5 Things You Need in Place Before You Create an Online Course
Recently I was having a discovery call with a woman who’d created an amazing online course for travel photography, but she was struggling to sell it. All of the people who’d taken her course so far had loved it, so she knew the issue wasn’t the content.
She’d actually taken a course creation course from one of the big-name teachers in the online business world, so she had lots of tools and info at her disposal. But one thing that program doesn’t teach enough of is audience building before a launch.
An engaged audience is just the thing you need before you create an online course, but I also have a few more essentials I want to be sure you know about so that you can experience more success and less frustration.
A clear target student & the result they’ll get.
When creating your online course it’s imperative that you stand out from the crowd. Courses that are too vague tend to flop because it isn’t clear enough to your target audience that this course is for them. And you need to really know ahead of time where they are and where your course will get them to when they have completed it.
For example, my course Conversations that Convert is for business owners who have sales conversations with potential customers, and they struggle with what to say to close more and larger sales. If someone is never actively engaging in sales conversations, it’s not really for them. And if they already feel like a pro, they probably don’t need to invest in it either.
So instead of saying, “This is a course to help you build your personal brand,” explain what result(s) they can expect to get when they have a kick-ass personal brand.
2. An outline of the modules and components.
Just like in high school English class, you are going to want to create an outline before you create your online course. I know it’s one extra step when you really just want to dive into creating the content but this will save you time (and stress) later.
Set a timer for 30 minutes, eliminate distractions, and think of that ideal student and the result you want them to achieve. What are the steps you must take them through to get this result? I’m not talking about absolutely everything they could learn on the subject, just the most vital.
Do a big brain dump and then sort it by main topics and subtopics. This way, when you start to create content for your online course, you’ll be more efficient and less overwhelmed. Plus it will help you avoid creating modules that are waaaaaaay too long. Instead of creating lengthy videos covering everything under one topic, you can create more bite-sized videos that each cover a subtopic.
And be sure to make a plan to accommodate various learning styles and abilities. This will make your course more accessible, and it will help people better get the result you’re promising.
3. A place to host it.
There are a lot of places you can host online courses nowadays. When I created my first course I simply created hidden, password protected pages on my website and directed students there via emails. This was fine to start with, but I outgrew it pretty quickly.
Eventually I moved over to Podia and I’ve been thrilled with them. There are a lot of more costly platforms out there, but I’ve been very happy with Podia. I find it’s easy to get things set up on their platform, their customer service is top-notch, and they are always adding in new features.
4. A great sales page.
There are a million and one resources out there for writing good sales pages, and you can absolutely hire this out as well. But it’s important that you have a sales page that makes them feel understood in their woes and confident that your course will get them where they want to be.
Podia has a sales page builder that’s helpful to give you an idea on the basic framework of what your sales page should look like and what it should include. And you don’t need a sales page that’s a mile long, but it does need to be enough info they feel compelled to pull out their credit card.
A former client of mine has a way to help you with this if you’d rather have an expert guide you through it, especially if it’s your first time trying to write a sales page. Click here to learn more about Tracie’s offer. https://www.okayokapi.com/snap-crackle-pop-sales-pages
5. An audience of target students already engaged with you.
Back to where we first began! This is the biggest issue I see when people have disappointing course launches early on in their business.
They can’t even collect conversion data on their sales page to see if that’s the weak link because there simply are not enough people even going to it!
Unless you are going to pay out the nose for tons of Facebook ads right at the start, you need to do some organic marketing. The good news is that you can do this as you build out the course.
Once you have 1 & 2 completed you can start creating content that speaks to their issues and shows them that you’re the expert who can help them. Since you know who they are, you can start getting yourself in front of them wherever you do your marketing.
And then when they go to check you out, you can have social posts and other content that lightly touches on some of the areas you’ll be covering in your course. This will make them want to follow you more closely, and prime them for when you launch.
Usually when we think about how to create an online course we get really in the weeds about the content and all of the work it will take just to complete it. But we can easily forget about the smaller building blocks that go into making sure the perfect-fit people actually buy it.
There’s a lot more to having a successful online course than just having spiffy modules. Basic rules of sales and marketing come into play as well!
