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Read or listen to week one, week two, and week three of this series before you dive into this post!
We only have a few days left in this 30-day journey and there’s still a lot to do. I still have to complete my webinar, finalize our sales emails, and create the sales page, but I’ve already completed 33 lessons for our program.
I’ve been compiling everything I’ve learned over the last five years being in this online space, building my own business, and helping clients grow their own courses, memberships, and coaching programs.
Going through all of this, I’ve been thinking about the biggest mistakes people make over and over and over again when it comes to creating and launching digital courses and memberships, and a lot of people focus on the wrong things like: how to come up with the perfect name for your program, how to create the perfect webinar, or how to write the perfect sales emails — the list goes on.
Yes, all of these things can certainly contribute to the success of your digital product, but a lot of times when you don’t get the results from your launch, it’s often because people don’t want what you’re selling, or you just don’t have enough people going through your funnel to actually get the sales and results you want — and that’s what I want to talk about today.
Why paid advertising should be part of your strategy
I’m a big advocate for paid advertising, specifically when it comes to using Facebook and Instagram ads. In Powered By Passive Academy, I teach you how to use Facebook and Instagram ads to validate your offer, promote the launch of your course or membership, and get sales so you have revenue coming in all the time.
A lot of people are scared to use paid advertising for something they don’t know will sell or not, but inside the program I give you the step-by-step directions to follow for your initial launch so you can get all the data you need to feel comfortable with spending money on acquiring new sales.
One of the most important things I teach inside the program is how to price your product for profitability, and become profitable using paid advertising to sell it. I definitely believe organic marketing should be part of your strategy, and we talk about that inside the program, but I don’t think it should be your main focus.
Organic marketing is great, but it’s a slow process.
You have no control over the algorithms, so if you want to grow your business and sell more of your digital course or membership quickly, then you have to be okay with investing in paid advertising. You don’t have to spend $10,000 a month to see results; even just $10, $20, or $50 a day, and reinvesting some of your sales into your advertising can help you grow very quickly.
You have much more control over paid marketing compared to organic marketing. While you won’t always be able to predict exactly what’s going to happen, you can use data to make better decisions and take that emotion out of it.
When I invest in ads, I know that if I spend x amount of money I will get sales in return. Sometimes that amount of money could be a little bit more or a little bit less because it’s not always perfect, but it’s almost guaranteed that if I spend a certain amount, I will get a sale. That’s why I love paid ads, and many other course and membership creators are spending money on ads too.
Another reason why I really love paid marketing more than organic marketing is because I really value my time more than anything else.
If you look at any of my accounts on social media, you’ll notice I don’t spend a lot of time doing Facebook lives, creating reels, or hosting chats on Clubhouse because those things last for a limited amount of time and I have zero control over how many people are going to see and interact with that content.
Again, this all takes time and we just don’t see the results same results with organic marketing that we do with paid marketing.
If you want to grow your sales, you just have to get in front of more people.
There’s so much emphasis on webinars, funnels, and emails but when you don’t get the purchases that you want, a lot of times it’s just because you’re not getting in front of enough people.
If you don’t want to spend the money on ads to get in front of more people, you might end up spending a lot of time updating your webinar, funnel, or emails, when in actuality they might be performing just fine, you just don’t have enough people going through it.
If you want to grow your sales, you have to get in front of more people, period. I have little over 18,000 followers on Instagram and in the last three months, I’ve gotten seven sales for my signature program on that channel.
I don’t have a multi-million dollar business working two days a week by only focusing on organic marketing! Those seven sales that I’ve gotten from Instagram over the last three months represent only 4% of the sales of my signature course Advisori Insiders Pro. Over the last three months, 96% of my sales have come from paid ads.
Yes, I could do more on Instagram, more on Facebook, and do other things to get more engagement and reach but again, all those things take time and I would rather spend my time living my life outside of my business. Not to mention, when you post something on Instagram or Facebook, only 5% of your followers see it.
But here’s the great thing: because I followed the exact process that I’m teaching in Powered by Passive Academy, I know it’s good to invest in ads because my business and my product are built to be profitable.
How to get started with paid advertising for your course or membership
Getting started with Facebook and Instagram is actually not that hard and it’s something you can do yourself if you have the right guidance. Then you can eventually look into hiring someone to do it for you because scaling does take skill.
When Facebook and Instagram ads don’t work, it’s often because people either don’t want what you’re selling, (which is what we work on in the very first module of Powered by Passive Academy), or you don’t have the right expectations. You simply aren’t going to spend $500 on ads make $10,000 in sales!
That’s why Powered by Passive Academy is so different because you learn how to harness the power of paid advertising in a profitable way and use data to make decisions in your business! If you’re ready to turn your service or expertise into a digital course or membership, you can learn more and join the waitlist for Powered by Passive Academy right here.
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