It’s a good idea to research your market before you start a new business.
That includes finding out what customers are searching for, the questions they’re asking, and what they’re buying. Nothing takes the place of speaking to customers directly.
I also recommend checking out competitors in the market.
How do they attract visitors? What kind of content are they sharing? How are they growing their list? What are they selling? What is their overall business model?
Be careful when doing this!
It’s easy to miss the vitals.
You might see a business ‘everywhere’ and think its business is based on what you see on the outside…when its real business model is another thing entirely.
For example, one of my clients has over hundred thousand subscribers to his Youtube channel. In addition, he runs paid advertising on Youtube and Facebook.
He has several opt-in offers and primarily sells two digital courses on the frontend. Both are under $100. Of course, he has bumps and upsells in those funnels so he has a higher average transaction value.
He also has a membership offer on the backend.
That’s all easy to see if you were investigating his business.
But what if you ‘copied’ his funnels?
You’d be in for a world of hurt if all you did was copy what I shared above.
His paid ads lose money on every customer that comes through the door. That includes the upsells.
While the membership earns some of that back, you’d still be in the red for a LONG time!
The real money comes from the $1,000+ in-person events he holds…along with the coaching.
His digital products business is essentially a loss leader.
Yet, I’ve seen beginners (and sometimes more experienced people as well) try to copy someone else’s business model…and leave out essential components.
I have quite a few clients who’ve written non-fiction books. Some of them have multiple books available.
None of them makes a living from the books themselves.
They get some royalties.
But their books are lead generators.
Some of their best customers and clients come to them through their books.
Leaders are readers.
Their real money comes from events or coaching.
It’s hard to make a living when you’re limited to just low cost offers.
Sure, it possible. But why force yourself to do business at a disadvantage.
Imagine for a moment that you’re competing with the client I mentioned earlier. I purposely didn’t share his market, because that’s not important.
He has two great digital courses with proven upsell sequences.
It would be difficult to create courses as good as his. What about producing even more videos for your channel? That’s going to be a lot of work. Can you spend more on advertising? Not likely. What if you tried to build your business in his market based only on digital products? It’s going to be a tough road.
The secret to growing your income faster is offering coaching or some other high value service to your best clients.
And in many markets, having a premium offer is nearly essential today.
If you’d like to know more, check out my Magnetic Mentoring course.
It shows you how to create and launch a coaching practice…
