Our top tips for building a new course and the questions you should be asking
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Why Implement A Course?
What is a Minicourse?
If you have tried selling your courses before and have grown discouraged about selling your courses, it might be because you are not offering a stair-step off. Some consumers need a little bit more time with you to get to know you and trust you and order to buy that higher ticket price that you actually want to sell them.
Your signature course will give them the greatest level of transformation. However, a lot of consumers are not ready to take that leap at first.
They might need a little bit of a courtship first before they take that next step. This is why minicourses are an important part of any course marketing strategy. Minicourses are an amazing way to create that courtship and to actually shorten the length of time that it takes to get them from not knowing you to trusting you and ready to go to the next step with your high-ticket program.
So minicourses are just that: mini opportunities to learn from you and get a quick win. Those quick wins are transformational. They allow people to see that you really do know what you’re talking about, and that is what is going to get them to the next step with you. You will want to think about the stairsteps they will take with you in your ecosystem that allows them to get to know you trust you and like you and a great way to do that is with a minicourse.
So, what exactly is a minicourse? It is an automated course that has 30-45 minutes of instruction. In that 30 minute of instructional time, they are getting blown away by the value that you are giving them. And they will naturally want to go to the next step.You are going to offer them a minicourse. It’s going to give them the kind of transformation that a simple download or a checklist just cannot do. Nothing can give value like a minicourse because it actually teaches them exactly what they need and gives them that all-important win.
It’s going to provide that trust and a bond between you and them. The experience that they get in your minicourse is going to have them reaching out to you for that next level: your signature course.
A minicourse is about 30-45 minutes of instructional time with you. In that 30 minutes of instructional time, they are getting blown away by the value that you are giving them, and they will want to go to the next step. So don’t get discouraged just because you went live on a live stream and they didn’t purchase right then, or you sent out an email and they didn’t purchase.
That is okay. You are going to offer them a mini course.
What is a signature course?
A signature course is a course that truly defines the essence of what it is that you teach. it offers the highest level of transformation that your customer can get from you. Your signature course will be the one that defines your program. You will offer your signature course from speaking engagements, meetups, or any other opportunity to offer your course. Your signature course can also be a high ticket offer. Signature courses typically range in price anywhere from $497 to over $10,000.
Think of your signature course as a breakdown of all of the steps that your customer will need to get from point A to point B.
What is a CEU Course?
A CEU stands for Continuing Education Units. It is a course designed to help participants stay current with the latest advancements in their fields. CEU courses can be taken online, in-person, or through other formats such as webinars and seminars. These courses are typically shorter than a college degree program and offer specialized training for professionals looking to improve their knowledge and skills.
CEU courses provide learners with an opportunity to gain new knowledge and skills without having to commit to a long-term educational path. Additionally, many organizations give credits for taking these courses which may help advance one’s career. Overall, CEU courses are ideal for those who want to remain knowledgeable of the latest industry trends while advancing professionally at their own pace.
How do I license my course or design it for CEU credit?
Designing and licensing a course for CEU credit is a complex process that involves several steps. The most important step is to research the accreditation requirements of the organization you hope to work with. To go about offering your course for CEU credits, you will need to find out the contact information for the organization. Each organization has its own set of requirements and policies, so it’s important to understand them before designing your course. They typically have a web site that explains the requirements and deadlines for submitting a course for construction.
Licensing your courses to a college, university or even a corporation is an excellent way to make additional income from your course. Organizations will typically look for courses that meet exceptional instructional design standards. In some cases, your course will need to be SCROM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) compliant. Think of SCROM compliance as Lego blocks that must fit together. It will be required to be packaged in a way that fits an organization’s learning management system or “LMS”. Companies, schools, and universities typically require that your course be made accessible to Americans with disabilities. This is where enlisting help from professional Instructional Designers comes into play.
After researching the requirements, create a detailed outline of the topics and goals for your course. This will help you ensure that all aspects of your course meet the necessary criteria for approval. Once you have an outline in place, begin putting together instructional materials such as lectures, presentations, readings, and assessments that are aligned to meet your objectives. Finally, submit your proposal to be reviewed by the relevant organization or board – once approved you can offer your course as a CEU credit to your students.
Building a new course - The big questions
How long should my course be?
One of the biggest mistakes that new course creators make is determining the length of the course or how long they would like the course to be before actually working out the course content itself. Once your course has been outlined and depending on the type of course that it is, the content that is within the course will dictate the length of the course. You will want to consider the cognitive load of the actual course. Cognitive load can be described as the amount of attention and effort it will take your learners to understand and be able to implement what they have learned. the higher the cognitive load the more space and time the learner will need to fully comprehend the material. so for example a course and astrophysics will have a higher cognitive load than a course on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. while that is an extreme example, it illustrates that the length of course and how much time the learner is given to process the information given is quite critical to their success. so the proper way to determine how long a course should be is first to determine whether or not the course has a high or low cognitive load.
The next consideration in terms of length of course is what your overall course funnel strategy is. if you are creating a mini course that will lead Learners to a higher ticket offer, you will want to make that many course anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes worth of contents. the purpose of the mini-course is to provide a win. A signature course or high ticket offer typically follows a mini course where Learners will get an even deeper understanding of the subject matter. a signature course can typically be anywhere between 4 weeks long and up to six or even eight weeks. While there is no hard-and-fast rule about this, it is important to note that a course should not be made more lengthy just to fit a particular schedule. at the same time it should not be made unreasonably short if the learner truly will need more time in order to grasp the concepts.
What should you do when you’re ready to invest in building a course
How will I sell my course after it is built?
With all the excitement of building a course, it is easy to forget about the selling part. If building a course is part of your overall strategy to build recurring or passive income streams into your business it is important that you consider how you will Market your course in order to get it into the hands of those that need it the most. The first thing to consider is that you will need a system to sell it. One of the common misconceptions that many new course creators make is that they confuse a system with a platform. A course platform as mentioned before is simply a software to how’s your course. But in order to actually sell your course, you will need a process by which people will come to know about your course and will be assured down a customer pathway that will lead them to your course offering.
Without a system or process by which to lead people to your course, it is common for courses to Simply sit in a course platform and get no sales traction. This often leads to discouragement or a feeling that courses don’t work. Think of it like a hamburger. If you are hungry you will actually have to eat the hamburger in order to get energy from it. Without actually eating it, you will remain hungry and the hamburger will eventually sit and go bad. The burger would actually have to be picked up and consumed, go down your digestive tract, and its nutrients dispersed throughout the body in order for it to be turned into energy. The burger actually goes through a process and your system in order to be turned into energy. Similarly, your course will need to be consumed through an actual system in order for it to do your learner’s any good. think of your course platform as simply the table where the burger is sitting. It needs to be in a place where it can be accessed however the type of table that it sits on is not as important as actually getting it into the miles of those that are hungry.
What type or return on investment can I expect?
The courts building industry is an over 200 billion dollar a year industry. Everyday new coaches, consultant, and entrepreneurs are entering the course building space because of the potential for a high rate of return. packaging your skills and sharing it with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people who want to learn from you is a great way to field in new revenue streams for your business. the rate of return on investment can vary and there are no guarantees. however, those that incorporate a systematic approach to offering their course, have a better than average chance to actually realize a return.
That is because they are using strategy rather than a piece meal approach to creating a new Revenue Source in their business. the cost of putting together a course 1 piece at a time Canby daunting for many new course creators. There are significant cost that many do not consider. in the chart below you will see all of the potential cause that can be associated with building a course that many do not consider up front. For example, those that choose to put their course in and all in one System rarely consider that they will need other skills in order to put all of the pieces that are offered in an all-in-one platform together. For example, platforms that offer landing pages cannot provide custom wording or copywriting that you will need in order to compel others to actually purchase your course. You may still need to hire a copywriter or copy editor. Similarly all-in-one platforms cannot tell you if your course is instructional eastbound and is designed in a way that people will actually learn and get a transformative result. in fact, you could upload anything, such as a newspaper article, a recipe, or a bubble gum wrapper and the platform would not be able to recognize whether or not the content that you uploaded is actual learning material or if it is a flyer for 10% off of washing powder.
Do I have to be on camera to produce my course?
The short answer is no. You do not have to be on camera in order to record your course. There are three primary ways to record your course. The first way is to be on camera with your eye contact with the lens of the camera so that it appears that you are speaking directly to the person who purchased your course.
There are pros and cons to doing this. The benefit to recording on camera is that it gives you an opportunity to truly connect with your learner. When Learners are taking your course at 2 a.m. in the morning, it is very comforting to see your face actually speaking to them. The downside is that you will have to be camera ready with your background and however you will present yourself on camera. This can be quite involved and may be inconvenient when it comes time to actually recording. The next way to record your courses is by recording to a presentation such as PowerPoint slides instead of you being on camera. Similarly, there are pros and cons to this approach as well. The benefit to recording to slides is that you don’t have to be camera ready. That is because the person taking your course is only listening to your voice and not seeing you on camera. The downside to this approach is that it can seem a bit disconnected and impersonal.
The last most common way to record courses is to record your courses both with being on camera and having a presentation in the background so that the learner sees both you and the presentation at the same time. Life with the other approaches there are pros and cons to this as well. It is sometimes difficult for people to watch a presentation and read at the same time as they are listening. So when you are on camera and they have to read or process a slide it may be difficult. So considering this option, make sure that the content is not too difficult to comprehend.
How should I price my course?
The first thing we want to talk about is what people will actually pay for courses. Note, people pay for processes; how to do it, step by step, or a formula, and access rights. If you can give people access to a behind the scenes, look into a process or access to certain information that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get, then you will give them want they are willing to pay.
People also pay for implementation and help to actually get “it” done. People pay for accountability where you are helping them to stay on track and stay on course. So there are different pricing levels that you want to think about when it comes to pricing your courses or your programs.
One is the done-for-you level. This is the high ticket offer level. This one should be your highest price offerings because you are actually doing it for someone, right. You’re doing it for your client, and your time comes at a premium. So you definitely want to charge higher for done-for-you. Then there is done-with-you. This is the mid to high ticket offer where they are learning and getting the implementation of getting what they want to get done.
Next is the do it yourself level. This is the lowest ticket offer, because they don’t have the benefit of your time. They are actually doing it completely themselves. With this, you better make sure that your course is on point so that they don’t really need you, that they actually can be successful without needing you to clarify things.
I want you to know that there is no right or wrong to pricing. Pricing is based on several different factors, like your niche and your experience and what the market will bear. The main thing I want you to know is that there is no magic number that you should charge based on how long your course is or what your course is about. You’re going to have to consider some pricing variations, and we’ll talk about those in just a moment.
- Poll your audience.
- Host discovery calls.
- Look for purchasing patterns.
- Always consider your experience.
- Pay attention to the results you give.
One of the things that will help you to do that is actually polling your audience, simply asking them what it is that they want and asking them how much they would be willing to pay. Now, you don’t always know how much they would be willing to pay for something; it depends on their particular economic status or whether or not they can actually afford certain things. Also asking depends on who you’re actually talking to. So if you’re talking to someone who works full time at McDonald’s, their answers are going to vary from someone who’s possibly a physician or an attorney or someone who has a higher economic salary.
A discovery call is also a great way to get to know your audience, get to know what they think is reasonable in understanding who it is that you’re talking about and talking to. This will help you to determine whether or not your prices are in line with what they can actually bear to pay.
Next, you want to think about purchasing patterns, whether they’ve purchased things from you or whether they’ve purchased things from your competitors. What are their purchasing patterns? What do they tend to spend money on? Who have they bought from? Have they bought information products in the past, or are they new to it? If they’re new to your niche, for example, being new to entrepreneurship, maybe they haven’t spent as much at that level. Now, let’s talk about your experience and how that plays a part in your pricing.
So your experience is golden! If you have experience, that means that you can help your customers to cut out the guessing games, cut out the time, cut out all of the frustration that comes with trial and error, because you’ve already done that. For example, I have more than 18 years of experience as an instructional designer. So what does that mean for my customers and my clients? That means I help them to quickly and more easily create their courses at a higher quality level, because I have the experience to actually help them structure their course for maximum learning experience. Remember, a great learning experience leads to raving fans and organic promotion via word of mouth.
Do you have degrees and/or certifications that will help you to provide that same level of quality for your clients and customers too? For example, I have a master’s degree in instructional design and teaching with technology. So one of my unique value positions is that I actually do this for a living and have been for almost two decades. So you want to think about using your experience as a consideration in your pricing?
Next, you want to look at your results. What results have you gotten people? What are the proven results that you can point to and say, my strategies help to get people through this obstacle? Share case studies.
Congratulations! You’re on your way to becoming a successful online educator. After reading this guide, you should have a better understanding of the steps involved in creating an online course. With careful planning and execution, you can create a successful online course that will engage and educate your students. Thanks for reading!
