50: Week 7 of the series How to Automate & Streamline the Backend of your Lead Magnets (and Offers) – All about Tech

Does creating an opt-in or bundle seem daunting? Maybe know what you want to offer your audience, but you don’t know how to put together all the pieces. If you are ready to start thinking through the puzzle pieces on the back end of your opt-ins, offers, and bundles, this episode is for you. In this episode, I share how you can create a fun way of putting everything together while feeling empowered because you know how things are being run on the backend. 

The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast is brought to you by Dolly DeLong Education. This podcast is for creative business owners who want to learn tangible steps to automate their business through workflows, systems, tools, and strategies to go from scattered to streamlined with purpose because even muggles can become automated wizards.

Automate the Backend of Your Lead Magnets

Are you ready to automate the backend of your lead magnets? I have put together the comprehensive checklist you need to ensure that all your puzzle pieces are in place for your next opt-in, your next offer, or even your next bundle! Stop letting tech fears hold you back from automating and streamlining the backend of your amazing offers and opt-ins!

Grab the Guide

(Need more than a checklist? Sign up for the mini-course!)

Review the Show Notes

Defining a tech stack (4:23)

My own tech stack and how I use them (6:17)

How I use these platforms to work together (9:28)

Digging into your own tech stack (19:56)

Tech adds up (20:46)

Do your own research and hash out your ideas (21:41)

LINKS MENTIONED

My podcast is turning ONE, will you leave a message for me, please? https://www.speakpipe.com/MyPodcastTurnsONE

My newest mini-course (how to automate and streamline the backend of your opt-ins, offers, and/or bundles): https://dollydelong.thrivecart.com/automate-your-offers-mini-course/?coupon=60OFF

My Lead Magnet about Lead Magnets: https://dollydelongphotography.com/lead-magnet-master-list

The Lead Magnet Mini-Course: https://dollydelongphotography.com/lead-magnet-mini-course

My Tech Stack (some of these are affiliate links)  

Showit: https://showit.co/

Flodesk: use this link for 50% off: https://app.flodesk.com/sign-up?ref=DOLLYDELONGPHOTO

Dubsado:  use my code to get 30% off here: https://www.dubsado.com/?c=dollydelongeducation

Thrivecart Learn: here’s my link: https://thrivecart.com/private-pilotprogram/?affiliate=dollydelong

Loom: Loom.com 

Trello:https://trello.com/

Canva: Canva.com

Plannthat: https://www.plannthat.com/register/?refer=cus_LJCTRBiRKfLCgn

Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions: The Legal Paige: https://thelegalpaige.com/?aff=33

Zapier: www.zapier.com

Hello Audio: https://helloaudio.fm/

Listen to the series

Week 1 – The Importance Of Copy & Having A High Converting Landing Page Featuring Ashlyn Carter

Week 2 – All About Lead Magnets

Week 3 -The Perfect Guide To Making Your Way Into Your Subscriber’s Inbox

Week 4 – The Ultimate Crash Course To Setting Up Your First Nurture Sequence Featuring Amanda Stores

Week 5 – How To Incorporate Visuals Featuring Jennifer Carfora

Week 6 – My Top 5 Favorite Ways To Grow My Email List

CONNECT WITH DOLLY 

instagram.com/dollydelongeducation

facebook.com/DollyDeLongEducation

pinterest.com/dollydelong

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REVIEW THE TRANSCRIPT:

Dolly Delong
Welcome to the systems and workflow magic podcast where I help entrepreneurs go from scattered to streamlined in their creative businesses. I’m your host, Dolly DeLong, a wife, a mom, and a photographer turned systems educator. Join me every week as we have conversations centered around creating tactical workflows, and automation in your business. Now, let’s make some strategic workflow magic. Hello, and welcome back to the systems and workflow magic podcast. I am your systems and workflow BFF and guide, Dolly DeLong. The fact that you are here means it really means the world to me. And I am thrilled to be diving into another systems and workflow-related topic with you today. So if you have been a longtime listener, you should know that I am in the middle of a series centric on the topic of how to automate the back end of your opt-in offers and even bundles. So basically, we are covering some puzzle pieces of what goes on in the back end of these three different types of promotions in your business, regardless if it’s an opt-in, lead magnet, or offer or if you are a contributor to a bundle. So we’ll just be talking about some essential puzzle pieces you need on the back end of that. And today, I wanted to do something very different. And I wanted to offer you a new way to start thinking through your puzzle pieces on the back end of your opt-ins your offers and bundles. And I wanted you to go through your own tech stack, so that you can begin to assess what a tech stack actually means to what puzzle pieces of a tech stack you may need to consider to purchase or invest in for your options, your offers, and or bundles. And three, just overall assess how the puzzle pieces of your own tech stack can talk to each other. Alright, so we’ll dive into what I mean by all of those three points. And again, if you are brand new and you’re wondering, oh, is this part of the mini-series, I would say scroll all the way back to the first episode starring Ashlyn Carter. And she speaks on the importance of having a well-converting landing page for your opt-ins your lead magnets your offers and or your bundles. So I will be sure to link all of the past episodes. So just in case you want to binge through all of the episodes in this miniseries, you kept calling all creatives if you have an amazing opt-in offer. And you have been asked to be a part of a bundle with other creatives, which, by the way, is also awesome. But you feel stuck because you don’t know what steps to take to Automate, optimize and streamline the back end of said, opt-in offer or bundle offer, then listen up. You don’t have to hire an integrator because I have created a step-by-step mini-course to guide you through the process of putting together the puzzle pieces you need. In order to lay the groundwork for this back-end process. I have created how to automate the back end of your options and offer many courses because as a system and workflow educator for creatives, I want to help you succeed as a small business owner, and really want you to feel confident in your systems. After listening to the podcast, don’t forget to head on over to the show notes and click on the link for an in-depth look at what this mini-course entails. as always Stay Magical with those systems, you amazing muggle you.

Dolly Delong
All right. So first of all, let’s define what a tech stack is. So I found this great definition and I’m going to share it with you. So a tech stack is a combination of technologies a business uses to build and run an application or a project. Sometimes this is called a solutions stack. A tech stack typically consists of programming languages, frameworks, databases, front-end tools, back-end tools, and applications that are all connected via APIs. So if you’re like listening to this, and you’re thinking, What are you talking about dolly you’re talking robot right now, that is the more technical term. But since most of my listeners, including myself, are solo business owners, or you might be a business owner with a smaller team, I am basically talking about all of the programs you as the business owner use in your business to make your creative business run. And especially now that you either have your opt-ins, your lead magnets, your offers, and or bundles to participate, let’s start thinking about your tech stack that is going to be within one of these three categories, okay? Because you need to consider that there are puzzle pieces for the back end of these three different options for you. And now, I’m not going to give you an exhaustive list of tech stack examples, because that would be the most boring episode ever. Although I’m not gonna lie, I would personally love to listen to that, because I love learning about systems and workflows, and how back ends, and businesses work and I’m not going to bore you. Okay, for simplicity’s sake, we’re going to start off with sharing my own tech stack with you and share with you an example of how I use some of these together. So maybe that could help you get your own wheels turning and for you to see how you can use what you already have in your business to work together. All right. So here is my current tech stack for the education side of my business. So for my website, I use the platform known as show it. For my email marketing platform, I use Flow desk for my CRM, which is a customer relationship management tool, I use Dubsado. For my teaching platform, which houses my courses, I use Thrive cart learn for my video platform, which allows me to house my videos on I use loom because Thrive cart doesn’t post videos. So that’s why I hosted my videos on Loom. For my opt-in creation, and my lead magnet creation process, I use a combination of things. But the most popular things I use are Canva, Loom, and Showit for my project management home base. I use Trello. For surveys, I use Google Forms. For my Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions, I use the legal page for those templates for apps to talk to each other. So just in case, certain apps don’t talk to each other then I like to use Zapier to zap to kind of build that bridge of connection for my private podcast feed. So yes, I actually have a private podcast that goes along with some of my mini-courses. I use Hello audio. For my online quizzes. I used Thrive Cart for my checkout pages or as a way to get paid. I use Thrive cart and I pair it with stripe and PayPal. For my tracking codes. For analytic purposes, I use Facebook pixel codes and Google Analytics. And for scheduling, I use the app called Plan. So for now, I know that was a lot that was a mouthful to share with you. But I did not share the whole exhaustive list of what I use for the entirety of my business. Because if you remember, I am also a branding photographer in addition to a system and workflow educator for creatives, but I just wanted to share the education side of my business. So those are all of the tools I use. And I absolutely love them. So I just wanted to start helping you see what I mean by tech stack. So now that you know what my tech stack is, let’s break it down even further of how to use these specific platforms to work together in terms of making opt-ins or lead magnets offers and maybe even participating in a bundle as a contributor. Alright, and again, for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to just use the example of an opt-in or a lead magnet. So of course there are tons of different forms I have lead magnets to create based on your industry. And if you head on over to the show notes, I have my lead magnet master list, which you can download for free. And it gives you over 20 different pages of ideas of what type of lead magnet to create based on what industry you’re in. So if you head on over to the show notes, I have that lead magnet list for you. It’s super meta, I know. Now, before I actually do any form of lead magnet creation, I do like to hash it out in my project management tool of choice, which is Trello. Okay, so Trello, again, is like I compare it to my brain hub of where all of my ones to one client projects live, where my opt-in ideas live, where my daily to-dos live, I just love Trello. And some people love Asana and click up. And hello Monday, but I just use Trello for everything. And as far as lead magnet creation goes, that is the Genesis or start of where I like to hash out ideas for an option. And that way, I can simply write out ideas or write out the funnel it would go into so I like literally breaking down the funnel, the customer journey of where this lead magnet is going to lead others. So once I have that idea, that’s when I start actually creating the lead magnet. All right. So as you may or may not have guessed, there are many, many, many, many, many different forms and types of lead magnets. And I do go over that in my lead magnet mini course. And there are many different ways to create lead magnets. But my favorite way of creating a lead magnet is by utilizing my website and again, the tech stack for that Show it because I can create secret landing pages on my website. And so anytime I need to make any minor adjustments to that specific opt-in, I can simply make changes to the actual landing page. And I love this option because I don’t have to make changes to let’s say, a PDF in Canva, and then re-upload it to a sequence or re-upload it someplace else. So I create a landing page not only to advertise my lead magnet and show it but also to create a duplicate landing page, and I place it as a thank you page. And that’s usually where the lead magnet is housed. So let me break that down even further for you. So instead of using another application like LeadPages, which there’s nothing wrong with LeadPages, I like to utilize my own website. And that way I don’t have to spend an extra overhead cost for a landing page company. And I like to create landing pages, again that advertise my opt-ins, my lead magnets, or sales pages. And if you have been listening to the series, you know, the sole purpose of that landing page is just to talk about that one action that you want the subscriber to take. And for me for this lead magnet, I want the viewer to subscribe to get that lead magnet that opt-in. And so I usually like creating landing pages on my website, and I call them secret pages. They’re not secret, but they are not linkable on my homepage. So somebody that’s coming to visit my homepage for the first time, they’re not going to have the option to click over to that landing page. All right, let’s say I create that landing page, and I advertise the lead magnet. And then I create a second page and usually either duplicate it or I create something very similar that looks very similar to the aesthetic of the landing page. And that is my URL, thank you page, my redirect page. So when somebody subscribes to get the lead magnet, they are redirected to that other page. Because again, I don’t really enjoy creating PDFs within Canva because as I update and change that specific lead magnet, I don’t want to re-upload it to any sequences or I’m human you guys and I will forget where I need to upload it. So it’s just easier for me and my brain to make small changes and tweaks to a URL that’s going to remain the same Link in any nurture sequence I add it to. And so that’s usually what I love doing when I create both of my landing pages to advertise a lead magnet. And then the actual lead magnet, which is normally my thank you page. So if I want to create visuals for a specific landing page or lead magnet, I love using Canva. So that’s another tech stack. And I use it as a graphic design tool. And that way I can insert images that connect with the potential viewer and who will hopefully turn into a subscriber. So I want them to start envisioning how they’re going to use that feedback that now I know I also need to embed a form on that landing page to collect email addresses. So that’s where the tech stack of my email service provider flow desk comes in. It is an email service platform that allows you to collect email addresses in either full-page form pop-ups or embeddable forms. And so I usually embed a form on my landing page. And once I have collected that email address, I use Flow desk again, to send out the actual lead magnet. So in my case, an example I just insert the link to the URL of the actual lead magnet. And that is, again the secret landing page on my website. And I also use Flow desk to create an automated nurture sequence. So no matter what time of day, a person may opt-in to getting my lead bandit, it’s working on automation and around the clock, so I don’t have to be at my computer sending off a new lead magnet every time a person requests to receive it. Have it set up on automation in Flowdesk.

Dolly Delong
Hey, creative business owner definitely here. Finally, put together that opt-in know that leads magnet your ideal client has been begging you, for now, and you were excitedly wanting to publish it. But here’s one thing holding you back. It’s probably the fact that you don’t know how to have an effective follow-through system. And making sure the back end of your new often or offer is optimized. stop sweating because the comprehensive checklist needs to ensure that all of your puzzle pieces are in place for your next often or even the next bundle you’re a part of is here. Stop letting tech fears hold you back from automating and streamlining the back end of your amazing options and offers and dive into this free checklist today, head on over to the show notes to get access to the link. And don’t forget, I am cheering.

Dolly Delong
I mentioned that I love using Google Forms as my tech stack to collect surveys. So with opt-ins, sometimes I like to get in and gather client testimonials and reviews about the opt-in. So I can reuse the language later on maybe in an updated version of the landing page that advertises the lead benefit. Or I can reuse the customer language in ads. So I like inserting a Google link to a review request on the nurture sequence at the end because maybe the client has already experienced a quick win from that lead magnet. So I like making sure to get their words right away. And I make sure to check that survey on my Trello board. So I haven’t linked the survey to check on a weekly basis in my own Trello board and I just checked to see if anybody’s filled it out. And again, it’s all on evergreen, it’s all on automation. So I don’t have to manually remind subscribers, hey, fill out this form because it’s already a part of the nurture sequence. And now let’s say I know that at the end of this nurture sequence, I want to invite the new subscriber to get to know me even more by either booking a one-to-one call with me to book, a funnel strategy day, or one of my Dubsado VIP services because as you know, I offer funnel and Dubsado services within my own systems and workflow business. So that is where the tech stack of my CRM tool Dubsado comes in. And I can simply link it within the email nurture sequence. All right. Let’s back it up a little bit. I know I just shared a mouthful with you. And I know I didn’t share how I use all of the tech stack examples for like offers and bundles. But I wanted you to start seeing how you’re different tech will be working together in the background, again, like puzzle pieces, to better streamline your opt-ins for lead magnets and to nurture relationships with your new subscribers. Remember, I am only scratching the surface. And I want you to really start digging into your own tech stack of what applications you use for the behind-the-scenes of your own business. Now an important piece to note, just because I am recommending something, it doesn’t mean you need to get it immediately. For most of these apps and tools, there is a free trial. So definitely take advantage of the free trials before you actually buy. Because let me tell you, tech adds up, I would really encourage you to find platforms, which can also do multiple things together. So for example, I know that using Thrive cart learn, I can house both my courses, and I can house my checkout pages there. Or with flow desk, they are expanding as a company to include checkout pages as well. So if you want to sell a digital course, you can use Flow desk for not only email list growth, landing page creation for segment creation for email, and nurture sequences, but now for checkout pages. So I want you to do your research after listening to this episode. And after assessing your entire tech stack that helps run the back end of your business. See if there are any apps that you use that can do multiple things for you that can work for you. Another key component to remember here is this, the reason why I stress workflows is not to overwhelm you. But to help you see that even your lead magnet has a workflow that has an SOP to it. So a standard operating procedure. So that’s why I want you to write it all from start to finish. And so that’s why I always start in Trello to hash out my own ideas. And once I’ve written it all out, I can begin attaching pieces of tech to certain milestones of that opt-in workflow. For example, I know I need to automatically deliver the opt-in so how will I do that? I’ll need an email service provider to do that job for me. Or I’ll need to collect email addresses to build up my email list. Well, I know I’ll actually need an email service provider to do that job as well. So see, I told you, there are so many components to the back end of the puzzle pieces when it comes to streamlining your own opt-ins your offers, and or your bundles if you’re a contributor. So I want to encourage you to start off simple, okay? In summary, the back end of your puzzle pieces for your opt-ins your offers in bundles can seem daunting and pretty overwhelming, I get it. But if you start off by looking at the tech stack of what you need, after you’ve written out the workflow of either one of those options, your options your offers, or your bundles, you will come to realize it’s fun to put these puzzle pieces together. And I will say this, you may even feel empowered because you know how your business is being run on the back end. So if you enjoyed this episode, I want you to do me a big favor, head on over to the show notes to get access to my newest course how to automate the back end of your offers options and or bundles mini-course, where I break down the puzzle pieces even further with you. I would also love for you to do me the biggest favor as well. So my podcast is turning one in a couple of weeks. Do you believe that? And I would love to hear from you the listener. How has this podcast helped you and or your creative business? And I would just love to hear just how this has impacted your year or if there have been any specific episodes that have been very impactful and helpful for you. So if you can head on over to the show notes for a link to leave me a voice message. That way I will be able to share it on the actual one-year anniversary in my podcast. This would mean the world to me now I get a lot of DMS and messages saying how much you all love this podcast. So if there’s anybody who’s listening right now when this episode airs, can you please go and leave that voice message for me? And again the link will be in the show notes. Now, as always, I cannot wait to come back next week with other systems and workflow-related tips. But as always, this week stays magical and streamlined you amazing muggle you. I will talk to you later. Bye.

Dolly Delong
Thank you so much for listening to the systems and workflow magic podcast. You can find full show notes from today’s episode at dolly DeLonge photography.com forward slash podcast. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be so honored if you’d subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast player. Be sure to screenshot this episode, share it to your stories, and tag me at Dolly DeLong education over on Instagram. Until next time, go make some strategic workflow magic.