You’re a brilliant entrepreneur who picks up skills quickly–but just because you can do something yourself doesn’t mean you should.
When it comes to creating your next digital product or course, why not try embracing the power of outsourcing (instead of the power of caffeine and late nights at your standing desk)?
Get ready to lighten your workload, free up your time, and bring your brilliant ideas to life with more ease than you thought possible. Buckle up, friend, because I’m about to reveal 10 tasks you can outsource (like a boss) to make your next digital product or course come to life faster (and way more stress-free).
1) Graphic Design and Branding
I know everybody’s a graphic designer these days thanks to Canva and other free photo editing tools. But what if you could simply wave goodbye to those hours you spend fumbling around with tools (and buttons, and different squiggly lines) and hire a talented graphic designer to create eye-catching visuals and a cohesive brand identity that captures your essence instead?
There are lots of visual elements to a course and digital product, and you can easily outsource just one–or all of them. From an eye-catching course logo to captivating social media graphics to a visually appealing course workbook, the options are endless. When you hand tasks like these over to a professional, you get to take your time and energy back and can focus on delivering incredible content while your designer works their own magic.
2) Video Editing and Production
Lights, camera, delegate! If filming and editing videos isn’t your jam, hiring a videographer and editor to create professional-looking videos for your course (or digital product) video lessons might be just what you need.
On the production side, you can hire a skilled in-person videographer to help you stage your videos, set up the correct lighting and even let you know if your hair needs a touch-up. You can also record videos yourself and then let an expert step in to edit and polish (read: remove all the bloopers, the “um’s” and the four times your dog walked in front of the camera).
When you have professionals on your side, you get to focus on delivering your knowledge with confidence, rather than worrying about, well, your hair and/or the dog. Video editors can also do cool things like add professional-looking transitions, captions & visual effects that will truly make your course and/or digital product videos stand out & shine.
In that same vein, you can also hand over the oh-so-tedious task of transcribing your video by outsourcing it to a transcriptionist or transcription service. Let the professionals handle all that typing–and you can simply receive the transcripts, pop them up on your course website (or hand them off to your VA) or repurpose them for captions, blog posts and other content.
3) Copywriting and Editing
Words not your superpower? Fear not, friend! It’s super easy–and highly effective–to outsource all things writing to a skilled copywriter or editor. A good copywriter will be able to capture your voice, craft compelling messages that resonate with your audience and can sometimes even write any relevant course content for you.
Whether you’re looking to get a persuasive sales page up for your latest digital product or create a series of captivating emails for your course launch, a wordsmith-for-hire might be perfect for you–and free you up to work on other aspects of your launch.
And if you do enjoy writing? Well, you can also just enlist a meticulous proofreader or editor to comb through your digital product content and/or marketing materials to catch any pesky errors and ensure your product is super polished. (And let’s be real: You have much better things to do than Google whether the Oxford comma is grammatically correct!)
Oh and remember: Outsourcing doesn’t mean sacrificing your unique brand voice or style. The key to effective outsourcing is finding the right experts who align with your vision and values, so you don’t have to hire “just anyone.” Take your time to find a writer you vibe with–and be sure to set clear expectations and communication from the start. (And that goes for anyone you hire, not just writers!)
4) Website Design & Development
Don’t let the technicalities of website development bog you down, darling. Instead, why not hire a web developer to bring your vision to life and create a user-friendly landing page or sales page that wows your audience?
It’s true: You can hire a web designer or developer for pretty much anything web-related – from whipping up a pre-course challenge landing page so irresistible people race to enter their emails to a beautiful sales page that seals the deal with your opening logo alone.
5) Social Media Management
Let’s be real: If you’re creating a course or digital product, you have a lot of other things to do than sit on Instagram–but your followers do still need to see your face (and hear your value bombs). If you don’t already have a regular social media manager (and if you don’t, what are you waiting for?), you can save major time & energy by outsourcing your social media management for your course or product. Instead of stressing out over the perfect IG caption, let someone else handle responsibility of creating and scheduling posts, responding to comments and growing your followers while you pour your magic into your course or product.
You can also hire a long-term social media manager so you can always concentrate on your own expertise & what you do best.
6) Email Marketing and Automation
Another task to wipe off your To Do List during course/digital product creation time? Your email marketing! An email marketing specialist can do it all, from crafting engaging emails to setting up automated email sequences, segmenting your audience, and even analyzing (and optimizing!) your email campaigns for future use. You get to focus on whatever part of the email marketing process you do like–which might just be coming up with a topic or idea!–and let them handle the rest.
You can hire an email expert to write a funnel specifically for your digital product or course that you can then use again & over (and/or get their help tweaking once your ‘launch’ period is over). Think about how much time (and energy!) you could save (and how much less time and energy you’d have to spend laboring over the perfect email subject line).
If you’d like, you can also hire an email marketer (or enlist your VA) to write your regular newsletters or emails while you focus on crafting content and email marketing for your launch. It’s really up to you and what you want to spend your oh-so-precious time on.
7) Customer Support
You’re a boss, a creator and an entrepreneur–which means you’re probably not super stoked about also having to be a “customer support specialist.” That said, your digital product and course customers will need help and you do need someone available to delight them. (And let’s be honest: You will see an influx of customer inquiries anytime you launch a new product or offer!)
Instead of trying to do it all yourself, though, why not hire a dedicated team or virtual assistant to handle any inquiries in a timely (and friendly) manner, answer emails, resolve issues and hiccups and provide support with everything from accessing their digital downloads or course membership site to answering questions about payment plans. Creating an exceptional customer service experience is key to keeping customers around–and it will ensure your customers feel valued and heard.
And even better? It’ll leave you with more time to focus on product creation, improvement and growth–and you can always get a report from them to let you know what specific issues your customers are having to see if you can address them by making tweaks to your course or product.
8) Course or Product Setup or Maintenance
Unless you’re a total tech whiz, technology (including course platforms) can easily become a major headache when launching a course or product. Luckily, some entrepreneurs are total techies–and have built entire businesses around helping others set up their online course platforms (and maintaining them!).
Whether you need a Kajabi expert or a Wishlist member whiz, you can find an expert in just about any course platform. Instead of trying to create and then upload your course/digital product, simplify the process by working with a course platform expert who can set up and optimize your platform, ensuring a seamless user experience for your students–and eliminate any potential tech headaches for you.
9) Tech Support
Speaking of technology, you can also outsource other tech support needs for your digital product and/or course launches. From website maintenance to plugin updates to troubleshooting any technical glitches that arise, you can hire a tech VA to be “on call” for any issues that pop up during the launch process. A good tech VA will handle all the behind-the-scenes magic, from setting up your landing pages to integrating your payment processors to troubleshooting any potential glitches.
And you? Yep. You guessed it. You get to continue to focus on your course–not wondering why your Stripe checkout page isn’t actually allowing anyone to check out.
10) Project Management
Last, but never least, you can outsource project management. Let’s just say it: Creating a digital product or course means adding a lot of extra work to your already-packed plate. Hiring a project manager to come into your business and keep you organized while you get it done is simply an undeniably smart move. A project manager will keep the project on track, oversee the entire process, coordinate tasks and ensure all deadlines are met–by you and anybody else you decide to bring into your business.
Imagine how amazing it would be to have a project manager who can keep everyone on the same page, handle timelines and ensure a smooth collaboration between all your team members. It’s pretty much a course creator’s dream come true!
By outsourcing these specific tasks (and any others you can think of), you’ll free up your time to focus on what you do best (creating top-notch digital products and courses and changing the world, of course). Plus, you’ll be supporting other entrepreneurs and helping to grow their businesses too.
