One thing I love about doing this show is that I get great questions from my audience. And sometimes those questions are so great, I just need to share!

I recently got a question about mini offers from Morgan Goettge of Raleigh Media Co.

Let’s have a look at Morgan’s question, and see how I can help!

Biggest Show Takeaways:

• • Morgan’s Question: I heard your podcast with Amy Porterfield and LOVE your concept of using mini offers to test the waters with your email list. Did you just craft the mini offers and send them to your email list to see which ones picked up? Also, how long did you wait in-between each of the mini offers? I really appreciate your help as I am pivoting with my course since I had a failed course launch just a few months ago.
  • First, let’s look at some of the hurdles that can come along with online course creation.

• Hurdle #1: No Time

• • • When I decided to create a course, I already had a whole lot of 1-on-1 clients. I felt like there weren’t enough hours in the day to do my work AND the work for my clients. Although that’s how it felt at the time, I realize now I was making excuses. I really just needed to FIND the time and do the work I wanted to do.

• Hurdle #2: No Relevant Testimonials

• • • Having signed an NDA with most of my clients, I wasn’t able to talk freely about the work I was doing with them. The few that I could talk about were one-on-one clients, so the testimonials I was able to get weren’t exactly relevant to the course I was trying to create.

• Hurdle #3: No Engagement

• • • Because I hadn’t dedicated the time to the folks on my email list, they weren’t really reading what I was sending out. I had to spend time nurturing those relationships and re-engage them so they felt invested enough to listen to me.

• Once you address your hurdles, then you need to decide what type of mini offer you want to test out. I had several ideas for mini offers based on questions people had so I put them in order from how fast or easy they were to test/launch all the way to the hardest ones.
  • I decided to start off with the fast and easy ones so I tried these three offers:

• Mini Offer #1: The Marketing System Health Check Up

• • Offer details: This mini offer was designed to check if people wanted or valued personalized video feedback on their marketing.
    • First 10 people were free; after that, it was $197.
    • I sent emails to my list.
    • I published two posts to my Facebook group.
    • I had a simple sales page.
    • They could pay via PayPal.
  • Generated a number of great testimonials + feedback on what people LOVED about the videos and also what else they would like.

• Mini Offer #2: Podcast Pitch Template + $47 Mini Offer: Ultimate Podcast Pitch List

  • This mini offer was designed to check if people wanted to know how to drive traffic into their marketing funnel once it was created. I would hear all the time: How do I get people to know about my business? One of my FAVORITE ways is by being a guest on podcasts, so I put together some free resources and a mini offer to test out if people wanted this information. Turns out, they DO want this information and it’s now one of the most popular categories on my site!

    • Free blog post.

    • Free Podcast Guest Pitch Template.

    • Ran some Facebook ads.

    • Sent some emails to my list about a quiz.

• Mini Offer #3: Pillar Post to Test the Topic

• • • I created a pillar blog post that was designed to test the waters on interest in marketing funnels. This then lead into my ultimate online course offer. (You can see the full pillar post here.)

    • The pillar post was used as a way to warm up my email list and attract a new audience interested in this topic. It gave plenty of value up front. Within that pillar post, I embedded a quiz — Which Marketing Funnel Is Right For You — that worked PERFECTLY to not only engage my audience but also identify who wanted to go further into learning more about funnels.

    • The people who took this quiz ended up being some of my early students and provided GREAT feedback on my course.

• I did the first two back to back with just a week or two between them — basically offering them through email.

• Then, the next couple, I spaced out a little more (monthly).

• By the fourth mini offer, I had plenty of insight, testimonials, and understanding of my audience to move forward.

• Want to know which marketing funnel is right for you and your business? Take this free and easy quiz, and in less than 5 minutes, you’ll know EXACTLY which funnel is right for you.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Mini offer blog post
• Marketing Funnel Quiz: https://www.michellelevans.com/marketing-funnel-quiz/