← The Amy Porterfield Show
The Amy Porterfield Show
#739: Is ANYONE Showing Up Anymore? 3 Tips For Increasing Your Show Up Rate To 40%+
00:21:17
My proven strategies for maximizing your bootcamp attendance, keeping the students engaged all throughout, and boosting those conversions.
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Bootcamps can work for so many different things, but the goal is to add massive value over a series of days and then to promote your next best step for them. And even if they don't buy that next best step, in this case it was Digital Course Academy, they still walk away with a lot of value.
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I'm Amy Porterfield, ex corporate girl turned CEO of a multi seven figure business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, the budget and the time to focus on growing my small but mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned and you'll see the business I have today. One that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible. One that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step by step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur or one in the making who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and a life you love, you're in the right place, friend. Let's get started.
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Hey there friend. Welcome to another episode of Online Marketing Made Easy. I'm your host Amy Porterfield, and today I'm diving into a topic that many of you have been curious about and that is how to increase your show up rates. Now in this episode I'm going to talk about how I increased my show up rates for a bootcamp that I did with my Digital Course Academy launch in September of 2024. And I know that many of you might not be doing bootcamps yet, but you're doing webinars and masterclasses. And I want you to listen to this episode and think, okay, I might not be doing a bootcamp, but can I take some of these strategies and apply them to how I am filling up my webinar? Or maybe you're doing challenges. You can absolutely apply what I'm teaching you today to your challenges, but keep an open mind because I'm going to be looking through the lens of a bootcamp, but you can use these strategies in other ways as well. So this is a very valuable episode. It's a short one, so it will go by fast, but you're going to walk away with a lot of value. So when I talk about show up rates, in this case, I'm not just talking about the usual show up rates. We're talking about sky high show up rates that really took our boot camp from good to downright exceptional this year. And just to clarify what I mean by a boot Camp is that I did a multi day virtual experience where I was guiding my participants through specific steps necessary to achieve a quick win. Now, when I say quick win, that's important because in the bootcamp, we promise to show people how to kickstart their digital course journey. We didn't promise people how to create and launch a digital course in a few days. That's not even possible. But we said, if you are thinking about creating and launching a digital course, let me kickstart your journey here. And so that's what the bootcamp was about. So if you are thinking about creating a bootcamp, think about a topic that you could teach over a few days to get people started in the direction they need to go in order for them to be ready to buy your digital course, to enroll in your membership, to enroll in a mastermind. Bootcamps can work for so many different things, but the goal is to add massive value over a series of days and then to promote your next best step for them. And even if they don't buy that next best step, in this case it was digital course Academy, they still walk away with a lot of value. That's what's really important. And typically the elements that are part of a live bootcamp would be training sessions. I did three different training sessions to kickstart their digital course journey. I did live Q and AA's for my VIP members. We always had a thriving community throughout the entire experience and we gave away prizes. So we really have dialed in our bootcamps. I think they're one of the best things that we do in the business. And I just wanted to talk to you about show up rates because we've seen them decline on webinars and even on bootcamps. So we did a few things a little bit different this time or things that have really worked in the past that we've just ramped up. And I wanted to share those with you. I'll entice you with this. On our very first live training inside of the bootcamp, we had about 9,000 or more people in the bootcamp, but we had a 46% show up rate to my very first live training inside the bootcamp. That's crazy good, right? I mean, if you think about it, if you're getting a 25%, 30% show up on bootcamps or even on webinars, you're doing pretty well. And so 46%, it kind of blew our minds. And then throughout the entire bootcamp, that show up rate held pretty steady. Not as high as 46%, but definitely higher than any show up rate I've ever seen in a bootcamp or on a webinar. So we were able to keep it high throughout the entire experience, which was really important for us to kind of gauge in terms of how people were receiving the content, how excited they were, how people wanted to move to the next stage, which would have been Digital Course Academy. So the question is, how did we do it? Well, in this episode, I'm going to share with you three key strategies that made all the difference. And as a cherry on top, I'm going to throw in a bonus one at the end that will give your bootcamp an even bigger boost. But before I dive in, if you've never shared this podcast, will you do so with a friend who's building a business online, maybe looking for some new ideas to spark some new revenue and new engagement into their business? I'd be forever grateful if you would share this podcast with your audience or someone that you know could really get value from it. Okay, so let's get into the strategies. The first thing we did is we made it a paid bootcamp. Now, this is something I've talked about before on the podcast, but I cannot stress this enough. And for those of you just doing webinars, I want to talk to you about the fact that you might want to experiment with charging for your webinar as well. Let me hold off on talking about a paid webinar. Give me a quick second, I'll get back to that. But for the paid boot camp, some of you are doing free challenges, free boot camps. And I really do believe charging anywhere from $27 all the way up to 47, $57 is, is a great idea. I just truly believe that when people pay, they pay attention. And we have found that when people even pay 37, $47, they're more likely to show up and they're more likely to open up our emails, getting all the information of where they need to go and where they need to click to show up. Like, they're just more engaged. So they're more engaged with the emails that are leading up to the bootcamp, they're more engaged inside of the boot camp. And it's a basic psychology. We value what we invest in financially, or at least many people do. And so a paid boot camp gives participants skin in the game. So if you are planning a bootcamp, let's say in 2025, we're at the end of 2024 right now, consider making it a paid bootcamp and Again, it doesn't need to break the bank. It can be $47. I've even seen students launch a successful bootcamp at $19. So it doesn't need to break the bank. It's just enough for them to pay attention that they just invested in something. I really believe you're going to see a very marked difference in conversions when you go to sell. The next best step for your audience if they paid to get into that boot. Hey there, A quick word from our sponsor, Shopify. If you sell digital products in your business, such as templates, planners, checklists, guides, any kind of printables, you should definitely check out Shopify. In fact, I just did a whole podcast about how selling digital products like printables is a great way to get a quick cash injection. So I want you to upgrade your business and get a high converting checkout when you use Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com made easy. All lowercase. So go to shopify.com made easy to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com made easy. Now I only teach what I know and I have not done this yet, so I'm going kind of against my rule. But I just want to share with you something I'm seeing in the marketplace that' interesting. So for all my digital Course Academy students, you know that I teach you how to do a webinar and I encourage you to do it for free. And the way I teach webinars and the way I teach dca, I would still say do that webinar for free. The way I teach it in dca, especially my new students, it's not time to experiment. I think you just stick with what I teach in dca. For my new students in Digital Course Academy, I really encourage you to do it the way I teach in dca. But for those of you who are a little bit more advanced, you've done several webinars, you're looking to up level. I've seen this in the marketplace a few times where my peers have created let's say a 90 minute training versus let's say a 60 minute webinar. And a 90 minute training will look different than a 60 minute webinar that you teach and then you sell. But a 90 minute training, it's definitely more heavy on the training you've charged for it. So you're going to get less people in. But these are the people that are really serious about getting the results you're promising in this training and you are a little bit more in detail. You go in more depth about the training, they walk away with learning about a new framework, a new model, a new concept. Like fully understand this new, let's say, framework in its container and then you sell at the end. Again, I haven't done this. It's something that I might experiment with in 2025, but let's say charging $27 for a 90 minute training that at the end you do transition. Like I teach in digital course academy. You transition into selling, let's say, your digital course at the end. But there's more training, it's more robust, and, and I wouldn't do this if you've never done webinars. I think this is for a more advanced marketer who knows how to convert on a webinar, knows the ins and outs of how that works, and you're able to then tweak that webinar into a longer, more robust training, but still understand how to convert at the back end. So I think there's something with that, because if it's harder to get people's attention right now, which I think it is, then a more robust, detailed training that you charge for and then you sell your digital course at the end just might be like your next iteration if you're already skilled in webinars. So just want to put that out there. I do believe in charging and getting people to put skin in the game so that they pay more attention. The last thing I'll say, because I'm just so nervous about talking about this because it's so different than what I teach in dca. I'm still going to do free webinars next year. I'm not taking that out of the rotation. I just want to experiment maybe with this as well and see kind of where this leads. But I'll keep you all updated. If I do it, you know, I'm going to talk about it on the podcast, so make sure you're subscribed on the podcast. And I've got a lot of fun marketing strategies and fun conversations to have with you in 2025, so just make sure you keep coming back. I've got some tweaks I'm planning to make to the podcast to make it even better. So I'm excited. Okay. Our second strategy for the bootcamp was that we created a centralized hub for everything that my students needed. So this wouldn't make sense for a webinar like I teach in dca. So let's just focus on the bootcamp right now. And so if we're just Focusing on the bootcamp. One of the things that can get really confusing inside of a bootcamp is if people can't find the resources that you've promised or. Or they missed a session and they just don't know where to go. And this has been an issue in previous boot camps that I've done. So we've decided to clean this up and make it better. What we did this year is we created a password protected, comprehensive hub on Membership IO where all the details of the bootcamp could be found, from specific dates and times for each of the trainings to the exact links you needed to attend. All the information was clear, concise, and accessible. We even did something where you could click a link and have each of the live trainings I was doing added to a Google Calendar. So by directing everyone to just one spot, it generally reduced the chances of participants missing out because they didn't know where to go. And this boosts engagement because with that, they weren't frustrated and they were just more focused on getting the results. Now, inside that hub that I mentioned, students also had access to daily downloadable workbooks from each of my three trainings, and they could get all the replays from those trainings and then direct links to the exclusive Facebook community. And then for my VIP members, we call them Vipers, there was even a section to submit questions directly for my VIP Q&A calls on Zoom. So the functionality was truly impressive, and membership IO allowed us to do it this way, which I was really grateful for. So if you're looking for a platform to host your bootcamp and you have a budget for something a bit more robust, definitely think about creating an entire login hub for your bootcamp members. And Membership IO is a great place to look into. Okay, so let's dive into strategy number three. And this is my favorite, our email strategy. So every day that we hosted a live training in the bootcamp, we sent out a series of reminder emails. First, a morning of email to set the stage, remind students to set the time, and make sure that they get organized and excited before we go live. And then an hour before we kicked off, another email directing participants spent straight to the hub. And then finally, our ace in the hole was the we are live email, which directed attendees to the training 15 minutes before. So that was a huge hit. We created urgency and excitement, getting everyone hyped up. And let's face it, sometimes people just need that last minute nudge. Now, you already see how this could work for a webinar, right? So let's say you're not doing a boot camp yet, but you're doing a webinar in digital course academy. So for all my students, I teach you exactly what emails to send right before your webinar. And that 15 minute we are live email is priceless. So again, we did a morning of like in the very early morning we sent the email, okay, today's the day, the training's coming, then an hour before, okay, make sure you get ready and make sure you do this or do that and then 15 minutes before. And I really do believe multiple emails are necessary to boost your show up rate. So if you're not doing three emails before a webinar the day of do three emails, you are going to see a better show up rate. So again, if we're coming back to the boot camp, I really do believe that every time you do a live training in the boot camp, this is necessary. We did not get any complaints that there's too many emails. Remember, here's the ticket. People are paying for this, so they want all the information they need via email in order to make sure they don't miss anything. So that's why it's easier to email a paid participant than a free one. They pay attention. Okay, so those are the three strategies that you can use to boost attendance for your next boot camp. Or look through the lens of a webinar. And how can you use those for your webinar? But I mentioned that I have a little bonus strategy near the end and this is it. Add a personal touch. People love to feel connected to the human side of your business. So a quick, heartfelt message can energize your audience and make them feel appreciated and excited to join. It's all about creating a relationship and personal connection beyond just the professional one. So try sending a quick video message either in the emails posted in the hub or in the community. If let's say you have a Facebook community or you're using the community inside Membership IO, making a personalized video goes a long way. And really what I'm saying is, I'm not saying make a video for every member, but it's a video that you are putting in front of them telling them why it's important for them to show up live. It doesn't need to be anything special or highly produced. You could record it on your cell phone. But that little extra effort like, hey guys, the webinar starting soon or the bootcamp training starting soon. And here's why it's so, so important that you put a timer on and you show up and then you give them a little taste of why it's important. I love these types of quick videos because people pay attention when they see your face pop up on a video versus just like an email with all writing. And if you want a great resource, bombbomb and we can put it in the show notes. It's a great way to add video to email. We've used it a lot and I love it. All right, my friends, so there you have it. Three strategies that you can use to elevate your bootcamp, plus a little bonus strategy of adding that personal touch. So you could use all of these strategies for your next bootcamp or challenge, but you can also tweak them and make them work for a webinar that you kind of turn into a more robust training. Just something to think about. So I hope you love this shorty episode and I have a lot more of this coming your way. So make sure you subscribe to the podcast. I'm excited for some things that I have planned for you. And please do share this episode or this podcast with an entrepreneurial friend that you know could get a lot of value from it. All right, I will see you on Thursday for more entrepreneurial goodness. Same time, same place. Can't wait.