Starting an Online Business: Simple Marketing Plan

Jan 9, 2017

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You have chosen your niche, you have created your first ever digital product, and now you have a website set up to sell this product and begin profiting from your knowledge. Where do you go now?

One of the most frequently asked questions is how do you get your products out into the world, and more importantly into the hands of your ideal customer?

We want to walk you through a simple marketing plan to start your online business, grow your list, and start selling your online courses.

2 Types of Traffic: Paid & Free

To break down the basics of marketing there are two main types of traffic. Paid & free. Paid comes through means like advertising on social media or Google Display Networks and free simply means organic traffic that finds your products through online resources such as blogs, social platforms, or your website.

For an online business that is just starting out, we recommend that you begin your marketing strategy focusing on free traffic. This means little to no overhead cost, lots of creative control.

Social media can be one of the best resources for getting your online business into the marketplace. If you are not sure which social media platform you should be on for your business, check out this video we made explaining the differences between some of our favorite platforms!

Marketing Your Business on Social Media

Let’s use Facebook as the social media platform we are marketing our business on. One strategy, that we use here at Kajabi as well, is going live. We recommend that you grow your audience by going live and participating in a conversation. Ask your followers questions, get them interested in your content and most important have them share with their friends.

This is one tactic to grow a following on Facebook, and in turn grow the amount of people you can sell your digital product to. When people recognize that you have powerful and consistent content for free on Facebook, they are more likely to convert to paying customers because you have established reliability, credibility, and trust. The same could be said for any social media platform that you are delivering compelling and consistent content to.

After building a following, you can then offer free pieces of content in exchange for a person's contact information, namely their email. This is what we call a lead magnet.

Getting people's information to gain trust, to then sell them on a paid product. Kind of like asking someone on a date, before asking them to get married.

The Formula for a Marketing Strategy

So, the formula is to offer well thought out and planned content on your social mediums to form a relationship with your followers and potential clients, offer even more specific and desirable content via lead magnets, and then once you have their contact information, begin creating email marketing sequences. Which, by the way, can all be done within Kajabi.

If you are unsure about what to offer as a lead magnet, here are some great examples:

“The Top 10 Mistakes Every Marketer Makes” if you are a marketing expert.
“My Go To Weeknight Dinners” if you are teaching on health and nutrition.
“3 Ways to Improve Your Workouts” if you are a fitness expert.
“A Free Icon Pack” if you are teaching graphic design tutorials.
“How to Make Money Online” if you are a YouTube creator.
“The Perfect Skincare Routine” if you are a Cosmetologist.

Remember this is just one way you can market your business and grow your audience. There are a ton of different marketing strategies and we would love to hear which ones you had success with and if there are any you’d like to hear more about.

The best part of this strategy is that you can do it all within Kajabi! We support the creation, marketing, and selling of your online course. All in one.

Free Training: Learn How To Launch & Grow Your Knowledge Commerce Business

Now that you're ready to launch, watch our free training where we'll teach you how to grow your Knowledge Commerce business, no matter what your niche is!