Welcome to the first edition of our VIP Case Study series.
In today’s special release, we will share the marketing strategies that one of our clients used to grow his business from zero to millions of dollars in revenue.
His name is Siddharth Rajsekar (“Sidz”). He is a successful entrepreneur, digital marketer, digital coaching expert, and the author of the #1 Amazon International Bestseller You Can Coach.
We asked Siddharth six specific questions, and in each section of this article, we will share his unique and insightful responses. You will love what Sidz has to say, and we are certain you will derive tremendous value from his experiences.
FYI: Sidz serves English-speaking coaches exclusively in India. When responding to our questions, he shared certain numbers and values in Indian Rupees, but we converted the currency to USD to make it easier for most of our subscribers to follow.
Ultimately, his proven strategies can be implemented in any market worldwide.
Now, without further ado, let’s dive into each section – enjoy Siddharth’s insights!
– Team Vavoza
What marketing strategies helped you earn your initial full-time income as an entrepreneur?
My full-time income as an entrepreneur initially was through an agency-based model; I ran a social media marketing agency. We started with around four to five employees and grew to a 30-member agency, and we were running campaigns for other companies.
The marketing strategy that helped me in the initial days was networking. I was a member of BNI.
I would build relationships with the business owners in the offline world, and the relationships that were built, I would have one-to-one conversations with them and convert them into clients, and that’s how I got clients.
The second marketing strategy that I used to get clients was the workshop strategy.
I would do social media workshops in different parts and metros, charging around $100 for a full-day workshop. People would come and learn for a whole day, and those who were interested would end up becoming my clients.
This was my marketing strategy in the initial days for me to get a full-time income as an entrepreneur. But of course, the agency life was a different life because I had to pay for tools, I had to pay for teams, and I had infrastructure costs.
And even though I was earning an income, it was not a very good income because there was a lot of outflow in the business due to the nature of the agency business model that we had at that time.
– Siddharth Rajsekar
What marketing strategies took you to a six-figure per year income?
In the year 2018, I decided to move away from selling agency services to selling digital products. I started by selling affiliate products, like the products of one of my mentors, Vick Strizheus, and his company, Four Percent.
I started to earn my initial affiliate commissions by promoting Vick’s low-ticket products. Then, whenever my referrals would upgrade to his higher-ticket products, I earned bigger commissions.
I remember there were weeks when I was earning $1,000 or $2,000 per week, and it got to a point where I was making 15-20,000 dollars per month as an affiliate.
Now, the marketing strategy that I was using at this point was webinar-based marketing, meaning that I would build a relationship with people on LinkedIn and Facebook organically without spending any money on ads. I also had a blog at that point that I was running that was generating leads. I was getting 30-50 leads per day and had an email list of maybe 800-1,000 people.
I invited my hot leads to a weekly webinar that happened on Mondays and Thursdays. I would only teach in the Monday webinar – I would not sell anything; just add value. And I would invite them again on a totally different topic for the Thursday webinar.
In the Thursday webinar, I would talk about affiliate marketing and sell my mentors’ other products (such as their higher-ticket offers). I did not have a product of my own yet.
So, my marketing strategy was relationship building through social media, organic content marketing, and webinar-based selling (webinar nurturing and webinar selling). This took me to the six-figure per year income bracket really fast.
– Siddharth Rajsekar
What marketing strategies made you a millionaire?
I still remember crossing the first million. It took me around two or two and a half years to cross the first million. The strategy that helped me scale to my first million was running my own ads on Facebook.
I built my landing page on ClickFunnels and set up my webinar campaign. Because I got really good at webinars, I knew the best way to acquire customers was in a one-to-many format rather than a one-to-one format.
I transitioned from being an affiliate marketer to someone who is teaching others to build and sell digital products. So, I ran ads targeting different groups of people.
My target market was working professionals who wanted to start a business online, affiliate marketers, health experts, and wealth experts. I would educate and engage for 90 minutes (which I still do today) and sell a 100-200 dollar product in the webinar.
I remember back in the day, we were getting 4X ROAS (return-on-ad-spend) on the front end, then it came down to 3X, 2X, and now we are probably at 1-1.5X, and in some campaigns it even goes lower than that. But the whole idea is not to focus on the return on ad spend but on the funnel.
Initially, I did not have a high-ticket backend product, but then I launched a Diamond-level membership and Diamond Certification, which was priced at $1,200 back then and currently priced at $3,600. I also started offering a Quantum-level membership at around $12,000.
My strategy was to get a lot of volume on the front end of the funnel despite the low ROAS. I brought in people who would buy my $100 program, and then they would upgrade to my $1,200 program in a showcase that I would do once a month.
Then, if they qualified, I would push them into my Quantum level. My overall funnel profitability went up to 5X and 6X; in some months, I got up to 20X and 30X returns.
So, the strategies that made me a millionaire are the same strategies that earned me six figures; it’s just that I scaled my budget and started to reach a larger number of people, and I added high-ticket backend products for that to work.
– Siddharth Rajsekar
What strategies did you focus on in 2023, and why?
I have not really changed my overall strategy since the beginning. I only focused on weekly webinars as well as monthly upsells to backend offers.
The best part was in 2023 I did not do a single live webinar; all were automated webinars. I automated an older webinar that performed well, and my webinar attendees assumed that it was live.
And even though the webinars weren’t live, I got a similar amount of sales (of course, slightly less than in an actual live webinar because I would not call out specific people’s names and so on).
So, the strategies I focused on in 2023 are the same thing I was doing in the previous years:
- Running performance marketing ads on Facebook, Google, and YouTube;
- Bringing people into my weekly automated webinars, where I sold my Silver-level program at around $100;
- Upselling my Diamond-level program every month for $1,200 to $2,400.
In 2023, my main backend offer price was in the range of $1,800 to $2,400, and we brought in many people at those prices.
– Siddharth Rajsekar
What strategies are you focusing on in 2024, and why?
The strategies I will focus on in 2024 are meant to slightly enhance what is already there.
Ultimately, you need to have multiple traffic sources; you can’t depend on one traffic source. Performance marketing is one traffic source.
Organic is another traffic source – we have been getting 10% of our conversions through organic traffic from Instagram, YouTube videos, podcasts, and many others.
The third traffic source that I will be accelerating now in 2024 is Alliance Traffic. I have a strategic alliance with my top students, who are bridging their products with mine. So, when they sell their high-ticket Diamond-level programs, they would offer my low-ticket Silver-level program as a bonus.
So, I strategically picked and aligned with a few of my top students who are doing really well and where I feel there is a natural bridge from their funnel into mine. We get revenue share, and I give them a commission if anybody upgrades to my Gold or Diamond-level package from their referral link.
I also have a regular partner program that I offer only to my Diamond-level members. It is not for everybody; it’s optional. If anybody chooses to promote my webinars, they are able to get 35% commissions.
However, the whole idea is for my students to focus on building their own products and not treat this as a business opportunity. I want this to be more like “ice cream money” for them, where they are promoting me passively while building their own business.
The primary strategy that I will focus on in 2024 is to accelerate our alliances and partnerships, thereby, reducing the cost per acquisition of my front-end Silver-level product, and, thereby, creating a network of multiple channels of customer acquisition besides performance marketing.
So, performance marketing is on one side, organic is on the second, and third is alliances and partnerships.
– Siddharth Rajsekar
What advice would you give to someone who is just getting started as an entrepreneur?
First, you need to pick one problem you want to solve. Here are six problems that you can choose from:
- Money problem
- Health problem
- Relationship problem
- Career problem
- Business problem
- Creativity problem
Secondly, define what method you want to solve the problem or what is your micro-niche or micro market. So, under business, there are many subcategories; under health, there are many subcategories. Once you know your sub-topic and the method around it, you have your starting point.
Next, you have to develop a solution, aka, product around the problem. Entrepreneurship is all about solving problems; it is not about starting a business, designing your logo, and getting a business card done.
I don’t have a business card or a letterhead and stuff like that. You need to identify the problem and build a solid product that offers a solution, whether it’s a digital product like a course or a services-based product like consulting services.
Once you are able to get clarity on your niche positioning and your product, the next step is marketing. How are you going to be seen, heard, and known?
Start putting content on social media to get the hang of content marketing and build your skills in reaching out to your audience and educating your audience online.
An effective way to market is to do education marketing. So, let us say you post a video on YouTube – at the end of the video, you can say, “If you found this video useful, click on the link and come to my next webinar.”
Invite people to register for a free webinar, and when they come to your webinar, they will already be warmed up because they have seen your educational video or heard your podcast. You will have the best quality customers when you educate, engage, set expectations, and then give the offer.
So, the advice that I would give to anybody who is just starting off is to define your niche, define your product, start content marketing, and then get into performance marketing once you have tested your product and if you know that it is going to convert with paid ads.
Also, get really good at selling through webinars, one-to-many.
Now, let’s say you are not confident selling in a live webinar yet; you can still do the live webinar, and at the end of the webinar, you can do an application form process. Invite webinar attendees to fill out an application form. Then, connect with people who qualify and close them one-on-one.
So, that is the advice I would give to any entrepreneur – use education marketing and content marketing as the way to build trust, build your authority, add value to the market, and then get your sales.
– Siddharth Rajsekar
Closing Remarks
Wow! Wasn’t that epic?
We appreciate Sidz for sharing his fascinating journey and powerful marketing insights, which any marketer and entrepreneur could benefit from.
Regardless of your level as an entrepreneur, Siddharth and his unique experience offer us invaluable lessons.
The part that we admire about Sidz most is that not only has he earned millions of dollars for himself, but he has also helped hundreds (and maybe even thousands) of coaches in India earn six and seven figures in US dollars.
Siddharth’s track record as a coach is truly impressive, to say the least!
We hope you enjoyed the first edition of our VIP Case Study series in Vavoza Insider Plus. Stay tuned for more actionable content continually.
– Team Vavoza
