I’ve been hearing great things about this system as a membership site and platform. So, I decided to take it for a test drive. In this Kajabi review, I’ll share my thoughts about designing a website and landing pages, video hosting, marketing your online courses, and creating a membership site. But, first, I’ll go over pricing, tell you about their Hero University, and explore who uses the platform.
What is Kajabi?
Kajabi offers the world’s only “knowledge commerce platform” for business owners to create, promote, and sell digital products. It’s like an all-in-one content management system (CMS) primarily used to host and market online courses, coaching programs, memberships, and other knowledge-based products. It delivers a suite of product creation tools for your online business.
- Website
- Online Courses
- Membership Sites
- Quizzes & Surveys
But, it’s not limited like other available CMS options. Rather, Kajabi contains built-in templates for landing pages, funnels, events, and email automations designed specifically for those who want to share their expertise with the world. From your dashboard, you can collect payments with zero transaction fees and create a customized checkout experience for members.
Kajabi Pricing Tiers
When you sign up, choose from three Kajabi pricing tiers:
- Basic – $119 (yearly) or $149 (monthly) per month
- Growth – $159 (yearly) or $199 (monthly) per month
- Pro – $319 (yearly) or $399 (monthly) per month
Note: If you need a larger plan, a custom Enterprise package can be created just for you.
You can try any of the plans free for 14 days. You will need to enter your credit card information, so be sure to cancel your account right away if you decide you don’t want to commit. Each of the pricing tiers gives you access to at least one website, the Hero University, 0% transaction fees, webinars, events, ready-to-use templates, assessments (quizzes and surveys), unlimited landing pages, unlimited marketing emails, and customer support.
Here’s what else is in store with each option.
Basic Plan Features
With the Basic plan, your products will be branded with the Kajabi logo. You will have the ability to create, market and sell up to three products with three pipelines. Additionally, you can store and market to up to 10,000 contacts and up to 1,000 members. With this plan, you will fly solo, with only one user account. It’s the perfect place for anyone who is just starting out.
Growth Plan Features
The most popular plan, Growth, gives you the ability to remove Kajabi branding from your products. It also enables the creation, marketing, and sales of up to 15 products and pipelines. And, you can have up to 25,000 contacts and 10,000 active members. The Growth plan will open you up to have up to ten user accounts for your team.
In addition to the scale increases above, this pricing tier enables automations and the affiliate program platform. This is a good plan for intermediate and growing membership sites.
Pro Plan Features
With the Pro plan, you will have access to everything above for 100 products and pipelines. You can build to up to three websites with 25 admin users. And, you’ll be able to store up to 100,000 contacts and have 20,000 members.
In addition, you’ll access the Experts Academy on top of your Hero University. Finally, you’ll have access to the Theme Editor, giving you complete control over the appearance of your store. Authorities and those with a massive contact list or membership should usually start here.
What is Kajabi’s Hero University?
Hero University is filled with resources to help users learn the Kajabi platform and run their online businesses. It’s a pretty robust help center.
These resources cover an array of topics:
- Company Announcements (News & Feature Roll-Outs)
- Account Information, Settings, & Billing
- Products, Marketing, Pipelines, & People (Contacts & Members)
- Liquid Documentation (for Developers)
If you follow the resources as they are presented to you, Hero University is pretty helpful. But, if you’re looking for answers to specific questions, they can be difficult to find, as the organization inside the help center could use some work. The best way to find the documentation you need is to use the search bar at the top of the screen. Even then, you may not find answers to all of your questions.
But, that’s what customer support is for, and the platform is still great for selling online courses.
Experts Academy Breakdown
Only available with the Pro plan, Kajabi’s Experts Academy opens new doors for expert knowledge commerce businesses. Many of the courses are taught by Brendon Burchard who teaches users how to share and monetize their online passion using the platform.
Rather than technical use of the platform, the Experts Academy teaches users strategic business-building techniques. This is a decent channel for taking your knowledge commerce business to the next level.
Which Popular Influencers Use Kajabi?
You already know that Brendon Burchard is a user. So, who else are the popular Kajabi users? To get an idea who the platform is best for, let’s look at a few influencers that host their membership programs and courses using Kajabi.
Chalene Johnson, Self-Help and Fitness Coach
With over half a million Instagram followers, Chalene Johnson is an extremely popular fitness influencer using Kajabi to power her business.
Amy Porterfield, Online Marketing Expert
Amy Porterfield is known for teaching entrepreneurs and educators how to grow their businesses online using content marketing and other online strategies, and she trusts Kajabi to sell her online courses.
James Wedmore, Video Marketing Influencer
James Wedmore teaches other course creators to grow and scale their online businesses through expert video marketing knowledge and does it on Kajabi.
Website and Landing Page Design Features
Building a website and landing pages couldn’t be easier than with the Kajabi interface. Here’s what I found when designing my site.
Available Themes
Kajabi calls their standard website templates “layout presets.” There is technically one theme with six available presets.
You’ll choose a preset based on your aesthetic taste. From here, you can customize your site however you like. Of course, with a pro plan, you’ll open up unlimited personalization options. With a Basic or Growth plan, your choices will be slightly more limited, but with plenty of features to create a site with everything required for selling your courses.
Standard Pages
The Kajabi website builder is equipped with ten standard pages.
- Homepage – The front page of your website can be thought of like the table of contents for all of your online content. Here, users should be guided to navigate through your website and social media profiles to easily access what they’re looking for.
- Library – A page where your members and visitors can access all of their products. The platform will automatically show all of the products a user has downloaded on this page.
- Store – Here’s where your products will be showcased. Think of this as the online store of your knowledge commerce site.
- Login – The page where users will register or enter their login information to access protected content on your website; this page keeps non-members from accessing certain pages of your website.
- Static Page – Create multiple static pages such as ‘About,’ ‘Privacy Policy,’ ‘Terms and Conditions,’ ‘FAQs,’ and more. These pages will appear on your site exactly how you create them.
- Thank You Page – A default page your users will be taken to after making a purchase on your website. Customize this page to appeal to the user and enhance their experience of your brand by saying, “Thanks!”
- 404 Page – When a website visitor lands on a page on your domain that doesn’t exist, you want them to reach a custom 404 error page. This message ensures that they stay on your site to browse rather than move away from your domain.
- Blog – The front page of your blog showcases featured or recent blog posts where you deliver free content to the world.
- Blog Post – An individual piece of content within your blog, which will be made up of several blog posts.
- Blog Search – A page that is generated when a user searches for a specific topic within your content.
With a combination of these pages, you can create a website to fuel your digital information product sales.
Page Builder
Within the dashboard, you can quickly create and customize any of your pages with the easy-to-use drag and drop interface.
The landing page editor is designed with UX in mind. Simply hover over a section to edit the text or images. Use the left sidebar to add and remove sections and customize your page as you see fit.
Blog Posts
Most CMS options, aside from WordPress, don’t provide everything needed to create a fully-optimized blog. Find out if Kajabi measures up.
The blog post creation dashboard has most features you’ll need to optimize your blog: Featured image, image uploads, a WSYWIG editor, custom URL, custom meta description, and you can even upload videos to your post. Still, it’s lacking in some areas.
- No ability to add ALT text to images
- No add-ons/ plugins
- No categories
For a fully-optimized blog, you will eventually want these features. So, while the blog dashboard is enough for a beginner, a professional blogger might want to create a subdomain and host their blog on WordPress rather than use the blog tools available on the Kajabi platform.
Analytics
In your Kajabi dashboard, you’ll be able to see reports for sales, affiliate earnings, and marketing.
Sales reports will provide you with the sales by day, sales by week, sales by month, and sales by offer.
Affiliate reports will show you commissions by affiliate and affiliate purchases.
Marketing reports will give you access to the number of opt-ins by day, opt-ins by week, and opt-ins by month.
You’ll also see a summary showing you a bird’s eye view of your online course sales and membership acquisition performance.
Video/ Course Hosting Features
Not only does the platform allow you to upload video courses/ webinars. It actually walks you through the course creation process by delivering a step-by-step framework.
When creating a course, you’ll be walked through the fundamental steps and have the ability to add your own additional information in the process.
- Course Introduction
- Welcome to the Course
- About the Instructor
- Outline and Objectives
- The Fundamentals
- Concept 1
- Concept 2
- Concept 3
- The What, the Why, the How
- The What
- The Why
- The How
- Advanced Tips
- Advanced Tips
- Going Beyond this Course
- Course Wrap-Up
- Conclusion
- Additional Resources
At each step, you’ll be able to add a video, and assessment, and/ or automation. Learn more about automations below.
Course Automations
When a user completes a section of your course, you will be able to automate the next action.
You can send users who complete your course section an offer, subscribe them to an email list, register them to an event, add or remove contact tags, send emails broadcasts, or send a coupon. This enhances the UX of your courses tremendously.
Using Kajabi’s course creation system is like having your own, branded Udemy or Coursera platform.
Marketing & Selling Your Online Courses
Once your online course is ready to sell, you can use the tools available in your Kajabi dashboard to market it. You have the ability to create, customize, and implement pipelines, email campaigns, events, automations, and forms; let’s see what this is all about.
- Pipelines – Create various marketing sequences with a few simple clicks.
- Email Campaigns – Create email broadcasts and sequences to send to your subscribers.
- Events – Engage users and deliver valuable webinars and other content at a specific time on a certain date.
- Automations – Create if/ then variables to automate your membership marketing.
- Forms – Create forms with automations to add new subscribers and move (segment) your contacts to new lists.
Now, let’s take a closer look at a couple of the marketing features.
Marketing Pipelines in Kajabi
Pipelines are one of the most exciting features Kajabi has to offer. There are six standard blueprints to choose from, five of which are “OVO” (Opt-in, Value, Offer) and all have been tested by Brendon Burchard to drive sales for his business.
- Freebie – This is a simple pipeline containing an opt-in page promising value, a confirmation email, and a thank you page that delivers the promised value. The Freebie is a great lead generation blueprint to use when growing your list.
It automatically creates an email sequence you can use to nurture your prospects after they’ve opted in. Grant subscribers a free course or offer a download that they can access from the thank you page.
- Sales Page OVO – This is the simplest way to get quick conversions and starts with an opt-in page promising value. Next, it delivers an 8-email sequence. After that, the promised value is delivered on a thank you page that doubles as a sales page.
The thank you/ sales page will ask for a conversion. Finally, the pipeline contains a checkout page where the reader can buy whatever digital product you’re selling. The Sales Page OVO is a great lead generator that can also result in sales.
- Product Launch OVO – This is a full-featured pipeline that you can use to create your own online marketing campaigns that resemble some of the best you’ve ever seen. The Product Launch OVO was actually designed by Brendon Burchard and uses the same techniques he uses to sell his digital knowledge products.
First, the pipeline delivers an opt-in page promising value. Next, a 10-email sequence is created. After that, you can design three separate value offers hosted on thank you/ sales pages. Finally, the reader can buy your digital offer on the checkout page.
- Zoom Webinar OVO – This pipeline blueprint packs all the power of a product launch into a webinar. The Zoom Webinar OVO starts with a registration page, like an opt-in page where users sign up to take your webinar. Right after that, registrants are taken to a confirmation page restating the date and time of the webinar they signed up for.
Next, recipients will receive four emails leading up to your webinar (event) to remind them to attend on the date and time they signed up to attend. After readers attend your webinar, this pipeline delivers five follow up emails leading to a sales page. Finally, this pipeline blueprint ends with a checkout page.
- Free Book OVO – This pipeline blueprint is for a free book giveaway. It enables you to give your book away to those who sign up for your email sequence. Use the Free Book OVO to sell your main knowledge product.
First, readers will see an opt-in page. Next, they will be taken to their first checkout where you will provide them with a copy of your book. Finally, you will provide subscribers with 10 nurture emails.
- Coaching Campaign OVO – This pipeline is designed for coaches to power their business. It starts with an opt-in page that looks like an application to join your coaching program. Then, readers will be sent three nurture emails asking them to join your program. Finally, sales and checkout pages help seal the deal.
Keep in mind that all of the content for these pipeline blueprints is already written for you, negating the need for you to hire a sales copywriter. Of course, you can customize the pipeline content to meet your business needs.
Marketing Automations in Kajabi
In case you were wondering from before, Kajabi automations aren’t isolated to video and course hosting operations. Instead, they can be created at any time during the marketing funnel design process. At any time, you can create a new automation in your marketing dashboard.
You can set “triggers” in the ‘When’ section and automate the action to be triggered in the ‘Then’ section.
Available ‘When’ Triggers:
- Assessment is Completed
- Tag is Added or Removed
- Email Broadcast is Opened or Link in Email Broadcast is Clicked
- Email Sequence is Completed
- Email Sequence Email is Sent, Opened, or Clicked
- Form is Submitted
- Person has Been Active for 7, 30, 60, or 90 Days
- Offer is Purchased or Offer Payment is Successful, Failed, or Cancelled
- Post is Completed
Available ‘Then’ Actions
- Grant or Revoke an Offer
- Subscribe to or Unsubscribe From an Email Sequence
- Register to or Deregister From an Event
- Add or Remove a Tag
- Send an Email
- Send a Single-Use Coupon
Use any combination of the when/ then automations to set powerful marketing campaigns on auto-pilot.
The coolest thing about the Kajabi marketing dashboard is that, while it may not be full-featured, everything you need can be accessed from one place. The downside is that there are no add-ons, apps, or plugins to enhance existing features.
I still recommend checking out ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit for your email marketing needs.
Creating a Membership Site with Kajabi
Now that we’ve made it through the guts of the platform, it’s time to look at the famed membership site creation options.
When setting up a membership program within Kajabi, you will have to set membership tiers as “Offers” in the product section of your dashboard.
Here, you can add various products to each offer or membership tier. Name or brand your tiers as membership levels (ex: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced). The process is simple and you can keep members engaged as long as you can create new content.
Final Thoughts
The greatest downside to the Kajabi platform seems to be the blogging dashboard. And, there’s an easy fix for that (just host your blog on another platform with a subdomain) if you want a more robust system. So, if the platform were to enhance the blogging dashboard and add an app marketplace, I would give it 5 out of 5 stars.
In a nutshell, yes, Kajabi really is that good! And, if you’re an entrepreneur interested in selling your knowledge, you should check out the free trial today and see what the world’s only knowledge commerce platform can do for you.
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