53: Generate Leads with Free Courses | Guest Co-host Chris Badgett

 Head over to leadfeeder.com and sign up for a 14-day (no strings attached) free trial!

Want to grasp the power of community and understand the core essence of belonging? Brace yourselves as we embark on a riveting journey with our guest, a software company owner who previously managed a sled dog tour business, and now lives on an organic farm in Maine.

This transformation story and the guest's unique perspective on leadership and course creation promises to enlighten you. Listen closely as they reveal the secret to generating leads through free courses and explain the importance of crafting adaptable content.

Let's chat about social media’s pivotal role in marketing and the art of creating meaningful relationships online. You'll hear our effective strategies for time management on these platforms and engaging with our target audience through various online communities.

We're joined by Chris Badgett, founder of Lifter LMS, who further elucidates the importance of a strong social media presence and shares his experience in hosting the LMS cast podcast.

Tune in, as you stand to gain insightful knowledge on lead generation and online business strategies that could be a game-changer in your entrepreneurial journey.

Visit the show page here.

Guest Co-Host Chris Badget:

Chris Badgett is the cofounder and CEO of LifterLMS, a learning management system for WordPress. He helps education entrepreneurs create, launch, and scale high value online training platforms. He believes in democratizing education in the digital classroom and contributing as much as possible to the WordPress community.

Join his Facebook Group!

Follow him on X.

Plan your course with his free resource.

Website: https://www.sarahnoelblock.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahnoelblock/
Newsletter: https://tinymarketing.me/newsletter
Tiny Marketing Community

Click here to ask a question about the episode

Transcript

Chris: 0:00

So what does that mean? It means people are looking for belonging, which I get. I mean, I look for belonging. I've got all my different communities of people that I hang out with, from my marketing friends to my gardening friends, to my e-learning friends, my WordPress nerd friends. I got all these communities right and it's just how the world works, and some are in person, some are online and some are a hybrid, and sometimes community can be part of the product as well, or part of the membership.

Sarah: 0:27

Why don't you introduce yourself to the audience? Hi everyone.

Chris: 0:33

So I live on a little organic farm on the coast of Maine. Before I got into the internet, I used to run sled dogs in Alaska. For a decade I've built an agency building websites for clients up to 14 employees, and then I transitioned to becoming a software company with Lyft or LMS, which helps people launch online courses and training-based membership sites, and my mission is to lift up others through learning, and it's my personal mission and my company mission. So that's me.

Sarah: 1:04

That is a wild ride right there. Okay, now I can see how the naturey version of who you are with the Alaska sled dog and how that goes into moving onto an organic farm. How did you end up with this mission?

Chris: 1:23

Well, I guess I started when I got really into leadership because I had to manage a sled dog tour business on a glacier you can only get to by helicopter. That's crazy. There was a couple hundred dogs up there, 30 team members, and I got really obsessed with leadership and management and figuring all that out, because I had no background in any of that and I wanted to start a blog about that later because it was just one of my passions. So I went to YouTube. I looked for a video on how to make a website and that's when I discovered WordPress and I launched my first website in a day and that was the beginning of my journey into tech.

Chris: 2:05

Later, people started asking me to build websites and after I left Alaska, I started creating organic gardening and permaculture courses with experts around the world and bringing parts of that industry online, and that's where I got my course creation experience. And then, when I found there wasn't a great tool in WordPress to do what I was trying to do, I built one. So that's kind of how those two worlds collide.

Sarah: 2:31

That is cool. I can see. When I was on your show we talked about my origin story. Now I get to hear yours. That is really cool. I mean, when you decided you wanted to learn how to build a website, you weren't playing around. You didn't start with something like Wix or Squarespace, you went straight to WordPress, where you need to actually have some design prowess.

Chris: 2:57

I'm not a designer and it was a long time ago. This is 2008. I'm not sure if those tools were around, but I just kind of went with the first YouTube tutorial I found and I think I just kind of had a knack for tinkering.

Sarah: 3:12

And.

Chris: 3:13

I was right at that perfect point where WordPress became a tool that non-developers could use it, like people like me who didn't write code. So that's how I got in there.

Sarah: 3:24

Yeah, now it can be very complicated on WordPress, but I do remember 2008 version of WordPress because I had a blog on there and it was easier than they probably still have that version, but the one that everyone uses today.

Chris: 3:41

Yeah, it can get infinitely complicated. It's very flexible, but it can get complicated.

Sarah: 3:48

Hey there, fellow entrepreneurs and B2B marketers. Before we dive back into the conversation, let me introduce you to a game changer in the lead generation arena Lead Feeder. Now, we all know the struggle of identifying those elusive website visitors and turning them into valuable leads. But what if I told you there's a tool that not only promises but delivers on supercharging your lead generation and sales efforts. Enter Lead Feeder. Imagine having the power to identify companies visiting your website, track their behavior in real time and seamlessly integrate it all with your CRM.

Sarah: 4:26

Lead Feeder is not just a tool. It's your secret weapon for efficient and targeted lead engagement. What sets Lead Feeder apart? It's the ability to provide detailed insights into visitor behavior, helping your sales team prioritize efforts and close deals faster. With customizable notifications, lead scoring and GDPR compliance, lead Feeder is changing the game. Ready to revolutionize your approach to leads and deals? Head over to Leadfeedercom for your free demo today. That's L-E-A-D-F-E-E-D-E-Rcom. Don't miss out on the future of successfully generation with Leadfeeder. So your people are course creators. I want to dig into that. The thing that you mentioned in your application that like ah, my eyes widened and I wanted to hear more about instantly, was how to get leads through free courses. Can you tell me your process with that?

Chris: 5:24

well I really discovered as a software company you know when people, when you try to sell to them, they want to know how the tool works. I mean, there's different types of buyers, is you know? Logical buyers, emotional buyers, people just want to get in their hands and use it. There's all kinds of different styles of marketing and selling, but particularly for the people that want to just see how it works Before the investor time and money I realize I wanted to create content for that and I realized at the same time the exact same asset could be used on board new customers.

Chris: 5:58

So I get to Create something that can do double duty, which is awesome, especially for a tiny company without a lot of resources. So that's where I came up with the idea of a quick start course. So many course that's like less than thirty minutes of content. The way I think about that Is this a course that basically shows five percent of whatever the offer is, but it's the most important five percent to get people to a result quickly and you, you omit a lot of things that don't go in it. So our quick start course. You know I have an email list.

Chris: 6:33

I've grown over the past Eight and a half years with the software company to round seventy five thousand people. About half of those came in through the free course and that's not even including taking the same videos are in that course. Putting that on youtube Is a playlist which also has tons of views. I get about a hundred hours of watch time a week of not just on those videos, but I'm All our videos. We have a thousand videos now, which is crazy. I also put that course for free on you demi and got a ton of leads from you demi as well. Not only even I didn't even track. That is probably. There was probably Thirty thousand people in the course over there, so you didn't even track that when you.

Chris: 7:24

But eventually they actually took it down off you, demi, because I didn't update it and keep it current and I just kind of got busy. I got a little overwhelmed with all the stuff that we do. So now it's just on our site but we recently just updated the version of it. But for those of you out there who are Wanting to create lead magnets, I personally like to have a little portfolio of lead magnets. So if there's like a mini course concept that you can come up with that helps people get a red, like a mini result in advance of asking for the sale or to buy your stuff, I think is really important part of your lead magnet portfolio so you mentioned a little bit about distribution, because I've anytime.

Sarah: 8:06

I hear leads like well, how do we get people seeing the offer? Used, you dummy. I only ever read it. I never say it out loud, so it feels weird coming off of my mouth. How else did you get people seeing the lead offer? Because I mean, you said Seventy five thousand people on your email list through this offer, or is that total?

Chris: 8:34

about half of them came through this offer, so around thirty thousand. That's not counting the people on you, demmy, or the youtube. And then also I've got one more distribution channel, which is this is something unique to me with our software actually installs the course if people want to have on their website so they can use it as a resource and stuff like that. So the software is also installing the course all over the internet as well, which is kind of crazy to think about.

Sarah: 9:03

So does it get for you then?

Chris: 9:06

that point we already have their email address if they're using our software. So it's more just a. It's just a one click thing, but that's more of a ski key software thing. So and then also just in terms of getting traffic to it, we have a little academy on our website, actually has a bunch of free courses on it and some other paid courses. We just treat it like any normal lead magnet you can. It's linked to sometimes in some of our email signatures. It's In the main menu, is an option on the website to find it.

Chris: 9:40

We talk about social media. When somebody's like I'm trying to figure out how to create a course wordpress and like, well, here's a free course on how to do it. So particularly if you find somebody is asking you or lots of people are asking you the same thing and it takes you a while to really give the value to like explain it, that might be an area where you can create a course To basically automate yourself, because I've taught so many people how to use wordpress, how to use lift lifter and do other things. When I find myself doing it over and over, I try to either create a video or create a more in depth course.

Sarah: 10:17

That's smart, so a lot of your traffic is coming, probably organically, and then they see the free course Available and so you the real quick to give you that email to get access to the free courses. You mentioned finding these handraisers online and answering their questions with your course. Do you have any sort of strategy to being alerted when someone's raising their hand like that, asking a question that makes sense for you?

Chris: 10:49

I was clocking it in quora for a while, so, like quora notifications, there's certain hashtags on my twitter, and stuff just searches like for phrase, like creating online course. Probably the biggest thing, though, is and you are on our show we talked about how you time box social media. We have the same strategy, and I get in there regularly. I have a facebook group with almost ten thousand people and, of course, creators and wordpress pros, and the reason, the way I built that is like one conversation over time over nine years, so it's but I don't spend all day on social media. It's a tool for, you know, for marketing and also to create real parts of real relationships, but I have certain groups where these kind of topic comes up all the time, either in my group or in definitely I mean, I'm probably in 200 Facebook groups that have something to do with creating courses, online coaching, wordpress membership sites, all that stuff. That's kind of my scene, so I'm just an active participant.

Sarah: 11:57

That makes sense. So you don't have to Seek them out necessarily. Organically. You could be a part of those groups, search the questions, the keywords that you would find in those questions, and then just go through during your time batching session and Answer those questions. It doesn't.

Chris: 12:19

Even if it's, even if it's super old, like an old thread in a Facebook group, I'll still answer it and I'll pull it right back up to the top and new people start getting on there. It's just this just happens.

Sarah: 12:30

Yeah, that makes sense. When I was on your show earlier For people listening, I we happen to record the same day and it was kind of a coincidence I Was talking about how I make sure to engage twice a day. I just set a timer some engaging with people. But one thing that I do to make sure that I'm like showing up in the feeds of the people that I actually sell to is doing the searches for, like posts, content that people have written where their questions might come up, so I Can actually be relevant and I'm not just scrolling the feeds hoping for the best right, right, and I spent a lot of time also like Friending people that I know I'll probably never meet in person, but are definitely like in my target market and audience.

Chris: 13:20

And Then, once you're connected, then your stuff shows up more and you know, or if they ask the question later, they show up more easily.

Sarah: 13:29

And now, how do you approach those conversations so it doesn't feel Salesy?

Chris: 13:36

well, I always come from a place of service, so I never direct sell on social media or slide into the DMs with a picture I Because I get. I get a million of over aggressive social media pitches and and emails every every day. But I Just look at it as somebody has a question, I genuinely answer it and sometimes I'll answer it without a link to anything. But if it's in my realm of expertise, in my world, I just try to help as many people as possible and that, whether it's a article or a video I have, or blog post or lead magnet, that content is just the answer to their question. There's no pitch.

Chris: 14:17

Yeah and particularly if you behave and like You're just in the comments of somebody's Facebook group, they're not gonna kick you out. I never liked that where people are like never post a link or all this stuff. I'm just trying to help people, but typically nobody gives you a hard time if you're answering somebody's question and there's links involved usually.

Sarah: 14:37

So yeah, that's true. If it's, I'm sure you've been to those Facebook groups where it just ends up being like pitches the whole yeah the whole feed Just links to their, to their website or their offer, and I Automatically I'm just like leave group. So it's a totally different animal when you're actually answering a question someone had and the link that you're sharing is Relevant to the question.

Chris: 15:07

Yeah, and if I do actually answer? If the answer is my product, I don't link it, I just name it and let them. If somebody really wants to go find it, they can.

Sarah: 15:16

so yeah, that feels authentic like Okay, I'm not trying to tell you, but if you rabbit hole on this here's, by all means do that. So you also work with memberships. Can you tell me more about that? How can you make a membership or a community Work for your business?

Chris: 15:37

I Well for me. I'm kind of in the e-learning, online education space, so I see like the course is the fundamental building block. You can bundle courses together inside of a membership and I like to put the customer or the customer avatar at the center of the business, not your product or you or your business or whatever. So whoever the avatar is at the center of your business, you know they may need courses one course, I mean multiple courses but they also might appreciate some workshops, some newsletter, some live events, even maybe some physical products, and you can bundle all that together in a membership.

Chris: 16:15

And community is another thing that a lot of you know avatars would benefit from and I like to build two, one for free and one that costs money. So like for us as a software company, technically we sell memberships in that we sell annual software subscriptions for WordPress plugins and, like I mentioned, I have a free Facebook group with almost 10,000 in it and that's just ton of free value. But also in our highest plan we have a private community, a separate private Facebook community and also do a weekly live coaching and office hours kind of events community for the for our top paying customers. So community, I think, is really important, and on those these days it's becoming more and more important. I heard once that the most the best subject line to get an email to be opened is you're not alone.

Sarah: 17:11

And that is sad, yeah. So what?

Chris: 17:13

does that mean it means people are looking for belonging, which I get. I mean, I look for belonging. I've got all my different communities of people that I hang out with, from my marketing friends to my gardening friends, to my e-learning friends, my WordPress nerd friends I got, I got all these communities right and it's just how the world works in summer in person, summer online and summer hybrid, and sometimes community can be part of the product as well or part of the membership.

Sarah: 17:41

I don't think I valued that community until recently, like when I've been invited to join communities and like that's another task. I don't think so, but it has within the last year. So like, actually I really crave that and there's so much benefit from being part of those, just with networking. And maybe you're on a fit or a discovery call and you're like then that's not a fit for me, but I can find someone it is a fit for and you go run to your community and find them and they've just been so much more beneficial than I ever gave them credit for in the past. I think I was just burnt out and the idea of one more thing was one more thing that I could not handle.

Chris: 18:32

Well, there's a lot of variability and quality, like you were saying, like there's some Facebook groups that feel like a pitchfest. Yeah, I am in some Facebook groups that are like super awesome and really supportive, and I've been in some when I was paying for certain kinds of coaching and stuff like that or I was like this Facebook group is like the best asset of this entire company.

Chris: 18:54

Yeah, so, yeah, community and also masterminds. I highly recommend them. Part of right now probably three different masterminds. You know where you meet with some peers that do similar things and that's been very valuable.

Sarah: 19:08

I agree on those. I'm part of two and I learned so much from that. It's also like on the marketing front of that. If you know people who have masterminds, they're always looking for speakers and that's a great way to get in front of your ideal customer, finding those masterminds that cater to your people.

Chris: 19:29

That's a good tip.

Sarah: 19:30

Yeah, so how can people find you online and work with you?

Chris: 19:35

You can find me at lifter LMS. Lms stands for learning management system and in terms of social media, I'm the most active on Twitter, so that's just my name at Chris Badgett, and if you're like podcasts and you like getting into the business, of course creation and all the things that go around that, including a lot of marketing stuff. We have a show been running for nine years on that called LMS cast.

Sarah: 20:02

Nine years.

Chris: 20:03

Yeah, over 400 episodes I've been doing weekly for a long time.

Sarah: 20:10

That is impressive. That's impressive. All right, thank you so much for joining me. I got some great nuggets about. I mean, I love some lead generation conversations, yeah.

Chris: 20:24

Thanks for having me, Sarah.