Climbing the corporate ladder isn’t for everyone
Going remote in 2010 was a risky move. So when Ashlee Anderson said goodbye to endless commutes and unproductive meetings to switch careers and go at it alone as a freelance writer, she often found herself fielding questions about her unconventional career path.
How did she do it? How many hours a week did she work? How did she find new clients? How much did she make? How might they be able to do something like that, too?
It gave her reason for pause. If people she knew had so many questions about telecommuting, how many others did, too? With a background in HR and a lot of experience working remotely, she realized there was a much bigger opportunity staring her right in the face.
Soon after, she became a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC) and established her consulting business, Work From Home Happiness. Now, instead of just writing about career-related topics, she could actually help people transform their careers.
By 2019, the demand for remote workers was skyrocketing as local talent pools became fiercely competitive. The technology required to make it work was finally good enough to make it seamless. By addressing this important and fast-growing niche, Ashlee’s coaching business was thriving.
Work From Home Happiness—as its name would imply—was a busy but comfortable operation. Using free consultations to generate leads (at a close rate of about 10%), Ashlee had built a sales funnel that worked well. She was connecting with leads and turning them into customers, ultimately helping them find remote roles that matched their skills.
Too much of a good thing
The distancing measures that were implemented at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a tsunami of layoffs around the world. Suddenly, there were millions of people without jobs and looking for work.
Almost overnight, Ashlee’s free consultation requests went through the roof. Her calendar was booked out months in advance.
Most career coaches would love to see that kind of bump in leads--especially in the midst of an economic slump. Not to mention the fact that she didn’t need to spend a single marketing dollar to get them.
But there was a problem. The leads just weren’t qualified.
They were people that were looking for a solution to a very sudden and unfortunate economic event.
Most of the leads were no-shows. She spent days going through them, following up with emails and phone calls. And very few of the people that she did eventually speak with were qualified for the careers that she was able to coach for.
Ashlee was spinning her wheels. And while she sympathized with everyone experiencing the economic effects of the coronavirus, she couldn’t do much to help a vast majority of them. And the people she could help, couldn’t book their consultation within 30 days.
Finding a better way
The first order of business? Removing the one thing that had been her biggest source of leads: Free consultations.
Instead of connecting with leads right away, she prompted traffic to download a lead magnet she created “The Top 10 Industries With The Most Remote Jobs” in exchange for their email address.
This piece of content essentially pre-qualified every lead coming to her site. Someone would download the content, read it and conclude that either Ashlee’s content was helpful to them, or that it wasn’t quite what they were looking for.
“The best thing about Leadpages is the lead quality that I was getting. I haven’t seen anything else like that.” — Ashlee Anderson
From there, the qualified lead is then prompted to purchase a low-cost digital product: an on-demand course about how to effectively search for remote jobs.
This 4-part course covered techniques and tips she would typically employ in her 1-on-1 coaching sessions. The biggest difference? They’re more accessible and less expensive for the lead, and of course, don’t require any additional time on Ashlee’s part.
This also further qualified leads for Ashlee’s signature products: resume help and other one-on-one coaching offerings.
How Leadpages helped
Doing a 180 on how you collect and qualify leads requires some quick thinking and even faster doing. Using Leadpages, Ashlee was able to instantly create and publish a landing page to host her Top 10 Remote Jobs lead magnet.
Leadpages’ selection of templates made it easy to find something that aligned with her brand. Then she customized the page using the Drag-and-Drop Builder. No design or coding skills required.
But when your web traffic is your livelihood, you need more than just a nice-looking landing page. It has to convert that traffic. Leadpages’ Leadmeter provided her with the guidance she needed to make sure her page converted that web traffic into qualified leads.
“I wasn’t sure how to make my landing page compelling. But the Leadmeter helped me go from single-digit conversions to a rate of over 30%!” — Ashlee Anderson
Finally, when the landing page captured the lead, her lead magnet was sent automatically (thanks to Leadpages integration with her email service provider) along with encouragement to purchase her digital course.
How it worked out
It’s sometimes said that you don’t get results overnight. But that isn’t always true.
By replacing that free consultation offer with the Top Remote Jobs lead magnet, Ashlee was able to turn her situation around quickly.
The new lead magnet converted at 32.4%. And those leads were highly qualified.
The proof?
She was able to generate $27K in passive income from her digital course in just a few months.
But the conversion rate and new source income is only half the success story. Ashlee now has a lot more free time to focus on her business. Instead of pursuing weak leads, she’s spending her time focusing on other parts of her business like creating more low-cost, self-serve digital products and working on her signature services like resume assessments and group coaching.
What the future holds
Sometimes, things that seem like problems really are opportunities in disguise. This challenge forced Ashlee to re-examine her entire sales funnel and make some big changes for the better. Using Leadpages, she was able to put her plan into action and start seeing results almost instantly.
The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the way we work, putting a spotlight on the real-world benefits of remote work at a large scale. Ashlee was already ahead of that curve. And now she’s better positioned than ever to leverage her knowledge and grow Work From Home Happiness to its potential.
