Brainy Girl Kim Garnett Talks Email Marketing and Online Course Creation-EP007

Kim Garnett is the founder of Brainy Girl Virtual Assistant. She and her team help online course creators with the technology and marketing of their online courses. They assist with the strategy and implementation of sales funnels, landing pages, webinars, email marketing and social media marketing for clients. Kim has created several successful online courses, and she is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs create passive income streams.

Kim was working a regular job and hating it when the idea for Brainy Girl was born. Wanting to get back to her first love of helping business owners and entrepreneurs, Kim placed an online ad and landed her first client. She worked nights and weekends and got very busy very quickly. Soon Kim was able to leave her j-o-b and freelance as a generalist. In the four years since, she found her niche – helping online course creators –  and her team has grown to seven.

On this episode of the podcast, Kim explains how to utilize email marketing, drive traffic to your website and build a results-oriented lead magnet. She also opens up about the current challenges she faces in growing a virtual team and mistakes she made along the way to building Brainy Girl. 

Key Takeaways

Kim’s secrets to finding freelance work

• Just because we exist in a digital landscape doesn’t mean you can’t work locally; Kim landed her first clients through an online local classified ad
• Look through available jobs for work a freelancer could do and approach those clients

Email marketing is an important component of your overall marketing strategy

• When you have an email subscriber base, you can be in front of those people when you want to be
• Only 3-5% of followers will see a post on a Facebook page versus a 20, 30 or even 50% open rate for an email

Kim’s advice for luring potential clients to sign up for your email list

• Stay away from words like “newsletter” and “subscribe”
• Build a lead magnet (white paper, ebook, video training, PDF, etc.) that offers value to site visitors

Kim’s suggestions for attracting customers to your website

• Make sure that your lead magnet has a high conversion rate (Based on the # of visitors to the site, what percentage have opted in?)
• Then employ Google, Facebook and YouTube ads
• Use social media channels to drive traffic to your lead magnet via integration or a link

Steps to launching your email marketing list

1. Find the right email marketing service provider (ESP), i.e.: MailChimp or ConvertKit
2. Create your lead magnet
3. Get your lead magnet on your website (embedded box, pop-up opt-in, or landing page)

Common stumbling blocks to creating an online course

• Analysis paralysis (being so overwhelmed by choices that you don’t take any action at all)
• Most of Kim’s clients get stuck on the technology and marketing piece; they are not familiar with how to link their systems (learning management, email marketing, webinar platform) together

 Kim’s tips for using marketplaces like Udemy and Upwork

• Don’t put your signature course on a marketplace
• Consider posting a mini-course on a marketplace to get your name out there and drive traffic to your personal LMS
• Because you don’t “own” your students in a marketplace, give them a call-to-action that takes them to your lead page 

Kim’s best advice for people who are just getting started

1. Be prepared for your first client by putting the building blocks in place (contracts, client onboarding processes, etc.)
2. Take one small action step each day to move you toward becoming a full-time freelancer

Resources

MailChimp https://mailchimp.com/

ConvertKit https://convertkit.com/

Udemy  https://www.udemy.com/

Thinkific https://www.thinkific.com/

 

Connect with Kim Garnett

Website http://brainygirlvirtualassistant.com/

Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/BrainyGirlVirtualAssistant/

Twitter https://twitter.com/kim_garnett