← All work

Photography certification program · 2024

Certification enrollments up 40% in three months

A certification program for working portrait photographers

How we work with courses and training →
Certification enrollments in 3 months
+40%
Meta cost per lead
$8
Members in the free community
143
The DM sequence
Opened the offer91.2%
Said yes to the free course44%
Opened the course link98.3%
Clicked through to the course75%

From the DM automation's own counters. The first message went to 159 people, the second to 116, and 34 replied to the course message.

The situation

The studio sells a certification program to working portrait photographers, and leads with free content.

The buyer is a working professional: the brief named women aged 25 to 45 who already shoot for a living. The planned channels were Instagram ads, an Instagram funnel, email and Google ads.

The brief at kickoff

5
Certification enrollments a quarter, the target set at kickoff.
15
Affiliates in the network by the end of 2024.
$2,000
Monthly ad budget.

What was built

  • Paid ads
  • DM automation
  • Free mini-course
  • Community
  • Sales video
  1. 01

    A free mini-course by DM

    An Instagram message offers a free editing mini-course and tags the person as a lead. Saying yes retags them as a full lead. The next message sends the course link and checks they could log in.

  2. 02

    A free community

    A free community, with Apply for Certification one click away.

  3. 03

    A sales video for the affiliate tier

    A video sales letter script for photographers already earning over $5,000 a month: a booked call as the next step, and a plain line telling beginners it was not for them yet.

  4. 04

    Meta ads

    Leads coming in at an $8 Meta cost per lead.

How it ran

  1. May 2024

    Kickoff: targets set for certification enrollments and affiliates, on a $2,000 a month budget.

  2. June 2024

    The sales video script for the affiliate tier, written for photographers past $5,000 a month.

  3. Summer 2024

    The DM mini-course sequence and the free community, each one click from the certification application.

The result

Certification enrollments rose 40% in three months.

What carries over to your business

  1. 01

    Deliver the free thing inside the DM. People get it in the app they are already in, and you tag them as a lead in the same step.

  2. 02

    Keep the paid program one click from the free one, wherever the free one lives.

  3. 03

    Tell beginners who the program is not for yet. Your sales calls go to buyers who can say yes.

Book a call about your funnel

More case studies

All work →