I’m really excited to tell this story! It’s about a woman (my client) and how my digital marketing expertise helped to grow and explode her business.
A little bit of backstory….
Caitlin started her business proofreadanywhere.com in much the same way I teach in my flagship program “The Digital Gangsta.” She started with a blog.
She blogged regularly and began to grow her list of followers. And eventually she created a course called Transcript Proofreading: Theory and Practice™ . She duct-taped a funnel together and then filled her funnel with traffic through social media and blogging and guest posts and JV partners.
If you’re in The Digital Gangsta with me, you’ll see how my curriculum fits not only how I built my business, but others do too! The basic premise of my program is this: You can build (yes) a million dollar business, when you build, act, and grow while remaining CLOSE to your audience. My workshop (it’s FREE) will explain more!
When she came to me, she’d already made significant money. We’re talking $40-80k months, and even hit one or two $100k months, but nothing consistent. This is why she had no trouble paying me over $50,000 to optimize her funnel (more on that in a bit). She said, “I want consistent $100k months. That’s why I’m hiring you.”
That was my mission.
Her Q4 stats in 2016 were showing regular $40k months and it had been about 8 months since her magic $100k month. In other words, the trend was downward, and she knew she needed to finally stop duct-taping a funnel and get it looking shiny again!
Learn this lesson! There is a place and a time for duct-taped funnels! In fact, in TDG, you’ll learn how to get out there and make money as soon as you can, because that’s how you’ll know if you’re onto something. But the other side of the coin is this: There is a time for QUALITY amazing work, and as you’ll see with her income reports, the new funnels I made did better than even I expected!
So we set to work. Here’s the overview of what I did…
First, I met with her for several hours to understand her existing program and funnel. I charged for this, and rightfully so – because it was a lot of strategy and planning and research. I don’t take on projects I haven’t vetted first.
Next, I put together a proposal to restructure the pricing and offering a bit, as well as build out the funnels and run the ads.
I essentially suggested that her $1174 course be done in 4 mandatory levels, with the students progressing through each level. She had a modified version of this already in place, but it was a bit confusing with the choices. So I suggested simplification.
I set out to redesign and build a VERY complicated funnel that started with:
- Her 7-day free proofreading course (FREE)
- Upsell to a work-at-home guide ($7.00)
- Upsell again to Level 1 of her course ($47 – normally $77)
- Create sequences to help graduates into Level 2, 3, and 4, adding in a coupon and/or timed scarcity to get them to purchase
We also did some extra things…
- We made THREE versions of the funnel, targeting Moms, Retirees, and Millennials.
- We optimized her best and most trafficked blog posts with content upgrades that led into her funnel.
- We made Pinterest pins that lead DIRECTLY to the landing page of her free offer.
- We customized the landing page coming off of BACKLINKS with partner sites to speak DIRECTLY to their readers.
The results were astounding.
We turned the funnel on with ads, and switched all her blog posts and opt-ins and pins to the new landing pages and in the first month, she did $95k. With her previous month around $45k, it was essentially DOUBLING her revenue.
The month after that, the same.
One of the huge reasons she did so well? Aside from great copy and design, she’d established credibility in the marketplace, and had a social and SEO game that she was focused on. Seeing the results of this first funnel, she then reached out and had me build a second funnel for a new variation on her course. While her big TPTP course was a modified SLO funnel, this new one was going to be a webinar funnel. She saw the luck I had with mine and wanted to create a smaller, less intense program called General Proofreading: Theory and Practice™ that would be between $397-$597.
This funnel I’m even more excited about because while I was the lead with the design and tech, I coached on the copy only! *Hint hint, you can learn how to do this from the experts when you apply yourself.* I helped her team learn how to write copy, and coached and consulted on the webinar itself. It was a simple automated webinar with a registration page, countdown page, watch page, and a FLASH sale for 60 minutes after the webinar where she shaved $100 off. I run 8 week webinar funnel bootcamps that can help you get this done as well.
This funnel broke $200k in 8 weeks!
The rest of her 2017 YTD profit and loss statements show $100k + months…with some hitting over $200k?!?! Here are her YTD Profit and Loss statements….the first funnel I built went live on December 17th.
- Jan: $92,057
- Feb: $95,445
- Mar: $111,637
- Apr: $207,661
- May: $203,819
- Jun: $162,970
- July: $104,000 with 9 days to go (she does $4-5k a day)
With these funnels (and her other affiliate income), she’s made more in six months than she did in all of 2016 – and it was a LOT of money. Here’s a snapshot of her gross revenue January – July.
I bet you’re hankering to see a bit of the design yes? You can see all the funnels in action at proofreadanywhere.com… but what you won’t see (without purchasing) is all the backend work. More behind the scenes is inside my Digital Gangsta program, where I hand out more strategy and tactics or aspiring Digital Marketers on how to build funnels like this for your clients.
Speaking of Digital Marketers, I mentioned above that Caitlin paid me over $50,000 from December to May. And she did. I worked on funnels, copy, ads, and a few others things.
A couple lessons for Digital Marketers building a sales funnel proposal…
We did a two hour (paid consult) before I even built the proposal. This way, we knew it was a good fit. Caitlin was ready to do what I suggested, and was a truly ideal client.
Secondly, look for clients who already know what it means to hustle. Who know how to do the work and put in the time. They will be SO MUCH easier to deal with than clients who have completely unrealistic expectations of what a Digital Marketer can do.
Thirdly, understand HOW to create a proposal, how to find clients, and how to price. Digital Marketing is one of the most lucrative opportunities out there today!
Shaun says
Hi Julie.
Really inspiring that you have helped one of your clients build their business to such a level at an incredible rate.
All the best
Shaun
By the way, there’s a small typo ‘she did $95k. With her previous month around $45, it’ ((It should say $45k, i believe)
Sorry for being pedantic 🙂
Anjelica Dezel says
This is Amazing!
It’s so cool to see how you can find success in an endless variety of niches! Proofreading?? Wow!
This totally raised my price ceiling for what is possible, thanks for giving us a peek behind the scenes!
Paulo Ribeiro says
Hi Julie,
This is an awesome case study.
I just would like ti understand one thing that in many case studies are never disclosed.
In the before and after of your serviced to reach the 100k per month how much did your client spent in advertisement to generate $40k and also to generate the $100k , so I can understand if the advertisement ROI was also optimized.
Regards,
Paulo