Having your own online course is literally one of the sexiest propositions on the internet.

You can just put everything you know in some videos, lock them up in a membership site and sell a login….

And I don’t even have to speak to these buyers?

It can all just happen in a few clicks?

Passive income here we come! Right?

Well, not exactly.

Just because you have an IDEA for an online course, it doesn’t mean you have any of the elements you need to actually get buyers.

Offers that are the easiest to deliver are generally the hardest to sell.

They need sophisticated marketing strategies and tools to convert.

And when you have been serving your clients one on one, and you’re a great life coach, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are a great marketer.

So what we see is an ever-increasing online course graveyard out there, where the dreams of many life coaches go to the ground (but not before they have sunk a few thousand getting the tech and design help to create their amazing course).

And if you are one of those life coaches (or were thinking of becoming a course creator), I want to share some ideas to resurrect your course.

Because most online coaching courses are essentially DIY for the buyer, they have a low perceived value, and that means unless you are a master of persuasion and conversion, you will struggle to be able to price your course at a price that makes it worth your while.

So what you first need to do to turn things around is:

Increase The Value Of Your Program

This is all about creating a hybrid version of your course.

Now value doesn’t necessarily mean increasing the price of your course, although this usually happens as a result of offering more value.

But how can you offer more value?

I’d like you to think about creating the ultimate success solution rather than the ultimate passive income solution.

Passive income is great, but I would invite you to think more about the concept of LEVERAGE rather than passive income as a way to drive better results for you and your course buyers.

Leverage allows you to reap the rewards of creating offers online – being able to reach people around the globe and make sales 24/7.

But, where passive income implies automation of the delivery, so that your buyers go in and access videos and worksheets with limited live access to you, leverage allows you to create a course you can scale in time but get faster results upfront.

What we do know is that only 10% of online course buyers actually complete the course they buy.

Why?

Because human nature dictates we love an “easy button”, and if an online course hits the right paint points and offers a solution, the press of a button online makes it seem easy to get the perfect solution, and because there is often minimal personal contact and some courses are have tiny price points – there just isn’t enough skin in the game from the buyers to ensure commitment and accountability.

So how can you stand out from the crowd and offer more leveraged value that ensures you more income and your buyers more stickability and success?

This is where the HYBRID course comes in.

This means that you have your core content or curriculum delivered as the core of your online course but you build in customised mentoring and coaching with leverage to ensure buyers get results while allowing you to charge more for your course.

This is because what people want most is results.

But they also want connection, accountability and personalised service.

Adding more value to your program by providing custom coaching gives you an edge in the market over the sea of other online courses out there that few buyers ever complete.

So, go against the crowd and offer a couple of one on one coaching calls to get your buyers onboarded and take into account their unique circumstances.

You can also add group coaching calls and if you haven’t already and don’t be afraid to offer unlimited access to you.

What?! Are you crazy, I hear you ask?

Nope. 

This goes against the usual online coaching offers and is a high-value way to deliver your online courses, ensuring high engagement and success rates. 

Jane, one of my past clients, a career coach to executive women, was offering 1-day strategy workshops and one-on-one coaching for $2,000.

With some tweaking, we transformed her offer to a hybrid 6-month group program with the format outlined above and she sold 8 x $5000 programs in just 12 weeks.

She would have needed 20 x one on one clients to reach that revenue with her previous offer.

The best part is, the members have something even bigger than access to Jane – they have a community of like-minded women on the same 

And when I suggest you offer unlimited access, I’m not suggesting you give them your phone number and take calls all day.

Use dedicated channels like Facebook Chat, What’s App or Voxer Voice Messaging to allow your clients to ask specific questions – they leave a recording and you leave a recording to answer when you get a chance.

Typically this is faster and easier than email communications, or even typing in a Facebook Group and is highly personalised.

The result is that your buyers feel like clients, and because they are getting a higher level of service, you can charge more, which means you need fewer buyers to reach your income goals.

PLUS your clients get better results, you get great testimonials and your clients will happily refer more buyers like them, which reduces your acquisition costs and refund rates.

The second big shift you need to make is to:

 Price For Success.

This is where I see so many coaches, experts and consultants go wrong when they create their online courses and quickly abandon their efforts, rather than staying the course and reaping the long-game rewards.

If you charge $97 for an online course and you aren’t a well-known name, don’t have a list and are still testing out your message to market (and you don’t have any offers you can upsell), you better have a back-up plan for paying your bills each month.

Building your list and results take time, and so does creating a great course.

This is where I see so many get discouraged.

They lack the confidence to charge higher prices because they are just starting out, but it’s hard to grow your income sustainably with the numbers you can expect early on.

So, start as you mean to go on.

I understand you can’t always come straight out of the gate with a high-priced fully online program, but you can charge more when you add more value.

Do what others aren’t prepared to do at the start to reach your income goals faster with fewer buyers.

I recommend $997 minimum, with a higher level coaching as a back-end offer, or even starting out with a $3,000 hybrid group coaching program where they have access to your online training but also get your customised support and guidance throughout the journey.

That way you only need a few sales to start making great monthly income without burning yourself out.

Just think, you need 10 x $97 sales to make just under $1000, but 10x  $3000 sales is $30,000 – I know which one I’d rather opt for, and it doesn’t take 30x the work either.

And it’s so much more satisfying to see your clients get the results they deserve.

Julia was selling $97 Sleep Courses for mothers of newborn babies, she shifted to $4000 coaching programs for birth professionals who would teach the newborn mothers how to settle into motherhood (including how to get their babies to sleep).

This yielded her $16K in the first month of the offer which was more than she had earned in sales of the $97 offer the WHOLE year prior.

So, she could still fulfil her big WHY of helping newborn mothers adjust to motherhood feeling healthy and happy, without selling just a few online programs a month. Rather she could teach others how to reach out to these women with “hands-on” help and guidance.

Here, Julia made a shift in her target market and her offer, but she used the same curriculum.

The only difference there was that the shift in niche from Newborn Mothers to those who SERVE Newborn mothers.

Then move on to our third principle, which is about creating feeder content for your course…

Get Clear & Consistent With Your Messaging & Offer

Once you land on your Message To Market and you have proved your concepts and have buyers, don’t mess with the recipe!

Stay on track and make all roads lead to this message. 

You will have more success going narrow and deep than wide. 

It’s easier to become a “thought leader” or go-to expert when you stay specific in your messaging.

As soon as you try and introduce new concepts to your audience before you have enough market penetration of the key message that relates to your online course, you will confuse them and limit the potential for your market leadership.

I see too many people give up on their market proposition and online course too quickly due to lacklustre sales, and then switch angles only to be left as they were at the very beginning as they struggle to build credibility with their new message.

Try and be as clear, simple and consistent as possible in terms of your messaging.

You only have such a short time to make an impression as you build your audience, authority and credibility that you need to make sure that you can be understood and your value established quickly.

The best way to do this is to keep with one overall topic – which should usually be the topic of your online course.

Think about the transformation you offer eg helping coaches grow their business using Facebook Ads or helping new mums and babies thrive post-birth…

Then, you can list a range of sub-topics that still serve your main topic that you can create feeder content around.

This will lead your ideal audience to the ultimate transformation that you offer by giving them pieces of value as you step them up to the core offer.

So there, you have it.

Rather than blindly believing you can take your coaching and make it an online course and sell hundreds of these for around $200 a pop, I want you to create a valuable offer that you can sell easily even when you aren’t a great marketer.

That way, you get to earn more money than you can by creating an online course that nobody ever sees.

You have more satisfied clients who get better results AND

You are a way more confident life coach with more time, freedom and money.

Show Notes:

My free training on how to get more mileage from your online course >> https://event.webinarjam.com/register/5/w010oal