Everything You Need to Know About Podia
Updated Dec 2023
If there’s an eCommerce trend that I don’t think is going away anytime soon (if ever!) it’s the continued productization of services. Customers love the ease of eCommerce and want interacting with other parts of their favorite businesses to be just as simple. For you, the business owner, making it easier for clients to book with you, learn from you, engage with you and even interact with your other fans is a great way to boost revenue or even create passive income.
The trouble I find most people have in getting started is just in the pure overwhelm of all the technology and tools out there to get the job done! (How to choose? Which is best? How to link everything together??)
With this in mind, I’d like to introduce you to Podia. Podia, meet business owner - they’re looking to create a course or launch a community or book webinars or sell digital products.
Business owner, meet Podia. The (nearly) all-in-one tool to do all of the above and more.
What is Podia?
Podia started off back in the day as a simple course-building platform that also had some cool features if you sold digital products but it has evolved into a really well-built platform with a range of capabilities for all types of businesses that have digital products. This could be anything from an ebook to a webinar, full-fledged course or even an online community.
Here’s a high level overview of the main features:
Website Builder - Podia’s website builder is SIMPLE. As in, it doesn’t hold a candle to Squarespace or any of the other builders out there. BUT. It is easy to use and there’s a case to be made for simplicity. If what you’re needing is just a simple sales page or landing page for your stuff to live on, Podia is going to make that super easy. For everything else, I would recommend checking out the section below on how to integrate Podia with Squarespace.
Email Marketing - Much like the built-in website builder, Podia’s email marketing platform is simple and easy to use. It’s another feature that I would lean on for simple updates for products within Podia itself such as notifying students of course updates, etc. Personally, I think email should be such an integral part of any eCommerce marketing strategy that most people will be better served by another platform. (Check out this post for my faves - and note that ConvertKit integrates supremely with Podia!)
Digital Downloads - Ok, now we’re getting into where Podia really shines! Digital downloads can be pretty much any file type you can think of so you can sell ebooks, templates, audio files, video files, spreadsheets - whatever your little heart desires. Selling digital products on Podia is a dream and has some powerful capabilities that Squarespace doesn’t. The biggest of these is that customers are able to access a history of all the digital products they have purchased from you by logging into their account. On Squarespace, they need to go back to their inbox, find the original order confirmation and request the download be resent to them (original download links expire after just 24 hours). Other notable features are the ability to create bundles, add upsells, do pre-sales or use digital products as free lead magnets. So many possibilities!
Coaching - Podia makes it easy to “sell your knowledge” via consultations or other session types. The built-in coaching tools are perfect for any type of expert that’s been trying to use a traditional scheduling tool to book and get paid for their time. Now, I do really enjoy Squarespace Scheduling for this type of set up as well but just like with digital downloads above, there are some features in Podia that may tip the scale in its direction. The biggest of these is that it’s just a really great customer interface! Not that Squarespace Scheduling isn’t - just that I do think customers really like using Podia. And, just like with digital downloads, coaching products can be bundled with any other product or used as upsells (or with an upsell). This makes marketing your coaching options or consulting services a breeze!
Communities - I’m going to throw a curveball out there and say that this may be one of my favorite features of Podia? I know, I know - weird, right? Well, you know I’m no fan of social media and I will tell everyone who will listen that they need to do all they can to make sure they actually own their audience and the interactions they have with them. Think of the community feature on Podia as a Facebook group that you set up except for you own everything about it and you don’t have to compete for your audience’s attention while engaging with you or one another. Communities can be free (like a private FB group) or paid (more like a VIP slack channel). You can also use a community similar to a Patron or Substack where it’s a place you release exclusive content or provide VIP access to you or your products. You can even set up things like subscription tiers with communities, giving some members more exclusive access than others.
Courses - Courses are where Podia got its start and I would say that it’s probably what most people know them for. Podia’s course builder is just like everything else they offer: well-organized and straightforward. I personally find it less overwhelming to use than other products in this category such as Teachable - which has a ton of features but is almost so bloated it’s unusable and not very intuitive to use. Podia has the features you need to set up and sell courses (bundles, drips, pre-sales, pre-launches, upsells, bundles, quizzes, etc.) but somehow just makes all those things so accessible and easy to use. Of course another strong selling point on using Podia as your course platform is that it integrates with all the other features you may also have there like digital downloads or coaching products so it’s easy to use the different parts to leverage off of and support one another.
Webinars - If you’ve been using YouTube Live or Zoom to host online workshops, webinars on Podia are a huge win; no more anonymous views or losing people to someone else’s competing content. If you offer paid webinars you can even earn passive income through replays of your content, automatically stored by Podia.
Affiliates - The last big feature worth highlighting is Podia’s built-in affiliate management capabilities. If you’re looking at adding an affiliate program (as you should) and you have everything on Podia anyways it’s nice to know that you won’t have to add a third-party system to the mix.
Are there any Podia alternatives worth trying?
As I mentioned above, there are quite a few platforms that you could look at if you’re just interested in one specific aspect of Podia and not all the others: Squarespace Member Areas, Squarespace Scheduling, Slack, Teachable, Peach’s, etc. All together though, Podia could in theory replace all those extra subscriptions except Squarespace + your email marketing platform of choice which I think are still best handled independently. Together, those three could become your ultimate tech stack!
The only other platform that I’ve come across that has similar all-in features as Podia is Kajabi but I personally find Kajabi to be a headache to work with and not worth the hefty price tag. Compared to the closest plan possible, you’ll save up to $2400 per year by skipping Kajabi in favor of Podia! Speaking of pricing…
Which Podia plan is best?
Podia has four subscription tiers, including a free plan. Here’s how they compare:
You could start by looking at the different features each plan offers but I think the biggest factor to look at when choosing a Podia plan are the transaction fees. Podia charges transaction fees on all but it’s highest plan. This means that I would only recommend the free plan if 1) you’re offering no more than 1 free community and 1 free coaching product OR 2) your combined monthly sales are less than $250/month. Anything more than that and you’re better off moving up to a paid plan.
If you have less than $900 in monthly sales and aren’t interested in any of the additional features that either the Mover or the Shaker plans offer, your best bet is the Starter plan even with the 8% transaction fees.
After that, all of the paid plans net out to about the same at about $900 in monthly sales so you’re better off going with the highest plan (Shaker) from that point on.
Summary:
Free plan only if you offer 1 free community + 1 free coaching product OR have less than $250/mo in sales
Starter plan if you don’t need additional features and sales are $250 - $900/mo
Mover plan if your sales hover right around $900/mo and you aren’t interested in affiliates
Shaker plan for everyone else
Who is Podia a good fit for?
Anyone who has knowledge to share, is an expert in their field or creates things! I’ve also seen so many of my “traditional” eCommerce clients look to add features like those that Podia offers as a way to transition some of their services into products or add a human touch to an otherwise very transactional experience. I also think Podia is a great fit for anyone who has been running a private (or public) Facebook group, allowing you to take control of your audience and message, build community and cross-sell your other products.
How to integrate Podia with Squarespace
Since I recommend you keep all of your main content on your primary domain for SEO purposes, I would suggest linking out to Podia from your Squarespace site via buttons and text links placed strategically throughout your site. Here’s a quick checklist of where and how to do that:
Podia Account Login Link - Add a link to the top level navigation on your main site for existing clients to login to their podia accounts. This makes it so people only have to remember your main domain but can then easily access their purchased products via Podia.
Links to Products - Use the provided checkout embed codes from Podia to send people directly from a sales page on your website to the Podia checkout for that particular product. Again, this allows you to keep all that great keyword content on your main site (good for SEO!) and still take full advantage of all Podia’s features.
Links Back to Your Site - Even if you keep the majority of your content on your main site, customers and clients are still going to end up on your Podia site as they interact in your community, work through courses or access digital content, etc. To keep people from ending up down a dead end road, be sure to also add a link back to your home page in the navigation area of your Podia site. You can also add links in Podia to any other frequently visited pages on your main site such as your blog.
I’m sure there are lots of other places you can think of to organically link content back and forth between Squarespace and Podia but the three things above are the must haves!
The Bottom Line
Podia is an awesome nearly all-in-one platform that people looking to sell digital content, offer workshops or webinars, sell courses, build communities or even sell coaching or consulting services should definitely check out. It’s an affordable solution that can help simplify things for both you and your customers while still being super rich in features and tools. For some, it could even replace a website builder and email marketing provider but for most I think of it as a perfect addition to those platforms.
