Let's walk through the process of building and monetizing your skills on the Internet by using the following case:
Scenario
Joe Bach is an independent tax consultant, but with an unusual market positioning. While most tax advisors handle bookkeeping for companies and the self-employed, or take care of income tax returns, Joe's focus is on tax strategy advice.
His focus is on developing a legal strategy for clients that aims to achieve lower tax payments in the long term. For individuals, but especially for the self-employed and smaller companies.
In a conversation with a friend, he learns about digital possibilities. Joe is very excited. He is interested in my advice and immediately works out his personal goals as a first step.
Vision
First, Joe sketched a clear picture of what he intends to do. What exactly does he want to achieve with the implementation of his digitization project? New clients? Better Clients? Purely digital monetization and additional (passive) income? Improving his skills?
As it turned out, his primary motivation was to make use of his skills and expertise to obtain dream clients, because he would enjoy working with such clients the most. In addition, he would like to develop further passive income streams in order to earn money even when he is not actively advising a client.
Personal Brand and Positioning
Joe filled in the gaps in the text as follows:
I help entrepreneurs/self-employed people (WHO) with my tax strategy (WHAT) expertise so that they save taxes legally (WHY).
Uniqueness: Clients choose me because, compared to my competitors, I actively help shape their tax strategy.
The products offered
Originally, Joe offered a variety of customizable consulting services. The original variant was too confusing for some interested parties and the packages/services offered could hardly be differentiated. Here the principle applies: confused customers do not buy.
When describing the products, we have made sure that it is clear who the product is aimed at and what specific results the customer receives when the service is commissioned:
Receive a personally tailored, legal tax strategy within 20 days to help you pay less in taxes.
The situation is similar with physical or digital products: Instead of just explaining the functions and characteristics of the products, the benefits for the customer should be emphasized clearly and unambiguously.
Website & Freebie
Joe had his website designed by a specialized agency. In addition to access to his services and social media and details about him, the user also has the option of subscribing to his newsletter. In order to give the website visitor an incentive to register for the newsletter, he advertises a freebie.
In Joe's case, the freebie is a concise digital e-book entitled “15 Tax Tricks for Entrepreneurs and the Self-Employed”. Interested parties receive the e-book free-of-charge on the website if they subscribe to the newsletter. In this way, an incentive is created to leave their contact details in the form of an e-mail.
Joe occasionally(!) sends useful emails with tips and information to the newsletter subscribers to make them memorable. It also helps to point out new products or limited-time offers. However, the focus is on the benefit. Mails of no use are ignored in the long term or deleted altogether.
e-Book
With the free, short freebie (e-book), Joe has already made the advance payment for a "real", detailed book of the usual book length. With the help of professional editing and lots of additional thoughts, he has developed his free e-book (freebie) into a detailed, useful work. He has uploaded this book to all major platforms such as Amazon, Apple Books. It is also available as a print.
Each of these platforms has an enormous reach and enormous user numbers. Joe uses this reach to attract the attention of "searchers" and increase his fame and reach.
Video Courses
Over time, Joe's newsletter accumulates a large number of subscribers, and the number of his followers on Instagram and YouTube increases. He has built up his own list of customers and prospects who listen to his words and advice.
This list can now be wonderfully used to launch new products. In Joe's case, a video course seemed like a good fit. While the freebie was free and the regular book cost 19.99 euros, together we designed a first, compact video course for 49.99 euros. This is aimed at a larger audience and includes general tax strategies.
The production of the course went smoothly and was subsequently published solely on his own website, both condensed and cheaper on udemy.com - again, the aim is to capitalize on the reach of the platforms, albeit initially at the expense of potential profit maximization. The focus is on the long-term path, and every prospect gained is crucial.
It is not so important how many euros you earn from a customer in the first transaction or the first order. It is more important to consider how much the average customer will buy over the course of their entire customer journey.
After the success of the first video course, Joe released an advanced course in the same year, aimed at high-income solo self-employed people. This course was offered at a reduced introductory price of 299 euros and promoted on all its lists (newsletter, social media). He has reduced the price for the first week of sale in order to provide the greatest possible incentive to buy.
Recap…
Joe now has his own website, a newsletter, a free, compact e-book (freebie), a digital and physical book, a set of video courses in different price ranges and for different target groups. He has built a loyal following on social media and is overwhelmed with new consulting requests. It all started just by making use of his skills and combining it with digital technologies and media.
But how do you get started if there is no community and no digital mention?
Maximum Visibility
In Joe's case, his dream clients are successful solo entrepreneurs and smaller entrepreneurs. In other words, people who run successful businesses but are still too small to use the services of large, specialized consulting service providers.
On closer analysis, we were also able to specify the target group. Demographic characteristics such as age, socio-economic characteristics such as income, and psychographic characteristics such as motives for action.
It turned out that his target group is very financially capable and interested in finance. For this reason, we have placed an ad campaign in a large German-speaking forum for sports cars. We knew that sports car drivers tend to have high incomes and are therefore likely to pay high taxes. The art of such advertising lies in integrating it unobtrusively and comprehensibly for the website operator's community. Advertising must never appear like an unwelcome foreign body.
Additionally, Joe was a guest on a podcast about financial intelligence and investing. The host of the podcast spoke to him in an episode about his experiences, tips and tricks on tax optimization. The podcast they produced together struck a chord with many listeners, and after just one recording, Joe has garnered hundreds of new followers and numerous email subscribers. For free. At the same time, the podcast host was helped because it was able to present fresh and relevant content to its community.
This created a win-win-win situation from which everyone benefits. When everyone is helped, resistance is low and success is more likely.
In addition to the podcast, Joe was also a guest on YouTube channels and took advantage of the reach of successful YouTube channels. He also wrote a guest article for a successful entrepreneur blog, sharing his skills and tax saving tips. He tried to provide as useful information as possible for the community.
This strategy has helped Joe win a variety of new clients as well as generate passive income from his book and video sales. In addition, he constantly receives requests for interviews and collaborations, since he has achieved a high level of visibility and fame on the Internet.
All of this can also be applied to other companies. Also to yours. Maybe you will find the book below useful. It is all about making use of your personal skills, expertise and strengths.
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