Hey, friends! Are you trying to figure out how you can launch without spending a boatload of money? Well, let's go over the very simple and basic tools that you need to launch your first offer with ease!
Email Marketing Tool: ConvertKit
All right, now let's get into it. So the very first tool that you're going to need is an email marketing platform. Now for new entrepreneurs, online service providers, and coaches, I 100% recommend ConvertKit.
ConvertKit is just $9 a month if you have up to 300 subscribers. And you are able to not only create the landing page for your lead magnet using this platform, but you're also able to automate the emails that the subscriber receives after they enter their name and email information. You're able to segment your emails based on actions that they take. You're able to create automations and sequences based on those actions, and you're able to really understand the data of those automations and sequences. ConvertKit's data collection is head and shoulders above other email marketing tools. You need to be able to look at your emails and see how many people are opening the email, how many people are clicking the links in the emails, and who are your most and least engaged subscribers. You don't want to pay for subscribers who are not actually opening your emails. You don't want to send out emails if they're not being delivered or if the subscriber isn't actually getting them because it's going to the promotion's folder.
Having a solid email marketing platform is so important, and I highly recommend that you get one that allows you the functions of automating your marketing. Because this is going to save you so much time, so much time, and it's going to help your ideal clients, your subscribers, the people who are on your list, it's going to help them to build a relationship with you because instead of you sending an email once or twice a month, you're setting up automations on the back end that are consistently telling your story, nurturing your ideal clients and driving them to action.
Checkout Tools: Stripe and Shopify
Tool number two is a checkout page. I recommend two options: Stripe and Shopify. Stripe is a free tool that allows you to create products and services inside of the tool without paying any additional money. You can generate links so that way when people click these links, they're able to complete the purchase without being taken to a separate payment processor, like Paypal. This is a really good way to leverage a tool that you already have to have, that you already have in your business, not having to go out and purchase another tool, but still being able to accomplish the goal that you have in mind, which is for your clients to be able to check out in a seamless process.
If you have been following me at all, if you are clicking the links in my bio, then you know that I also have a Shopify store where all of my products, trainings, templates, and tools live. Shopify is a really good platform because it gives you so much data. It's as if you're setting up an online store for your products, but also for your services. I'm able to use Shopify for my monthly membership. I'm able to use Shopify for my course, but it also for my trainings and for my templates, and it allows me to make my Instagram shoppable. I am able to collect reviews all in one place. And so Shopify is only $29 a month, but it really does save a lot of time in my business. I'm not having to figure out, "Oh, where can I put this product? Or where can I send people if they want to purchase a template?" Everything is in one place, but I'm also able to add plugins that allowed me to generate affiliates on the back end. If you purchase a product from my store, you will automatically be prompted to become an affiliate. If you add a product to my checkout, then you will automatically be prompted to bundle that product with other products that'll help you get closer to your goal, and these things are automatically happening without me having to do anything. If you are thinking about how can I make more money for my products? How can I make more money for my services? I definitely would recommend a tool like Stripe or like Shopify in order to continue generating those leads and increasing that revenue.
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Integration Tool: Zapier
Another hidden gem tool that you need in order to launch your offer with ease is going to be a tool integrator. So the number one tool integrator that I recommend is Zapier. Zapier basically gets one platform to talk to another platform to complete an action. So, as an example, let's say that when someone completes the application for my program, I want them to be added to my email marketing platform and I want them to have the tag, student clarity to coins course. Zapier is going to set that up for me as an automation. So it's going to say that when this person completes this application, they will be added to my email marketing platform, and they will have this tag, and then that tag will start an automation. And so this is how students are onboarded into my program and I do nothing. They complete their application or they purchase from Shopify. They are instantly enrolled and it has nothing to do with me. I am no longer the bottleneck. I'm no longer the person who is preventing them from getting immediate access, because I was able to use a tool integrator like Zapier. Now you will find that Zapier has so many platforms that it works with, and so many automation opportunities that it makes running your business so much more simple. It saves you so much time. It allows you to make more money. And it's so important when we talk about building out marketing systems, when we talk about launching, because when you are launching, there are so many things that you have to focus on, right? There are so many things that you have to worry about. The last thing that you want to be worried about is whether or not someone got access to the thing that they needed once they made a purchase. You want that process to be seamless. You want them to come into your business, confident that they made the right investment and that they worked with the right person, because they were able to get immediate access into what they needed, and Zapier allows you to do this. So if you are not thinking strategically about how you can cut yourself out of some of these marketing processes, then I want you to start thinking about it now.
CRM Tool: Dubsado
The last tool that I will recommend for you to launch your offer with ease is going to be a CRM. This is a customer relationship manager. The one that I recommend that I use, that I provide to all of my students and all of my clients that I tell them to use is Dubsado. The reason that I recommend Dubsado is because it allows you to do so much. It allows you to have a scheduler that sends automated emails when people book their appointment. It allows you to accept payment. It allows you to have contracts signed. It allows you to create automated workflows. I mean, there is so much that you could do with Dubsado that saves you time and saves you money. Dubsado will work especially well for you if you are a service provider, and the reason for this is that the workflows are designed to move your customer along that journey without you having to be in the center of it. That feature is so, so, so, so, so important when you're thinking about how you can make more money automatically, when you're thinking about how you can make money in your sleep or when you're working or when you're working with clients. People could be moving through your journey, even with you having nothing, absolutely nothing to do with it. So Dubsado is a wonderful tool if you are trying to think about how do I get my client from discovery call or from application to getting them to sign their contract and to go ahead and enroll into my service. Dubsado allows you the opportunity to do that without any problems.
Another reason that I recommend Dubsado for my clients is that they're able to start free and then upgrade when they're ready. Dubsado gives you three projects, and as long as you don't go above those three projects, you have a free CRM. And then once you're ready, you can upgrade and it's totally $40 per month. So it's also a very reasonable tool to use, especially for its power. Because you're purchasing Dubsado, but now you don't have to purchase a scheduler. You don't have to purchase another tool to have your contract signed. You're cutting out all of these other smaller purchases for one platform that is already working seamlessly to get your client from beginning to end of your onboarding process.
Final Thoughts
If you're so excited and you're like, "Yes, I'm going to go and get these tools. I'm going to set them up so that way I can begin generating income or making money automatically," then I want you take it a step further and download my free Sales Funnel Training. In this training, I go over the 10-step process that has helped dozens of clients automate their marketing and make more money. So it's going to take this knowledge that you have of the tools one step further, because it's going to show you how to implement these tools so that way you can automate your marketing and make it more seamless for you.
And before you go, I want you to head to the comments and I want you to let me know which of these tools have you used before, and which one was your favorite.