So you know how sometimes one thing just leads to another, and then BAM! You create a product?
Oh, um, me neither. I mean, OF COURSE all of my launches are meticulously planned months in advance and products take SO LONG to develop.
Yeah, okay, so huge launches aren’t my thing. In fact, I kind of hate them. So instead, I create things when inspiration strikes.
I know. I know.
BAD ENTREPRENEUR. Why are you being honest about being flaky when it comes to creating and launching your own products?!
Because the reality is I’m primarily a service provider, have been for years, and I know you’re probably in the same boat if you’re reading this. It’s hard to justify making something for possible future when you’ve got clients you’re billing by the hour. It’s super easy to create a job for yourself like that, but eventually, the idea of being less reliant on that becomes very appealing.
And sometimes? You strike exactly the right match, and it catches fire with your people.
That’s what happened to me over the past few weeks. You see, I wasn’t planning on making a product about Instagram. It just happened that way.
It all started very innocently. My best friend asked me to create a guide on hashtags. No big deal, right? I do Instagram campaigns for my clients all the time. I even just gave a training to a local group of entrepreneurs on using Instagram to grow their small businesses. This would be a cakewalk.
But as soon as I started, it became clear I couldn’t just write a guide on hashtags. I needed to create a whole guide for beginners, because hashtags don’t matter if you don’t have the basics in place (or understand why they are basics). So I doubled down – I was going to create this guide. And do my client work. (Spoiler: I fell behind AF. I’m still playing catch up. 100% worth it.)
So here’s the nitty gritty of what I did to get my product created – and how it ended up doubling my email list.
I ran a training, How To Rock Your Instagram, that was promoted by an influencer.
Now, I’m not talking 100k followers on Instagram, a million website views, etc. – This woman has a small, but dedicated tribe who trust her because she’s been serving them well for years. I’m working on building her brand, and she brought me in to help train her people on Instagram. Everybody wins. (I’m happy to do this for your people, too. Just drop me a line.)
This was the second time I’d run this training, so I pulled all of the questions I got from both to start creating a product outline.
I posted what I was doing on Instagram and Facebook almost every day during the process.
I realized a few weeks ago that my business’ biggest probably is people don’t understand wtf I do. So I’ve been trying to share more of what my day to day looks like. Turns out, people enjoy these kinds of updates. Who knew?
Keeping everyone posted on the project got great buy in from my network and with theirs when they shared my posts.
I started writing Instagram is Easy.
I had most of an outline, a nice template, and boom! I was flying high. The idea was to complete it as quickly as possible. (About 9 days, a couple hours a day, in case you’re curious.)
I created Hashtags for Natural Wellness.
While writing the guide, it occurred to me I should make a lead magnet that would be a good lead in to Instagram is Easy. How about done for you hashtag research? A good chunk of my clients qualify as natural wellness professionals so, it went over very well. I boosted it with a Facebook ad to target more of these kinds of people. (Spent two hours creating this.)
Then I created Hashtags for Life Coaches!
With a template in hand, I was ready to create another sweet freebie. I work with a lot of life coaches, so this was a pretty easy one to crank out. (Only 30 minutes spent on this, thanks to having the template done already.)
My regular email list offering, Art of the Autoresponder, started catching fire again because I had so many new eyeballs on my website.
I’ve had this as my main opt-in for several years. It’s still converting, folks. Good content is evergreen.
I actually sent newsletters to my email list.
We’re getting REAL crazy now. Sending emails? To people who want to hear from you?! REGULARLY?!
I kid, but this is something basically all of my clients tell me they’re not doing so, I know it’s not just me.
While I was doing all this work setting up new offers on my site, adding autoresponder sequences, and you know, all the client work, I hadn’t paid attention to how much growth was happening on my list.
From 1494… to 2978.
Now, I’ve done this for a lot of other people, but my brand’s growth has always been slow and steady. But once I had an explicitly clear solution created for my people who already wanted to work with me who I was doing a poor job of reaching? Suddenly, everything clicked.
This is what a good funnel does.
And that’s what I want to help you do, too. And I want to do it for you in one day.
Like, no funnel today? No problem. Funnel tomorrow. Check it out.
So tell me – what’s holding you back from creating infoproducts? Tell me in the comments.
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Dusti Arab, Fractional CMO
And the founder of the reinvention co, a marketing consultancy specializing in working with personality-driven companies with small teams.
Intense, fun, and relentlessly practical, Dusti understands the lives of small business owners are deeply intertwined with their businesses, and if their marketing is going to be sustainable, it can't get in the way of why they do what they do. (And honestly? It should be fun so they actually want to do it.)
She is the host of Referral Worthy, a podcast for small business owners ready to go from "best kept secret" to the go-to name in their niche.