What’s worse than too many fires to put out?
Not having enough buckets to do it.
Or, heck, not having enough hands.
But if you’re a digital product creator using WordPress plugins (or similar) to manage your products, online communities, and website, then I probably don’t need to tell you that.
You already know what it’s like to have 47 tabs open and no end in sight of things to update, troubleshoot, or just plain wrangle.
What you might not know, though, is that there’s a better way. You don’t have to lasso together a dozen tools at once to make your online courses, digital downloads, or membership site thrive.
You can manage nearly all of your business needs with an all-in-one platform and stop living your life like you need to grow an extra set or three of arms to get things done.
Today, to help you find the all-inclusive platform that’s ideal for you, we’ve laid out the top three choices for creators.
But first, let’s quickly cover what “all-in-one” really means.
What’s included in an all-in-one platform?
An all-in-one platform includes tools that let you go beyond just delivering your digital products to customers. They also allow you to market, sell, and service your digital products.
Not only is this a great convenience factor, but it also saves you money.
Take, for example, the average price for each tool you might need. Going by SaaS pricing averages according to industry niche, that could mean:
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$101 monthly for a marketing automation tool
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$61 monthly for an email marketing tool
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$47 monthly for a lead management tool
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$62 monthly for a customer service tool
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$75 monthly for a document management tool
Of course, this is a hypothetical mix of tools, but a potential total of $346 per month to market, sell, and service your digital products nonetheless.
An all-in-one platform replaces your need for several tools, which reduces your monthly SaaS bill.
What’s more, an all-in-one platform lets you manage a multitude of digital products for sale from your own site (vs. a marketplace), like online courses, memberships, and digital downloads.
This is important because diversifying your product offering opens up another revenue stream for your business.
If you’re curious about the logic behind diversification, look to the Ansoff Matrix. As your business grows, you can expand beyond your existing products in your existing market (market penetration strategy) and develop new products (product development strategy).
And if you expand into new markets with existing products (market development strategy) or both new markets and products (diversification strategy), that opens up yet two more revenue streams.
While we’re not recommending a plan to diversify your business right now, it is wise to iterate your offers to adapt to your audience’s needs -- which will likely change as your business grows.
After all, some of today’s leading brands grew out of major startup pivots, one of the most iconic examples being Twitter’s pivot. What started as a podcasting tool, Odeo, redirected to the massive micro-blogging status-updating platform we know today.
All this to say, if you do offer a variety of digital products, an all-inclusive platform lets you manage everything under one roof. This means you don’t have to rely on a variety of tools to market, sell, and service your range of products.
More specifically, an all-in-one platform saves you from having to wade through:
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Marketing and customer relations tools
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Customer service tools
As the name expresses, an all-in-one platform rolls everything “all into one” dashboard and provides you with a way to streamline your business. This lets you alleviate some pressure, avoid entrepreneurial burnout, and focus on serving your clients and growing your business.
Relief aside, how important is streamlining? Very.
In fact, there’s an entire industry built around business process management (BPM), a.k.a. Streamlining, and it’s expected to be worth $13-14 billion by 2021.
Basically:
An all-in-one platform lets you handle all of your online business needs from building and marketing to selling and delivering your digital products, including online courses, membership sites, and digital downloads.
3 all-in-one platforms built for creators
Now, on the topic of streamlining, we’ve done some research for you, so you can efficiently explore an all-in-one platform that’s ideal for your business.
The top three all-in-one platforms in today’s market are summarized for you into categories of:
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Price
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Features
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Unique feature
Ready to peruse? Great, dive right in.
#1. Podia
Let’s get it out of the way:
Yes, we’ve definitely got some bias in recommending this.
But more importantly, so do our 150,000+ creators, and this is why:
With an intuitive dashboard, Podia is an all-in-one platform that allows you to build, market, and sell online courses, coaching, webinars, and digital downloads. You can manage everything on your website using our easier-than-drag-and-drop editor and never need to touch code.
(But if you want to, we have some options for that to add your favorite third-party integrations.)
Price: Pricing is $39 per month for the Mover plan, which includes your website, blog, landing pages, and chat messaging, plus unlimited digital downloads, online courses, webinars, product bundles, and coaching sessions. There are also more selling features like coupons, upsells, and access limits.
The Shaker plan runs for $89 per month and includes everything in Mover plus affiliate marketing.
Features: Here's a look at just some of the things you can do with Podia:
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Build a website, blog, and unlimited landing pages
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Online course features include drip content, payment plans, pre-selling courses, quizzes, and pre-launching courses.
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Digital download features include unlimited file uploads, lead magnet builder, upselling, and product bundling.
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Sell coaching sessions and live or replay webinars
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Run your email marketing, including newsletters, automations, segmentation, and filtering
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Manage your affiliate program to turn happy customers into marketing superstars
It also comes with a full support team that’s accessible seven days a week via chat messaging or email, and our customers have a lot to say about how helpful they are. We offer free migrations, too.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that you can sell webinars with any plan?
Of course, I could talk all day about how Podia is built for creators, but there’s nothing like seeing it for yourself. Get your free 30-day trial of Podia and get started today.
Unique feature: Podia’s built-in live chat feature lets you engage in real-time messaging with users on your site. You can instigate a conversation with your customers from the backend dashboard by selecting a contact and also set availability notifications in your chatbox.
#2. Invanto
Founded in 2018, Invanto is a platform that allows you to create online courses, build membership sites, and manage online discount sites. Its range of e-learning and ecommerce apps give you access to a buffet of web-based apps hosted by Invanto’s platform.
Price: Pricing is based on the number of contacts you want to accommodate and ranges from $10 per month for 0-100 contacts to $891 per month for up to 45,000 contacts.
All plans include unrestricted access to all of Invanto’s apps and features, including email templates, site designer, content dripping, Zapier integration, and unlimited bandwidth and videos.
Features: Each app comes with its own set of features. CoachRack, Invanto’s online courses app, includes site customization, progress tracking, multi-language support, a content editor, and completion certificates.
Invanto’s membership builder, MemberFactory, includes a content editor, insights reporting, content dripping, file management, translations, and customized messages.
The platform also provides unlimited videos, bandwidth, and site creations. Additionally, Invanto allows you to use custom domains, generate coupons, integrate outside tools, drip content, and translate your content.
Unique feature: Invanto’s translation feature lets you create your own translations and edit content in your membership sites and checkout pages.
#3. Kajabi
Touting over 25,000 business owner customers, Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that helps creators sustain successful online businesses. Its customers have earned over $1 billion to date using the platform.
Price: Pricing ranges from $119 per month for the basic plan, which includes three products and 1,000 active members, to $319 per month for the pro plan, which includes 100 products and 20,000 active members.
Features: Features include customizable emails, blog, a landing page builder, website builder, campaign automations, tracking, Stripe and PayPal payment integrations, and analytics.
Kajabi also lets you create a range of digital products, online courses, and subscription packages using their templates or by uploading your own content.
Unique feature: Kajabi allows you to build a sales pipeline from landing page to email sequence, which helps you convert your visitors into customers. Its native marketing and selling capabilities allow you to manage your sales funnel without leaving the platform.
Ready to go all-in on an all-in-one platform?
Tongue twister aside, managing your robust online business doesn’t mean you have to use -- and pay for -- a plethora of tools.
We bring you today’s top choices for consolidating your online business needs. If you want to create, market, sell, and service your digital products using one streamlined dashboard, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s wrap it up for you:
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An all-in-one platform brings all of your online business tools and digital products under one roof so you can create, market, sell, and deliver products in a streamlined way using one dashboard.
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Use Podia for an easy-to-use all-in-one platform that prioritizes customer service and user experience -- for both you and your own clients -- and includes a unique live messaging feature. Pricing ranges from $39-89 per month. Start your free trial of Podia today.
No matter what platform you choose, here’s to streamlining both your business tools and tech hurdles.
