How to Choose the Right Platform for Your Offer

So, you’ve finally created your latest and greatest product or offer. That’s amazing! You’ve worked hard to build it and now it’s time to see your hard work pay off. In other words: You’re ready to get the offer out there. 

But part of that launch plan includes finding the right platform to host your offer or contain your sales funnel, which usually entails lots of Googling, scratching of the head, second-guessing yourself, and becoming overwhelmed with all of the different options there. Do you go with Kajabi? Stick with the familiarity of Squarespace? Try your hand at ClickFunnels? Maybe explore Teachable?

Or maybe all of those platforms look like a foreign language because you don’t even know where to start! We get it – there’s a lot to learn and take in.

Thankfully, we’re here to help you navigate all of the things so you can feel confident in your next launch and set yourself up for success. So, how do you choose the right platform for your offer?

0. Think about your offer

The platform you choose will ALWAYS come down to the type of offer you’re creating or want to scale. You don’t want to use a course platform if you want to host live webinars and be an influencer. You don’t want an all-in-one marketing tool if really all you want is a membership community that isn’t on Facebook.

We’ve spent a while covering a number of popular platform and offer tools, so here’s the rundown on some of our platform picks by offer:

Courses:
Kajabi
Teachable
Thinkific
Podia

Sales Funnels:
Kajabi
ClickFunnels

Membership and Coaching: 
Kajabi
MightyNetworks
Kartra
Podia
Squarespace

1. Consider your current needs

First, set all of your options aside for a second and only think about what you need for your next launch. Do you have everything ready to go but just need some promotional graphics? Or are you ready to create your first-ever sales funnel chock-full of landing pages and a series of emails?

By focusing on what you need right now, you can cut out some of the excess noise and start to narrow in on the right platform for you. We know first-hand how tempting it can be to go for the sleekest or sexiest option right off the bat. You may also have heard of complex tools like ClickFunnels during mastermind calls or conferences.

But you have to make sure that – at the very least – your platform can meet your most basic needs first. You don’t need all the bells and whistles if the bells and whistles are just going to distract you from what’s important: Getting the offer out there.

2. Think about maintenance

Next up, you want to think about the day-to-day maintenance of your launch platform. Sure, you can always get help with setting it up, but what about learning how to use it to its fullest?

For example, platforms like Podia are fairly intuitive and easy to manage on your own. But platforms like Kajabi or Kartra – which have a number of features – might have a much larger learning curve. And hey, it may even require a whole other team member just to maintain it.

Remember: A lot of launch or sales funnel platforms aren’t a set-it-and-forget-it tool; they require lots of learning, navigating, and maintaining before they’re fully functioning in the way you need them to.

3. Plan for the future

Before you say anything, yes, we already know that we told you to think about what you need for your launch right now. But we’d be remiss not to tell you to also think ahead to the future. We’re not just talking in the first year – we mean beyond that. Here’s why:

Some course programs, like Teachable, seem like the right choice because they’re a lot more budget-friendly. But if you have future plans to create products and services that go beyond courses, it’s likely you’ll outgrow that type of platform really quickly. That’s because it doesn’t scale as easily as other platforms, like Kajabi, do.

However, if you only want to offer courses, Teachable or Thinkific might be the better choice because you’ll get what you need from the tool – nothing more, nothing less. See where we’re going with this? Be realistic with your future goals and outputs, and make sure you take them into consideration with your platform choice.

4. Consider your time investment

Your future business plans are a nice segue into your next consideration: time. For business owners, it’s no secret that time equals money. And the more time you have to spend on things that won’t help you in the long run? It can add up really quickly.

So, make sure you’re considering the time you actually want to invest in your launches. If you’re creating new offers as a side hustle or for fun, it’s totally ok to stick with the cheapest or easiest platform option. But if your business is your full-time job and you’re fully dedicated to creating more offers and more streams of passive income over time? You’re going to need a platform that helps you automate and manage the process, will scale with you, and have all the capabilities to support your future ventures.

5. Think about customer experience 

While it’s important to choose a launch platform that works for you and your business, we can’t forget about the ones who will actually decide if it's worthy: your customers. At the end of the day, your customers are the ones who are experiencing everything – your social posts, your emails, your landing pages, your products, your videos, your courses – it’s all up for grabs.

And even though your platform might be saving you money, how is it impacting the overall customer experience? Is it intuitive and easy to use? Is it secure? How does it function on mobile phones vs. desktops? A great example is using a free Facebook group instead of a membership tool like Mighty Networks. Yeah, it’s free, but the engagement in Mighty Networks is higher because it has a direct app, easy navigation, etc.

Make sure you put yourself in your customers’ shoes so you can experience your platform the same way they will. Because if it’s not so great on their end, they’ll have no problem jumping ship to another business or brand that can deliver a better overall experience.

Bottom line

Now that you know what you need from a launch platform, it’s time to start digging into the details. But wait! Before you hit that Google search bar again, we have an even better place to start: right here.

That’s right – we did the heavy lifting so you don’t have to! We know first-hand how overwhelming new tools and software can be, so we rounded up the most popular launch platforms to give a full breakdown of each. That way, you can get the details from us first (including our real opinions of each).

Want an all-in-one marketing tool that can house your site, offers, email marketing, products, coaching hubs, and more? Kajabi is where it’s at.

Ready to build a course? Podia, Thinkific, and Teachable are all options (and so is Kajabi!)

Is your community craving more from you? Check out Kartra, Kajabi, Squarespace, Mighty Networks, and Podia.

Time to build a sales funnel? ClickFunnels is a popular option but we still love Kajabi for creating them (and managing all the offers in their platform, instead of needing another tool!)

Want our help designing your sales funnel?

If you decide to use ClickFunnels, Kajabi, or even Showit for your upcoming launch or sale…

The Launch BFF can help you create and design your sales funnel even faster!

ICYMI, we just launched our BRAND-NEW template shop, where we have a Sales Page Kit, Webinar Funnel Kit, Freebie Funnel Kit, and an all-in-one Collection! 

All of our templates are designed to be customized and launched in just three easy steps – they’re just waiting for you!