Pre-TL;DR – After taking tens of thousands of dollars worth of trainings over the last 7 years, The Bundle Formula has been the most COMPREHENSIVE, the most HELPFUL and CLEAR step-by-step course I’ve ever taken… not to mention with the best course ROI.

I cannot recommend this “How to Host a Successful Digital Product Bundle” program (aka The Bundle Formula) louder or prouder.

Hosting a bundle is not for the faint-of-heart, nor is it for everyone. Hosting is a lot of work, and your business has to be a the right stage for it to be the best choice for you. Check out the upcoming Bundle Infosession, where you’ll see the potential and get clarity about whether hosting a bundle is the right choice for your business.

DARA’S PRE-BUNDLE-TIMES

In December 2020, I first heard the term “bundle,” (and then promptly bought one) – and I literally had no idea what I was looking at, let alone buying. I just knew the bundle in question was a great deal, full of digital assets that I wanted to own, so I slapped down $99 and purchased.

Before I continue, if you don’t know what a bundle is: it is typically a single purchase (at a low price) that entitles you to redeem any of a number of digital products (whose value far exceeds the single price you paid) by a certain date.

For example, you might pay $99 for 50 different products ranging in price from $17 to $197, with a total value of ~$3500.

You redeem (“purchase” for free) the products from the bundle that suit your needs/wants, by a certain deadline, usually within 30-60 days.

You are treated as a full-paying-customer by the contributors whose products you redeem, which means you not only end up with access to their digital product but you also end up on their email lists and in their customer ecosystem.

If you read on, you’ll see why any contributor would “give away” their product for “free” to a bundle host to sell, as well as why someone would choose to “host” a bundle and gather a group of digital products for sale in this way.

I redeemed the offers that were suitable for me and my business, and skipped the rest.

SOME “WHY WOULD YOUs”

But since my first intro to the term “bundle,” I have some serious insights to share, now having contributed to several, and having hosted my own bundle last October, to GREAT success:

  • WHY someone would put a bundle together (it’s a lot of work!),
  • why CONTRIBUTORS would GIVE AWAY their products that they usually $ell
  • how BUYERS can benefit from snapping up these limited-time bundles.

Q: Why would a business take it upon themselves to host a bundle?
A: A bundle promotion is like an event and launch all rolled into one. It’s a LOT of work but the host gets…

  • Email list-building (they get the contact info from all buyers of the bundle)
  • Profit (they get a % of every sale made = $!)… and they are basically being paid to build their email list!
  • Authority (they are the face of the bundle “event”)
  • Credibility (as the “bundle host” and the business that is selling the bundle)
  • Connection (they use their network to bring the contributors together, and expand that network)
  • Brand (they get to curate the bundle around a topic that would suit their future promotions) – for example, if the bundle is targeted for small online businesses, and the bundle host sells products and services to that sector, then they are building their email list with people who are their target audience!

Q: Why would a business GIVE AWAY their digital product in a bundle?
A: The answer is much less complex. The bundle contributor gets…

  • Email list building opportunity (they get the contact info from anyone who redeems their contribution, just as if that person had paid for their product)
  • Affiliate income opportunity (if people buy the bundle with their affiliate link)
  • Authority/Affiliation (being seen “in the same room as” other, bigger names)
  • No need to create a new product to share something valuable with their audience (and make some money)
  • Opportunity to put their own product in front of their email list who may not have purchased it yet, and the bundle pushes them over the edge to do so

Q: Why would someone buy a bundle? AKA: When you hear, “get over $5,000 worth of digital products for just $97” – is that yet another over-the-top marketing line?
A: No, it’s usually not too-good-to-be-true! Bundles promise great value by design. I don’t think there’s (usually) (enough of) a downside not to purchase a bundle, unless there’s really next-to-nothing in the bundle that appeals to you.

  • If you trust the bundle host, and/or can clearly see the bundle inclusions and see the legitimacy of each offer, then you can probably determine for yourself whether the bundle is just a marketing angle, or if it’s a true opportunity.
  • You don’t have to sign up for every product offered, nor do you have to use the ones you do sign up for immediately.
    ^^ This is key to avoiding overwhelm!^^
  • You can always filter or opt out of people’s email lists. (Personally, I try to treat a bundle redemption like a real purchase, just like I’d expect the contributor to treat me like a paying customer. Out of respect for the fact that they offered me something that I wanted, I generally stay on their email list for at least a month before considering unsubscribing.)
  • If it’s a quality bundle, you’re guaranteed to get more than the ~$97 value out of it.

And on top of all of that, I think it’s really easy to ignore/underestimate/forget HOW MUCH WORK goes on behind the scenes in any business that launches a product, a service, an offer, a summit, a podcast, a blog or… a BUNDLE.

MY FIRST TASTE OF BUNDLE BENEFITS

After watching my amazing friend Dama Jue host her first bundle last May (and watching my own audience go crazy for it – I personally sold 84 of those bundles through email and social media), myself and a few other contributors literally begged, pleaded and bullied Dama into showing us how she set her bundle up as a one-woman-show*.

*she did have some VA support, but not a ton, and – given the right runway/timeline – anyone can actually run a bundle on their own using Dama’s system

Instead of just showing us what she did, Dama re-created her full-blown SYSTEM for other Bundle Hosts to use, including every step of tech, every word of swipe copy and every graphic a bundle host would need.

Here’s what was amazing and unique about what Dama did for her bundle:

  • She took all the contributors’ submissions in through an Airtable form – asking for headshots, graphics, descriptions, blurbs, links, coupon codes, etc – basically creating a database, and then used all that data to streamline everything that came next…
  • She put together DIVINE AUTOMATIONS – like, drool-worthy coolness – that have allowed her (a one-woman-show) to send personalized updates, links, copy, graphics, emails, and more.
  • She even REJECTED contributions to her bundle that weren’t suitable for her audience or aligned with her vision of what she was pulling together.

Dama has put together a tell-all to show us what was involved in her wildly successful bundle, and what the results (numbers included) were!

On Feb 2nd, 2023 in her Bundle Debrief she’ll be sharing:

  • Three ways she tried to scale her digital product biz that didn’t work, and the one shocking scaling method that did
  • How to determine if hosting a paid bundle is right for you and your business: the real-talk edition
  • Dama’s step-by-step method for hosting a wildly profitable bundle, with every tool, template and tutorial you haven’t even realised you’ll need
    (and yes there will be a replay if the date/time doesn’t suit you to show up live)

Fun facts about Dama:

  • Dama puts my tech-forward brain to shame with her understanding and execution of affiliate programs, ThriveCart (not just the tech, but ThriveCart sales page designs too!), Deadline Funnel, email segmentation, and all the other tools that most of us mortals (aka online small business people) have been learning for years.
  • she writes the snappiest sales copy and the most thorough and supportive emails for her affiliates, her customers, and her audience.
  • she’s fun, sassy, and an industry disruptor, and I love being in her orbit.
  • did I mention Dama’s automation skill dreaminess?

Basically, I’m trying to tell you – follow this girl. She’s worth knowing.
And come to her Bundle Debrief on Feb 2nd!

MY TURN – HOSTING MY OWN BUNDLE

After gaining access to Dama’s newly released program The Bundle Formula, I set to work on getting my own bundle launched, in a VERY tight timeline. I gave myself 8 weeks so the bundle would be for sale well before Black Friday and not interfere with any of the contributors’ own promotions, or BF buyer fatigue.

Pro tip:😉 Give yourself a 12-week runway to allow for hiccups and unexpecteds and life.

  • My first step was brainstorming a niche and bundle name. I liked the alliteration of Tiny Team Toolkit and promptly booked the domain and started on a logo.
  • Next, I reached out to about 10 different online business contacts/friends whose digital products I had purchased in the past, to ask if they’d be interested in contributing that product (or something else in their suite) to the bundle. At this stage, I think I only got one “no”. My goal this early on was simply to have enough yesses that I could confidently proceed to asking more contributors.
  • I set up the tech to collect the information from the people who said yes, and to be able to ask a wider audience, by reaching out to a couple dozen other people (cold outreach) as well as my own audience by email and on social media.

At 4 weeks out, I had about 45 confirmed contributors, and then something snowballed and I had an influx of requests. I ended with 65 contributors!

The whole way through this new-to-me process, The Bundle Formula was my guiding force.

I was able to listen to the whole course on the private podcast feed while I was driving, so that I had a good understanding of the progress of the steps even before it was time to implement them. (This was me being “extra” and I don’t think it was necessary. I was just excited and anxious and was immersing myself in bundle launch prep.)

I took advantage of the community and Dama’s Bundle Formula Voxer Office Hours so that I could get her expertise as a coach who had supported many others through their own first bundles.

When the Tiny Team Toolkit cart open day finally arrived, I was prepared, my contributors started promoting and sales rolled in.*

*This is my Seinfeld-esque “yada yada yada” transition. 😂 Obviously a lot of prep work went in. I used the graphics and swipe provided in The Bundle Formula, adjusted the copy to suit, and just put myself in the shoes of my affiliates to decide how I would love to be treated, and communicated with them accordingly.

I spent most of my time during cart-open supporting and championing my contributors. Every minute spent on THEM meant that I had a team of potentially 65 people promoting the bundle. We had a contributor Slack. I ran customized Bundle Bingo. I had over a dozen contributors put up frames on their social media profile photos. The engagement was high, and it paid off…

The open-cart period was quite a rollercoaster, with slow and steady sales and a big jump in the last 2 days! Those last 2 days are always a payoff of all the legwork put in over the course of the cart open period.

The Tiny Team Toolkit Rollercoaster
  • Affiliates earned 50% commission on the $99 bundle & $19 trackers (order bump)
  • 55.4% of buyers added the $19 bump
  • 60% of the sales came from affiliates
  • The average commission paid out per affiliate was $623, with actual dollars per payout ranging from $49.50 to $1,370.50
  • I paid out a total of over $14,000 in affiliate commissions and prizes
  • The top 5 affiliates each sold over 10 bundles each
  • A total of 395 bundles were sold in the 9-day open cart period

The beauty of a bundle is not just the single event, but the ripple effect that hosting a bundle can have on your business for months and years later.

Of the 395 bundle buyers, 348 people redeemed one of MY two offers included in the Tiny Team Toolkit, and 25 of those 348 people have purchased my “signature” course Get Productive with G Suite since buying the Tiny Team Toolkit!

I have connections and friendships that were born from this bundle.
I have been sought out to contribute to others’ bundles.
I had a delightful income bump in Q4 of 2022.

And I can’t wait to do it all again.

If any of this story has tickled your fancy, piqued your curiosity or tempted your business senses, your next first step should be to check out Dama’s Bundle Debrief and Infosession on Feb 2, 2023.

 

 

Note the link to Dama’s Bundle Infosession is an aff link, but you know I wouldn’t invite you if I didn’t think it was totally worth your time.