -- many stores already offer self-checkout lanes. So, what Amazon Go's automated process does is call into question the value of cashiers altogether.
When a customer encounters an issue at the pump today, that person goes inside the gas station to talk with a worker behind the counter. Stores might soon follow a similar model, employing one or two cashiers to troubleshoot problems but eliminating the need for eight open lanes. This qualifies as a cost-cutting measure that ultimately lowers prices for consumers, but that's not the end of it. The real value of these advancements is not the money saved -- it's the increases in other types of production. The salary of a gas station attendant creates more value when that money is used in different ways.
Advances like Amazon Go and attendant-free gas stations help both sides of the buying equation. Society as a whole enjoys increased output from workers who are in more productive positions, and those workers earn better wages in more relevant roles. Everyone wins.
Lessons entrepreneurs can learn from Amazon Go
To stay ahead of the curve, entrepreneurs should take lessons from the implementation of Amazon Go and prepare for a world of new opportunities.
1. Embrace technology as a value. Entrepreneurs often use technology to cut costs, but that reasoning in and of itself is flawed. Technology should not serve as a way to spend less; it should offer an avenue to provide more value for customers.
According to Chief Executive, the mid-market companies with the highest growth spend more than double the industry average on research and development. That growth doesn't come solely from cost savings -- it stems from increased productivity and new offerings. Any advancement that increases internal efficiency should also provide an external benefit to consumers, such as faster service, better products or lower prices.
2. Stay at the forefront, but don't overextend. Push the boundaries of your comfort zone, but maintain a balance between old and new tech. You don't want to fall behind competitors in terms of technology adoption, but you also don't want to jump on new tech simply for the sake of an upgrade.
Before implementing any new tech, consider the needs of your customers: How will this affect the customer experience, the quality of product or speed of service? The worst technological investments confuse and repel customers, while the best ones fit seamlessly into their existing expectations.
For a prime example of what not to do, remember the doomed juicer startup Juicero. This company raised $120 million to create a product no one wanted: a $700 juicer that was slightly less effective than squeezing produce by hand. The tech failed to make customers' lives better, and the company shut down soon after launch.
3. Be prepared, even when you're not investing. Technology will never stop improving. Regardless of whether your company adopts the newest tools, you still need to be aware of how the presence of those tools could affect your marketplace.
Stay on top of any technological developments relevant to your industry. Even if you naturally avoid early adoption, you'll at least want to know what's going on and position your company to respond if consumer expectations quickly shift.
Had it not been for Waymo, Google's self-driving car subsidiary, automotive companies might have delayed their own autonomous car initiatives. Once Waymo initiated its driverless car pickup program, though, General Motors and Ford both hustled to announce their own plans for ride-sharing services with their vehicles.
Once consumers learn to love a new feature, companies that can meet that need will thrive. Those that wait too long to get started will scramble to catch up.
4. Keep tabs on advances in other industries. Some technology has obvious uses, like a customer-relationship management system for a marketing firm. Other technology does not have such clear applications. By thinking outside the box and considering the possibilities of cutting-edge technology from other industries, entrepreneurs can gain unique advantages.
Look for imaginative uses for tech that would increase the value of what your company offers. Could something that works in a different industry help you streamline your own business, expand your offering or reach a new category of customers? Find uses that aren't obvious or being considered by your competitors.
Another strategy: Create an internal team to evaluate potential uses for new software. Microsoft Garage allows employees to explore new technology and play with unconventional ideas. The fear of failure doesn't exist here; what does is the potential for employees to provide the company with unique technology applications.
In the end, cashiers won't disappear overnight. New technology requires up-front investments, which most companies are not ready to make. Nor are some consumers comfortable shopping at a store like Amazon Go -- in the same way some drivers didn't want to pump their own gas after attendants began to disappear.
The future is coming, though. Cashiers will not stick around forever, and new technology will continue to change consumer expectations. By staying on top of trends and investing in the right technology, entrepreneurs can keep pace in evolving industries and create more value for their customers -- as well as jobs for those reduncant cashiers.
Here's a simple metric to help you identify where to spend your time in 2018.
Pat Flynn
I once heard a phrase that has stuck with me for years, and has become one of the most important phrases for my business:
“You can’t improve what you don’t track.”
It’s a simple idea, yet so easy to forget, or just ignore. This phrase has been an essential part of my planning and building of my business, and it’s helped me understand, as the CEO of my company, that I need to track metrics in order to fully understand how to improve.
If I don’t track the data, how can I possibly understand what’s working and what’s not working? How can I improve? There was a time when I didn’t track data, which, in retrospect, is sort of mind boggling. I just kind of based efforts on a general feeling or on costs/dollars alone.
But not anymore!
Now, I track data. Lately, I’ve been more strategic with the numbers related to subscriber counts, website traffic, and conversion rates. I implement A/B testing in email marketing. I think about placement of links on SmartPassiveIncome.com. I try out multiple types of calls-to-action for online course sign-ups, and I pay attention to the numbers, one way or another.
And with that, I’ve seen a noticeable improvement in the business overall. That’s great, but I am always mindful of the fact that each one of those visitors, each one of those subscribers, each one of those students is a human—a human with value and capacity for reason and love. When we’re talking about data tracking and analytics, it’s easy to forget that.
They are humans, they are part of your audience, they are cherished members of your community. Treat them that way!
Another important lesson I’ve learned recently is this:
“You can’t progress when you don’t start, stop, and continue.”
Now, hopefully we all have goals for our businesses, goals that are defined, goals that we can measure and take action on. But to achieve those goals, there’s always a necessary component of change—starting, stopping, and continuing until we figure out the right path.
Another quote I think of (broadly attributed to Einstein) is:
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Doing the same thing is likely only going to produce the same results, again and again. To better and more clearly define the different things you should be doing, you need to start, stop, and continue.
So, what does that mean exactly? What does it mean to start, stop, and continue?
Start, Stop, and Continue
I’ll give you an example. You have a big project launch coming up. In order to make the best out of this big project launch, you take time to determine what your goals are. After figuring out your goals, you look at your process. You figure out what you start doing to meet your goals, what you need to stop doing, and what you should continue doing in order to launch strong and achieve your goals.
That’s start, stop, and continue.
You start doing the things you determine you need to do to accomplish your goals.
You stop doing the things that get in the way of the achievement of your goals.
You continue doing the things that align with those goals.
By dividing your efforts into those clear steps (start, stop, and continue), you are able to clearly define the new actions you should take, and the changes you need to make going forward.
Start, Stop, and Continue Origin Story
As always, business is a learning process, and this is the best structure that I found for understanding exactly how to take the next action. The origin of this start, stop, and continue process came out of a team meeting in San Diego. Matt and Mindy, of Winning Edits and part of Team Flynn, flew into town, and there, in a hotel room, the light bulb switched on.
What we arrived at, is that in order to achieve our goals, we needed to have a plan that would be reflective and welcoming of change.
On the hotel room window, we started by placing Post-It Notes with our goals and plans for the coming year.
(Side note: I love Post-It Notes! I’d gleefully frolic hand-in-hand with Post-It Notes if, you know, Post-it Notes had hands.)
We wrote each of our thoughts on a Post-It Note and slapped it onto the window. One idea per Post-It. After a while, we asked ourselves: “Okay, in order to achieve these goals, what things do we need to start doing? What should we stop doing? And what should we continue doing?”
Pretty soon, we had a pretty extensive list of a) what we needed to start; b) what we needed to stop; and c) what we needed to continue doing. When we saw all of this laid out, it became very clear to us what actions we needed to take over the next year.
What I love about this exercise is it creates boundaries. It’s like the saying, “if you say yes to something, you’re also saying no to something else.” Or, like the coaching strategy I learned recently, which is: when you’re coaching someone, you need to help them understand what they should be doing, but you also need to help them understand what they should not be doing. This is a great way to self-coach yourself into the actions that you need to take and hopefully get the results that you want.
To help you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Start, Stop, and Continue: The Exercise
The great part about the Start, Stop, and Continue exercise is you’re going to find holes. You’re going to find areas that you didn’t realize you missed, or weak spots in your process. That’s a good thing! The exercise enables you to work backward to fill in those holes, and understand more clearly what the next steps should be.
A book I highly recommend that goes perfectly with this strategy is The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan.
Check out my review of The One Thing on my YouTube channel:
So, to get back to the Start, Stop, and Continue exercise, after you go through it, there may be many things you’ll realize you need to fix, fine-tune, or add. And, yes, that can be overwhelming. But the key is to take it one step at a time. Determine what your priorities are, and use that information to decide which ones need to be tackled first.
That’s the Start: the the things you determine you need to start doing.
As for the Stop, you also need to understand what to stop doing. This is just as important to the process, and where a lot of the magic starts to happen—but it’s also one of the most difficult thing to do. Ask yourself, “Of the things that we’re doing, what things shouldn’t we be doing anymore?”
How the Start, Stop, and Continue Approach Has Impacted Me
When I was going through this process with the team, we decided to place a lot less emphasis on creating written-only blog posts (as opposed to blog post content that originates from videos or podcasts). A lot of what we are doing now is focused on YouTube and other platforms. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s always going to be like that but, for right now, in order for us to meet our 2018 goals for YouTube, the podcasts, and our courses, we’ve had to stop creating blog posts that don’t originate from videos or podcasts.
Now, this year, instead of Monday being my writing day, Monday will be my filming day. I thought critically about the Stop in order to Continue with a strategy that helps me better achieve my goals in 2018.
Knowing that gives me the brain space I need to Continue—to fully focus on and commit to my goals of making video my number one focus this year.
This also happened back in 2014 when AskPat was created. In order to make a five-day per week podcast work, I figured out that I needed to Stop actually editing all of the podcasts myself. So I built out my team to take over that responsibility so I can focus on making the podcasts as good as they can be. I couldn’t reasonably do that if I am spending all my time in podcast production.
(By the way, be sure to check out AskPat 2.0 where I have 20-25 minute coaching calls with listeners! Subscribe and apply to join a coaching call with me at AskPat.com.)
The essentialism approach asks you to rank the things in your life from 1 (least important) to 10 (the most important), which is important because our brains need that structure. Our brains are good at coming up with ideas, but not great at quantifying or grouping them. Writing them down and assigning values based on a number scale allows us to see things more clearly.
When it comes to your business, are there things that you’d rank 1, 2, or 3? If so, those are the things you should Stop doing. The things in your business that may be ranked between 4-8, this is where the real progress happens.
These might be tasks in your business you really love doing, and tasks that are important to your business, but maybe you need to find a better system, or find a team member to take over that task so you can focus on bigger things, the things that are 9-10.
For a quick “essentialism” reference:
1-3: These are the least important aspects of your business; the things that aren’t contributing to, or helping you achieve your goals. Get rid of them.
4-8: These are the things you really like doing for your business. They are important things, but they may not make sense for you to continue doing them the way that you’re doing them. Does it make sense? Does it align with your goals. Or can you assign to someone else?
9-10: These are the essential, must-haves for your business. They are aligned to your vision and will help you achieve your goals.
Making Real Progress in Your Business
The One Thing. Essentialism. Start, Stop, and Continue. Each of these are methods to help you achieve real progress in your business. This is what I want for you. This is what you deserve.
It’s the beginning of the year, a perfect time to make strategic, forward-thinking assessments of your business. A perfect time to ask yourself:
What’s really important in your business?
What are your goals?
What should you stop doing?
What should you continue doing in order to meet your goals?
Start to think deeply about your goals for this year. Work backward. If you find that you are doing things in your business that don’t help you reach those goals, maybe they need to be let go.
Use the photo-sharing platform to track your customers and viewers. Then compile the Instagram analytics your business needs. Here's how.
18 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Lesya Liu is a social media strategist and a photographer. She specializes in combining art and marketing to create compelling storytelling, both visually and textually.
Instagram, the photo- and video-sharing platform, is undoubtedly the hottest social media outlet on the market right now. In fact, it's doubled its user base in just two short years, to 800 million, 500 million of whom are daily users.
Reports consistently show that Instagram has the most engaged community on the internet: The platform's posts receive more engagement than any other social network out there -- 84 times more than Twitter, 54 times more than Pinterest and 10 times more than its older sibling, Facebook.
And all that engagement isn't limited to organic (meaning non-sponsored) posts. Three-quarters of Instagram users take actions such as making a valuable website click after looking at a sponsored post.
So, marketing on Instagram should seem like a no-brainer to any business owner, right? Yet, most business owners remain hesitant to jump on the Instagram bandwagon.
Even though the majority of businesses are already present on the platform, it's evident from their efforts that Instagram is more of an afterthought than a viable marketing strategy. Low-quality images and content and an overall failure to create a cohesive story line are some of today's most widespread offenses.
Certainly, this is not to put all of the blame on business owners. They're busy people who want to maximize the results they get for their efforts; they want a clear purpose and ROI. So, while marketing gurus scream from the rooftops about the importance of being on Instagram, entrepreneurs are left wondering, What’s in it for me. How do I track traffic? How do I track sales? How can a collection of pretty images translate into a real revenue for a company?
And then there's the biggest question of all: How do I interpret the analytics I get to ensure Instagram is an effective part of my marketing funnel?
Instagram offers you, as a business owner, the opportunity to post beautiful photos of your products and of influencers -- famous and not so famous -- using or wearing your products. It lets you include comments from customers (hopefully) urging others to buy those products.The platform also enables companies to make direct sales. What Instagram is not, however, is a selling machine in and of itself.
In fact, few businesses make money directly off of their presence on the Instagram platform. Unless you’re getting paid for promotions and shout-outs, chances are you won't necessarily enjoy a clear-cut ROI from your efforts, either.
However, Instagram can be a very effective part of your sales funnel, if used correctly. Like any other social network, Instagram is an awareness channel, a relationship-building channel.
So, if you're wondering how awareness and relationship-building can advance your company: First, take advantage of the highly engaged Instagram community. Think of the likes and comments counts not as a vanity metric, but an opportunity to leverage, to your business's benefit, the engagement these comments represent.
Then, make sure that your Instagram presence is aligned with your overall branding. That way, once people land on your Instagram profile, they can be confident that they'll again see what they've seen from you everywhere else.
Once you've got those two major goals covered, follow the specific advice points below.
Nathan Chan, the editor-in-chief, however, says of the magazine that it's "not growing quite fast enough." During an interview I did with him on The Social Media Current,Chan told me, "We started crushing on Instagram purely from just getting very, very good and finding out what’s working, and just consistently providing an amazing content."
Of that content, Chan mentioned "having amazing entrepreneurs on the front covers of our magazines, building that social proof, also having great design [and] using social media -- like Instagram.
"I think when you do great work," Chan continued, "people are going to be naturally attracted to you. You’re going to build that authority. That’s how you build your credibility. You just become an expert ..."
Becoming an "expert" was something I myself have made it my job to do. Because I work with companies to turn their various levels of presence on Instagram into a sales machine,I can offer advice on becoming the kind of strategic and focused business owner Chan described. That advice? Keep reading ...
Tracking is your new best friend.
Tracking results is where savvy entrepreneurs separate themselves from amateurs who are only going after an ego boost. What does "tracking" entail? It means having a healthy obsession with the statistics available to you through Instagram business tools, third-party Instagram analytics tools and your website analytics tools (Google Analytics, most likely).
1. Start by paying attention to the behavior on your profile. This is the first step to better Instagram marketing, and can answer such questions as:
2. Recognize what types of posts get you the most traction. Determine:
In an interview for my blog, Jessica Hirsch of @cheatdayeats suggested staying on top of trends and paying attention to industry leaders. “There’s a lot of talk about Instagram changing and adding features, so it's important for both personal and business accounts to evolve and grow with it," Hirsch told me. "I do my best to test them out, and before I know it, it becomes part of my new routine. And I think Instagram sort of rewards accounts that adapt well to the changes.
"I think it’s important to move forward with that mindset and understanding to continue to grow on Instagram,” Hirsch added.
3. Pay attention to the growth of your audience. Prioritize quality over quantity here. Play by the rules and don't risk your Instagram presence by buying followers on Instagram or involving bots.
Make sure that the people following your brand are the right audience fit. Does your Instagram following overlap with your business-target audience? If your ideal audience is middle-aged men, then "likes" and "follows" from young females won’t translate into sales in real life. A quick look through your follower list should give you a pretty good idea whether or a not a scenario like this is the case.
If you do sign up for (or convert your existing profile to) an Instagram business profile, you’ll be able to get most of the analytical data you need without leaving the app. Instagram (contrary to popular belief) wants you to succeed, because if you win, it wins.
That's why the platform is eager to provide you the insight you need to make better content and business decisions. So, explore your audience demographics, such as age, gender and locations; see when your audience is the most active on the platform.
What you can achieve
Go for reach and engagement. If you consistently deliver high-quality content to the right target market via Instagram, you'll achieve two things:
Strengthen the connection with an existing audience, because its members will come back for more content;
Enjoy high engagement levels that will help you leverage the Instagram algorithm, thus creating even more exposure for your content.
Not only will you deepen existing relationships, you'll cast a much wider net with a little help from the platform itself. How? Through leveraging the notoriousInstagram algorithm to your benefit! (notorious because people don't like the non-chronological order of its newsfeed).
Again, Instagram is not after you. It's in the platform's best interest to show engaging, relevant content to its users, so that they stay longer on the platform. That's why the algorithm’s only job is to scour through the platform and find awesome content, which will be shown to more and more people.
What started as a three-month-long European sabbatical with her boyfriend (now husband) Jacob Taylor turned into a blog about their amazing travels. "There was no strategy when we first started our Instagram," Selena Taylor told me in an interview. "The plan was to share photos from our adventure with friends and family, but since we both love photography, it quickly turned into a passion project for the two of us. It wasn’t until we used hashtags for the first time, and our photo was reposted within minutes by a larger account (@dametraveler), that we started paying attention to the potential Instagram had to reach others who were traveling or wanted to travel.
Selena and Jacob found ways to improve their photos and style while simultaneously interacting with others who were on the road; and, "Things just grew from there," Selena said. "When we started our Instagram, no one was using the word ‘Influencer’!"
But then things heated up: The couple was first approached by sponsors when their account had around 10,000 followers.
These days, the duo satisfy their wanderlust while making money through strategic partnerships with big brands. Continued Taylor: "It all depends on the project, but typically our trips are sponsored in exchange for promotion, or we’re hired by a hotel or tourism board for paid photo and video projects.
"It’s really important to us that we feel passionate about the place and the content we can produce," she told me. "We’re also always considering our audience -- will they respond to the content and the destination? Our favorite compliment is when people tell us they were inspired to go somewhere that they never would have thought to travel to."
Image credit: @finduslost
However, the couple wouldn't have been able to earn income through sponsored blog posts and Instagram posts if they hadn't been very clear on their audience and the aesthetics of their own brand, Taylor said. She described "a lot of pressure" to constantly produce more, "but we’ll always prioritize quality over quantity."
What's happened since has been the couple's ongoing effort to improve their photos, share guides from the cities and countries they've visited, guest-blog and create videos. "We fell in love with the creative aspect of what we started together," Taylor said.
To get in on this, pay attention to Instagram's "Explore" section, where Instagram curates images relevant to the viewer's interests and the handles he or she is following. This is also where all of the best content is displayed, though you might have noticed that not all posts have thousands of likes. Instagram's updatedalgorithm now customizes your Explore section to your interests and finds handles of all sizes to show to you.
Something similar could work for your business: Even if you don’t have an impressive following, but your engagement rate is great in proportion to your following, your content will appear in the "Explore" section for relevant interests, among some of the top content creators. (And that’s all you need, really.)
In short, get to know Instagram's algorithm by leveraging the information that the network provides. Post content that provokes engagement from the right people at the right time, i.e., when they’re on the network.
As Foundr's editor, Chan, told me:“We use Iconosquare to know when to post and the most engaged and liked images on our feed. We look out for follower growth. If our account is still growing daily by at least 700 new followers, we’re on the right track.”
Track your website traffic from Instagram (Wait: You can track that?)
What’s even more important to track is the traffic flow going from Instagram to your own channel. While Instagram is an awesome platform, you don't own it; thus, your business presence and following there is at the mercy of the next algorithm change.
So, be strategic and try to direct as much of this Instagram traffic as you can to the channels you do own and have control over. Send visitors to your website.
This will take some effort on your part: If you simply insert your website URL into your Instagram bio, you're missing out on a lot of insightful data.
Here are several moves I recommend to gain the insight you need from Instagram analytics.
1. Build a special landing page.
This is a page created specifically for people to “land on,” meaning the first page they see on your site.
Home pages tend to create an aerial view of the company, with tons of links going in multiple directions. Keep in mind that these people have already had a first touchpoint with your brand on Instagram, and that they clicked on the link to learn more.
Plus, remember that Instagram traffic is mostly mobile, so ensure a pleasant mobile experience on your mobile page by not cramming a ton of stuff onto it.
Make it as clear as possible what you want your visitors to do.
You can do this through a brief email sign-up form, to continue the conversation with them and build a longer-lasting relationship, which in turn may open up opportunities for direct sales.
Your landing page also needs to have a unique URL not found in any other way, except for a link in your Instagram bio. This is how you'll know that all of the traffic coming to this page is, in fact, coming directly from Instagram. And, that will tell you exactly how many people clicked on that link.
Use URL shorteners such as bit.ly or ow.ly, or better yet, Google URL Builder (which lets you create uniform and universal UTM links). If you needed any further proof of the importance of this step, know that Foundr uses UTM parameters as much as possible. ("UTM," by the way, refers to URL parameters which marketers use to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.)
What does this achieve? When you go into the Acquisition tab in your Google Analytics, you’ll see traffic acquisition from all sources, including what percentage of it is social and what percentage comes from Instagram.
Once users switch between applications (from Instagram to an internet browser in this case), the technology will strip away the data that comes with it.
It will count Instagram traffic as “direct,” meaning it had no referral source, when in fact the visitor was referred from Instagram. See now how you could have been unfair to Instagram as a marketing channel this whole time because your analytics did not give this platform a proper credit?
So, what exactly were those visitors doing at your site?
Through the combination of a special trackable link and an exclusive landing page, you'll see exactly what Instagrammers are doing on your website. Not only will you know how many people came from Instagram, but you'll be able to see how long they stayed on any given page.
You'll also see whether they took any next steps, and which links engaged them most. From there, you can track visitors' engagement and behavior by how much time they spent on a given page, whether they clicked anywhere else on your website and what the bounce rate was (the percentage of people that left the site from the same page they entered, without engaging with the content on any other page).
The information you gain will be a huge hint about how engaging customers' first experience with your website has been. You can also easily analyze people's interest in learning more about your offering by collecting email for a newsletter or a webinar signup. (If they sign up, you've done something right!)
And, now, that sweet word for every entrepreneur ... sales.
If you've got something to sell and your operation is relatively low-ticket, offer visitors a discount code right away. You can then divide the number of instances where a coupon is used by the total number of people coming from Instagram, to gain a simple and straightforward conversion rate. Once again, that's:
Instances where a coupon is used (divided by) the total number of people coming from Instagram = conversion rate
You can then use all of this insight to work backwards and polish your sales funnel. If fewer people from Instagram are visiting your website than you would have liked, you'll need to craft a more engaging Instagram profile bio for your business and a more enticing offer for them to click on.
What's important is, if they do come to your landing page but don't spend enough time there, or go anywhere else on your site, you'll know you have to rework and optimize your landing page. Conversely, if people do spend a lot of time on your site, engaging with it and reading different pages without converting into paying customers, you'll know you'll need to polish your sales message.
That way, you can focus on addressing those visitors' hesitation, or simplify your sales funnel and make things more straight-forward.
Interestingly, website behavior can also hint at what your followers on Instagram want to see more of when it comes to the content you produce. Taylor, of @finduslost, shared this process with me, writing that: “When it comes to Instagram engagement, we’re always paying attention to what is resonating with our followers. I check our Google Analytics daily to analyze our blog traffic and the channels our readers are coming from.
"To me," Taylor continued, "the most valuable information to pay attention to is how long the average user is spending on our site, what posts they are clicking on and where they are going next. I use this data to inform my content decisions, and I also keep it top of mind when making adjustments to my website design.”
Checking your Instagram analytics every month.
Once you’ve completed all these steps and put a simple process into place for the behavior analysis I just outlined, you'll see the traffic you get from Instagram, the quality of this traffic (how engaged these people are) and, finally, the means for calculating the conversion rate at which this traffic converts into paying customers.
Do this calculation at least monthly to gain a clear picture of your Instagram performance. With this process in place, you'll gain an understanding of the areas that need optimization to improve your metrics -- whether that means higher traffic volumes, more engagement on your website or an increase in sales. Once you know these metrics and how much money your business made directly from visitors who came from Instagram, you can easily justify using this platform as as an effective business tool.
In sum, Instagram may trick many business owners into the perception that it's a simple tool, that it's cutesy or even juvenile, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Instead, as a business owner, you should recognize how this platform can provide you with an immense exposure to the right people.
You just have to find them and strike up a conversation that will enable you to take them through your sales funnel.
Then, once you begin to track results, you'll find that marketing on this platform will become almost effortless. With the rich insights you'll gain from your Instagram analytics, you'll begin to see Instagram marketing as a constant feedback loop, where you gain more understanding of your audience members and their content needs, which in turn will bring more traffic to your website and (hopefully) a bunch of new conversions of your visitors into actual paying customers.
Today’s episode is a very special one, and it’s just you and me. We’re closing in on the end of the year, and there’s a lot to talk about. This time is a great opportunity to reflect on the past year and what’s to come for the year ahead. Hopefully you’re already thinking about 2018 and the things you’re going to try, what you’re going to experiment with—but hopefully this episode inspires you to go even further, to be vulnerable, and to be courageous.
This episode is a little bit of an experiment (because that’s what I do here)—I really wanted to switch up the normal episode format with this one. And experimentation is one of the big takeaways: It isn’t easy, and often we don’t know what the results are going to be. A lot of what we do is very public these days, because of social media, etc., and that can often lead to us retreating from the limelight. But change happens outside of the things we normally do, and to do those things we need to be vulnerable. If you’re expecting different results by doing what you’re already doing—stop!
I want you to commit to being vulnerable next year, and that’s what this episode is all about. It’s all about setting you up for what’s to come in the year ahead. Of course, no matter when you’re listening to this, these strategies and this mindset will always apply to you moving forward. Experience has always been my teacher, but sometimes you can learn from someone else’s experience too, and that’s where I come in.
So here we go. Let’s get started. Get comfortable, grab a cup of coffee (or beverage of choice), and let’s get our heads in the right place for 2018—now.
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Feedback can be an incredible tool to help your business grow.
2 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
One of the best ways to grow, in business and life, is through feedback from the people around you. At least that’s what helps co-founders Matthew Michaelson and Calvin Bohn of Smalls, a company that creates cat food using human-grade ingredients.
In the video, Michaelson shares why he and Bohn prioritize open communication, criticism and feedback from one another in order to foster a growth environment. And even as they scale and hire more employees, this will continue to be a priority for them.
“When we have folks join us, I think the number one thing we can do is lead by example,” Michaelson explains in the video. “Calvin and I have a weekly meeting where we air our grievances. We’ll continue to do that with folks on our team -- carve out time for them to give us upward feedback and for us to give them feedback too.”
By setting aside a certain time to let people share their opinions, Michaelson believes that people will feel more comfortable being honest and critical to one another in the workplace.
To learn more about Michaelson and Bohn’s approach to business, click play.
This episode is all about learning from mistakes. Last week we talked about my plans for 2018—well, a lot of the lessons I learned this year resulted in those plans. Today, I’m sharing those lessons with you, not just as an example of what not to do, but to reveal what decisions I made for 2018 because of those experiences.
Today I’m talking about the big picture, looking back at 2017. I’ll be discussing my struggles with time management, specifically how saying “yes” too much got me to a point of being overworked. I’ll be talking about the physical product launch that didn’t go according to plan, the two habits I let slip mid-year, and a target that I set for myself that I did not hit.
As always I’m being fully transparent—it’s all out on the table for you. That’s because this week’s episode isn’t just about what didn’t go according to plan. It’s also about what’s going on in my brain, why these things happened in the first place, and what you can learn from them. Everyone makes mistakes—it’s part of the process and it’s how you grow. I know that what I learned this year can help you with your own business journey too. Today’s episode is full of great takeaways that will help you with your business approach going forward—maybe even help you get results quicker. Grab a pen or a note-taking app and let’s get started!
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An effective content marketing strategy has many different elements and each one has to be tested to find if it works within your niche. You have to put together a strategy that resonates with your audience or you won’t be able to increase conversions or meet your bottom line. The only problem is, with content marketing, you have to test and tweak several elements and this can take time. For example, so far, what I’ve learned is that:
Topics play a crucial role
Depth content definitely helps with conversions
Have the right call to actions in the right place
Structure matters (intro, body, sub-headings, and conclusion)
Avoid too many banners
Avoid clutter
All of these factors should be tweaked until you have achieved optimal conversion rates. Another thing to note is you have several resources available that will provide you with case studies you can follow then implement into your content marketing.
Today, I’ll be going over something I learned NOT too long ago and it explores the importance of color in content marketing. Did you know the colors within your content and on your website will be able to build trust, loyalty, hope, etc.? To the ordinary blogger, this doesn’t matter, but to a master, it will be huge for engagement and profits.
Let’s explore this strategy in more depth and find out how you can use color in your content marketing strategy.
Why it Matters
First, content marketing is all about having a psychological impact on your readers. The more you can get in tune with their mentality or emotional state, the higher the chances of achieving a conversion. For example, if I can raise a feeling of trust, then the visitor is more inclined to read and follow instructions within my content. This is what truly distinguishes you from your competition because you’re better at building a bond with your reader. However, keep in mind, it’s NOT just about color elements within your content because color is present throughout your entire website. This is why finding the right combination is very important.
Here’s a cool statistic before going any further:
“90% of snap decision is solely made based on color.” (source: emeraldinsight.com)
Perceiving Color
Here’s a quick breakdown of what has been researched and concluded about how we perceive different colors. Go through the list and implement what you can into your web design and content strategy. It’s also important to note that every niche will have its different authority colors, which is why you have to keep testing and tweaking along the way. Let’s jump into the color fundamentals.
Red – Represents passion, excitement, and strength. This is why you have the color “RED” present on dating websites or blogs. The emotion of passion often draws us into love and keeps us engaged in the content longer. You’ll also notice love based content will include images with the color red, too.
Orange – Represents confidence and energy. From your experience, you’ll notice many weight loss and nutrition websites will use this color a lot. Banners and images will also incorporate the use of orange.
Green – Represents growth, nature, and wealth. From my experience, I’ve noticed two types of websites will focus on incorporating this color within their site. Nature sites use green to reflect tree, plant growth, and financial because everyone loves the color of money.
Blue – Represents confidence, trust, and independence. This is a much harder color to explain, but it’s used by many websites mainly because of its neutral effect. Many people also use it because this color works well with other powerful colors like the next ones listed.
Black and Gray – These colors usually represent balance and sophistication. You’ll notice the color gray can go with almost all the others listed and can be tweaked for all types of fonts. Depending on the shade, you can use gray for font color or the background of buttons to display darker font text. Understanding the color back is very simple because many people use it for text. It just helps with visibility and understanding content better.
Wrapping it up…
I simply spoke about the fundamentals of color and how they apply to web design especially content marketing. However, it’s important to keep some of these additional tips in mind going forward…
First, think about “size” and how it affects the color you’re using. For example, black font is perfect as long as the size is 14px to 15px because anything bigger will be harsh on the users’ mind. Secondly, you want to keep the effect bright colors will have on the user experience, especially their eyes, in mind. You’ve probably noticed colors like pink, bright green, or bright yellow were NOT mentioned above. From my experience, these colors are hard on the eyes and can push away visitors from your blog.
Web design and content marketing is all about finding what works through constant testing and tweaking. Don’t be afraid to test different elements because when you can engage your audience, it helps increase conversions and profits.
Blockchain technology was one of this past year's biggest stories. For example, Bitcoin, the pioneer of cryptocurrencies, closed out 2017 at nearly $15,000. As Bitcoin's popularity has grown, more blockchain innovations and cryptocurrencies have emerged from the shadows. Now, it's nearly considered mainstream. Since then, investors and fund managers have flocked to blockchain for fintech.
However, blockchain is more than just something to drive digital assets. That's why financial professionals need to pay attention to how their industry is changing. Now, here are five ways blockchain innovations will reshape the financial system.
1. Paying with cryptocurrency
First, one of blockchain's most exciting applications is its ability to facilitate financial transactions in a very different way compared to legacy financial systems like credit card traditional payment processors. Recently, the rise of cryptocurrency technology has turned cryptocurrency into viable currency.
Right now, over $500 billion in cryptocurrency exists. Yet, current owners have limited ways to spend them. One startup, OPEN Platform, is fixing this problem. They've created a payment solution for application developers. As such, developers can easily integrate and enable their application to accept cryptocurrency as payment.
2. System integrity
Second, the biggest upside for using blockchain is system integrity. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology eliminate the need for middlemen. Hence, it's these middlemen that tend to overcomplicate payments and charge expensive fees on top of large transactions. As such, the very design of blockchain lends itself to security.
Blockchain is a decentralized ledger. Therefore, transactions are not visible to any person besides the two parties engaging in the asset transfer. Also, crypto wallets are essentially immune to fraud due to their complexity and uniqueness. Hence, it's difficult to steal assets. The assets become invulnerable to forgery.
For example, the Internet of Services Foundation has created a scalable blockchain infrastructure for the future of online business. Its high throughput processing and security offer an intriguing alternative from cryptocurrency mainstays like Bitcoin and Ethereum. To date, these cryptocurrencies have been unable to scale for mass adoption. The Internet of Services Foundation's token, IOST, has clearly caught the eye of global blockchain enthusiasts. At times, daily trading volume at reaches $200 million.
3. Regulatory concerns
Third, for those interested in commercial finance, blockchain's applications in cross border transactions are particularly exciting. One of the main advantages of cryptocurrencies to fiat currencies is their ability to be sent across borders without any fees. For example, money transfers can be conducted between any two locations in the world. All users need is a connection to the internet.
Therefore, Blockchain technology has the potential to offer a more secure experience than traditional wire services. Additionally, users avoid conversion fees between currencies. Small online businesses can also conduct transactions easier than ever. That's because cryptocurrencies avoid the need for currency conversions that cost both parties significant amounts of money.
4. Mainstream banking adoption
Fourth, large banks are already beginning to develop infrastructures to support the new assets and payment systems based in the blockchain. In June 2017, a group of seven of Europe's largest banks formed a blockchain consortium. Forming the consortium was necessary for simplifying payments. Therefore, the result has been advantageous for small and medium enterprises across national borders.
Now, there are many benefits to going paperless and eliminating the need for many brick and mortar establishments. Also, banks can offer faster, easier and cheaper transactions for their customers. Hence, using blockchain innovations will create transactions that are a fraction of current costs.
Recently, the consortium has indicated more European banks have plans to join in 2018. As the European consortium grows, it wouldn't be surprising to see other banks around the world engaging in similar activities.
5. Financial automation
Fifth, blockchain's most interesting application is the potential to offer systems where users can automate payments and optimize their finances. For example, by using embedded smart contracts on blockchain ledgers, financial institutions can easily and efficiently collect insurance and mortgage payments. Therefore, the result would mean more on-time payments. Also, consumers could spend less time organizing their finances.
Now, blockchain technology continues to grow in popularity. Hence, it will be important to monitor how its applications will affect all industries. Already, the rise of cryptocurrencies have already attracted investors and financial institutions. Now, the financial industry is poised to gain the most immediate impact from blockchain innovations.
Today, there are smarter blockchain networks, better cryptocurrencies and improved infrastructures in development by a variety of companies and groups. Moving forward, blockchain technology is set to completely reshape the financial industry as early as the next decade.
One of my 2017 goals was to create and launch powerful online courses. Learn what went well, what could be improved, and what my plans are for 2018.
Pat Flynn
Last year, when I was setting goals for 2017, I knew that a primary strategy for my business was going to be creating and launching effective and in-depth online courses for the SPI audience. One of the motivating factors for this was to significantly transform the way I generate income.
You see, for the past eight or so years of running Smart Passive Income, I’ve generated the majority of my income from affiliate marketing. I wanted to change that in 2017. I needed to add some nuance and diversity into my income portfolio. I needed to add different, and significant, pockets of value.
Now, I still think affiliate marketing is a fantastic way to generate income, and every business owner who has an audience online should participate in affiliate marketing. I mean, it’s exactly why I created my latest online course, an affiliate marketing course, at 123AffiliateMarketing.com.
But there should be a balance. I knew I couldn’t rely on affiliate marketing alone. If you build your business entirely from recommending the products or services of others, you’re putting your business at risk. At any moment, the relationships you have with those product owners and services owners can go away. I’ve had that happen before. It wasn’t fun.
By creating my own products (online courses in particular), I can better serve my audience because I have full control over the product; I can better craft the product for my target audience. It’s a better experience with the Smart Passive Income brand as a whole. It allows me to keep the SPI community within my ecosystem, and continue to foster that relationships by sharing new products I think they can benefit from.
So, that’s when it hit me. After all of these thought experiments in my 2017 goal planning, I decided that I was going to break through my fear and just create it.
I was going to create online courses.
Giving My Audience Opportunity
Here’s the thing: Change is hard.
Even though I knew I needed to diversify and create my own products, it took time to let that thought settle in. I was making “enough” money after all, through affiliate marketing. Why would I need to change?!
That’s a rhetorical question. 😀
Adding to my hesitation to create online courses (or any product) was the fear that I’d be doing it for the wrong reasons, and that’s how my audience would see it too. I didn’t want to just make something in order to make more money. That’s never the way to go, and that’s not who I am.
I heard from a number of smart people who told me I was actually letting my audience down by not creating online courses. One person, in particular, told me that they’d heard me talk about an online course I took once that had had a deep impact on me and my business. And so, by not creating online courses for my audience, I wasn’t paying it forward. I wasn’t giving my audience the same opportunity to discover that deep impact for themselves.
So, in October 2016, I beta launched my first online course, Smart From Scratch. We had over 200 students in the beta launch, and I was able to get feedback and adjust the course for the public launch in March, 2017.
March 2017: Beta Launch of Power-Up Podcasting I beta tested this in front of a live audience at Chalene Johnson’s Marketing Impact Academy. If you want to take a deeper dive, I spoke about it at length with Chalene on the SPI Podcast, Session 274.
June 2017: Public Launch of Power-Up Podcasting
September 2017: Public Launch #2 of Power-Up Podcasting
October 2017: Public Launch of Build Your Own Brand
November 2017: Cyber-Week Relaunch of Smart From Scratch (I relaunched Smart From Scratch with a discounted price starting on Cyber Monday for the week.)
On January 2, 2018, 1·2·3 Affiliate Marketing will go live for the limited beta group of students who took advantage of a small presale that I ran on Cyber Monday in November. We’ll walk through the course together, and the students will provide feedback along the way like previous beta releases.
That’s four online courses created and announced in 2017. When I initially told my team and a few other people this plan, they thought I was maybe biting off more than I could chew. And they’re right; four courses in a year is kind of bonkers.
Not only is it just a ton of effort to put out four in-depth courses, there’s also the risk that you’d be overloading your email list. A number of people expressed that concern when I told them I was going to create four courses. I knew I had the team in place to make it happen. And I told them, as I am telling you now, that I had planned for this scenario.
For a few years, I’ve been collecting specific data from my audience, and separating my list into specific interests, and what levels they are at in their business. So, for example, I knew going into it that specific people on my list wouldn’t see my emails about Power-Up Podcasting because they had been tagged as not interested in podcasts. Those who already had a business or something up and running would never see the promotions for Smart From Scratch, for instance—or at least that was the idea.
Did it all happen the way I wanted it to? Well, keep reading this post because I’m going to outline what went well, what could have been improved, and what I plan to do moving forward.
The Results. The Good. The Not So Good.
My plan was to launch four online courses in 2017. Did it all go according to plan? How well did it succeed? To start, I just want to say that overall it went extremely well.
Our goal for the year was to generate about $400,000 in sales from online courses, which would be a solid increase in my diversification of earnings related to what it was the previous year with affiliate marketing. Again, my goal was to add more balance to where my income was coming from.
Did we meet our goal of $400,000?
Well, there are still sales coming in for some of these courses because I’m testing certain things and some of them are ongoing. But the number we’re at, as I am writing this is . . .
. . . Over $900,000 in course sales for 2017!
This blows my mind! But it also shows you that my audience has been hungry for this. There was a need, and I was able to meet that need. In addition to the value created for the students of the courses, we’ve created quality assets and information that will generate income for SPI and my businesses for years to come.
That’s a good feeling.
(Looking ahead, there will be more courses created, but I don’t plan on creating four courses in 2018. Phew!)
The Good
In the Year of Online Courses, here are some of the things that went well.
Crash Course in . . . Course Building
Obviously the strategizing, building, and launching of the courses was a big win. The team and I are also enjoying a good rhythm as we provide updates and upgrades to the courses. Caleb, my videographer from DIY Video Guy, and I are also in a good rhythm, efficiently and strategically setting recording dates for any video assets that are needed for the courses. We had a crash course, so to speak, in launching courses. And I think we’ve done an amazing job, from creating all of the assets to building the course curriculum to setting up the landing pages. We did it efficiently and with quality in mind.
For example, Power-Up Podcasting was sold on stage to 165 people out of 700 in the room. That’s a high percentage for basically pitching an online course to a crowd. I was incredibly thankful for that opportunity (thank you, Chalene!).
From the time that was announced, my team and I had about two weeks to put the course together before the new students arrived. When we were building Smart From Scratch, the first online course, we learned a lot about what it takes to do it right. We applied what we learned to create Power-Up Podcasting and it became a much more efficient process, from creating outlines to filming videos to getting the course into Teachable (Teachable has been an incredible partner in our success; thanks, Teachable!). [Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated advisor and an affiliate for Teachable.]
In the end, we were able to create what I feel is the best podcasting course out there that walks people through the entire podcasting process, step by step. Not only that, it helps them market their podcast too! The results I’m seeing from students is amazing. I’m so proud!
Promoting Through Email
Another thing that went well are the email promotions for each of these courses. As I mentioned before, I’ve spent a lot of time and energy segmenting my email list, doing my best to share the content people actually want to see—based on interests and where they’re at in their entrepreneurial journey. Having those assurances in place was comforting, knowing that I’d be sending out emails throughout the year promoting and selling the courses.
Plus, the more positive results and testimonials I heard from students of the courses, I felt validated and more comfortable in promoting the course through email. It made me want to get the course into even more hands, help even more people launch a podcast or business.
Nitty Gritty Numbers
More good things! The numbers. I’m very proud of the fact that for those who have taken action in my courses, many of them have seen great results. From what I understand about the online course completion rates industry wide, the completion rates for my courses are trending a little bit higher.
One of the worries that people have in creating online courses these days is the lack of people who actually complete the courses. When we launched Smart From Scratch, our first course of 2017, we learned that students needed a little bit more hand holding through the process. So we adjusted, and helped them through it by sending out an email when they completed a lesson that shared tips and frequently asked questions.
In doing this, we’re providing the solutions they need before they even ask, which makes the process for them (and us) much more efficient
An Amazing Community
It warms my heart to see how helpful and supportive the community of students has been for each other as they work their way through the courses.
For Power-Up Podcasting and Smart From Scratch, we created private Facebook groups for the students to share and engage with each other. I pop in here and there to provide updates, answer any questions, and have my office hours. Each time I do, I’m always so happy to see how much of the time I am not even needed—the students are answering each other’s questions, inspiring each other, getting value from each other. It’s awesome!
Office Hours
Even though the students have been amazingly self-sufficient at times, the regular office hours I hold have been of great help. What I love about that is it helps control the emails and questions that are coming in. It allows questions to come in, but on my time, and the students seem to like having direct access to me to answer more specific questions.
When I was taking courses back in the day, having that little bit of attention from the course creator to get a question answered here or there was very integral in pushing me over those hurdles. Thankfully, that’s been true for my students too.
Typically I’ll have anywhere between six and eight sets of office hours per course launch. And a number of students have said that they’re getting more value from the office hours alone than the courses they’ve taken from other course creators—where, in a lot of cases, there aren’t any office hours. I think people love knowing that I’m there for them and they could see me and talk to me. And this won’t change as I continue to create courses for my students.
Testimonials
Collecting testimonials has been a joyful and successful process. Whenever I ask for them, students have been more than happy to share their thoughts about the courses. I think one of the things I know I can improve on, is simply asking for more. But I definitely have plenty in hand for the courses that I currently offer, which is a great way to help convince those who maybe are on the fence about signing up.
The Not So Good
In the Year of Online Courses, what could we have done better?
Facebook Ads
Mid-year, I started trying out Facebook Ads to promote the courses. I utilized a separate team to help set those up. So far, it’s just been so-so.
To be honest, I don’t know much about Facebook Ads, and by utilizing a different team, you never know exactly what to expect. I’m not sure if I should spend more time learning about Facebook Ads before hiring a team or what. I just don’t know yet. What I do know is that I’m learning as I go, and the next time we do this, it will be better—and so on and so forth!
The bonus: We’re seeing a profit. We’ve spent probably around $30,000 on Facebook Ads and have seen 3-4x profit as a result of just those ads alone. As my Facebook Ads team tells me, because the promotions are only open for a short period of time, it’s difficult to hone in on the most effective copy and specific offer to the right audiences in that short period of time.
Ideally you want these things to be ongoing and continually tweaked to decrease the number of dollars you’re paying per lead and potentially increase the number of conversions. Going forward, we’ll continue to explore Facebook Ads, and I’ll learn more about Facebook Ads so I can share that knowledge with you later!
Different Ways to Promote
For 2018, I’d like to explore different ways to promote my courses. I think there was a lack of attention in promotion, aside from email (and the small amount in Facebook Ads). I think that limited the number of sales.
One area that could be improved is to utilize the content that I’m already producing (podcast, blog, video) to cross-promote the courses; to create a better cross-pollination among all of the content I’m creating. It’s a good lesson for any content creators out there. If you are creating value on other platforms, make sure those platforms are connecting in some way, promoting each other in some way.
There was one instance where it did work well though. I had a Smart Passive Income Podcast episode where I interviewed three students from Power-Up Podcasting. They talked about their experience as new podcasters and about their experience with the course. After that episode came out, I saw a significant bump in sales that week. I also received a bunch of messages from people who told me specifically that the episode inspired them to sign up for Power-Up Podcasting.
Next time, I plan to try more of that type of promotion.
Course Pricing
Pricing is another thing that’s hard to figure out. I feel like I did an okay job pricing the courses, but there’s always room for tinkering and testing.
At $197 for a beginner course, it’s not an insignificant amount, so it feels like an investment, especially for beginners. It’s also high enough to potentially weed out the people who are just looking for a magic button.
For some of the higher premium courses, like $697 for Power-Up Podcasting, it seems like that’s a solid price point, as I’ve heard from a number of students who have taken the course, have seen great results, and have told me that I could probably charge double. For now, I’m quite happy with the $697 number, especially as it compares to some of the other courses and offerings that are available in that space right now.
For 1·2·3 Affiliate Marketing, we went with $497 for the limited Cyber Week run. Although that course has not yet been distributed to those who purchased the presale, I know that people who take action will likely get that money back in a relatively short period of time if they implement what I’ll be teaching within the course.
The thing that I know I could improve on is helping people understand why those are the price points before they buy. This involves price juxtaposition and really being confident in sharing those price points on the sales page. If I want to adjust the price, I need to have clear reasons, and explain those reasons well. For Smart From Scratch, I did actually increase the price point from $197 to $247, due to feedback from the students who thought we were underselling the course, and because I wanted to offer a higher perceived value of everything that was offered.
Too Much Customization
At the beginning of the year, we attempted to customize the sales page on Teachable a little bit too much. That really didn’t work out in our favor. We tried to make the sales page look like what you’d find on SmartPassiveIncome.com, with the same stylings and fonts. Through that process, we ended up breaking a number of things that were really important.
For example, one of the things in Teachable that people loved is the fact that it tracks your progress. Every time you complete a lesson, it shows that you’ve increased in progress. But, because of our sales page tinkerings, that function was broken for the first three launches, including the beta launch.
So we decided to scrap everything and revert back to the standard Teachable code base, and take advantage of their built-in customization options. It’s a bit more limited but it’s working out much better. I think we got a little bit too ambitious and wasted a lot of time on things that actually didn’t really matter in the beginning. Maybe down the road, more customization can be done, but to start it’s best to stick with the foundational elements.
And, if you’re ever going to create a course, there’s no better platform than Teachable. It works perfectly, their team is amazing, and, if you have multiple courses, you just need one login for all of them! I love being an advisor for Teachable.
[Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated advisor and an affiliate for Teachable.]
Online Courses in 2018
In 2018, one of my goals is to work on the funnels, and better integrate course content with other content I’m creating, especially the videos I’m creating more of on YouTube. Video is a big part of the SPI strategy moving forward, so please be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel at YouTube.com/smartpassiveincome.
I love the community aspect of the courses, and will continue to emphasize that. There have been so many amazing students who’ve completed a course, and have stuck around in the community as alumni to help, encourage, and inspire the students that came after. It’s so cool to see! I didn’t expect that, and I am so grateful for it. So, I want to continue to focus on that and encourage that. One way I’ve done that is by sharing custom-made pins created for that specific course with the students.
A little token of appreciation, but those types of gestures can go a long way toward keeping student morale up, encouraging, and inspiring them to finish the course.
Then, finally, one thing that we tested last year was a live workshop. I actually had fifteen people pay extra to come to San Diego for some in-person podcast training for two days in my hometown. It was a remarkable experience!
And, guess what? We’ll be launching a new Power-Up Podcasting live workshop in May 2018!
Power-Up Podcasting Workshop
Yes, that’s right . . . in May 2018, I am holding my second ever live workshop. Here are a few ways you can benefit from signing up:
Get immediate feedback on your podcast topic from me and your classmates. Many students at the first workshop made significant changes to their ideas or their audiences based on class discussion.
Watch me record a sample podcast and ask lots of questions as I record and edit.
Meet with a graphic designer to create your podcast logo.
Build a support network with your classmates. This has been so valuable for the first group of students! They continue to support each other with launches and feedback after the event, through the workshop’s private Facebook group.
So, for your reference, here are the four online courses we created this year:
I’m excited about where things are headed, into 2018 and beyond. I’m going to try and get a little bit more advanced in how my courses are pushed out there, with funnels and webinars and exciting things like that.
As always, I’ll keep you updated on what’s working and what’s not—sharing the tools and strategies along the way that I figure out because this is all new for me too. A lot of you who are reading this probably have had courses for much longer than me. I’m learning a lot as I go. Thank you so much for an amazing year. I’m looking forward to serving you again next year!
