87 – How to Crowdfund for a Digital Course | feat. Julien Brault
Julien Brault successfully used a crowdfunding campaign to launch his digital course, “Not Another Boring Course About Investing.” In this episode, Julien talks about how he decided to use crowdfunding for the course, and the process that he went through. Listen in to find out where he got verbiage for his ads, how he developed his e-mail list, and how he raised an additional $20,000 in the last few hours of his campaign. If you want to know how to crowdfund for a digital course, you’ll want to listen to this episode!
Julien Brault’s story: How he decided to crowdfund for a digital course:
Crowdfunding is primarily thought of in relationship to physical products. But Julien Brault decided to try it for his digital course. In this episode, he relates his transition from developing an app to creating a course instead of a book to go with it, and then deciding to try crowdfunding for the course. The story of his success is one you will want to hear, especially if you are wondering about crowdfunding for a digital product.
How customer interviews impacted Julien Brault’s course development and advertising
Julien Brault spent a lot of time, both in person and on the phone, interviewing potential customers to find out what they were looking for. In this episode on how to crowdfund a digital course, Julien shares where he found the people to interview and the kinds of questions he asked. Listen in to find out how the answers he got helped him not only to develop his course and app, but also to craft effective advertising.
How Julien Brault built his audience and structured his campaign to crowdfund a digital course
Julien Brault’s crowdfunding campaign for his digital course was hugely successful. In this episode, Julien talks about the process he used to build his audience over a six-month period before launching. He also gives details about structuring the campaign, determining his target audience, and the difference between a campaign for a digital product and a physical product. Regardless of your product type, you’ll want to hear this insightful conversation about crafting a successful campaign.
How Julien Brault converted his critics into contributors
Like most entrepreneurs, Julien Brault received a lot of negative, and sometimes rude, feedback from his e-mails. In this episode, he shares how he replied to these people, and how a number of them ended up actually providing valuable contributions to his content! Julien’s response to negative people is inspiring. Listen in and learn from his insights on how to respond to your critics on the journey to crowdfunding your digital product.
Outline of This Episode
- [0:23] Intro to this episode about crowdfunding for a course
- [2:41] Julien Brault’s story of how he decided to crowdfund for a digital course.
- [10:07] How customer interviews impacted Julien Brault’s course development and advertising.
- [18:09] How Julien Brault developed and used his e-mail list.
- [20:59] How Julien developed his audience and turned critics into contributors
- [23:40] The difference between structuring campaigns for physical and digital products.
- [25:33] How Julien determined the price for his course.
- [26:14] How Julien narrowed the scope of his target audience.
- [28:44] How Julien raised $20,000 in the last few hours of his campaign.
- [33:59] What Julien would do differently if he could do it again.
- [35:17] How to see your audience as real people.
Resources Mentioned
- Julien’s website
- Book: The Lean Startup, By Eric Ries
- CrowdfundingUncut.com/podcast/87 workbook for scoping out your avatar
- If you have an angle you think would make a great show, send a pitch to k@crowdfundinguncut.com.
- Khierstyn’s Physical Product Checklist
- Leave a review on iTunes
Sponsors
- BackerKit – use the code “uncut” to get your discount
- Gadget Flow
