Learn the step-by-step business design process this founder used to develop a product alongside her customers, helping her de-risk the process and come up with a truly winning idea.
Category Archives: Case Studies
$5,000 A Month From This Offline Lead-Grabbing Technique!
This is an interesting little technique. The lady who operates this system is UK based but it would work anywhere I reckon.
I’m told she’s OK with me sharing it because she’s quite a hippy and believes in Karma rewarding her for helping other people.
Good lass!
First off she doesn’t provide anything out of the ordinary in the offline business niche.
She offers SEO and website design services to local businesses.
She outsources the actual work, but also earns recurring monthly fees for providing services such as hosting, domain name registration, providing autoresponder services, licensing various software, being available for support and creating or updating email sequences.
Nothing too revolutionary although she’s set it up nicely.
No, the thing she does differently is how she gets her leads and turns them into customers.
It involves contacting business professionals such as accountants, lawyers and anyone who deals with business owners.
For example trade suppliers who supply plumbers or carpenters, and asking if they’ll let her put her own little point of sale display in their shop, office or retail desk.
She’s had made some really nice looking little point of sale boxes, which hold small cards, which are about twice the size of standard business cards
On the cards and on the point of sale box she offers a FREE 20 minute consultation about why their website isn’t getting them enough visitors and how to fix it.
There’s a little more to it than that – it’s worded very cleverly and is a good offer – but I’m not going to give her whole method away.
So the whole thing sits on the counter or near the cash register and offers a free consultation to any business person and who wants more business (who doesn’t?) through their website.
And visitors pick up one of her card/brochure sheets from when they visit their supplier, accountant or whatever and can either book the consultation online, by email or phone.
The cards are all marked with a code so she can give a commission to the business that lets her place her point of sale display with them.
Here’s the sexy bit – her conversion rate on these 20 minute free consultations is over SEVENTY percent.
Obviously she has testimonials, examples and sites to show them already prepared, but she ALSO does a little research on their main competitors and throwing their name casually into the conversation usually makes the client very responsive.
Obviously her point of sale displays aren’t the only way she gets leads but it’s the thing that gets her highest conversion into sales.
My own interpretation of this is that the cards work because many of them are placed where people wait…
At a trade desk maybe waiting for a part to be brought up from the stores, or on the coffee table next to the magazines in a solicitors or accountants office while you wait for an appointment…
…and because they’re the sort of places where business owners are, she’s targeting the people she needs to hit.
I think you could put different tweaks and angles on this and make it even better with a little thought, but it’s good
Really good.
$9,487 A Month Income Stream From A Free Course!
So this is a marketer who has created an income stream – a recurring income stream – for himself of just under ten grand a month by offering a membership to his free course.
His strategy is beautifully simple, almost old school (skool?)
His course is aimed at newbies and his advertising and traffic are aimed at both those people who have just discovered IM as well as those who’ve been around for a bit but haven’t had any success whatsoever.
So his free course is basically how to set up an internet marketing business and reach X amount of money per month in X amount of time.
(Classic sales page headline in that description above too eh?)
It’s a great quality and BIG course that newbies can sign up for at one of his various squeeze pages or blogs.
The course is very cleverly structured so that it encompasses pretty much ALL of the main ways to make money with an online business…
PPC
Affiliate marketing
Product Creation
Blogging
Flipping
Amazon
Review sites
Software development
…and so on
And as they make their way through, the members are encouraged to decide which of the methods they’d like to base their own online business on
He includes the basics of each of the methods, how they work, are they easy or hard to set up, potential, skills needed, personality traits needed etc…
It’s very well done.
And this is how he monetizes it:
He simply gets them to a point where they’ve decided which path they want to follow and then says:
This is the course you need if you want to develop your business in this niche in the best and fastest possible way.
And gives them his affiliate link to a course he’s found for each of the various ‘paths’ created by other marketers.
He ONLY ever promotes recurring courses.
Not only that but he also signs up to the affiliate programs of related products – tools, services, software and whatever else and recommends those too
There are some pretty high –ticket services among them too – paying extremely decent commissions.
Cleverly, he doesn’t include anything like this in the first few weeks of the training – he builds trust first and establishes himself as an authority.
Then he recommends courses – ONLY recurring courses remember, and related services and products to the subscribers.
Lovely model eh?
Best of all, the (slightly less than) ten grand a month he earns from the recommendations is only part of his income.
He also produces products and sends emails to the list that he builds from the free courses with promos, recommendations and last time I looked he’d started selling solo ads too.
I don’t know the figures but I DO know how much an email list can bring in a month so I reckon he doubles that ten thousand from simply mailing his list each month.
And of course once the course is produced all he needs to do is pour people in the top and take the profits 
He’ll need to keep it updated and keep an eye on the market for new products and better ‘fits’
for the courses he recommends but it’s a pretty hands-free business for most of the time.
This is an evergreen model that can be replicated if you’re willing to put the work in and set up the infra-structure.
How Simple Content led to Huge Success
Marie Forleo is an entrepreneur, writer, and speaker who is known for her online course, B-School, a 6-week online course that teaches entrepreneurs how to build and grow successful businesses.
Marie began as a life coach and soon started creating content online, including blog posts, videos, and podcasts. As her following grew, she decided to launch an online course to see what would happen.
In 2010, Marie launched B-School, which quickly became a huge success. The course teaches participants about business strategy, marketing, sales, and more. (Sound familiar?) Marie uses a combination of video lessons, workbooks, and live Q&A sessions to help her students learn and apply the concepts.
According to her website she’s had nearly 80,000 students and charges $2500 per student.
Did you do the math? I did it three times because I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Granted, she probably didn’t charge $2500 in the beginning. But still, if you multiply 80,000 students times $2500 each you get…
…$200,000,000…
…from ONE online course.
…
…
…
Okay, I’m back. I had to recheck my rechecking of the math.
Can you build a course?
Can you market a course?
Because if you can do those two things, then I believe you’ve got a shot at $200,000,000, too.
Marie has turned this single course into an entire career, appearing with Oprah, authoring a best-selling book and doing speaking engagements around the world.
And it all started with some simple content to begin building her audience, selling her course to those first subscribers and followers, collecting the testimonials and repeating the process.
Not to take anything away from Marie and her accomplishments, but if she can do it, then so can you.
From Blogging to $1 Billion
I thought it might be good to talk about branding for a minute.
We’re all familiar with those red and white cans of soda and the name on the cans. It’s a famous brand anyone would recognize.
When we think of branding, we think of a company like that. But what if we’re just a little guy or gal on the internet, starting a business in online marketing, social media, info marketing, or whatever.
How does the little person build a brand of their own?
It might go something like this:
Emily Weiss started a beauty blog called ‘Into The Gloss.’
She gained followers, built a list and a strong social media presence, and then changed the name to Glossier.
Why the name change? No doubt she learned some things while blogging, such as shorter is better. And catchier.
Glossier is a beauty brand specializing in direct-to-consumer makeup and skincare. Keep in mind that the markup on makeup and skincare is phenomenal. A product that might cost anywhere from $1 to $5 to produce is then sold for 10 times that amount or more.
True, the markup on information products is even better, but vitamins and beauty products are a close second in profit potential.
And when you OWN THE BRAND, you don’t have real competition. Yes, there are people who love Pepsi, but to a Coke lover there simply are no other brands.
Here’s the kicker: 9 years after its inception, Glossier is now valued at $1billion.
Here are some key insights into her process of building this brand and business:
The target market is young women. Who spends more money on makeup than young women? Nobody.
The products are marketed as ‘enhancing natural features.’ The brand is saying, “You’re already pretty, we’re just making you prettier.” Smart.
The products are marketed as being easy to use and creating a ‘no-makeup’ look. It’s obvious she knows her target market.
The blog featured interviews with celebrities and beauty industry insiders. What better way to quickly gain a huge following?
Once the blog and following were firmly in place, then she launched the Glossier brand on social media and particularly on Instagram, where the brand showcases its products and engages with customers.
The brand’s identity emphasizes natural beauty and simplicity. The brand’s minimalist packaging and product design reflect this identity.
Glossier also uses a lot of user-generated content to showcase how real women use their products, which reinforces the brand’s message of inclusivity and authenticity.
Are you taking notes?
Glossier built a loyal following by providing exceptional customer service. The brand offers a live chat feature on its website, allowing customers to connect with a representative in real-time.
There’s also a “Glossier Rep” program, which allows customers to become brand ambassadors and earn commission on sales.
Glossier leverages influencer marketing to reach new audiences and promote its products. The brand works with beauty bloggers and Instagram influencers, to showcase its products and build buzz.
As a result of these strategies, Glossier has become one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in recent years, with a valuation of over $1 billion.
Think about that – from a simple blog to $1 billion in less than a decade.
If you weren’t thinking of building a brand before you read this, what do you think now? Is it worth it?