Out of all the client results we have generated over the years, the results for our client, an Online Educator in the sustainability niche, are among the most rewarding. This was interesting to work with as it was not only a micro niche, but the client had a cultural resistance to all things consumer-based, including the online world, and being seen to be generating significant revenue from a program/system their community judged as being something that should be available for free. (Even though the client had spent years studying and made substantial financial investment to gain this knowledge and expertise).
But when we looked closely at the client’s professional structure, it became clear they were already donating both time and money to projects aligned with their philosophy. This started to make the process of marketing their programs far more palatable to them, as this would allow them to reach more high-need communities and offer support in more tangible ways.
It was rewarding and exciting to assist someone in seeing the long-term benefits of developing the skills required to grow their business. It isn’t for me to judge what someone does or does not do with profits or revenue, but simply to work with them and hopefully educate them on the advantages of having the skills to generate funds as and when they are wanted or needed.
The real name is not disclosed here to protect the client’s privacy.
Background
The client is an online company established to assist individuals by leveraging tested, sustainable strategies within a rapidly expanding yet highly specialized niche that emphasizes whole systems thinking.
When the founder started the company, their primary focus was teaching people how to apply their training to local environments to the benefit of local communities. At the time, the program was less than $400AU, and our client spent much of their time traveling to present these concepts. While this was very rewarding work, their ability to reach a greater audience was limited by time and distance.
After meeting with them and exploring their background, knowledge, and desired outcomes, I immediately saw a gap in the market that could quickly be filled using this client’s extensive experience and knowledge.
Their drive to be the most comprehensive expert educator, combined with a desire to foster a global community for more significant impact where it was needed most, made them prime candidates for the system I had tested successfully for years in my own and my client’s businesses.
To date, this new client had only been selling approximately two courses per month, along with a small fee for running government-funded programs, which meant she was starting out with a very limited budget. Given that this client’s focus was to continue to support both through education and funding some of the most vulnerable communities on the planet, the budget was vital, and so we got to work.
Our Process
The first step was to look closely at the market and the current gaps, and the possible demand for a program like this. Using our company’s experience in product development, it was pretty clear what was needed and after a brief but intensive period of research we designed the model we would take to market.
Up until this time, this style of program had only ever been delivered face-to-face, so given that this was a completely new delivery concept, we rolled out a pre-launch marketing campaign to warm up their audience and educate them on the value of an online program in this niche that they could do from the comfort of their own homes and on their own time.
We took the founding member offer to the mailing list in May of 2018. Although we fully intended to offer this program at $3000 eventually, we used a focused approach to the testing and started with an offer considerably lower for two reasons,
1. To test the message and early modules to ensure we were in fact heading in the right direction and
2. To provide the client with funds for product development.
Using our 10 day launch strategy to a small list of approximately 10,000 subscribers, we created a funnel which generated $66,430.00 in sales from a simple offer and campaign in that time, thus proving to our client this was in fact a winning combination.
We reviewed our offer and fine-tuned it, resulting in revenue of $156,000 in the first 12 months. The exciting part for our client, given this was their first real experience working with digital products was the fact that there were very few expenses so allowed them to immediately start funding some of the charitable projects they dreamed of supporting.
The following 12 months (2020) generated a further $199,000, followed by $294,000 in 2021 and closing out 2022 AU financial year at $308,000. 2022 growth was slower as we had redirected a lot of our focus to upgrading software, course delivery platforms, websites etc to keep up with the rapid growth. Expectations are 2023 will double again with the planned strategies.
Now, the truly exciting part is this is a micro niche, and these results surpassed our client’s expectations.
*With a more mainstream concept, we know our results would have been far greater than we have proved in other later niches!
The Secret Formula
But as much as the revenue generated, the ultimate outcome was positioning this client as a global expert and leader in their field , forever raising their profile in that community.
Because of the goals for the business we have been able to introduce the concept of cause marketing to this client and and their audience, (the collaboration between a for-profit business and a non-profit organization.) Which allowed them to raise additional funds through charitable donations with their expanded profile and global reach.
But the real key to success with this business strategy was in aligning their outcomes, beliefs and expectations with their customers outcomes, beliefs and expectations. What a rewarding fun and successful journey!