Do it like Heike Friedrich
Scale four times more with coaching products
Business, change: Heike's journey from freelancer to marketing coach
Freelancer Heike Friedrich used to scramble from job to job. Today, she sells coaching and online courses via elopage and has built up a scalable business. In this case study, you can find out how Heike managed this change and how she found her true passion in her new business.
Do you want to market your expertise? With elopage, you can create professional booking pages and course areas with one software.
Nothing works without you: the limits of freelancers.
At a workation in Thailand in 2016, freelancer Heike Friedrich looks for new inspiration and finds it. In the tropical co-working space, she met a new breed of entrepreneur, known to everyone today as digital nomads. To Heike, the scene is like looking into a crystal ball:
"At first, I didn't really want to believe it when they were all filming their YouTube videos and supporting their customers online with courses etc.. After I asked a lot of curious questions - as a trained journalist - I thought: Wow, this could be something!"
At this point, Heike has been self-employed as a copywriter and content marketer for almost five years. She works for small and medium-sized companies. The order situation is good, but after a few years Heike knows the limitations of her business model.
- Dependence on individual clients: Self-employed people look after a handful of clients - if someone drops out, sales plummet.
- Not scalable: More turnover is only possible with more working hours, because customers are looked after on a one-to-one basis.
- Strong fluctuations in turnover: The order situation fluctuates extremely - predictable, regular income is the exception.
- No impact: even with regular customers, Heike only processes individual orders without seeing what comes of them.
Heike is inspired by meeting other online entrepreneurs and decides to change her business concept. Instead of simply implementing it for others, she wants to pass on her expert knowledge to entrepreneurs.
Many self-employed people would like to make such a change, but only a few dare to do so. How did Heike manage the change?
In one year, Heike completely turns her business around.
Heike needs about a year to restart and the transition is tough. After all, she has to slowly wind down her freelance business while she builds up her online business. After a few grueling night shifts, Heike sets her priorities:
"I realized relatively quickly that you can't do both at the same time, that you also have to give your new business space."
Heike has years of experience in marketing. But even for her, it is a challenge to gain visibility via her blog and social media. Not as a freelancer as before, but as an expert in content marketing.
She is also training to learn how to impart knowledge and teach people.
Heike is plagued by the same doubts as her current customers: "They often don't see themselves as experts. And I always say that what you do is anything but normal and natural for your target group."
Heike Friedrich the service provider gradually becomes the Easy Content Marketing brand. She creates a free content planner that interested parties can request by email. In this way, Heike builds up an email list through which she wants to sell her first product. Her plan works.
From service provider to expert: how Heike's business has changed
2018 is the year Heike launches her first digital product. It's a live online workshop on the topic of content marketing. To handle the sale, Heike sets up her elopage account: "I realized that if I wanted to sell products to several people, I wouldn't be able to get very far with the invoicing program I was using before."
This is how Heike's business concept has changed:
- Service becomes product: Heike markets her knowledge in the form of books, online workshops, consultations and downloads.
- One to one becomes one to many: Instead of looking after individual companies, Heike teaches several people at the same time.
- New target group: Heike focuses on self-employed women who want to learn more about marketing themselves.
- Digital payments: Instead of an invoicing tool, Heike uses elopage as a sales platform to sell digitally by credit card, prepayment or PayPal.
- Automated marketing: The digital product allows Heike to run online marketing campaigns instead of direct acquisition.
Almost six years have passed since Heike's first launch and the results are impressive. The change of business has paid off financially, as Heike's turnover has quadrupled.
Take a look at Heike's strategy.
How Heike makes four times more sales with nine products.
Heike's business has become much more scalable thanks to the switch from a service to a content product. She has opted for a strategy with several products that she has developed over the years.
Heike does not always create new products, but works on the existing ones. In this way, she gradually develops a well-thought-out portfolio and a funnel that automatically provides Heike with new prospective customers.
Coaching products up to 5,000 euros
Heike starts with the core products of her portfolio, namely memberships and group coaching. Heike mainly earns her money through this so-called base layer. Programs in which she actively works with clients are not marketed via her store, but via webinars and live launches. These products are more price-intensive and are aimed at customers who already know Heike from newsletters, webinars or self-learning courses.
Protected content with digital paywall
Instead of selling all coaching and courses by invoice or prepayment, Heike offers various digital payment methods. Both the sales page and the course area are created with elopage. This means that Heike has no manual or technical effort when selling. The collection of the payment, the sending of the correct invoice and the access to the content after successful payment run via elopage. This saves Heike a lot of time, avoids errors and gives her the certainty that all content is only available to paying customers.
Self-study products between 49 and 200 euros
If you would like to get to know Heike, you can find her introductory products in the store at any time. These are self-study online courses that work independently of Heike's personal presence.
Heike only developed these products after her core products. Therefore:
"It makes sense to start with the core products first. Entry-level products can usually be developed in parallel or relatively quickly from the core products."
No more doing it yourself all the time: Plannable launches and revenues.
While self-learning products are always available, Heike plans the sales of her interactive programs. This not only makes it easier to plan income, but also Heike's day-to-day work. This is a big advantage over the always-on-call culture of her previous self-employment. "I want to be self-employed in a healthy way ...", she says today. The freedom to plan allows her to skip promotional days such as Black Friday. During these times, advertising is particularly expensive and unproductive because everyone is running big promotions.
Strategic upsell and downsell funnels
The extensive portfolio helps Heike to always have the right offer to hand. Affordable entry-level products can be marketed well via social media and advertisements. Anyone who shows interest here is automatically referred to the more advanced coaching programs via email marketing or launch webinars - a classic upsell. But Heike finds it just as important to be able to offer downsells, i.e. cheaper alternatives. Heike hosts all digital products at elopage. This makes it technically easy for her to put together product packages and has all customer information in one place.
Partner program for more reach
Heike uses elopage not only for selling, hosting and invoicing her products, but also for her affiliate program. Since Heike's customers are self-employed, they know other self-employed people and use Heike's commission program for additional income. Heike also regularly enters into collaborations with other experts, with the partners co-promoting Heike's products. Commission invoicing and payment is handled by elopage, so Heike hardly has any manual work here.
Financially, the new business model is undoubtedly worthwhile. But Heike has gained something much more important for herself through coaching and teaching.
Heike doesn't just see the results of her work in her bank account.
Heike now not only produces content for anonymous companies, but also works on an equal footing with other freelancers. By passing on her knowledge, she helps her clients to position themselves as experts and manage their content marketing in the long term.
Heike doesn't want to cast the service industry in a bad light, but she herself has found more joy and purpose in her new business:
"Make sure you're happy with how your business is going. So that it suits you, your values, your ideas about life. I found my passion as a coach because I really enjoy teaching people what I know and helping them to achieve certain steps."
Five lessons learned from Heike's business
1# Standing behind what you do: only if you are passionate about your business can you persevere through the imponderables.
2# Experimentation: Have fun trying out new things, even if they don't work.
3# Give the new business space: So that it has a chance of replacing the previous business model.
4# You have the right to reject customers who don't suit you: otherwise you'll quickly find yourself in the same predicament as employees.
5# Get help and support: You don't have to do everything on your own - freelancers or cooperation partners are a great help.
Do you want to market your expertise? With elopage, you can create professional booking pages and course areas with one software.
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