How To Create A Course For Your Biz
Want to create an online course for your business? Wondering how to create a course that will be effective and easy to market?
Not to worry - I’ve got you covered. If you know it’s time to create a course, these steps will guide you.
Figure out what problem you are solving in the first place
A course is just like any other service. It needs to be designed with an ideal client in mind, and it needs to solve a problem or help them to achieve a goal. A course without one or the other is a course that is nearly impossible to create or market!
For example, if you just decide to create a course for women with endometriosis, you’ll likely get overwhelmed with what to put into the course.
So what about endometriosis are you aiming to help with? Is it:
Managing the symptoms of endometriosis naturally?
Improving fertility outcomes for those with endometriosis?
Addressing the underlying trauma that led to their development of endometriosis?
Each of these angles would lead to a completely different course. So decide who you want to help and how specifically you want to help them.
Understand what journey you want to take your client on
A course is not a place to simply educate someone. You want to virtually hold someone’s hand as they go from Point A to Point B. So you need to understand what that journey is, and how every single piece of content will support that.
For example, I created my Practitioner Marketing 101 course for student practitioners and new graduates. I designed the course to take them from feeling overwhelmed and out of their depth to feeling more confident in how to market their business.
The underlying message I wanted them to take away is that marketing can be easy and feel good. Every single video, resource and post into our Facebook group was created with that in mind.
The good news? After reviewing the survey answers I got from the participants that finished the course, I achieved exactly that outcome!
So have a bit of a brainstorm about what journey you want to take your client on and the core message you want them to walk away with. When in doubt, keep it simple and focused on how they want to feel.
Plan your content
Now that you have the foundation to build upon, it’s time to plan that course out!
Without a plan, you’re flying blind and likely to hit overwhelm. So let’s get a solid plan in place to guide you - after all, you can always pivot and tweak when you actually create the content.
When it comes to planning your course content, you’ll want to cover:
The absolute basics - how long the course is, how many modules/lessons you’ll include, how many hours it will take for the average participant to complete
An outline of what each lesson/module/week etc will consist of
The course platform you will use to deliver it
How you deliver the content e.g. videos, tutorials, audio or written content
Any bonus resources you might include e.g. checklists, recipes,
A general plan for your marketing - where you’re going to market and how long you’re going to market before you run the course
If you’re going to offer an upsell at the end to another service
The legals - including privacy policy, course agreement and whether you’ll be offering any form of refund or money-back guarantee (I use and recommend Michelle Whitehead’s templates for this)
Feel like planning is where you’re going to get lost or overwhelmed? Make sure you check out the offer at the end of the article.
Price & market your course
A course is not simply build it and they will come - you need to get it out in front of your ideal clients! That’s where my BFF - marketing - comes into play.
Getting a good buzz going for your course will usually take 3-6 weeks. I like to drop hints for 1-2 weeks before I officially open spots for any offer. That way, people are already curious and on the lookout for when it opens up.
To market your course, you also need to set a price.
I recommend knowing two numbers when it comes to your course - the minimum income, where you are breaking even on your costs and time, and the ideal income, which is just that!
These numbers can help you to calculate the right price for your course. You want a minimum income number that is achievable with just a handful of sign-ups, and an ideal income that is doable with a solid marketing plan.
If it’s your first time running a course, or you’re uncomfortable with the price you need for your course, consider a beta round. This allows you to offer it at a reduced price for the first round in exchange for feedback and a little understanding when tech issues pop up!
If you don’t sell any spots for your course, it is not a failure. All it means is that you need to revisit one or more of:
The journey that your ideal client wants to take
The language you’re using to share your offer
Whether you’re actually reaching your ideal client with that message!
Psst - want more tips for pricing and marketing your course? Keep your eyes peeled, as there are blogs coming up soon on those topics!
Create your content
Wait, Sam - why is creating content listed after marketing the course?
This is not a formatting mistake. This is the smart way to create any course.
Creating an offer and then selling it is the old-school way of marketing. But it’s much more sensible to make sure you have some demand for your offer before you spend hours filming, editing and tweaking!
Now, I do get that some people might not be comfortable selling a course before lifting a finger. If that’s you, go ahead and create your content first. But at least make sure you have a handful of people who are ready to hand over the cash as soon as you do open spots!
Hot tip: creating your course will take more time than you think - even if you’re repurposing content you’ve already created! Make sure that you overestimate the time you need by a good 25%.
Run your course
Once you have your participants ready, your marketing plan executed and at least the first week of your content created - it’s time to actually run that baby.
Just like with your course creation time, overestimate your time commitment to run your course by 25%. Tech issues come up, people struggle with logging in or can’t find the Facebook group, and admin still needs to get sorted.
Please note - you may not book out your course the first time round. You may only have a handful of people participating.
Do not let this stop you from running it!
Every person who completes your course is someone who can give you vital feedback and hopefully a glowing testimonial.
Keep running your course!
There isn’t much point in putting in all of this effort to create a course only to run it once! The purpose of a course is to offer it to many people over a long period of time.
To keep running your course, you have two options:
You can leave it open, so anyone can enrol at any time and work through the content
You can reopen and launch the course regularly
For my courses, I prefer the latter, as I incorporate live aspects such as Facebook groups and live Q&A sessions. But if you’re short on time and/or energy, you can consider leaving your course open year-round instead.
Is creating a course on your to-do list?
Want someone to hold your hand while you plan your course and marketing strategy?
I’m here to help. Click here to book a 1:1 appointment.
