Have you recently launched a course?
For a lot of bloggers, creating and launching a course is the popular thing to monetize your blog. I’ve launched a course on my freelance writing site and I know it’s a great passive income stream.
I don’t do much marketing for this course since it’s over a year old, but I’ve been updating it and adding new lessons and guides to make sure it’s relevant right now.
But, recently I did one little thing that totally boosted my sales! Before I go into that, I have a sales page roadmap to help you set up your sales page so you can start making consistent sales. Yup! I give you what to put on your sales page and and where to put on in. So go ahead and sign up below to get that bad boy roadmap and start making sales today.
How I Turn Visitors Into Customers
Currently, my marketing funnel for my freelance writing course typically starts at my free 6 day email course on how to land your first client.
It’s a condense course on getting started as a freelance writer. This naturally leads into my comprehensive course where I pitch making a living from writing.
I also have two other free courses (and a I offer a free lesson on my sales page with its own sales funnel) that I offer that also lead to my paid course. I have affiliates too, that promote my course with posts about freelance writing or an interview I did.
And one final thing that I started to do, was make a blog image that markets my course and place it at the end of certain popular blog posts.
With all of this, I typically get 1-2 sales every other day.
I don’t mind this and it’s nice to know that my course is sort of on auto-pilot.
I also do mini launches during the year like back-to-school or Black Friday, which also boosts my sales quite a lot, but that’s not the boost of sales I’m talking about for this post!
I’m Changing the Course (and Visuals)
When I revamped my course, I also updated my visuals. But, those images are still circulating on Pinterest and other social media platforms. That’s great for me since they convert into sales easily.
But, since I’m going to raise the price of my course to reflect all the new things I updated and created, I wanted to create a new image for the end of my blog posts (as well as update my sales page eventually).
My Elna Cain blog gets most of its traffic – it’s over 100k pageviews – from my Google. But, I make sales with my email list too. Since I have over 22k subscribers on that list, not all of them are course students of mine. So, I know that people that know me and my story are not a student of mine, but are reading my blog posts.
And for a while, whenever I posted a new blog post on that site, I’d get a sale. I was amazed. But, why am I not writing every day or at least once a week so I can get more sales?
I don’t have the time! So, that’s why I started putting an image at the bottom of my posts, marketing my course. Now, I know there are marketing experts that suggest not to market your course at all. Instead, market your sales funnel – lead magnet.
I do this for some posts as well, but for some reason, based on my target audience of freelancers or aspiring freelancers, it’s much more effective to market my course!
Go figure! (Note: this may change once I raise my prices. I will have to do some A/B testing to see which marketing tactic – promoting lead magnet or course – yields better conversions over time).
So, when I changed up my visual I couldn’t believe the boost in sales I got!
Old Image Vs. New Image = Butt Load More Sales
Here’s my old image I had at the end of popular blog posts:
I had a paragraph that explained what the course was about and how it could benefit you and then had that image below with links.
Once I updated the new look, I swapped out the image inside the laptop:
This image was a bit more effective since I was getting at least one sale every time I posted on my blog. But, I still wanted to make a better image that really showed the value of my course (since I’m going to raise the price soon).
So, I made a new image and posted that on every popular post including my latest one:
I couldn’t believe what happened next!
I published my most recent blog post over on Elna Cain on the 9th of January. I made 3 sales.
The next day – 3 more sales.
Today I received one.
Wha-what!
A boost in sales, mamas!
I just changed the image to reflect the value and boom, more sales (a course student commented on my post saying that they forgot about my pitch templates and was going to go check them out! Even course students might not know all the extra wonderful things you have for the course!)
5 Tips to Help You Make More Sales
So, as a blogger what can you do to ensure you’re making consistent sales on an evergreen course?
1. Create a Welcome Series
A welcome series is a few emails you give to your new subscribers. These emails introduces who you are and what your blog is about.
You can link to popular posts, your Facebook page or group and even your course!
2. Mention Your Course in a P.S.
Whenever you email your subscribers, you can end your email with a P.S have you checked out X? For new people that don’t know you, this will spark curiosity in them.
I haven’t done this personally, but when I signed up to Dirt & Bloggers newsletter, I noticed Amanda doing this and since I was still new to her site and who she was, I clicked over and was pleasantly surprised!
3. Create an Email Course
A hot lead magnet (or freebie you can offer to your visitors) is a free email course. MailChimp offers automation, but automations don’t come with the free version of MailChimp.
ConvertKit, on the other hand, offers automations, called sequences when you sign up to their plan, which makes it super easy to create your own email course or welcome series.
Psst..if you use my special ConvertKit link, you get a free month trial!
4. Create a Blog Post Image
Do like me and create a fun visual of your course and place it at the bottom of popular blog posts (that makes sense of course!).
It’s working for me 🙂
5. Create a Pin of Your Course
Pinterest is a great platform to drive traffic to your blog, or to your sales page or welcome page that talks about your course.
This is another way I get sales too and I talk about that in this post.
6. Create Blog Content for Future Sales
Content marketing is a highly effective way to boost your sales. Visitors who come to your site may not even know you have a course to offer and they may not know anything about you or your blog.
If you consistently produce valuable blog posts that help potential customers, these readers will sign up to your list, follow you on social media, read your blog and eventually buy your course.
My Elna Cain site is quite narrow in focus. I only write for brand new writers. There are posts for more established writers, but mostly, each blog post caters to a new writer:
- 12 Highly Effective Ways to Attract Freelance Writing Clients – New writers are struggling to find a client. I provide 12 ways to attract a client.
- The 3 Things You Need for Consistent Freelance Writing Work – New writers struggle finding consistent work. Most work is one-off projects. I provide what you need so you can generate consistent work.
- The Steps I Took to Land My First Freelance Writing Job – Many new writers still haven’t landed their first freelance writing job. I share my story to inspire, motivate and provide the steps so they can go out there and land their first gig.
Ready for Some Sales, Mamas?
Marketing to grow your blog or income takes a lot of time for sure. But, with this little thing of making a visual, you can let the image do your marketing for you, saving you time!
Let me know if you try this out and if you get any sales from it! And don’t forget to pick up your sales page roadmap for more sales below:
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