When it comes to the digital online space, so many of us want things to be perfect. We look at everything that’s so well curated and we want to provide the very best in terms of the content that we are teaching and the ways we’re helping our students and future customers. 

However, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned that the KS Team sees time and time again with our clients is that sometimes you just have to start. A perfect example of this is what happened with our client, Aubree Malick, in her own digital biz – and today we will dive deep into it all!!

If you’re curious what a REAL small biz owner did to start her digital product suite, how she found success, and how YOU can do the same for biz, you’re in the right place. Plus, Aubree & I drop some of my favorite advice that you’ll ever hear when it comes to launching your online business. 

Let’s get started!

AUBREE’S STORY

Aubree was a former elementary teacher looking for a way to be at home with her kids. I liked what she did as a teacher but there were some things that I wish I could change – the main thing being that she wanted to be at home with her kids. So she was looking for a way to be at home with them, but still financially bring in the income, and she stumbled upon being a virtual assistant. 

Once she dove into being a VA, she was eventually able to quit her teaching job and be at home with her kids. She started talking about what she did and how she did it and people wanted to learn from her!! That’s when she began creating courses and digital resources to help people. 

We started working together about a year ago and some of what has been fun in having her as a KS Agency client is that there is overlap between being a Virtual Assistant and an Integrator – we have a shared mentality in the troubleshooting and getting some of the details done in the weeds!

Before we started working together, she was on a fast track to burnout trying to juggle all the things, trying to sit in all the seats, but her strong suit is content. Some things could be outsourced for her, but she still needed to show up, she still needed to be that face of the brand and the business, so when our KS Team stepped in, we took some of the other things off her plate so she could do that.

We’ve helped her plan out content, write copy, do design, launch a brand new shop in Shopify, and she doesn’t have to do it all herself anymore.

She’s basically living what I’m slowly teaching to myself, which is that just because I can do it doesn’t mean I have to. That’s a mantra I think all entrepreneurs need to hear!! There is an adrenaline rush with bootstrapping it and figuring it out but it isn’t sustainable. That’s why working together to do this it all is what the KS Agency is all about!!

WHY I LOVE AUBREE’S DIGITAL SUITE

One of the reasons I wanted Aubree to share about her evergreen funnel with us is that I love this funnel. I’m obsessed with this funnel and here’s why.

It’s really, really simple at its core. 

There have definitely been some things over the last year where we’ve optimized, adjusted, and added to it… and that’s all great. The purpose of having your digital product suite is being able to start and then go from there. 

But the biggest thing I want you to hear me say, especially when it comes to creating a digital suite, is that you can give yourself permission to just start.

Progress over perfection. Get something really simple up there, and you might be surprised at the power of one simple thing and what it will do for your brand. 

HOW AUBREE’S DIGITAL PRODUCT LINE STARTED

Back in January of 2021, Aubree had a moment where she was still providing financially for her family and she was trying to make a shift from working just 1-on-1 with clients to being an online educator, which is a delicate balance.

She still had her clients who were bringing her income but she also needed to find time to grow her audience and position herself as something to be known for. So she had an idea for a digital product and like a true Visionary, she was excited and ready to get started on it right away.

She decided to just put it out there and see what happened.

Now, over time it has evolved, as she began making tweaks, and started to think more about the strategy side of it. Of course, she could just keep directing people to her product like she had been doing where her main call to action was to buy her digital product. But she also knew she was likely missing people because maybe they weren’t ready to buy quite yet.  

She also knew she wanted to grow her email list because a lot of the content that she was putting out there was on social media, specifically on TikTok, which means she didn’t own it. At that point, It was working well but she really wanted to grow her email list.

So she decided to put everything she was doing on social media into a condensed version so they could see it all in one place. And at the end of that video she was going to pitch her product. 

In the first month of launching that free training, she brought in over $45,000 in revenue in just 30 days!

It was super simple, not a lot of bells and whistles, and it has gone through some changes since then as she’s heard feedback from her audience and needed to change some things. However, that launch changed the game for her when it came to the digital product space!!

REAL TALK: IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT.

I love Aubree’s story because so many of us want everything to be perfect. We look at this curated space online and we want to provide the very best content and we want to help our students and potential customers in the best possible ways. 

But the tech and tools and all the fancy stuff like that doesn’t have to be “perfect” – what Aubree did worked so well. $45,000 in revenue in her first 30 days! Without a fancy back end or amazing tech and tools.

We love those things but truthfully, you don’t have to have all the bells and whistles. If you have good content, and you have a funnel that’s showing that content to the world and building awareness, then people will see that content and then purchase the product. 

I talked more about this concept of a marketing funnel here and I actually have a free worksheet to download and use in your own biz. 

This is exactly what Aubree was doing. She was building awareness at the top of funnel on TikTok, bringing people into the funnel through her email, giving them a free class, pitching her product and then getting them to purchase the product at the end.

That’s its simplest form and it worked so well in her biz.

BREAKING DOWN AUBREE’S FUNNEL

For Aubree, social media was obviously one of the biggest ways that she was attracting new customers. So that’s the top of her funnel – that’s the Building Awareness stage.

She was on social media, speaking to the masses, getting people ready to be excited repelling or attracting them. They are consuming, it’s all about them, and they’re not quite ready to pay you or get on your email list. 

But then she had her podcast which brought her down to the Explore stage. They’re starting to listen to the podcast and they’re going to consume a little bit more before they’re going to decide to commit by giving her their email address, receiving more content, and then being pitched a product at the bottom of the funnel.

Her podcast began solidifying her as the expert, showing them more depth, whereas with social media, it’s quicker and more fleeting. The podcast was something she could send people to where there wasn’t a big commitment but she could take them deeper than the building awareness stage and into more of a trust-building and nurturing place. 

WHY SHE CHOSE TO OFFER A FREE CLASS FOR HER FUNNEL

Aubree kept receiving the same questions and she wanted to put them all together. Since she was already on TikTok and comfortable in front of the camera, it made the most sense to continue to answer those questions in a video format. She felt like she could connect best with her audience in that way. 

So she recorded herself answering those same questions she was getting over and over again about the basics of being a VA and basically helped her audience decide if they wanted to become a VA or not. If they did, then she had a path for them to follow that led to her product and helped them to do what she had been doing as a VA herself.

She was able to speak to a lot of the pain points her audience was having because she had done a lot of research and legwork leading up to that and then could help them tackle those things. She has so much free content out there that she’s able to give them an out if they don’t want to purchase. 

She tells them that they can take what they’ve learned from her, and they can run with it. They can totally DIY it. But if they are somebody who doesn’t want to have to wait to try to figure out the right answer, or they don’t want to second guess it, they can have the step by step process and do it for them through my product. That language helped them to see which camp they fell into and then they could make the decision moving forward if they were going to purchase or not.

This worked because what she did was listen to what her audience was asking for, she literally answered her questions, and then she gave it to them.

If you’re wondering what should be at the top of your funnel, then I want you to consider what your audience is asking. Literally. What are they DMing you about, what comments are they leaving, what do they want to hear from you. Do you need to offer a free class, a PDF, a quiz? 

Listen to them and then offer them what they need. 

HER PRODUCT PRICING

There is a lot of buzz around like a signature product and having one course that’s an A-Z, all the bells and whistles, everything you could ever want to learn about is inside the product. There’s nothing wrong with that! There are some incredible signature courses out there. You may even have one!

But one of the things about Aubree’s product and why I think it sold so well in this funnel was the price point. 

While she has had courses or coaching that were priced hundreds or $1,000+, she took into consideration her audience. That high price point is not what her audience could afford. When she thought back to herself in that position (although now she would look back and say it was worth it to pay anything because it would’ve been an invaluable investment!), she knew that her audience was made up of moms, teachers, people trying to make it work.

So she wanted to make it affordable to do and something they could implement quickly. 

Long courses can be good and helpful, but she needed to create something that was actionable and easily accessible. Her price has varied as they’ve added things, taken away things, etc. but the highest it has ever been was $97. Now it’s more like $57 or $67, depending on where they enter the funnel, but it’s simple, and it works – and so does her pricing.

WHAT WORKS FOR YOUR AUDIENCE?

Of course, over time, Aubree has tweaked things and had to figure out what works best for her and her audience. For example, before the pandemic, it was appealing to her audience to hear about how they could stay home and work as a VA. But after that, people didn’t necessarily want to stay home, so she began talking more about how they could have more flexibility with their hours or spend more time with their kids. 

So the more she listens to her audience, the more that she’s allowed it to evolve, and make tweaks and try it out to see if it works better. You don’t want to be changing too many things at once, because then you won’t know what is actually making things work or not, but by being strategic to test out different things, you can continue to evolve your products and your funnels to continue to work well with your audience and convert.

The bottom line is that she knows who her audience is, who it’s for, the type of people they are, and that is often the missing piece of the funnel for so many of our digital online business owners. 

CONCLUSION

The subtitle of this post really could be “Listen to your audience!” because Aubree has done that so well and she’s seen a lot of success in this digital online space because of it. 

We’ve covered so many things and it’s been so helpful to hear a real example of how her funnel worked so well for her.

When she looks back at 2021, what she would share with herself as she was just beginning in the digital product sphere is the same thing she would tell you: Continue to grow your audience. 

Continue to show up on social media or whatever you’re doing to attract your audience, and then point them to your email list. Nurture them, build trust with them, and take time doing that especially in their inboxes. No matter how many subscribers you have on your list or followers you have, if you focus on loving your people and supporting them, it will pay you back tenfold in the future.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how Aubree’s funnel works:

• She builds awareness on social media – primarily on TikTok
• They can continue to explore by listening to her podcast
• She then points people to her email list by offering a free class (on video, because that’s how she connects best with her audience) 
• Once they are in the email funnel, they get to know her a little bit, build trust, and are pitched her product. That product is priced at a lower point (because, again, that’s what her audience can afford!) and is something that’s always evolving to continue to reach new people!

I really hope this feels like a breath of fresh air and permission for you to just start. It doesn’t need to be perfect. You don’t have to have it all together. A lot of magic can happen in those early moments when you’re just figuring it out and bootstrapping it and it doesn’t have to be complicated.

But at the end of the day, be sure you’re listening to your audience and you may be surprised to see where it takes you!