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Online Course Creation: 3 Key Elements for First-Time Course Creators

courses Mar 06, 2023

Why courses?

It seems like there’s a course for everything these days! Whether you want to learn how to train your dog, develop a mindfulness practice, make sourdough or trade stocks, there is someone, somewhere online that can show you how to do it. In fact, the e-Learning market - which includes digital courses, membership sites, and online coaching - surpassed $315 billion USD last year, and is expected to keep growing.

It makes sense. Due to the wave of closures and restrictions these past few years, many business owners were forced to quickly pivot to an online model. Both yoga instructors and school teachers stumbled their way through Zoom classes, and some companies have done away with the office completely in favour of a fully remote workforce, meaning corporate training is hosted online, and business is no longer limited to geographic location.

From a time perspective, courses are genius. They allow a trainer, coach, or even an accountant to better leverage their time and scale beyond hourly rates or one-on-one client work. Whether it’s a transformational group program or self-paced information course, they can be created once, sold again and again, and add a ton of value to your business.

Sounds great, but… 😬

You’re amazing at what you do. You have a wealth of knowledge and experience, and you know you can help people. But when it comes to packaging it all up, it can be hard to know where to start. The software options are overwhelming and quite frankly, you might not have the time to tackle the huge learning curve that comes with it.

I get it. Most aspiring coaches and course creators don’t really want to become a tech expert. But the good news is: you can start off really basic. In fact, the simpler the better. I’ve seen too many new course creators delay launching by months (or years) by making it more complex than it really needs to be (see: The BIGGEST mistakes online course creators make).

You do not need a fancy website or marketing funnel to sell your course. Those things may come in time, but they are not required to monetize your knowledge.

 

So, what do you really need?

Here are the three elements that will make or break your success launching your first course...

 

1. A PROVEN OFFER: Sell it before you build it

This may be somewhat counterintuitive, and perhaps you’re thinking “Isn’t it dishonest to sell something that doesn’t exist yet?” but hear me out: The first course I built, I spent months creating slides, recording, creating the product and then building the website. It was beautiful, the information was good, and I knew it could help some people. Then I launched it… and realized I didn’t have any plan or strategy to actually sell this thing, nor did I know if people actually wanted it.

You’re going to want both of those things before investing all that time (and money) into a software or website.

Try launching a Beta or Introductory offer. This can look something like this:

“I’m creating a course on how to build a mindfulness practice for busy moms with kids under 2. After struggling with my own mental health postpartum, I’ve learned a ton about managing anxiety and want to help other moms be more present. I am offering 5 spots in my upcoming program at an introductory rate of $397. DM me if you’re interested and I’ll send you more information!”

This is an excellent opportunity to gauge interest, gain experience, and get valuable feedback and testimonials. Plus, you can even record your course live as you teach it.

If you’re not comfortable selling it first, at least be 100% certain there’s a demand for what you are about to build.


2. EFFECTIVE MESSAGING: Connect with your audience and create demand for your offer.

Nobody wants a course, they want their problem fixed. Understand that your course or program is just the vehicle to get them the result they want. Help your people see that they are capable of creating that transformation, and that you are the one to guide them through it. Talk with them, get to know their challenges and struggles, and use their language in your content and copy.

Your messaging encompasses everything you put out there on social media, so your videos and posts should be cohesive and speak clearly to your ideal client. The more specific you can be, the more your audience will trust that you can help them with this problem.

This can take some testing to really nail down, and it will most certainly evolve over time. However, taking the time to sit down, do some research, and being very intentional with your message will be a huge benefit to you in the long run.

Want to dive deeper into messaging? Check out this podcast from one of my favourite business mentors, Brandon Lucero.


3. YOUR SALES SYSTEM: Make it easy to buy from you.

Once you have your offer and messaging dialed in, you need some way to sell it. You’ve got some options here, varying in degrees of technical difficulty. At the beginning, I would always advise to keep it simple. There are all kinds of funnels and launch strategies (and tech for all of it) but your goal should be to launch this thing as fast as possible. The sooner you get feedback, the sooner you can make it better, sell more, and scale.

You may realize that a self-paced video course isn’t keeping people engaged enough, and you need to add a group coaching component. Or that you really don’t want to be in meetings all the time, and would prefer to sell a more passive self-paced program rather than coaching. It’s unlikely you’ll get it 100% right the first time, so be open to some messy action here.

One easy way to get your course into the hands of your people is to create a private Facebook group and take payment via PayPal or Stripe. It’s free to create a business account. In Stripe (which is my preferred processor), you can easily create a “product” and payment link that you can send. Once paid, you can invite the person to the group where you host the content. You can either teach the course live via Zoom or pre-record your videos and post them into your group. You may even create a group chat in Messenger or WhatsApp for accountability. This is a great way to test your course concept with minimal overhead, before committing to an all-in-one course hosting platform.

Only once you have an offer that sells, dial in your messaging, and get your founding members, do I suggest choosing an all-in-one platform (like Kajabi!) where you can scale up your business and create more automation. This way, you have capital to invest and you can take your time choosing the right platform to suit your specific needs. You also save yourself the overwhelm of figuring out your tech stack and simultaneously trying to launch an offer, all while having a monthly subscription looming over you before you even have sales rolling in.

 
Trust me on this one: keep it simple, figure out the important stuff first, and you will be well ahead of 90% of course creators out there.

When you’re ready to scale, you can check out my other blog posts on choosing the right platform, download my free What The Tech? Checklist below, or book a Tech Blueprint with me to help you map out your next steps.

 

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