Launch Strategist – Alex Beadon

I made $103k in 12 months with $0 ad spend. Here’s how I did it.

In 2011, I started my very first business – Alex Beadon Photography – and it made $103,000 USD in its first 12 months … with $0 spent on advertising.

I’m not sharing that with you to brag – I’m sharing it because I created a business out of nothing overnight, and I want to show you how.

Firstly – if you’re wondering what this first business was selling … This was a business where I used to sell Photoshop Actions to professional photographers.

These were digital files that I created myself to help pro photographers edit their images quicker and easier.

Here’s how I made ALL of my sales:

When I started this business in 2011, I had already been blogging and creating content online for the last two years, and because of that, I had already built relationships with my ideal clients (photographers).

My followers already knew who I was, loved my work, supported me in the vision of my business and future.

So when I posted a casual blog post announcing that I was selling Photoshop Actions, even though I had ZERO sales strategy, I made non-stop sales, and woke up the next morning a couple hundred dollars richer.

It is not rocket science that when your followers feel like they know you, like you, and trust you, they are far more likely to not only buy from you, but support your promotions, recommend you to their friends. And it’s because they are invested in seeing you WIN.

When you first start putting yourself out there, it can be hard. You might feel nervous, and not know what to post. You might be afraid of what people will think, and find yourself putting it off even though you know that building a relationship with your followers would be an asset to your business (and your profits).

Or maybe you’re already a boss at putting yourself out there online, but you know that you’re doing it with little to no strategy, and are never able to actually translate it into sales.

It’s exactly why I created Project Storyline.

Quite simply, Project Storyline is a subscription service where every day you get access to an Instagram Story Prompt telling you exactly what to post to your Instagram Stories on that day.

Each day’s prompt is meant to be used as a starting point to post something that’s strategically building your relationship with your followers, day-in, day-out.

These prompts were designed for Instagram Stories, but can also be used to deepen your relationship with your audience through Reels, TikToks or YouTube Shorts!

💖 If you’re ready to show up on social media with more and more confidence…

🧡 If you’re ready to say YES to deepening your relationship with your followers…

💛 If you’re craving more engagement and support from your community…

💖 And you’re ready to capture and hold the attention of your audience…

Join Project Storyline today for only $30 a month (that’s about a dollar a day). You will get access to our Project Storyline portal with all of your prompts – AND a monthly PSL Live Q&A call to have your questions answered by Alex and Team Beadon! You can also cancel at any time. ❤️

Will you be our newest PSL member?

xoxo,
Alex 💋
(your online biz bestie)

P.S. Deepening your relationship with your audience and cultivating a Magnetic Influence is one of the cornerstones of any successful online business! This is exactly why I dedicated an entire module of Together We Launch (my signature offer teaching online course creators how to scale their launches) to learning how to cultivate an authentic, Magnetic Influence. We speak about growing and nurturing your Superfan base, I give you my evergreen nurture content strategy and the Content Fuel Framework, provide you with re-engagement email campaign templates and lessons on practicing your live presence. If you’re an online course creator making between $65k – $300k annually and you’re ready to scale your launches through sustainable systems while grow your influence, request an application for Together We Launch now.

What makes an online course launch successful?

Leave a Comment / BLOG / By Alex Beadon

Today I want to ask you:

What do you think makes a launch successful?

Most people I speak to think it only has to do with revenue and profit generated, yet over the last decade I’ve discovered 3 things that are dead giveaways as to whether a launch is really successful – or not …

#1 - You’re using a Rinse and Repeat Launch Formula

Are you exhausted from constantly trying to reimagine your launches? From trying to create a new strategy, assets and content?

Truthfully, you only need to implement a rock-solid Launch Strategy – once.

Not every launch has to be wildly different, complicated and brand-spanking new. In fact, if you’ve created a launch strategy tailored to your target audience, then you should ABSOLUTELY be Rinsing and Repeating it.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Find a Launch Strategy that WORKS – and STICK to it. This will help with the second key to success…

#2 - You’re minimizing the resources you need to execute the launch

REVENUE – RESOURCES INVESTED = PROFIT

Ever heard of the acronym, K.I.S.S.?

Keep it simple, stupid.

The more resources you have to invest to make money (including your TIME) the less profitable your launch is! Instead of reinventing the wheel each time you launch, use previous launch communications and assets as templates to help you save TIME and MONEY. This is why it’s important to create a reliable Launch Strategy that you can lean on for launches to come! This way you’re creating an environment for less stress – and more cash flow baby!

#3 - You know how to optimize as you go

I’m going to be real with you – NO launch is flawless at the start (or even 10 launches down the line 😂). There are SO many moving pieces which all take tweaking and testing to make work. When you have a dependable formula and recyclable resources this gets easier – but you still have to work at it!

The key is knowing WHAT to optimize. What stats to look at, and what changes to make in order to improve them. This is a science and art form that has taken me YEARS to learn.

But you don’t want it to take years – you want profitable launches NOW.

This is why I’ve distilled all of my hard-earned knowledge from over a decade of successful launching into my upcoming FREE training!

In this value-packed training, I’ll teach you how to access and replicate those 3 keys to successful launches within your biz.

I’ll even let you behind the curtain of my wildly profitable launches, including sneak peeks at my launch revenue, my launch calendar, and my signature Launch Expansion Formula that has helped myself and my clients generate unbelievable results.

Click here to register to join me for the FREE Launch Expansion Method training.

I hope to see you on the inside!

xoxo,
Alex
(your favorite launch strategist & creator of Together We Launch)

P.S. If you want more predictable launch outcomes and confidence in your ability to scale your online course with launches … Request an application for Together We Launch today.

The only numbers you should be looking at in your online business

Leave a Comment / BLOG / By Alex Beadon

For many course creators, numbers are scary.

You’re simply trying to impact people’s lives by dropping into your zone of genius and creating an online course that helps your audience, right?

Though it can feel daunting to look at your numbers, it’s a necessary and empowering practice that will give you critical information and clarity in your business. It will clearly present you with which efforts are and aren’t working, and provide you with the framework for a straightforward course of action in your biz.

In fact, I’m willing to bet that once you begin to pull back the curtain on your data and see the possibilities of optimizing your online business that come with understanding these numbers … You’re going to begin to feel energized by it.

Today I’m going to help you distinguish between the numbers that are critical to understanding your biz and improving your performance, vs those that are quite simply… fluff.

2 types of numbers in your business:

Vanity Metrics
Key Performance Indicators

Let’s define them, shall we?

Vanity Metrics are numbers that make you appear to be doing well but do not help you in understanding your business’s performance in a manner that will effectively inform your strategy. We often confuse these numbers as important, typically because others can see these numbers (such as likes or follower count) or have told us that they’re important. However, they don’t ultimately contribute to our overarching goals or our bottom line.

On the other hand, we have Key Performance Indicators which are a unique set of data points that are specific to your business goals. These are the quantifiable measures that are critical to understanding the success of your business in meeting your objectives for performance. These KPIs provide you and your team with clear targets to aim for, and are ultimately the only numbers you should truly be focusing on.

How do I identify which numbers are Vanity Metrics, and which are KPIs?

1. Understand your business goals specific to your business model:

If you’re an influencer who gets paid work based on how much of a following or engagement you get on your post then your likes and follower count absolutely matter. However, if you’re an online course creator, ultimately your goal should be to increase the number of students you have enrolled in your course. In this case, your KPIs could be the amount of email list opt-ins that you’ll ultimately be able to sell to and your conversion rate from email list opt-in to purchaser. Your plan of action then will not be to get more likes or followers on social media, it could be to strategically generate more leads using ads or collaborations (to increase your email list) whilst nurturing your existing email list to improve your conversion rate for the future.

2. Ask yourself, “What strategic business decision can I make with this data point?”:

If you’re not clear on whether a metric is a KPI or vanity metric you should ask yourself “Does this data point provide me with information that can inform a strategic course of action in my biz?” If the answer to this is “no” or “I’m not sure” it may be worth shelving the metric. Everything you measure should be with a purpose and allow you to quickly understand where there’s room for improvement.

Let’s run through an example:

If you’re running an ad that points to a free download opt-in page, you’ll be able to see the following metrics:

Ad Views
Opt-in Page Views
Number of Downloads

These three metrics ultimately can give you the following information:

The percentage of people that saw the ad and then clicked into the opt-in page: This will allow you to get a feel for the strength of your ad content and audience. You can then start making small tweaks to your ads (such as changing the audience OR changing the content) to see if you can improve this percentage and get stronger ads.
The percentage of people that saw your opt-in page and then opted in to get the free download: This will allow you to understand the strength of your opt-in page. You can then start making small tweaks to the page (such as bigger, bolder buttons, an easier way to fill out the form, or changing your marketing language) to see if you can improve this percentage and get a stronger conversion rate.

3. Determine whether the metric is a reflection of the truth:

It is important to discern what your data points are actually telling you. For example, you may have 20,000 email subscribers which means you have an awesome list of hot leads right? Not necessarily. If you’ve pivoted in your business, you may have 18,000 cold leads that are not your ideal client, meaning that your conversion rates will be low. Another example is that you may be looking at your competitor with 50,000 followers on social media and wondering why you’re struggling to get followers, but as we all know it’s easy and cheap to pay for followers which means they may appear to be doing well but their audience is cold. In these instances, the quantity of subscribers are vanity metrics (they look and sound good), however, the quality of the subscribers is really your KPI as it’ll directly impact your bottom dollar.

Now, I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below and let me know...

What does your online course teach?
Are you tracking numbers in your business – or flying by the seat of your pants?

Sending you a warm hug from sweet (and rainy!) T&T ☀️🌴🇹🇹

xoxo,
Alex 💋
(your online biz bestie & favorite launch strategist)

P.S. Enjoyed this post? My VIP list read it over three months ago! Click here to get emails like this directly in your inbox! 💌

Want to learn how to create an online course?

Check out The Strategic Offer Incubator to learn how to strategically craft a successful online course or membership site – and the simple sales formula to get people in the door.

Ready to learn how to scale your online course through launching?

Check out Together We Launch to learn my six-figure Launch Strategy that allows you to play to your unique strengths and hit your launch goals, without sacrificing the lifestyle you’ve worked so hard to build.

Have you strategically prepared your online business for the 2022 Holiday season?

Leave a Comment / BLOG / By Alex Beadon

I just have to know … how prepared are you REALLY for the final quarter of this year? Did you know the biggest online shopping day of the year is Cyber Monday? And guess what – it’s coming up on November 28th.

The U.S. online holiday sales are expected to be a record high between November 1st and December 31st. (of $209.7 billion USD 🤯)*

*Data based on a report published by Adobe Analytics, which is said to be the most comprehensive view into U.S. e-commerce trends. Source: Business Wire.

Another article from 2021 stated that …

😱 $5.1 billion USD more was spent by consumers over the previous year’s Thanksgiving Weekend (Black Friday and Cyber Monday)…
🤯 and an additional $777.3 billion USD was spent during the Christmas season!

*Though these numbers reflect all holiday sales (not just online sales), data has shown that there is an increase in consumer behavior trends, post-pandemic, toward an increase in online shopping.

So my question to you today is … How are YOU strategically preparing your business for the holiday season?

💌 This post is for you if you’re ready to learn …

1️⃣ Why you can’t afford to leave your strategic holiday season planning to the last minute …

2️⃣ ONE killer strategy you can implement easily to boost sales on Cyber Monday…

3️⃣ 3 ways to make the MOST of this strategy (including a tactic that once made almost $28k for my biz!)

Now, without further ado… Let’s jump right in!

Why you should be thinking strategically about the Holiday season ...

Research shows that holiday spending begins as early as the start of October. People are already primed and prepped to invest in thoughtful gifts for themselves and their loved ones. With this increase in spending, there tends to be a dramatic decrease in sales in the early months of the new year. This is exactly why you want to double down on your sales strategies for the final quarter of the year.

If you’re sitting there thinking “ick, that feels yucky” – I want you to remember that you aren’t ever forcing a sale … You’re providing your audience with an opportunity to solve their problem … and trying to make that opportunity more accessible for them. After all, what better and more sustainable of a gift for your customer than investing in your digital product that will improve the quality of their life and teach them invaluable knowledge or skills that they’ll have for a lifetime?

Here’s something quick & relatively easy that you can implement over Cyber Monday (or throughout the Christmas season):

Run a flash sale ...

Have you ever gotten an email for a product you’ve been eyeing for months that has a subject line that sounds something like this: “FLASH SALE: 3 hours to get everything at 50% off before it’s all gone!”?

😔 You’ve been desiring this offer for ages. You want it badly.

😣 You’ve been negotiating with yourself on whether you should purchase it. “Some day”, you’ve been telling yourself.

🛍️ Enter… the flash sale.

🥰 It feels like a sign.

You feel the urgency – yet amidst that, there’s something else … Exhilaration… Excitement? You can’t help but purchase what’s on offer – and with it comes a sigh of relief … a feeling like you’ve won.

Isn’t it weird? We know that the goal of a flash sale is to offer us a great deal with the goal of ultimately getting us to impulsively buy … and yet these kind of deals still feel sooo good to us.

The flash sale is ultimately a win, win, win.

Your audience gets what they’ve been wanting or needing for a long time (your offer), at a price that’s significantly lower than what it’s worth (the discount) and you get an influx of sales (#win).

Congrats – you will have just created an experience that is mutually beneficial for both you and your audience.

Here's what you SHOULD offer on Flash Sale ...

👉🏼 An offer that you’re phasing out: If you are planning to permanently shelf an offer, give your audience one last opportunity to snag it for a steal of a deal. It’s an easy cash boost for you, and an easy win for them.

👉🏼 Something you can deliver quickly & easily without compromising on quality: Think logistics. Can you choose something that’s as easy as possible to logistically follow through with? Do you need to limit the amount of purchases that can be made? Ideally you don’t want to choose something that’s going to add too much extra responsibility to your plate.

Here's what you SHOULD NOT offer on Flash Sale ...

🙅🏼‍♀️ You should NOT offer high-ticket offers on flash sale because it can erode the reputation of the offer.

🙅🏼‍♀️ You should NOT offer ALL of your offers on sale, in fact – I recommend choosing and focusing on only one, unless you are segmenting your list based on their interests.

👉🏼 You should also use this “Flash Sale” tactic sparingly. For Cyber Monday – sure why not! But year round it’s never a good idea because you will train your audience that if they hold off on purchasing long enough, they may get a big discount from you!

Here's how to make the most of your Flash Sale:

Here are 3 easy ways to improve your Flash Sale ROI…

1. Use tools to communicate the urgency: my favorites are fixed countdown banners on the sales page, graphics that communicate the special offer, and limited time language

2. Promote across platforms: use pop ups and banners on your website, share across all social platforms and send out an email announcement along with multiple reminders during the flash sale

3. Add an upsell: when the customer purchases your offer, direct them to a thank you page that then offers a complimentary upsell. This helps you ride the wave of new customers as typically up to 5% of purchasers will upsell (note, this number may be lower as flash sales tend to drive new, one time purchasers who may be interested in your offer but may not necessarily be an ideal client). Implementing this one technique on the last day of one of my launches added a whopping $27,990 USD to my bottom line. 🤯🤯🤯

Now, I want to hear from you! Leave a comment & let me know - have I inspired you to host a Cyber Monday sale? 👇🏼🥂✨

I can’t wait to hear from you!

xoxo,
Alex 💋
(your favorite launch strategist)

P.S. If you’re an online course creator who wants to learn how to launch profitably My FREE training, the Launch Expansion Method, is now LIVE. This training is worth over $1,000 USD but I’m gifting it to you for free. Click here to register now!

Enjoyed this post? My VIP list got it first … 💌 Click here to get emails like this delivered straight to your inbox before everyone else!

10 LESSONS I LEARNED IN 2020!

Leave a Comment / BLOG / By Alex Beadon

Yes, I know, some of us want to forget about 2020, put it in a box and never revisit it. But I implore you to not write off an entire 365 days. What lessons did 2020 teach you? How did it make you better and more prepared for 2021? To go forward with purpose, we must look back bravely.

If you have been following me on Instagram, you would know that in 2020 I took an entire year off from creating content. I wanted to pressed pause on everything, took a step back to put things in place on the backend of my business so I could show up with purpose as your Online Biz Bestie.

In taking the year off I learned so much about myself, the business, what I want my brand to mature into, what true self-care and success looks like. In my latest video I shared 10 Lessons I Learned In 2020, some of these lessons includes:

What sustainable success looks like to me? I feel like I have grown from being that person who would have sacrificed a lot to “be successful”. Today I know that success must be sustainable, and I am getting rid of the self-imposed timelines and pressures. I do not know where we got the idea that we must achieve these lists of things by X date. I am letting go of all the pressures.

Setting Boundaries in business. I know setting boundaries is so “on trend” but trust me, it makes a massive difference when done correctly. When you set boundaries, you are drawing a line and making sure others respect your line. Looking back I can see where lack of boundaries lead to me being overworked and feeling drained physically, mentally and emotionally.

Outsourcing my personal life. Yes! That’s right! No, I did not outsource everything, I still make my morning breakfast and coffee. I am at that space in my business where if I want to get everything done, then I need to outsource the things I can. This is very big picture thinking, I do not need to go make a grocery run if someone else can do that. I am constantly asking the question, “is this the best use of my time?” “can this be outsourced?”. Try it, that did wonders for me.

These are just three of the Ten Lessons I Learned in 2020. They all started with one easy step, that led to bigger improvements. For 2021, what is that one easy thing you can do that will make a massive difference in how you show up, in how you feel and in how you support yourself in life and in business?

Watch the video below to see all Ten Lessons I Learned in 2020 and how they are changing my 2021 outlook.

I’M BACK ON YOUTUBE!

Leave a Comment / BLOG / By Alex Beadon

I finally did it! I am back on YouTube after four years!!! In 2017, I went to bed with a YouTube channel that had over 1.9 million views, 30,000 subscribers and 200 videos. I woke up and it all disappeared 😯.

Today I am starting back from ground zero, no videos, no impressions, I am starting with a clean slate. Of course, I would love to do a reaction of video of my first ever YouTube post, but I take solace in the fact that we won’t have to equally cringe and wonder, “What was she doing?” 😂

I took my time (three years, five months and twenty two days to be exact) to finally decide to get back on YouTube. I was very nervous doing this video and a part of me wanted to wait until it was “perfect”, but I always say, “done is better than perfect!”

In my first and latest YouTube video, I talk about my journey over the last thirteen years: how I went from being a professional portrait photographer, bombing my first launch, having my first six-figure launch without any ad spend, to hanging up my camera and becoming a full-time launch strategist.

In this video I break down the last nine years, all the experiences what made me who I am today:

How I started my first email list
Launched my YouTube channel
Launched my first online product
Broke up with photography
Created my first online course
Almost went bankrupt
Started a podcast
Became the Instagram Story Queen
Built a team who currently frees me up to do what I do best, CREATE!
AND had my first half a million-dollar year in biz

The last thirteen years have been a wild ride, filled with experiences and lessons that make me who I am today – your Online Biz Bestie! Watch below for the full journey!