The first time I heard of Kartra, I did a double-take. Funnels… memberships… automation… what?! You see, I’m a full-time parenting sleep coach who built my business through social media and word-of-mouth referrals. I had never worked with an all-in-one marketing platform before, and I had no idea just how much it could help a coach like me (or you) streamline client sign-ups, sell programs, and grow a business—without spending hours stuck in the DMs.

When I joined Kartra, it was like diving into a whole new world. Kartra is such a powerful platform, with a heck of a lot of cool features—so many, in fact, that at first, I was intimidated, to say the least. That is, until I realized just how intuitive and easy Kartra is to use.

The Kartra platform is not only well-organized but also provides helpful tips for complete beginners—just like I was. It made setting up my business a breeze! As I started exploring the platform, I decided to take my sleep coaching business to the next level by building a website to showcase my programs, sign up new clients, and automate my business.

The ultimate goal with a platform like Kartra is to set up your programs then market them so they sell like crazy all in one space. Think of exhausted parents searching for a sleep solution at 3 AM! In my case, my product is my sleep coaching courses and personalized consulting sessions. For others, it could be a book, a webinar, online classes, or practically anything you can think of.

Join me in my journey through this series and discover all that Kartra can do—and together, we’ll learn how to harness this powerful platform for your business, too.

First up — setting up the basics of your online presence so you can start selling your products.

Getting started:

Log into Kartra and the first thing you’ll notice is a clean layout with a navigation section on the left side. Then, your eyes might wander to the handful of modules in the middle that track your sales, subscriptions, traffic, and conversions, as well as a helpdesk for your customers to reach you. And if you haven’t noticed it already, in the very top right, there’s a profile button, next to the alerts, recycle bin, and search.

With so many different buttons on which to click, you might think, “Where the heck do I start?”

Well, that’s why I’m here! Let’s walk through getting your initial set up in just five quick steps. This is what the marketing gurus would call a “funnel.” But as you know, that’s not me, I understood the term as a step-by-step process that guides potential customers from discovering your business to making a purchase, like leading someone down a path with clear signs along the way.

Step 1: Create your profile.

Click on your profile button in the top right-hand corner and Kartra will whisk you away to your personal page, where you can upload a photo, fill out a security question and do all the other simple tasks that you’ve probably done on many profile pages in the past. See, not so hard, right? Right.

Note: Make sure your address is a business address, or one you are comfortable sharing. It is the address that will be shown at the bottom of the emails you send.

Step 2: Make a list and check it twice.

The second step to set up your virtual marketplace is to make your very own customer list. To get here, click on “Contacts” in the left sidebar then “Lists”.

If you’re confused about what a “list” is, worry not. Your list is your way to segment your customer base (also known as “leads”) by organizing them in easy-to-access groups.

For example, in my sleep coaching business, I started with three lists—one for exhausted parents actively looking for 1:1 coaching, one for parents interested in my online sleep course, and one for email subscribers who want free tips and updates on new programs.

Step 3: Get yourself paid.

No, this third step doesn’t earn you any money… yet. Its purpose is to allow you to integrate Kartra with a payment system so customers can pay you for your product/services. Pretty darn important, wouldn’t you say?

You can integrate Kartra with other types of platforms too, such as SMS and memberships, but for this step, we’re just enabling ourselves to get paid. 

Note: you must have a business account on whatever platform you are trying to integrate. For example, I had a personal PayPal account and was not able to integrate it until I went into PayPal and upgraded to a verified business account.

Step 4: Put your product on (virtual) paper.

Whether you’re selling sleep training plans or personalized coaching sessions, your next step is creating your product in the Kartra system.

Click on “Sales” then “Products” in the sidebar. Then, simply hit the blue “+ Product” button to add your first product. Kartra will walk you through a series of steps.

If there are any steps you’re unsure about, such as your product landing page URL, you can always go back and configure it later.

Once you’ve finished, you’ll get a nifty congrats bar, along with an HTML code. Paste this code in the <BODY> section of your product’s main landing page. This will allow Kartra to count unique visitors, calculate conversion rates, etc.

Step 5: Opt for an opt-in form.

If you want to capture leads, you’ll need to collect customer information with opt-in forms. Kartra not only makes this very easy, but gives you all kinds of sleekly-designed templates for creating them. You’ll place opt-in forms on your marketing web pages, whether they’re hosted in Kartra or externally. Don’t sweat; we’ll be learning how to make a stunning site in the next blog.

An opt-in form allows potential customers to subscribe to your mailing list, or in my case, contact me for a consultation. To create your own forms, go to
“Contacts” in the left sidebar, and then select “Forms” in the sub-navigation.

You get to choose your form fields, and reorder them, too. Do you want just a name and email? Or do you want to add a phone number and city to the data you collect as well? Once you’ve configured your opt-in form, you can always edit how it looks later within the Pages section of the Kartra platform.

Not so tough after all.

Give yourself a big pat on the back, do a little dance, and treat yourself to something nice…you’ve just laid the foundation for your online sales and marketing! This is essential to engaging prospects and turning them into paying clients. And, it just took five simple tasks to get there. Easy, isn’t it?