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8 Ways "The Digital Gal" Found Success In Her Niche

May 4, 2024

Nine years ago, the fascination of Amanda Robinson with Facebook ads began after a successful boost of $25 that sold out a community theater show. Following that eventful moment, she immersed herself in learning everything she could about Facebook advertising. Soon, she found herself being sought-after by small-scale business owners via word-of-mouth recommendations. "Before I even realized it, this side hustle was my primary focus," she shares.

Since then, she's developed an entire business, The Digital Gal, focused on teaching Facebook advertising and has built it into a multiple six-figure business. Her time is split in between delivering workshops as the lead trainer for Meta working with clients one-on-one work, and teaching her online membership course via the name Swift Kick In The Ads. She assists small-sized business owners gain confidence when it comes to running their own Facebook ads.

What is the key to her success? Find a niche, and then sticking with it. We're sharing Robinson's journey to creating an online course to help inspire you to create your own.

Skip ahead:

She narrowed down her options

When she launched her business in 2015 she was able to offer a range of digital marketing services, from email marketing to Google Analytics and Google Ads.

When she first started she was able to say yes to almost every customer who was interested in working with her, until she began taking on an excessive amount of work. "Over time, things got to the point that my business was growing in a direction that I wasn't feeling passionate or even enthused about," explains Robinson.

Feeling overwhelmed and overworked she was able to decide to diversify her earnings streams. But first, she had to narrow down her services. "If you can't describe within a single sentence what you do, then it's difficult for them to suggest them to other people," she shares.

After she got honed in on Facebook Ads and people started referring her to more and more.

Her suggestion for those looking to discover their passion: Ask people close to you about what you excel in. "You might be really amazed at the way they reflect back at them," she shares. "And even if you be aware of the things you want to do or have a reputation by, you may be pleasantly surprised with different opportunities suggested by others. ."

She put her money into professional branding

When she narrowed down Facebook advertisements, Robinson took things one step further by investing in branding that was professional. As soon as people come at her website or on social media sites, they are greeted with a cohesive branding with a consistent color scheme, style, and overall vibe. In a flash, she saw her credibility grow in the eyes of the people who follow her.

"You must do two things: Make it easy for somebody to tell a friend about the services you offer as well as make it simple for your brand to have a professional, recognizable style. This brand's recognition gives users the ability to join the dots."

She went from one-on-one to one-to-many

After identifying her area of expertise and a niche, she decided to take a big jump: she dismissed the majority of her customers and took an exit from the single-person aspect of her business. "I was looking for a bit of breathing room to be able to move in the direction I had always wanted to go," she shares.

Robinson didn't want to rely only on client work or speaking events. So, she made the decision to launch an online membership course that was hosted by . "I was looking for alternative ways to generate an income that would be recurring so that I could have greater job security and influence more people," explains Robinson.

"I wanted the ability to expand my knowledge of one-on-one customer work and one-to-many," she shares. "I recognized that I had a lot to contribute, and I required a method for me to reach out to others without depleting myself and working around the clock ."

She tested a beta version of her online application

However, before she launched her course officialy, she designed an initial version.

The instructor walked a handful of people through the course at a reduced rate and received their feedback to the program in return.

"Even though I'm good in my field, I'm too close to it," she shares. "Having others give me feedback was so helpful ."

As she's been running this program for a beta has given her plenty of comments and was capable of tweaking the program to meet her audience's needs. What resulted is a membership program tailored to novices who wish to create your own ads on Facebook.

"Running a beta program was so valuable," shares Robinson. "It allowed me to see my blind spots. Also, having a community that is willing to help you refine some aspect and genuinely trust you and the skills you have is important ."

She picked a member format

The decision was made to host her membership to ensure that she, as an Canadian located in Victoria, BC, could assist another Canadian business. Plus, throughout her digital marketing community, she had the impression it was highly valued.

"I haven't run across anyone who has negative things to say about the platform." she says. "I haven't had any issues or issues from any of my students. I've been a very stable platform and I have no desire to seek out any alternatives; that's what's allowed me to grow ."

Aside from the desire to generate recurring, consistent income from a membership program Robinson also decided to structure her course in this way because of her style of teaching is teaching. With a combination of recordings and a Facebook community, and live, weekly "office hours" in which people are able to directly engage with Robinson and her team, she's managed to aid people achieve their goals. In addition, seeing her students' results help them talk about her expertise and recommend her to others.

"Facebook ads can be hard to understand by yourself," she shares. "You need a real human to speak to, who will examine your account, ask questions, and get you unstuck ."

"The possibility to connect camera-to-camera, share screens, and allow people to get themselves out of the spot so that they are able to continue moving forward is a huge help for those who are on their on your own with a small company wearing all the hats," she says.

The format of membership also allows people to slowly digest the content, allowing for breaks. Plus, since the platform changes so often the format lets Robinson to continually update the details to her students at least every three months, making sure that everything is aligned with the latest versions of Facebook.

Her focus was on networking

The people who come to her class are usually people who want to create Facebook ads themselves, or folks who have been doing ads for a while but need guidance in getting their ads up to speed.

Her audience is mainly aged 35-plus, and spans Canada and the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. When it came to advertising her course, social media (as well as advertisements on Facebook, obviously!) was her main supporter. "Showing up at occasions, attending as well as building my network have been a huge help," she says.

"Facebook ads excel in amplifying the strengths of your business and what needs improvement," she shares. "If you're putting money into ads and you're not seeing results, it's giving you an indication that it's expanding an area that is in need of more attention ."

According to her, similar to Facebook ads, networking helps increase the visibility of her company; If the person she's connected with comes to her site her website, she's then given the opportunity to retarget them with ads. "My own ads have been crucial in boosting the efforts that I'm doing with connections, networking, as well as creating a sense of community" Robinson says. Robinson.

"I could not say it enough times: networking is a key element in the development of my business," she adds. "If I didn't take the networking component out of it, it would have taken me ten times as long to get to the point I am today. ."

Plus, using software to help her manage her business effectively in together with aided her in grow; her go-to technology includes Stripe and Paypal to process payment, Calendly for scheduling, and TextExpander to create keyboard shortcuts.

She played the long game

In love with supporting small-business proprietors, she set the price of her membership at $49 per month so it was affordable.

As compared to the time a couple of years in the past, Robinson believes that people are now more sensitive to price. "Selling expensive courses isn't quite any more as popular as it used to be," she shares. "There are a lot of course creators available, as well as more content to choose from. I think finding the right equilibrium between having an idea of who exactly your audience is and who's actually purchasing is a great approach to connect with people in the middle with your price ."

For Robinson believes that the membership programs give people access to her data with a reasonable cost which can be appealing for businesses that don't have the funds to invest. This means that people are able to stay in the program for multiple months--with the majority staying for 2 years or more. "Most users will see an improvement around the 6-month mark of engaging with the content and showing up for office hours," she says.

"I pay attention to the rate of attrition," says Robinson. "If I can keep one for three months with at least an interaction with me, then I'll keep them for a minimum of a year. If I haven't had a contact point in the initial three months, and they're more likely to leave within a ."

She defined success herself

Robinson will define success on her own terms. For her, this means waking up excited to work in her field every day. She can work at any time. "I am often travel and road trips," she says. "I keep the Starlink satellite on my back and I charge a giant battery pack inside my car while I drive. I've a mobile office setup where I run my company from anywhere ."

Apart from finding a topic She suggests that web creators have time to create a course. "Don't feel discouraged if you set yourself a six-month timeframe and then all of a sudden a year from now it's not exactly where you'd like to be. Stick with it ."

"Don't get yourself down as a business proprietor," she reminds creators. "Just accept all the new challenges and take the sands ."

If you have an concept for an online class you'd like to test launching it, register for now. It's free!