Are you a course creator struggling to make sales? Or are you a coach or a service business owner who wants to create a more passive stream of income selling an online course? Or you’re a content creator who wants to monetize your following by selling what you know?

 

Whatever your situation is, you’re in the right place. I will show you how to build an automated sales machine that will allow you to launch or scale your online course business, attract amazing clients from all over the world and sell your knowledge 24/7.

We discovered this strategy by teaching 500+ business owners how to sell online!

We sold our first course at the beginning of 2017. By this time, we were running a digital marketing agency. The agency business is great, and we still have it, but the backside is that you can only work with a limited number of clients. If you run a service business, you know what I’m talking about.

So we found a strategy to sell our knowledge as a course and decided to test if it would work. The first time we created a course launch was in 2017. Even though nobody knew about us, we managed to make $5000 in 2 weeks.

But the agency was making more money, so we decided to focus on attracting more service clients. 

In 2019 we decided to build a real digital marketing academy and created our first online course. We launched and managed to sell 27 courses only. It was hard. Nobody knew about us, so we had to do something to change that.

We invested in creating a recognizable visual brand identity. We started creating content on Instagram and building different sales funnels to turn cold leads into customers and position our brand on the market.

In 2 years, working on the Bulgarian market only, we attracted more than 500 business owners to learn digital marketing from us. We have 0 money-back requests and 100% positive feedback.

During these 2 years, we managed to develop the strategy I want to share with you today.

This article is for you if you’re:

• a course creator who struggles to attract students
• a coach who wants to stop trading time for money
• a service business owner who wants to add a passive stream of income
• a content creator who wants to build a digital product and monetize your following

It’s 2022. The online course industry is getting bigger every day. YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram creators are launching courses and making millions. Big names like Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi have been teaching people how to turn their knowledge into an online course business for the past 2 years. Even service businesses working for years with local clients have started using the power of the Internet to sell their knowledge worldwide.

My goal with this blog post is to show you how to create a sales machine that will allow you to sell your knowledge and build a business you love.

The biggest mistake course creators make

The biggest mistake most people make when trying to sell a digital course is creating a sales page and driving traffic directly to the sales page. 

If you’re an influencer and have an audience, you will manage to make some sales, but you won’t grow. 

If you don’t have an audience that knows, likes, and trusts you, the sales won’t come. You will be sending cold traffic to a sales page, and if you’re lucky, about 2% of the visitors will turn into customers.

And you will start thinking that people don’t like your product while the real problem is you don’t have a funnel that turns cold leads into happy customers.

The BEST way to gain a loyal following and sell your online course is by building a funnel.

How to build an automated funnel that grows your audience and turns cold leads into happy customers

To make this strategy work, you need:

• an irresistible offer
• a lead magnet
• email follow up
• traffic 
• funnel pages

By the way, you can use the same strategy to sell other people’s products as an affiliate if you haven’t created your online course yet. 

The sales funnel will be your automated sales machine that converts cold leads into customers while you sleep.

The lead magnet is the reason why people will give you their email address.

And the traffic is like gasoline for your car. It is the blood of your system, making it possible to grow your audience and drive sales.

Let’s start from the beginning…

How to build an irresistible offer that will help you outperform the competition even if you’re just starting

Most businesses sell products and services. But you’re going to stand out by offering an actual SOLUTION to the problem your ideal customer is trying to solve. 

Think about it…

You want to sell your course. But what is the course?

It’s a complex solution to a problem your IC faces. So instead of selling the course, sell a package that has everything your ideal client needs to go from struggling to successful.

Let’s say you’re a health coach helping busy women lose weight without dieting.

Your main course has the strategy and knowledge they need to start changing their habits and life and lose weight.

But if you want to give them a complete solution, you can add:

• a personalized meal plan
• a weekly grocery shopping list
• workout plan
• progress table
• a list of restaurants they can order food from
• support group

If you want to lose weight and you see this offer from a person you know, like, and trust, you will buy. 

Now think about your irresistible offer. What do you need to include in your package to offer a complete solution to your IC?

When we have an irresistible offer, the next step is to make sure people know, like, and trust you. That’s why you need a lead magnet.

How to create a lead magnet that positions you as a figure of authority in your niche

The lead magnet is a piece of free information you give away in exchange for their email address. It must be the BEST sample of your product that makes people think, “Wow if they gave me so much valuable information for free, I can’t imagine what I will get when I pay.”

The secret of creating a lead magnet that makes people so excited about your paid product is to actually HELP them with your content. You need to show them how your strategy works and help them go from struggling to successful.

Most people make the mistake of giving too much how-to information in their lead magnet because they feel this is the way to help their audience.

NO, it’s not. Giving away too much “how-to” is the way to overwhelm people and decrease sales.

The “how-to” steps come in your course. It’s the complete solution.

The secret to making your lead magnet convert is to show people that the transformation is possible, present the roadmap, and help them believe they can achieve success.

I absolutely love creating video lead magnets because I feel this is the best way to help my people and show them that I am an expert in my niche. Besides that, the video creates an almost real-life experience helping you build the 3 sales factors – know, like, and trust fast.

How to connect the dots and build an automated sales machine that makes money while you sleep

The short answer is by building a sales funnel.

I’ve created a video to show you how to build your funnel step-by-step with Systeme.io, a beginner-friendly software that comes at an affordable price. Click here to watch the video!

In a nutshell, here is what you need to build a basic sales funnel that will work like the best salesperson for you for free:

• an op-in page
• a thank you page
• a lead magnet delivery page 
• a sales page
• an email follow up

There are plenty of software options for building sales funnels.

We’re currently working with a developer to help us build our funnels inside our main WordPress website. But if you don’t want to work with a developer, you can use software like:

• Systeme.io (it has a free version)
• ClickFunnels (it comes with a free trial)
• Lead pages

We’ve worked with all of them, and they are all great. 

How to get the BEST potential clients to get your FREE lead magnet and buy your course?

 

When you have the funnel ready, you have to start driving traffic. Remember, you can create the best funnel, but if your traffic is bad, you won’t make sales.

You have 2 options when it comes to driving traffic to your funnel – paid and free traffic. I suggest you use both of them to achieve great results fast, grow your audience and scale your business as quickly as possible.

Paid traffic sources:

• Facebook ads
• Google search ads
• YouTube ads
• TikTok ads
• Pinterest ads
• Solo ads
• Shout outs
• Affiliates

Free traffic sources:

• SEO
• Social media marketing (Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok, Quora, Reddit)
• Collaborations on Instagram
• Podcast and YouTube interviews
• Guest blogging
• PR
• Word of mouth
• Referrals

These are the most popular traffic sources, but you don’t have to use all of them at once. Build a balanced traffic strategy that will help you test what works for you and invest your time and money in those traffic sources that work best for your business.

Creating content for social media helps you attract potential clients, build your brand and position on the market. 

Investing in branding is crucial when it comes to growing your online business. Building a recognizable visual brand identity for our digital marketing academy allowed us to almost 10x our sales without changing the funnel or the product on our second launch, attract over 500 business owners in less than 2 years, and position on the market.

If you want to learn how to build a brand that will help you become recognizable in your niche, download: 

FREE E-book – 10X Your Course Sales and learn how to make 10 times more course sales without spending more on ads

For example, when you use Instagram, you won’t just attract followers but build genuine relationships, inviting them into your world. The IG stories also work like email marketing and are invaluable in closing course sales.

Even when our 2 Facebook ad accounts got banned by mistake in the middle of a launch, we were still profitable because of the relationship with our Instagram followers (less than 3000 by that time). 

Building an online course business can be one of the best decisions in your life, especially in the current economy. Nowadays, more and more people prefer to learn online from people who are successful in what they want to achieve. People also love learning from their favorite content creators, which opens the doors for a vast industry that wasn’t existing before.

Let me show you some of the incredible E-learning statistics (source https://techjury.net/blog/elearning-statistics/)

• The worldwide e-learning market is projected to be worth $325 Billion in 2025.
• In 2017, approximately 77% of US corporations used online learning, but 98% planned to incorporate it in their program by 2020.
• The US e-learning market is set to grow by $12.81 billion between 2020 and 2024.
• E-learning increases retention rates by 25% to 60%.
• The corporate e-learning market could increase by $38.09 billion between 2020 and 2024.
• E-learning has lead to an increase in income for 42% of US organizations.
• A survey of 2,500 companies found that those with “comprehensive training programs” have 218% higher revenue per employee and 24% higher profit margins.
• IBM saved approximately $200 million after switching to e-learning.
• These are some impressive online education statistics, which show the industry is booming. And with good reason.

If you are an expert, a content creator, a coach, or you have a passion for sharing what you know with the world, this is your time. Build a funnel, create a stunning lead magnet and an irresistible offer, and I can promise you this because I know how it feels… this will be the most satisfying and rewarding job you will ever work because you will change people’s lives!

Don’t hesitate! Build a funnel, attract your ideal clients and get ready to enjoy your new amazing life. If you were looking for a sign, this is it! The time is now! Make the step! 🙂

FREE E-book – 10X Your Course Sales and learn how to make 10 times more course sales without spending more on ads.

 

 

And follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to learn how to launch and scale your online course business.