When you first sign up to Kajabi, the platform can feel daunting. However, it doesn’t take long to master and is really easy to use.
In this tutorial, I cover the basics to get you started with selling your first products.
Key Takeaways:
- Prepare your content and marketing strategy before signing up
- To get a feel for the features, start by creating a course
- All the page editors work the same. Master one, you master them all!
Kajabi Setup Guide: Your Essential Checklist
Get Your Content Ready
Before signing up and paying for Kajabi, think about what products you want to create and start developing the content for them (lesson videos, documents, etc.).
Don’t sign up without being prepared because you’ll end up paying for a Kajabi subscription when you’re not actually ready to use the platform.
It’s fine if you don’t have absolutely everything ready, but it will help enormously and get your business off the ground much faster.
Consider Your Marketing Strategy
Have an idea of how you plan to market your products and what type of content you will need to run your campaigns.
For example, if you want to send out email sequences, spend some time drafting each email and working out what you want to say.
Sales funnels and websites are a little more challenging to plan for in advance since they are mostly visual, but you can roughly map out each page and start developing their content.
If you want to add videos and images to your pages, get these ready in advance so you don’t waste time looking for suitable graphics when you’re trying to launch a campaign.
Set up a Payment Gateway
A payment gateway is an essential component of your Kajabi account. Without it, you can’t make any money!
If you’re fortunate enough to live in the USA, Canada, the UK, or Australia, you can use Kajabi Payments—the platform’s native payment gateway.
For folks living elsewhere in the world, you will need to set up a Stripe or PayPal account.
Set up your preferred payment gateway by clicking on Settings > Payment Integrations. Pick whether you want to use a third-party gateway or Kajabi Payments and follow the setup instructions.
Get a Custom Domain
Using a custom domain with Kajabi is optional because the platform assigns you its default domain.
So, when you first start using the platform, your domain will be nameofyourbusiness.mykajabi.com.
However, if you don’t want customers to know you are using Kajabi or simply want to sound on-brand and professional, get a custom domain. You can buy one from any third-party provider or directly from the Kajabi platform (provided by IONOS).
Adding a custom domain is easy. Head to Settings > Domain > Setup Custom Domain and follow the on-screen directions.
Add Your Branding
Get yourself a logo and figure out your brand colors!
You want your customers to start knowing and recognizing your brand from the get-go, so it makes sense to nail this right from the start.
You don’t need to spend thousands on fancy graphics or designers. There are online logo generators that cost a few bucks. My favorite tool, however, is Canva. There are loads of logo templates and graphics available that you can customize for your brand.
To upload your logo, head to Settings > Marketing. You can also update your business name and address here, too.
How to Use Kajabi to Build Your First Course
Now for the good stuff! Let’s jump into making your first product—a course.
Creating the Outline
First things first, you must create an outline. You should already have a good idea of what this will be, but the Kajabi AI tool can help you build it in double quick time.
To start, Click Products > All Products > +New Product > Course > Get Started.
Add the title of your course and a brief description of what the course is about. Then, click Next.
Choose the colors for your branding and upload a thumbnail image for your course. Click Next when finished, and then decide whether you want the course paid or free.
Finally, the AI will work its magic and automatically generate a full course outline for you. Don’t worry if it isn’t exactly what you want—you can easily edit it.
Adding Course Content
Adding course content is simple. The course outline is divided into modules, sub-modules, quizzes, and lessons, helping to keep your content organized and guiding learners through the correct lesson order.
To add more content, click any of the +Add Content buttons displayed next to a module.
You can also click to delete, preview, or edit any of your modules and lessons. To rearrange them, hover the mouse to the left of the title and drag and drop them into the right spot.
Click into any lesson to get to the meat of your course. This is where you can be creative and bring your course to life.
- You can adjust the lesson title and upload any video or audio content you have for it.
- Make sure you upload a thumbnail image, as this will be displayed on the course outline page for students.
- The Kajabi AI will likely have generated text for your lesson. Check it through and edit it, or remove it and add your own. There are plenty of text formatting options to make it look interesting.
- At the bottom, you can upload any supporting documents, such as workbooks and slides. You can add as many of these as you like.
When you’ve added all your course material and are happy with the result, you can publish it.
- Each separate module and lesson needs to be published. Click Draft next to each one and change it to Published.
- Alternatively, you can “drip” course material, meaning you can gradually make it available. For example, you may choose to release one module per week.
- “Locking” lessons and modules forces learners to follow the lessons in a specific order. You can choose which lesson has to be completed first before the next one becomes unlocked.
How to Use the Kajabi Website Builder (Properly)
So, the Kajabi website builder is not my favorite platform feature. If you compare it with site builders like Wix or WordPress, it definitely falls short.
However, enough options exist to build a decent-looking site to host your products and drive traffic.
Select a Theme
It all starts with the theme!
Select Websites > Design > Pick Template. There are 11 different themes to choose from, so browse and select the one that works best for your brand.
Customize and Add Engaging Content
Once you have settled on a theme, the hard work begins. The theme’s web pages come prefilled with content, so now you have to customize and edit them for your business.
The page editor is fairly straightforward but doesn’t use on-page drag-and-drop. All the editing is carried out in the sidebar.
- To edit a page element, hover your mouse over it until you see the blue “Edit” icon appear and click on it.
- Alternatively, you can select which element to edit by clicking on it in the sidebar.
- The sidebar displays all your editing options for that particular element. For example, you can upload new images to image elements and format text in text elements.
- To add new page sections or content, click on Add Section or Add Content.
- There’s a big list to choose from, including pricing cards, video, image carousels, etc. Click on the desired element, and select Add.
- All new sections will be added right at the bottom of the web page. All new content elements will be added to the relevant section.
- In the sidebar, you can drag and drop sections and content into a new position on the web page.
- Use the dropdown menu at the top of the page to switch between different web pages for editing.
- You can also switch between desktop, tablet, and mobile views to ensure everything looks good.
- Hit the Preview button to see how the page looks in “real life,” and don’t forget to save your work before exiting the editing screen.
Get Your Branding and Theme on Point
To get your website on-brand, head to the Settings section of the page editor. Here, you can upload your logo, add a favicon, and customize your site’s global style settings.
If you want to get fancy, there’s an option to add custom code, too.
Connect a Blog
All great websites contain lots of valuable content. It establishes you as an expert in your niche while driving traffic to your products.
A blog is one of the best ways to continuously add content, and luckily, Kajabi has a feature for this!
Click on Websites > Blog > Get Started.
Give your blog page a title and brief description, and upload a social image.
Click +New Blog Post, and the editing tool will open.
- You can upload a video or audio file.
- Write and format your blog text as needed.
- Don’t forget to add your SEO and social image at the bottom of the page.
- Assign tags to organize your content.
- Upload a main blog image.
- Make sure you select Published before saving your post.
Your blog post will now appear as a new page on your Kajabi website. You can add unlimited posts to your blog.
Using Kajabi Marketing Tools: A Quick Guide
I won’t go into huge detail here since it’s too much for one article. But it will hopefully show you the basics of Kajabi’s marketing tools and get you started.
Creating a Landing Page
Landing pages are essentially standalone web pages attached to your main website. They’re typically used for promotions and offers and other temporary purposes.
So, you would create a landing page for a promotion and remove it once it’s over.
Click on Marketing > Landing Pages > New Landing Page.
You may notice that Kajabi has already generated some landing pages for you. This is its AI tool at work again, and the pages are created when you use AI for your course outline.
- Kajabi has several landing page templates to pick from, or you can start from scratch with a blank page.
- Simply select your template, and it will open in the editing screen.
- Edit the template the same way you would for a standard web page.
Setting up a Funnel
Funnels can be complicated beasts, so I recommend starting with something simple until you get used to them.
Select Marketing > Funnels > +New Funnel.
Although you can start from scratch, I recommend using one of the premade funnel templates until you’re used to how this feature works.
In this example, I’ve selected the Simple Sales Funnel.
- The workflow mapping screen is where you can see the funnel sequence.
- Click on one of the funnel steps to edit the content.
- Click the + icon between steps to add a new page.
- Click Add Automation to automate the funnel sequence.
Sending Email Blasts and Sequences
Kajabi lets you send unlimited emails, no matter which plan you are subscribed to, and you can send out singular email broadcasts or timed sequences.
Select Marketing > Email Sequences > + New Email Campaign and choose which type of campaign you want to run (broadcast or sequence).
For email broadcasts, you simply pick your preferred templates, input all the sending details, and edit the content. Then, decide whether to send it now or at a specific time or date.
For email sequences, you create singular emails (like you do for a broadcast) and decide when each will be automatically sent out and in what order.
Sequences can be as long as you like, plus you can include automations such as adding tags, event registrations, and more.
Using Kajabi to Increase Revenue: Essential Features
The last stop on this quick tutorial is an overview of Kajabi’s sales features to help you increase revenue.
Creating Multi-Product Offers
Bump up the value of your offer by bundling multiple products together.
Click Sales > Offers > New Offer.
- Name your offer.
- Select which products to include.
- Set your price.
Adding Order Bumps
Add an order bump to your checkout page to coax buyers into making an extra purchase.
Click Sales > Offers.
Select which offer you want to add your order bump to, then click on Edit Checkout, which is at the top of the screen.
You will see the option to add an order bump from the options on the left-hand side.
Creating Coupons
Coupons are a great way to run promotions, particularly when you first launch.
Click Sales > Coupons > + New Coupon.
- Pick from a single coupon or bulk codes.
- Complete the required information.
- Include your coupon code in your marketing campaigns.
To Finish
Of course, this tutorial only scratches the surface of what you can do in Kajabi. However, it covers the basics and will help you get started on the platform.
One of the best things about Kajabi is its user-friendliness. It doesn’t take long to master, so once you get used to how things work, you’ll be a pro in no time!
Frequently Asked Questions
Where Can I Find Additional Kajabi Tutorials?
The Kajabi website is a great source of information and has full tutorials for all its features. The Kajabi University also has more in-depth tutorials for using the platform and developing marketing strategies.
