Kajabi Blog

At Kajabi, we help you create, publish and sell beautiful digital products and membership sites. We're the platform that takes care of all the technology, so you can focus on your content.

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[Kajabi Chalk Talk] Episode #23: Resolutions vs. Targets

You know the routine -

You set your New Year's resolutions...

You have a few good days...

and before you know it...

you've abandoned most (if not all) of them before the end of January :-(

So, what's going to be different for you this year?

Because it doesn't have to be that way.

In this brand new episode of Kajabi Chalk Talk, you'll learn a different way of thinking that will get you serious about making real change in 2016.

Watch it, and then share your target goals in the comments section. There’s no better time than now to make them public - tell your Kajabi community what will be different for you this year below...

- Travis

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Happy Holidays From The Kajabi Team...

From all of us here at Kajabi, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season...

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13 Easy Ways You Can Create Valuable Content

We've probably all been here: you’re toiling away at your desk trying to create a great piece of content but nothing comes out of you.

You know it’s something that you absolutely have to do if you want to build authority and nurture your audience.

Maybe this writing stuff doesn’t come naturally to you, or you’ve exhausted all your ideas at this point.

Either way, we don’t want you to waste anymore time trying to figure out how to put together free content, so we put together a list of 13 different blog content ideas that you could easily do yourself.

This way, whenever you find yourself stuck, you can refer to this list when you need to write content your audience will find value out of.

With that said, here’s a few rules before we start (aka The Content Creation Commandments)...

 The Content Creation Commandments

1. The goal behind all of your content creation is to solve a problem your audience is having.  So for whatever type of content you’re creating, make sure that you connect it back to your audience and how it can solve THEIR problems.  And this leads us to our next rule…

2. You have to know your targeted audience.  That means knowing their background, their blah blah You not only need to know what their issues are, but you need to go beyond that and find out their motivations as well.

3. Use the appropriate  style of writing in all of your content.  If you follow Commandment #2, you’ll know how your audience speaks and thinks, so you can tailor their message in a way that resonates with them.  For example, if your audience are athletes, you’ll speak in their lingo and use their traits.

So now that we have that out of the way, let’s get started:

1. List Post

Here’s one of the easiest posts you can cook up when all the good ideas are escaping you.

It’s simple to do: make a list of anything you think your audience will find value in.

For example, you could list the top tools and resources that have helped you in your niche - pretty much anything that you found helpful, your audience will also.

Example: Here’s a list post from the Kajabi blog on 5 things we’ve learned from LinkedIn

Tip: If you already exhausted your list of top resources, make a list of your favorite stuff: it could be your favorite books, films, bands, whatever.  As long you connect it to your niche and make it relevant, your audience will find value out of it.  There’s a reason why sites like Buzzfeed are absurdly popular.. people just LOVE lists.

2. How-To Post

The most common of all posts: detailing how to do something to get a desirable outcome.  It’s the perfect type of post to help people find a solution to a problem they’re having.  

For example, if your niche is in yoga instruction, you could create a post on how to do specific poses.  Or if your niche is in ping pong training, you could make a post on how to do certain strokes.

As you can tell, the options are really limitless and they’re one of the most valuable kind of content post you could do.

Example: Here’s a How To post on the Kajabi blog that includes all the steps needed to do a specific method

Tip: It’s VERY easy for your audience to follow along with these types of post if you make it a step-by-step process with images, audio, or video.

3. Case Study Post

Case studies are super powerful types of content as it shows your audience that other people have used your training and benefited from it.

Let’s say that you’re in the business of fitness training.  Anyone that you’ve helped with your training would make a compelling story to any of your audience because they can see for themselves that your stuff actually works AND it worked on someone they could potentially relate to.

They’re pretty easy to put together, too.  Just send out a mail to your list asking if anyone would like to be featured.  Then, interview them and turn their story into a post.

Example: Here’s a case study post on the Kajabi blog on how one user built an online business using Kajabi

Tip: Create a clear before and after effect.  For example, if your niche is in weight loss, show how your case study looked before they took your training and after.  It makes for a very powerful impression on your audience!

4. Q&A Post

If you keep coming across the same questions from your audience, save yourself the time and put them together in a question and answer post!

Or if you don’t have enough questions, then it’s pretty easy to create your own.

If you can put yourself in your audiences’ shoes and think about what they’re struggling with and what sort of questions they want answered, then you could easily come up with some great content.

Example:  Here’s a Q&A series we did where we invited our audience to send in questions and answered them live on the show.

Tip: Send out a survey and collect questions.

5. Research Post

Research posts are a valuable source of content that gets attention because people want to know how the results that you’ve found can help them.

These posts give documented evidence on what actually works and what doesn’t, and there’s a ton of value to be found in that.

Example:  Here’s a research post that we did while split testing different landing pages.  We published our theory, methodology, results, and analysis.  It was well-received AND it opened up a discussion:

Tip: Put together an infographic (you could use a free app like Canva).  It’s the easiest way for your audience to digest information.

6. Inspiration Post

I probably don’t need to tell you that people LOVE quote posts - just scroll through your Facebook news feed and you’ll find them by the dozens.

These posts are intended to inspire and motivate others, and ultimately that’s what most people want and need.

So give your audience thoughts on how to push themselves, let them in on your source of inspiration, or tell them about your daily motivations.  Your audience will appreciate it.

Example:  Here’s an inspirational post by Brendon Burchard (the post has 10k shares!)

Tip: Take a quote and make a visual out of it (you can use an app like Canva).

7. Rant Post

Have something in your niche that bothers you (a trend, a product, a way of thinking, etc.)?  You could turn your feelings into a post.

Rants work really well because people appreciate genuine honesty.  Even if they may disagree, it sparks a discussion and creates interest.  

Example: Here’s a rant post from the CEO of EAT24.  This one generated a ton of traffic and a ton of controversy.

Tip: Be careful when you do a rant post; they are obviously polarizing so you need to know your audience well or it could blow up in your face!

8. Behind-The-Scenes Post

If you’re out of content ideas to write about, you could put together a post about the stuff going on behind your business.

For example, if you’re working on a new project, you could document the day-to-day stuff that goes into your work.  

This post is mainly to entertain your audience, but there is value in that as it builds a more personal connection between you and your audience.

Example: Here’s a behind-the-scenes post done on the Intercom blog

Tip: Use lots of photos when you do these posts; they will make it that much better.

9. Interview Post

If there are influencers in your niche, take an opportunity to pick their brains and interview them for valuable content.  

Ask your influencers questions your audience often ask about, and you’ll get new insights from people who are ahead of the game.

You might be worried that you don’t have enough reach to pull in a big name, but it’s not as difficult as you think.  People, even influential ones, will take whatever opportunities to increase their reach and exposure.

Example: Here’s when we invited top influencer Chalene Johnson to answer some of the questions all of us had

Tip: If you’re new to these kinds of posts, start by making it an audio interview - it makes it easier on both you and your authority figure. You can always transcribe the audio afterwards.

10. Best Of Post

This is an easy post to put together as it’s essentially listing all the current stuff that you’ve enjoyed over the past week or month.

For example, you could roundup a number of articles that you found particular helpful for the week or month.

One side effect of doing a best-of post is that it will keep your content relevant and current, which means your audience will remember to check you regularly for all the latest stuff (think of your site as a hub).

Example:  Here’s a best of / roundup post on the Intercom blog

Tip: If you come across anything on the Internet that you’ve enjoyed and think your audience will find value from, remember to save/bookmark it for later.  This will make rounding up links much easier in the future.

11. Review Post

You’ve probably already heard the phrase: “Everyone’s a critic.”  

Well, it’s true.  We do it all the time (see: Yelp), so why not turn it into content creation?

Review posts are easy-to-do because the hard part (coming up with content) is already done - all you have to do is write your opinion.

You can review anything in your niche that your audience will find relevant: it could be a video training, a podcast, a book, virtually anything.

Your audience will appreciate it, too.  You’ve saved them time and potentially money by taking the first plunge and trying this new product.

Example: Here’s a post on the CrazyEgg blog that reviews and compares different email marketing platforms

Tip: The best reviews are the ones that are critical in their assessments.  No one wants to read a cookie-cutter review!

12. Story Post

Have a good story to tell?  Make a post about it and tell it to your audience.

As long as you can make a connection to your audience - meaning, they can apply the story, the moral, or the lesson to their own lives or business - then there is a ton of value to be found in it.

Example: Here’s a story post on the Kopywriting blog that works well because there is a lesson to be learned and applied

Tip: Write your story as if you’re telling it to a person sitting next to you.  It will make for a better and interesting read.

13. Segmentation Post

Want to know an easy way to give people great content AND simultaneously entice them into buying your products?

Take a segment of your information product - a course, video training, a chapter in an ebook, etc., - and give it away for free!

You’ve already done all the hard work (content creation) and it will get your audience more interested in what you’re selling.

It’s like giving your audience a slice of your best pizza pie; if they like what they’re having, they’re going to want the whole thing.

Example: We posted the first episode of Tech Corner, an online courses we teach, on our blog and then invited people to enroll in the course

Tip: Give your audience a piece of training that will leave them absolutely longing for the next step.

Putting Your Content Together

This list should jump-start your content creation and here are a couple of tips to follow while you’re putting it all together:

Remember to follow the Content Creation Commandments

Use lots of visuals to break up the text

Make your copy scannable so when your readers inevitably scroll through your content (we all do.. you probably did it here!), they have an idea of what you’re saying

If you can follow these guidelines and use this list whenever you run out of ideas, you’ll have quality content that your audience will love and find tremendous value from.

[kajabiapp-blog]

How To Create A High-Converting Email Marketing Funnel With These 5 Steps

Let me know if this situation sounds familiar to you: you meet a person you think is pretty cool and has friend potential.

So you exchange numbers… and the very first call you get from this person is asking if you’d like to invest your money in some way.

“Jeez, at least invite me to dinner before you try to sell me on something!” you probably think to yourself.

Well, I’ve seen the same thing happen all the time with email marketing… and just like in real life, it never works.

Why? Because there’s no relationship.

And email marketing is essentially the same as starting, building, and maintaining a relationship... you can’t just go straight in and start asking from your prospect.

So how do you get started then?

Like anything in life, you should start with a plan.

If you just go in blindly and start firing off emails without a concrete strategy, you’re going to cause some damage to your brand and business.

Email marketing revolves around five stages, with each stage fostering and strengthening your relationship with your prospect.

That means, every email you send out should have one of these five stages in mind…

Stage 1 -  Introduce Yourself To Your Audience

Just like the start of any relationship, the first stage of the email marketing process is where you introduce yourself to your prospect and let them learn who you are and what you’re all about.

So let’s say someone opts into your list for whatever reason.

Well, the first thing they should be getting is some sort of welcome email.  It could include something like this:

Thanking them for subscribing

What they’ll be getting from you

Telling them what to do next

Asking them directly what their needs or frustrations are

One thing you shouldn’t be doing with the introduction email: don’t make it about yourself.

That is, don’t send them an email that talks about what you do, your loooongggg history, or whatever, because that’s going to bore the hell out of them and have them look for the unsubscribe link.  

Learning about you will come naturally (like real life relationships); you don’t have to worry about having to give them a big spiel about yourself from the get-go.

Email Example

Here’s a welcome email from SocialMouths that works really well because it uses many of the ideas listed above:

Thanks the prospects for subscribing

Invites conversation with the prospect by asking what THEIR struggles are

Directs them what to do next by giving them a free course

Lets them know what they’ll be receiving

The main thing to take away from this email is that it makes it about the prospect, not themselves!

Stage 2 - Provide Value To Your Audience

Stage 2 is your chance to build and nurture your new relationship.

By giving up their email, your prospects have already agreed to let you continue the conversion, so keep sharing great information to make them know, like, trust, and want to hear from you.

Don’t forget why your prospect subscribed to your list in the first place:  they want to know if what you have to say can help them.  People care about themselves - they’re interested in you so far as what you can do for them (at least in the beginning).

So that’s what you need to do - you need to provide value.

Here’s a couple of ways to do this:

Write an email about how to do something 

Share helpful information

Send or direct them to helpful resources (podcasts, blog posts, reports, etc.)

Email Example

SurveyMonkey sends out an email filled with valuable content that offers different solutions to problems their audience faces:

As you can see, they’re not asking anything from their prospect at this stage - they’re building goodwill by helping their audience address whatever issue they’re facing.

Stage 3 - Convert Your Audience Into Customers

Now that we’ve formed a relationship with our audience - they’ve gotten to know us better, they trust us because we’ve helped them in numerous ways, and they overall just like us - it’s time to start converting them into customers.

So if you did your due diligence for stages 1 and 2, it will make pitching your products MUCH easier and you’ll find you have HIGHER conversions.

Your premise is simple: your prospects have seemingly found value in your free information, and with your paid training you can take their development to a whole different level.

When you’re sending this email (your sales pitch), there’s a few things that you need to accomplish:

Your pitch should revolve around what your product is going to do for your prospects, the impact they’ll feel on their life or business

Show them how it’s going to make something they do EASIER

Use some form of social proof, such as a testimonial or case study

Translate the value of your product into real world value (e.g., show them how much time or money they’ll be saving if they buy your product)

Email Example

Here’s an email by Smashing Magazine selling conference tickets that converted at a high rate. 

(It’s a long form email so you will need to click on the image to see the whole thing):

Here are some of the very effective sales techniques it uses:

Scarcity: Lets the audience know there is a limited amount of tickets left so they need to act right away.

Value: Outlines exactly how going to the conference will help YOU.

Discount: Offers early bird discount rates so the onus is put on the prospect to act now rather than later.

Bonus: The email includes this neat PDF for convincing your boss to go - extra motivational juice to get the prospect leaning towards buying.

Stage 4 - Turn Your Customers Into Multi-Customers

Stage 4 comes directly after Stage 3, and it’s when you start transitioning your customers into multi-customers to really expand your budding empire.

Your customer has already pulled out his/her wallet for you.  Now’s your opportunity to make the big bucks.

If you have another product that your customer will find beneficial, upsell your customer into it.

Likewise, it’s also the time to ask your customer if they would like to upgrade from their original product.

Email Example

Here’s an upsell email from Harry’s that activates once you purchase an item:

The concept behind this tactic is simple but effective.

It’s saying, “Hey, we noticed you bought so and so product. We also have this new product you might be interested as well.”

Stage 5 - Re-engage and Re-energize Your Audience

This stage is the point in which your audience, both prospect and customer, stop opening up your emails for whatever reason.

Don’t make the mistake of letting them get away for nothing, otherwise you will be leaving money on the table.

What you need to do is entice them to re-engage with your email marketing.  

There’s a few ways you can do this:

Give them some sort of free training that comes from one of your paid products

Offer a discount on any of your products

Send them an update on any new feature/product/tool that you’ve recently released

Send a survey / ask for feedback

Email Example

Here’s a retention email from MeetingHero: 

By asking for feedback, the customer is invited to re-engage with the hopes that you can start a conversation with them again.

It’s very easy to get lost in the mix or get pushed to the back in this day and age - with new products and competitors popping up all the time.

The point of these re-engagement emails is to remind your audience that you’re still here and you have a lot to offer.

The 5 Step Email Marketing Checklist

Here’s a summary of the 5 steps you need to be doing to create your email marketing funnel:

1. Set up your welcome email and give your prospect direction for what to do next and what’s coming.

2. Send your audience valuable content - email marketing is about giving more than asking.

3. Get your customers to buy from you by giving them your best sales pitch.

4. Set up an email and sales process to get your first-time buyers to buy from you more than once.

5. Create a re-engagement campaign to win back 10% of your list that’s no longer responsive.

If you can follow and execute on all these steps, then you’ll have an email marketing funnel that builds your relationship with your prospects and converts them into loyal customers.

[kajabiapp-blog]

5 Things We’ve Learned While Trying to Link Up with Customers on LinkedIn

Facebook and Twitter: the two social media behemoths that every marketer knows. In this day and age, it is all but required that you have a presence on both platforms.

However, the oft-overlooked, stuffy-shirted brother of these two is actually another great platform to connect with customers.

That’s right, I’m talking about LinkedIn.

No longer is LinkedIn merely a site for job hunting or a method to incessantly pester high school cronies to “connect” with you. Rather, it has evolved into an extremely effective platform with which consumers can connect with businesses.

In fact, LinkedIn’s research has found that 80% of LinkedIn members WANT to connect with companies on the site and that members are 50% more likely to buy from a company they engage with on the site.

I don’t know of ANYWHERE else on the web where users are actively seeking engagement in such large numbers.  

So, now that we’ve determined that creating a company presence on LinkedIn can be extremely beneficial to your business, we want to tell you 5 things we’ve learned during our time setting up a LinkedIn company page.

Before we get going, you’ll want to make sure to sign up for LinkedIn and set up your company page.

LinkedIn is free to sign up for, and features a very easy walkthrough that helps you set up your page, connect with people you may know, and how to put your best foot forward on the site.

Once you get that set up, it’s easy to create your company page. From LinkedIn’s help section:

Move your cursor over Interests at the top of your homepage and select Companies.

Click Create in the Create a Company Page box on the right.

Enter your company’s official name and your work email address.

Click Continue and enter your company information.

Now that you have your company page up-and-running... 

...let’s make it awesome:

1) Show What You Have to Offer

Since LinkedIn is more of a professional networking service than Facebook or Twitter, many of its options are tailor-made towards promoting your business.

Some of the major features it offers are the “Products and Services” area and, more importantly, the “Product Showcase.”

Products and Services is exactly what it sounds like: it allows you to feature your various products and services right on your company page.

This is a wonderful feature, as it allows page visitors to quickly learn what industry you are in and what you have to sell. It also allows you to post links to your external website and feature customer reviews & testimonials.

Product showcase is even more impressive. With this feature, you can make professional looking “sub-pages” that you can use to showcase an individual product or service.

For example, if you have three different online courses you offer, you can actually create a separate showcase for each one.

This allows you to highlight all the sales points and advantages of your product in its own dedicated area, and creates less confusion for customers as they can read more about the product most relevant to them without getting confused by the numerous other products you have for sale.

Don’t take my word for it though… Just ask Microsoft!

Microsoft utilizes product showcases for each of their products and company divisions.

So while a customer may be interested in learning more about Microsoft as a whole, their real interest lies in learning more about Microsoft Office.

On Facebook or Twitter… “Bye bye customer! Please visit our entire other page dedicated to Office.” OR! “Just try to find the post about Office amongst the clutter of all our other products.”

On LinkedIn? It’s all right there, minimizing the number of clicks it takes to get to the area of interest, while creating separate areas dedicated to each product.

2) I’m Engaged! (With My Customers)

On all social media platforms, people don’t want to constantly have wares hawked at them. LinkedIn is no different.

However, it is even more crucial to avoid adopting a constant salesman persona on LinkedIn when compared with other social media sites.

You don’t want to be this guy...

Because LinkedIn members are often using the site to find jobs or broaden their professional connections, they are visiting with the intent to better themselves and their careers.

As a company, you need to help ADD VALUE to the lives of those who view your company page.

One way to do this is to ask yourself this question every time you are about to click the “Publish” button: “Am I solving a problem for my audience?”

As every industry is different, it is futile for me to describe to you exactly what you should post.

However, you want to ensure that it adds value to your readers’ lives and helps them solve an issue they are facing.

By providing solutions to your potential customers, you are establishing a relationship with them that extends beyond a company/customer connection.

You are acting as an authority in the industry and helping people overcome obstacles without them even buying a single thing from you!

This greatly increases rapport and brand-recognition amongst the members of LinkedIn.

One company who is very skilled at educating people via LinkedIn is electronics giant Hewlett-Packard.  

They utilize a combo of educational articles, links to products of theirs that solve specific IT needs, and business showcases, wherein they feature an exposé on a company that overcame obstacles thanks to a certain HP product.

All of this helps to add value to LinkedIn members, as well as promote the idea that HP helps provide SOLUTIONS to problems, whether or not someone buys a product from them.

3) I SEO What You Did There - Get Yourself Seen on LinkedIn and Google

One frustration that every businessperson has in this modern world of internet marketing is the struggle with getting found in the first place.

LinkedIn helps alleviate some of this stress thanks to a combination of effective internal search tools and high Google rankings.

LinkedIn has an incredible search tool that not only finds company pages based on titles, but also scans for relevant keywords and recommends other groups that might not have shown up based on title alone.

This presents a very unique opportunity for you, as optimizing pages with keywords allows you to be found much easier on a site that boasts over 230 million members.

Additionally, because of LinkedIn’s massive size, and the way they present company page information in Google search results, optimization of your company description will go a long way towards getting your business found.

LinkedIn explains that Google displays the first 156 characters of your company page text. This means that if you create a very descriptive, keyword laden description for your business, your odds of being discovered in Google search results SKYROCKET!

4) Use Groups and Pulse to Expand Your Reach

One of the most unique features of LinkedIn is its “Pulse” feature.

When members first sign up for LinkedIn, they are encouraged to follow different pulses that are of interest to them and their professional life (there are over 20 options).

These span the gamut from clean energy to higher education to marketing, and allow people to constantly consume value-adding content.

What’s so impressive about these pulses are the sheer scope of their audience size. Some pulses boast over 10 million readers!

LinkedIn also has a very beneficial “groups” functionality.

While similar to Facebook groups in the sense that each group is focused on a certain interest, LinkedIn’s groups differ from Facebook due both to the sheer size of their member base, as well as the way content is targeted. Some of these groups have tens of thousands of members!

So you’re probably thinking, “OK, that’s great. How does this help my business in ANY conceivable way?”

Well here’s the best part… YOU CAN PARTICIPATE IN THESE GROUPS AND PULSES!

If you have value to add to these discussions, whether it be commenting on other people’s posts or creating your own, you have the opportunity to add value to a much wider audience than your page might reach on its own.

By postiviely contributing to these groups, you can bring traffic to your page and engage more potential customers.

5) Target Acquired - Focusing Your Posts

Another feature that greatly helps business owners is the targeted posts feature. With this, company page admins can target which segment of your followers would like to see what updates.

For example, say you were promoting how your business planning video course can help entrepreneurs double their income. In the past, you’ve noted that 75% of course buyers are people older than 30. 

On LinkedIn, you could then target this promotion to followers aged 30-65+ who own small businesses and are located in the United States.

By doing this, you ensure that the people seeing your status update are the ones who are going to benefit the most from it, and thereby engage in greater numbers and (hopefully) create more leads.  

Additionally, this allows you to target different groups depending on what you want to educate members about. 

If you have multiple courses for sale, but they all deal with different aspects of life (and therefore have different target audiences), you can focus each post to the relevant audience without cluttering up their feed. This allows you to build a better relationship with them.

You’ll never know what works until you try it, so give it a shot!

LinkedIn also gives you some fantastic analytics along with each post, giving you details such as post engagement, clickthroughs, and post reach.

Try a post, see what works, what gets clicks, and what gets ignored. In no time you’ll be able to figure out what your audience is seeking when they come to your page.

By employing the advice listed above, you’ll be on your way towards creating a relationship-building, highly valued LinkedIn company page that gets views, clicks, and customers.

[kajabiapp-blog]

How To Build Authority In Any Niche (even ones you know nothing about)

Maybe you’ve experienced this already or you have nightmares about it happening: you’ve heard from someone you trust that you can make tons of money online, so you build your information product and you put it on your website to sell.  

Brimming with excitement, you wait for the money to roll in.

And then nothing.. no clicks, no sales, nothing.

Where did it all go wrong?

Before we get to that, picture this for a second: you’re walking down the street and some random dude hands you a CD and tells you to buy it (happens all the time in NYC, btw - don’t ever grab it).  You’re going to think, “What the hell??” Of course you’re not going to hand over your money.

Well, it’s the same thing online.  No one is going to buy from a total stranger without credibility.  They’ll happily fork over money to the Tony Robbins’ of the world, but they won’t to you (at least not yet) because they don’t trust you enough - and that’s why you’re not making sales.

You need to have a reputation; preferably, you need to be an authority figure.

But here’s the good news: you don’t have to be a Tony Robbins-like figure (who has presumably spent decades cultivating his brand) to be seen as an authority.

To reiterate, you don’t need to be an expert to be seen as an authority figure.

So what does this mean for you, person with no authority?

Well, it means that even without any expertise, you can sell your products in whatever niche you want to enter as long as you can successfully position yourself a person of authority.

So let’s go over how you can do this:

1. Start By Researching Everything In Your Niche

You didn’t think you could become an authority figure without doing a LITTLE bit of research, did you?  Start by doing these steps:

- Get to know the people who make up your market.

It helps to know their background (age, sex, occupation, etc.), but you need to go further than that - you need to understand what their goals are and what motivates them.  This knowledge, among many things, will help you learn what kind of content to give them and the type of messaging that really speaks to them.

- Know the history of your niche and where it’s headed.

Every market is dynamic so you need to be up to speed on the latest trends and what’s coming next. Being ahead of your niche is the hallmark of every authority figure.

- Know who the big players are in your niche.

These are people you should follow and emulate; they are the people you will want to eventually collaborate with if you want to be taken seriously.

Here’s one overlooked aspect of knowing your competition: It will help you understand the ways in which you can set yourself APART from them.  

2. Put Together Some Good Content

Content is king and that’s not changing anytime soon.  It’s still one of the best ways of showing people you know your stuff.

Admittedly, putting together some quality content if you’re not an expert is challenging and writing is difficult for 99% of people out there.

Here’s the caveat: you don’t have to write your OWN quality content to become an authority figure.  Crazy, right?

These are some things you can do instead if content creation isn’t for you:

Curate quality content - Aggregate great content that you’ve found and think will be helpful to others.  People will start coming to you for the latest happenings in your market.

Invite guest writers - Reach out to content writers in your niche and see if they’ll write or re-post their work with you.

Write reviews of stuff in your niche - We may not all be content writers, but we’re definitely all critics.  We’ve all reviewed a movie, a book, a restaurant, etc., and you can do the same for all the content you come across in your market (videos, courses, podcasts, etc.).

It will also help you understand better about what’s working and what’s not, and it will make you appear knowledgable to your audience.

Start a podcast and interview the top players in your industry - Do you know why podcasts are so effective in establishing authority? Because there’s few things more intimate than being directly in someone’s ear.  It’s a shortcut in relationship building and getting people to know you really well.

Here is why podcast interviews work so well: you don’t have to be super knowledgeable at all (just knowledgable enough to ask decent questions).  Your interviewee will take care of the content for you.

And just by being seen with these top people, you will automatically leverage yourself as some figure of significance in the audience’s mind, and because it’s a podcast and you’re showing off your character/personality, you’ll create a more personal connection with your audience.

There’s countless of ways you could put together quality content, but if there’s one thing that I want you to take away from this is that you don’t necessarily have to write your own brilliant content to position yourself as an authority figure in your niche.

3. Build and Nurture Your Email List 

If you’ve done just a little bit of research into this whole online business thing, it’s probably already been drilled into your head ad nauseam that you absolutely, unequivocally, and doubtlessly need an email list.

It’s the key figure of the “know, like, and trust you” process for building authority and selling your products online.

When someone hands over their email, they’re essentially telling you, “Ok, I’ll let you continue talking to me and if I get to know you better and I think you’re of good repute, THEN I might be interesting in buying from you.”  

It’s your chance to to give them valuable and interesting content, let them get to know you on a more personal level, and start building the trust needed to get their sales.

Ok, that said, here’s what you need to start doing:

1. You need to create a lead magnet: some form of content to dangle in exchange for a prospect’s email.  This can come in the form of a free video training, free report, podcasts, free course, etc. - you get the picture.

2. Put up a landing page (you can create one in minutes using Megaphone) and start sending traffic to it to collect emails.

3. Start nurturing your mint collection of emails.  By that I mean, continuously send interesting emails with valuable content and hit them with your best copy.  So for example, if you’ve started your podcast series, mail your list each episode

This is really just the start and a basic overview of what you should be doing, but follow these steps and you will start to establish yourself as an authority in your prospects’ eyes.

4. Show Off Your Results

Now that you’ve taken the proper steps and you’re on your way to becoming a leading figure in your niche, there’s one more step you should do that will take your authority to the next level.. and that is, show off your results of what you’ve done.

One of the most powerful effects on customer mentality is for them to know that your stuff actually works and that the goals they want to achieve can be done with your help.

So here’s a few things that you can do to show off what you’ve done:

Get A Good Testimonial - Social proof is a timeless avenue for building reputation; testimonials lets your audience know that there are other people who have benefited from what you have to offer, and that you’re actually legit and not shady :-)

Use Case Studies - if there’s people that you’ve helped so far, using them as case studies will help you build credibility because it helps your prospective audience relate to those people and see for themselves what they could accomplish.

If you don’t have case studies because you’re just starting off, well, YOU are your best case study.  So share your own story because that will establish credibility for yourself.

Let Them In On Your Successes AND Failures - If you experienced a number of successes in your niche, let your audience know about it.  As long as you don’t come off as arrogant or narcissistic, your audience will respond well and be excited.

And if you’ve experienced failures (and we all have) share that, too.  Reputation isn’t just about standing on all the successes you’ve had, it’s also about sharing your mistakes and failures.  It makes you relatable, personable, and likable - and these are important elements to credibility.

Become An Authority Figure & Start Selling Your Products

Now, these are just a few (but critical) ways you can start establishing authority in any niche you want.  If you put in the work to execute these steps, you’ll be well regarded among your audience, and the sales that you’ve been waiting for will start rolling in and the nightmare will be over.

[kajabiapp-blog]

7 Tips to Clean Your Sloppy Copy

You rub your eyes, roll over, and start your day the usual way: checking your email. As you scroll through the hundreds of new emails (seriously, how many email lists are you subscribed to!?), all but a few catch your eye enough for you to open them. You maybe read ONE of those emails in its entirety.

Then… PANIC. Your first thought: “What if my customers are doing the same thing to my emails? I don’t want to be lumped in with those ‘other’ mailing lists!”

We don’t want you to look like this!

Truth is, writing good copy for your business is difficult. But it is without a doubt one of the most important aspects of leading customers to your product and closing the deal.

What follows are 7 tips that will help you write awesome copy for your awesome customers.

1) You aren’t NyQuil or Ambien... Don’t Put Your Audience to Sleep!

“Dear sir or madam…”

“Hey guys!”

“What’s up everyone?”

“Special offer inside!”

Are you asleep yet? If you’re sending emails to your customers that start like that, I can almost guarantee they nodded off a while ago.

This poor guy just read those BORING headlines.

The whole purpose of the subject and first lines are to HOOK your customers. Instead of boring headlines, start with the first line of a story, something that sounds bizarre (but connects to your product), or the build-up to a joke.

For example, we at Kajabi recently sent out an email promoting our coffee mug giveaway on Instagram. We could have put the “business friendly” header that read “Instagram Contest!” or “Kajabi Giveaway!” and called it a day. However, our headline IMMEDIATELY caused our customers to click:

“Check Out My Mugshot :O”

After a funny follow-up description in the email, and the promised “mugshot” (in this case, a picture of the mugs we were giving away), we went on to describe the specifics of the contest. The important thing about this: it got customers curious, causing them to click and read through the email!

The image that launched our Instagram contest.

2) Engage Customers by Selling a Solution

“HELP! I need somebody… HELP!”

Do you remember that one kid in elementary school who would come back from winter break and brag about all the cool stuff he got for Christmas? You didn't like that kid very much, did you?

Yeah... this kid...

What’s weird is that people think this is a good way to promote their company and products. All too often, people send out emails or write product descriptions where they brag about their accomplishments and how you can become successful like them.

For example, “John Doe is a leader in his field, and has made millions over the past 5 years. His system has been adopted by some of the biggest players in the industry who have made a collective 200 million dollars following his advice. John also has experience in internet marketing, with over 500 clients in over 50 countries.”

So far you know NOTHING about the product... all you know is that John rubs elbows with other big industry players, and that he is worth a lot of money. Nobody likes being talked to this way… it’s belittling and uninformative. What you always need to constantly be thinking of is how, through your copy, you can identify the problems of your customer and provide a solution that meets their needs. In this case, you aren’t talking about what you have done for yourself, you are talking about what YOU can do for THEM.

3) Nothing is more nice than being CONCISE

A major point of confusion for many people is how long they should make their copy. You have a lot to say, you don’t wanna ramble, but you don’t want to make it so short that the copy communicates nothing but vague niceties about the product.

Our recommendation: put EVERYTHING you need to say about the product, but do so in the most concise manner you can muster.

An example of “too wordy”: “This absolutely fantastic piece of software will transmogrify your business by increasing customer purchase rates, attracting more purchase-minded individuals, and automating many arduous tasks that bog down your day-to-day activities.”

I think I need to take a nap after reading that…

This tired kitty just read that massively wordy sentence.

Here’s an example of copy that is much more concise, but still gets the message across to your customers: “By attracting more customers, increasing purchase rates, and automating many aspects of your business, this software will give your business the kick-start it needs.”

See how much less painful that was to read? Concise, highly communicative sentences will keep your customers interested in what you have to say (and sell)!

4) Save the Business Speak for the IRS and the Standup for the Stage

You’ve probably heard from numerous other sources that you should avoid “business speak” in your emails.

Examples: “reach out,” “touch base,” “synergize,” “leverage,” etc.

I can guarantee this guy uses business speak.

Basically, you don’t want to sound like an investment manager emailing one of his clients. Unless you’re an investment manager reading this. In that case… still don’t write like that.

However, one critical mistake that people make is treading the fine line between entertaining and ridiculous. You don’t want to make it sound like you’re performing a comedy act. After all, you’re still trying to sell a product to someone, not just make them laugh.

The elusive sweet spot for copy is CONVERSATIONAL. Essentially, make it sound like you’re talking to someone, not writing them an email.

A good way to measure this: read your copy out loud. If you feel weird reading it, or find yourself saying “I never speak like this,” then you’ve gone too far in either direction.

5) Educating Your Students - How to Turn Page Views into Sales

“Teacher! I have a question…”

Too often when writing copy, people lose sight of why they were writing it in the first place: to EDUCATE potential customers about your product, business, or course. People can get so wrapped-up in making sure their tone is casual, that they have an awesome header, and that the wording is concise, they forget to actually say anything of value to the customer!

Remember, your goal is to teach customers about what your product is and how it can help with a customer’s problem. The best copy in the world won’t help if you don’t truly have anything to say.

6) Know Your Audience to Target Your Writing

“Whoooooooooo, are you? Who-ooo, Who-ooo”

In an ideal world, you would be selling to an army cloned from you. That way, you would know exactly what products they want, and how to sell it to them, all the time.

It would definitely be easier if all your customers were an army of clones...

The real world is a bit different from that Sci-Fi dystopia, however, so you have to know how to sell to someone who ISN’T you. While this may sound difficult, it’s actually pretty easy once you know how to break it down into manageable pieces.

The simplest way to do this is to “create” a mannequin of what you think your typical customer is. How old are they? What gender? Where are they primarily located? What career field are many of them in? Do they have kids? Are they married? What kind of lifestyle do they have (or are trying to obtain)?

This is your ideal customer!

This mannequin will act as a stand-in for your entire customer base. When you craft your copy moving forward, write it as if you were writing it directly to this mannequin. This will ensure that your tone is casual, and that you continue to appeal to your user-base.

7) Practice, practice, practice!

Lastly, it is important to keep in mind that the first few emails you write are going to be AWFUL.

You aren’t going to be entirely used to writing in the ways described above, it will feel a little forced, and you won’t take some of the aforementioned advice into account.

...makes perfect!

HOWEVER, this should not put you off from continuing to write your own copy. It is an extremely valuable skill that, as a businessperson, you NEED to know. By employing the advice in this post, and with a heaping helping of practice, you’ll bring in the customers and get your business rockin’ and rollin’ in no-time!

[kajabiapp-blog]

Case Study: How Kyle Buchanan Used Kajabi To Start An Online Business

Have content you want to sell but all the technology frustrates you?

That’s the exact same situation Kyle Buchanan found himself in after searching for solutions to sell his content online.

But by using Kajabi, Kyle has started a successful and profitable online business without having to jump through hoops learning the technical details.

Discovering His Passion

Kyle’s background is in financial markets, but when he discovered his interest for memorization techniques, he was hooked... and he felt a burning desire to share it with everyone.

“There was a particular moment of clarity when I was sitting on a bus to work, and I realized this wasn’t just a party trick, it was the future direction I’d been looking for...  I had knowledge that could help a lot of people, and I had the passion to share it.” 

Searching For A Solution

Although Kyle had no formal training in teaching, he just needed the right tools to share his knowledge.

After looking at designers and coders to help put together his product, he found that the entire process would be slow and very expensive.

Current online course creators offered no proper solutions either; cumbersome platforms took too much of his time to get his content up and the student experience was not what he wanted to offer.

And that’s where Kajabi came in.

Using Kajabi To Start His Online Business

When Kyle began using Kajabi, he found that the technical burden was gone and he began focusing on what he did best: building out his content.

“One of Steve Jobs’ mantras was that ‘simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’, and that’s what I love about Kajabi,” says Kyle. “It’s so simple and streamlined to use for instructors and for students, and lets the flow of information, knowledge and value be the main priority.”

As for the challenge of setting up his course on Kajabi? Well, here’s what he had to say about it: “Uploading and setting up my course was completely straightforward – even someone technically challenged like me found it easy!

”

All Kyle had to do was upload his content and his course was up and running.

Success With Kajabi

“Memorize The Periodic Table” has not been up for long, but Kyle has already scored a number of early successes, which includes enrolling hundreds of students into his course.

His favorite story involves a student who was searching online for help with class - her challenge was to memorize the entire periodic table by the next day. She found Kyle’s course on Kajabi Next, went through all the videos, and stunned her teacher the next day by scoring 100%.

“That’s when I knew my course was a success,” says Kyle. “I’d been able to share my knowledge in a way that not only helped her achieve a goal, but had her walking on clouds of excitement.

With Kajabi, Kyle has gone from starting with only a passion and a desire to share it, to an accomplished online course instructor.

Here’s the Sales Page for Memorize the Periodic Table that netted Buchanan hundreds of students.

What The New Kajabi Could Mean For Kyle’s Business

Kyle has built a successful and profitable online business just by using the tools Kajabi provides.

And with the upcoming release of The New Kajabi, Kyle plans to reach even MORE people, scale the size of his business, and automate his processes even more than before with all the new features The New Kajabi has to offer.

“What I’m really excited about for The New Kajabi is that it removes even more pieces of the puzzle and integrates even more functionality into one platform - because that’s going to help me focus on what I do best: creating and selling content.”

Be One Of The First To Try The New Kajabi

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[Announcement] New Logo Revealed...

As you may have heard, we’re working on a brand new product that's going to revolutionize the industry once again. 

 Tell us what you think below!

[kajabiapp-blog]

Success Leaves Clues - Episode #1: Information Overwhelm

We’re producing a new show here at Kajabi, called “Success Leaves Clues.”

In this first episode, we’ll share a simple solution to a huge hurdle that so many of us in online business struggle with: information overwhelm.

[kajabiapp-blog]

Free Course: How To Create Courses Using Only Your Microphone

We've created a free course where you'll learn how to properly record audio with just your microphone to create your online course.

We’ll cover capturing, editing, and exporting your audio to your online course using the tools readily available at your disposal.

Here's the course syllabus:

Lesson 1: The Different Options For Recording Your Online Course

Lesson 2: Built-in Microphones

Lesson 3: USB Microphones

Lesson 4: Smart Phone Microphones

Lesson 1: Importing Audio

Lesson 2: Capturing Your Audio

Lesson 1: Editing in Audacity

Lesson 2: Exporting in Audacity

Again, we're giving you this course for free, so use this registration link to enroll now. Enjoy!

Enroll in the Free Course

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Kajabi Next Q&A Hangout

We recently hosted a live Q&A hangout for Kajabi Next where we gave you access to us so we could answer any questions you had as you created your online courses.

In the live hangout, we walked through Kajabi Next, showed you how to create specific types of courses, and answered all the questions you had for us.

Watch the recording of the live hangout above!

If you’d like to follow along with the steps we take in the hangout, start creating your course on Kajabi Next now:

Create My Kajabi Next Course

-Joe & Leonard

p.s. We’d love to know what you thought of the hangout.  Leave a comment below and let us know!

[kajabiapp-blog]

Free Course: How To Create Courses Using Only Screencasts

Over the past few years, all kinds of trainers have been using screencasts to demonstrate the things they do on their computer.

They’re an easy way to create your course content as you invite your student to look over your shoulder.

In this free course, we’ll be going over three different options for recording screencasts on your computer.

We’ll cover capturing, editing, and exporting your screencast to your online course using the tools readily available at your disposal.

Here's the course syllabus:

Lesson 1: Introduction To Screencasts

Lesson 1: Recording Your Screencast With Screenflow

Lesson 2: Screenflow Editing

Lesson 3: Exporting Your Screenflow Project

Lesson 1: Recording With Camtasia

Lesson 2: Basic Editing With Camtasia

Lesson 3: Exporting Your Camtasia Project

Lesson 1: Using Screenr To Record Your Screencast

Lesson 2: Exporting in Screenr

Lesson 3: Editing Your Screenr Recording

Again, we're giving you this course for free, so use this registration link to enroll now. Enjoy!

Enroll in the Free Course

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Free Course: Using Your Webcam To Create An Online Course

Webcams are one of the easiest ways to create your online course content, and the good news is that you already have everything you need to get started.

We’ve created a free course on Kajabi Next to teach you how to create an online course using only your webcam.

Made by our video expert, Joe, this course will help you get started building out your own online course using tools you already have at your disposal...

Here's the course syllabus:

Introduction

Lesson 1: Introduction To Webcams

Section 1: Using iMovie With Your Webcam (Mac)

Lesson 1: iMovie Webcam Capture

Lesson 2: Basic iMovie Editing

Lesson 3: Exporting Your iMovie Project

Section 2: Using Movie Maker With Your Webcam (PC)

Lesson 1: Movie Maker Webcam Capture

Lesson 2: Basic Movie Maker Editing

Lesson 3: Exporting Your Movie Maker Project

Section 3: Browser Based Webcam Capture

Lesson 1: Browser Based Webcam Capture

Lesson 2: Basic YouTube Editing

Lesson 3: Exporting In YouTube

Again, we're giving you this course for free, so use this registration link to enroll now. Enjoy!

Enroll in the Tech Corner Course

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Kajabi Tech Corner - Episode #5: How To Use Screencasts

In this episode of Kajabi Tech Corner, I’m going to go over how to use screencasts in your videos.

Screencasts are one of the best ways to share your information, and they are especially effective at walking your audience through a step-by-step process.

Watch the video above and see how easy it is to use screencasts.

In the video I’m using Screenflow which you can find here (MAC ONLY).

I also mention two other applications and you can find them here:

Screenr

CamStudio

I'd also like to invite you to enroll in my Tech Corner course.  It's a free course that I've hosted on Kajabi Next, and it's place where I'll be storing all of my video lessons.

Register for it below:

Joe

p.s.  If you have any questions about using screencasts, feel free to leave a comment below.

[kajabiapp-blog]

Q&A - Episode #8: Launch Anticipation, Hustling Tips, and Obstacles to Success

We’re back with another Kajabi Q&A, and in this episode we’re going to teach you how to build anticipation for your launch and get your audience buzzing about your product.

We'll also address your other questions on how to distribute and deliver your content, obstacles to success, useful tips for hustling, and much more.

See the full Q&A episode above, and watch the individual questions below...

1.) Sticking To Your Guns

“I’ve gotten a lot of requests from students to teach stuff that I feel would detract from the overall theme of my course.. How do I go about balancing what students want versus sticking to my guns?” - Charles

2.) Launch Anticipation

“What are some things I can do to build anticipation for my launch?” - Ed

3.) Hustling Tips

“I’m in a hustling season and I’d like your best tips when it comes to diet, sleep, and your daily routine” - Tiffany

4.) Content Distribution

“I work as a real estate investor and I want to branch onto online courses to teach what I do. My problem is that I have so much to teach and I’m not sure how to go about it without overwhelming my students.” - Brian

5.) Obstacles To Success

“What do you feel is a bigger obstacle to success: a lack of time or a lack of capital?“ - Isaiah

We hope you enjoyed another episode of our Kajabi Q&A session!

Now, we'd like to turn over one of the questions to you: What are some of your best hustling tips?

Leave a comment below with your answer!

Kenny and Travis

p.s.  Keep sending in your questions here and we'll be sure to include it in one of the next episodes. 

p.p.s. We collected all of our Chalk Talk videos into one easy-to-access, FREE Kajabi Next course.  You can watch all of our previous videos by enrolling in the course below:

[kajabiapp-blog]

Kajabi Tech Corner - Episode #4: Three-Point Lighting

I’ve received a lot of requests for a video on lighting... and understandably so - lighting is crucial to ensuring that your videos look as clean as possible.

In this episode of Kajabi Tech Corner, I’ll give you a rundown of the three-point lighting technique we use here at the Kajabi studio. 

This one was pretty fun to film; you’ll see that we play around with the lighting to give you a sense of just how important great lighting is...

All the gear I use for lighting can be found in this Wishlist.

Also, here’s the Wistia video I talk about in today’s episode.  The video goes into great detail about how you can create your own DIY lighting kit for cheap.

I'd also like to invite you to enroll in my Tech Corner course.  It's a free course that I've hosted on Kajabi Next, and it's place where I'll be storing all of my video lessons.

Register for it below:

Joe

p.s.  If you have any questions about lighting, feel free to leave a comment below.