When Cameron and Tia decided to launch their first educational offer after gaining visibility on TikTok, they were met with excitement and early signups, but unfortunately that’s where it ended. The explosive growth they’d see in their online reach didn’t immediately translate to explosive sales. That’s when they decided to really focus on and pour into the few students they had. In today’s episode, they’re pulling back the curtain and sharing what they learned from that experience.
Finding Explosive Growth in Business
When Cameron and Tia first started their business, they saw explosive growth in multiple areas of business. Their senior portrait business went from family and friends to navigating a full schedule. When they broke into the wedding industry, they experienced the same sort of growth. Even when they hopped on TikTok in early 2020, they built an audience of 60,000 followers. They converted nearly 4,500 of those followers to their email list, ultimately giving them a list of 5,000 subscribers.
As they looked at the trajectory of their business, they were headed towards education. They decided to start prepping their audience for a new educational offering, because there was no way to fail with all of the success they’d seen.
Launching an Offer to a Small Audience
They launched their first course, Posing for Purpose, to their email list of 5,000 in November of 2020. In the grand scheme of things, a list of 5,000 subscribers is small in comparison to the 60,000 followers they had on TikTok.
Their hope was that 3% of their email list would convert to the paid course, as that’s what the industry standard would be. They set a goal of 50 students, while hoping for 150.
They took the webinar approach for selling it and signed up 250 people for the webinar. Live on the webinar, they had four sales. Immediately, they started celebrating. Over the course of their cart open, they had a total of 8 sales.
You heard that right. Eight Sales. This was not the launch they imagined.
Analyzing Their Unsuccessful Results
Since Cameron and Tia had seen so much success in their business early on, they expected the same success and results when they jumped into a new venture. Ultimately, looking back, there were three main reasons that they thought the results would be better.
They set unrealistic and unjustified expectations.
They placed their anchoring point on the biggest and most successful people in their space.
They weren’t knowledgable about realistic conversions.
This obviously set them up for what they came to see as failure.
Making the Most of their Results
Cameron and Tia took a set back, analyzed their situation, and ultimately decided to pour into the students they gain—all eight of them:
Built personal relationships with all eight students.
Personal reviews and coaching for each of those eight students.
Answered personalized Q+A questions at the end of their included Facebook Live.
Treated students as Beta students (which added another module to the course).
Demonstrated that they were as invested in their students as the students were in them by giving them shout outs which created FOMO in their general Facebook community.
This time they invested in their students allowed them to pour back into their course in preparation for their second launch in May of 2021.
Launching the Offer Again
When they started selling the course the second time, those eight students showed up and essentially sold the course for them. They spoke to how impactful the course was, how it changed their business, and made this launch a success.
Cameron and Tia enrolled 36 new students into their course during the second launch, which resulted in $18,000 in sales.
Now their course is in evergreen and their constantly enrolling new students every month. They’ve launched a second course and a digital shop that have offered another successful revenue stream.
By serving those eight students so well, the rest of their educational brand has found success. What could have been seen as a failure in that first launch ultimately brought them long-term success because of how they reacted to “just eight sales”.
Looking back, they could have offered their audience a low-ticket item before they launched a full course. Instead, they nurtured them from July to November and launched a high ticket offer.
As you explore education, consider the students who are investing in you. Remember that you are pouring into each person, making an impact on their brand, and also making a difference in the industry.
Unpopular Opinion
Cameron and Tia think that there is something powerful in having absolutely, unbounded, unchecked confidence in entrepreneurship. While there are key elements that you need, confidence is so valuable in diving headfirst into something new.
When you are a creative entrepreneur, time management is the number one key to preventing burnout! Click to join the list and download my free worksheet.