The anatomy of a successful online info-product business
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Many people (including us here at Kajabi) think running an online info-product business is about as good as it gets. When you hear others talk about their “dream business”, many describe the benefits of a digital business whether they know it or not.
Think about it...
This kind of business requires little start up cost and you never have to worry about buying or holding inventory, paying for shipping, or anything associated with physical products. Unless you really want to.
You can run it from anywhere in the world, allowing you to be completely location independent, traveling and living whenever and wherever you choose.
Plus, you get to build a business around something you’re already passionate about!
Hard to get much better than that, right?
These are just a few of the reasons why the “E-Learning” industry continues to quickly trend towards its 275 billion dollar valuation by the year 2020.
Oh, not to mention tens of thousands of people have already scaled their info businesses into the six and seven figure levels. So this isn’t just something that provides a little bit of “play money” on the weekends.
Instead, you can now make more money than your previous job and actually have the freedom and time to spend it however you choose.
Like we said, it’s about as close to a dream business as we believe it can get.
But what if you’ve never sold anything online before? What if you’re just starting out and are a little overwhelmed by all the different options, ideas, and opinions floating around you?
Well, that’s what we’re going to cover today.
Because we believe that selling information online doesn’t have to be complicated.
In fact, from our experience now doing over $500,000,000 in digital sales and helping thousands just like you run this exact type of business…
We’ve boiled it down to just 3 main pieces all info-businesses have...
3 Common Traits of All Successful Online Info-Product Business
#1: MARKET
Offline and online businesses all start the same...with people. Also known as “your market”.
You start by identifying a specific group of people who you’d like to help. If you plan on selling an online course about dog training, then your market is obviously people who own or plan to own dogs. Not cat owners, bird lovers, or wild African safari fanatics.
You always start with people and problems.
Again, if you’re teaching others how to have a more well-behaved four-legged friend, you’d want to identify some of the main problems dog owners have with training their dogs.
Starting with your market is one of the best ways to ensure your business idea won’t be a complete flop. Obviously, even the most experienced entrepreneurs never operate with 100% certainty that their idea will work, but starting with your people and their problems ensures you’re working towards creating products people actually want.
This becomes the who and the what of your online business.
The who in this example is dog owners and the what is more well-behaved dogs.
At Kajabi, our “who” are people who want to sell their knowledge online, and our “what” is a platform which allows you to do that easier and faster than anything else out there without all the typical tech headaches.
So start first with identifying your people and their problems.
Kajabi Assessments - Find Out What Your Market Wants
One simple way of better understanding what problems your market are facing (and ones they’re willing to pay to have solved) is by actually asking them.
Luckily you can use Kajabi’s built-in assessment tool to create fun quizzes or surveys which help your market tell you exactly what sort of problems they’d like you to solve.
Once you know your who and the what, you’re ready to move on to your offer.
#2: OFFER
If you’re selling information online, you’re selling “how to”.
As digital infopreneurs, your products or coaching help bridge the gap from where they are to where they want to go. You’ve identified the who, you’ve clarified their problems, and now you create a solution to how you’re going to help take them to the “promised land”.
Every single successful online info product business follows some type of this formula:
POINT A: STARTING
This is where your prospect currently is. They’re struggling with something. They’re not where they want to be. They’re in pain.
Maybe they’re about to buy a dog but are unsure of how to train it, or they have a puppy and want it to learn how to be potty trained. Etc, etc.
They have some sort of a problem you’ve identified and have now related to your product.
POINT B: ENDING
This is where they’d rather be. This is where they’ll end up after they go through your course, digital product, or coach with you. This is the main end benefit you are helping them to obtain.
Maybe the puppy is now potty trained and the owner isn’t worrying about what surprises she’s going to find in her gym shoes tomorrow morning. Or now the couple has a blueprint or gameplan on exactly how to train a dog and they finally feel ready to go and get one.
Getting From Point A To Point B
As a digital entrepreneur selling information, you are selling “how-to” solutions. You’re simply helping them get from Point A to Point B in the fast or most efficient way possible.
Creating Your Digital Product
Your offer takes the shape of some form of digital product.
You can choose to launch a membership site, online course, personal coaching, or even a simple pdf report or stand-alone video.
Within Kajabi we have templates and outlines for each of these product types allowing you to create them quickly and not get stuck and give up.
Remember, your offer consists of more than just the actual product which you’ll deliver to your customer. Pricing options, additional bonuses, and deliverability are also all factors in creating a more irresistible offer for your end consumer.
Delivering Your Digital Product
Within Kajabi not only can you create whatever type of digital product you choose is best for this specific problem, but we also host all of them as well!
No need to pay additional fees to other services just to have them deliver your products.
Through your Kajabi site your customers can checkout and be granted immediate access to the product you’ve just created.
So by this point, you know who you’re helping, you know the problems they want solved, and you know the type of product you’ll create to solve them.
The third and final piece of all successful online info-product businesses is…
#3: MESSAGING
This is where you create what’s called a “message to market match”.
All that means is that the marketing materials you create communicate in a way that your market resonates with. If you’ve started with your people and problems, this part flows quite naturally.
Let’s say you created a beautiful landing page inside Kajabi’s easy to use form builder. Your goal is to capture emails of prospects and ultimately turn them into paying customers.
If you were selling the online course about dog training, your headline might look something like this:
Give Me 7 Days And I’ll Give You The Most Obedient Dog You’ve Ever Had...
(Works on puppies and even older dogs too!)
You could then go on and explain a little bit about your credibility in this field, a brief overview of the methods you use, and how you’ve put everything into an online course which promises to create an obedient dog in just 7 days.
You always want to start by creating a bridge from your markets pains and problems to your product...not from your product to your market.
When you start with them you’ll know the messaging which is most likely to get them to give you their email and ultimately buy.
Email Marketing And Sales Pipelines
Email marketing remains the most effective method in converting your opt-ins into first time and repeat customers.
Which is why we designed Kajabi Mail with information business owners completely in mind.
It is specifically created for people who want to sell digital products and has all the functionalities of a premium priced service.
You want your email messaging to continue to the dialogue which occurred on your opt-in page.
Inside Kajabi you could create a complete 5-day automated campaign built out with each day highlighting a specific problem which your digital product solves. Within each email you provide a snapshot view of what it looks like going from Point A to Point B.
Then at the end of that email, you insert a link and direct them to your sales or checkout page.
Instead of having to custom code or wonder which page goes where, inside Kajabi you simply go and click on “Sales Pipeline” and your sales page and order form will automatically be created.
You can then customize each of the pages in whatever way you choose.
Selling Your Knowledge Online Doesn’t Have To Be Complicated
While others benefit from having you believe you need 13 different pieces of software in order to sell your knowledge online, here at Kajabi we seek to share the reality of what you actually need.
Do you need some sort of platform? Of course.
Is there a reason we’re the most recommended Knowledge Commerce platform for digital entrepreneurs who want to sell online courses, membership sites, and other digital products?
We sure think so.
But more important than just the platform, every successful online info-product business needs the three things we just went over:
- To identify their market, it’s people and their problems.
- To create an irresistible offer and digital product.
- Then wrap it all up with a “message to market” match type of communication.
Use Kajabi to Turn Your Knowledge And Content Into Products You Can Sell
Ready to be your own boss? Ready to monetize your knowledge? You need Kajabi - It’s a full-featured platform that allows professionals like you to create their own businesses from home.
Create online courses, establish membership sites, offer coaching programs, host a podcast, and sell other digital products. Plus, you'll get marketing tools like a website, CRM, email marketing, landing page templates, and helpful analytics to help you spread the word about your products and earn more revenue.
Fully explore what Kajabi has to offer and start building your business during a free trial. Start your free 14-day trial of Kajabi today!
