In today’s episode, I’m going to teach you how to increase the value proposition of your online course or program.
This also applies to memberships and masterminds! Watch or read on if you want to know how to make yours a juicy offer for your potential clients.
These days with a plethora of online courses and programs available, it can be easy to think that you need to offer the cheapest course possible.
However, that means that you need to sell more of your courses in order to achieve the same level of revenue in your business. Often, the way to create increased profitability and increase revenue in your business is actually to sell less of your courses, but at a higher price.
That doesn’t mean you can just put the price up and expect people to pay that extra amount of money for your course or program.
What sets courses apart?
How can you create a course that is a higher value proposition? A course that people are going to be willing to invest more money into, rather than having to price it cheaply?
I’ve got five things that really sets courses apart, to increase the value proposition of your online course, membership, program or mastermind:
1. Align the course to your ideal client’s priorities
So many people out there are trying to make you change your priorities:
- You’re not prioritising your health and wellbeing! I’m going to help you change that, and then sell you an online course.
- You’re not prioritising the foundations of your business, I’m going to teach you that you should prioritise it, and then I’m going to sell something to help you do it.
Instead, if you create a course that aligns to someone’s existing priorities, and particularly the top one or two on the list, you are going to instantly increase the value proposition of that program.
For example, if your ideal client is an entrepreneur and you work in health and wellbeing: Can you align those health and wellbeing outcomes to the entrepreneur’s priority of growing their business? By aligning the outcomes of your course or program to your ideal clients existing priorities, you will actually increase the value proposition of that course or program for them.
2. Deliver fast and effective outcomes
Another big mistake that I see people make in their course design is adding more information. More modules, more bonuses, more interviews. More information.
They think that the more information they have in their course, the higher the value proposition of that course or program. But that’s actually not the case.
If I’m going to sign up for a course or program and there are 45 modules, compared to the course that provides the same outcome in 6 modules… is the one that’s 45 modules automatically more value?
No.
The one that’s 45 modules tells me it takes 45 steps. The one that has 6 modules tells me there are 6 steps. If I’m looking to get to that outcome quickly and easily, and they both promise the same outcome, I’m actually more likely to buy the six-module program.
Of course, you need to ensure you have a balance between refining down to the minimum necessary modules, and delivering on the promise. I’m not saying a six module course is better than a 12 module course. I’m not saying a three module course is better than a 14 module course.
You need to make sure you are getting people to the outcome that they’re looking for, as quickly and effectively as possible.
The example that I use when I’m teaching course creation is almond milk.
If I was coming to stay at your house, I would say “I need some almond milk for my tea or coffee in the morning”. And as my lovely host, you wouldn’t then tell me the history of almond milk. You wouldn’t list the eight places in your local vicinity that sell almond milk. Plus the 12 different brands of almond milk, and the pros and cons of each of those 12 different brands. You wouldn’t give me the street names of all of the streets where the shops are that I could buy the almond milk. Also, you wouldn’t call in a financial planner friend to give me an expert analysis of the options for paying for my almond milk purchase.
You would say, “Tash, jump in the car, let’s go get you some almond milk.”
That’s what a course should do.
That’s why people are buying it. They want the outcome. You can get them that outcome quickly and effectively. Be honest, are you wanting to add more information to your course, to make it more valuable? Are you helping me to get the outcome faster, or are you making it more complex?
The more quickly and the more effectively you can help people get that outcome, the more valuable your course will be to them.
Forget the bonuses, the guest trainers, and the extra add-ons. If you can refine your process down so that it’s faster and more effective, do it. You will actually increase the value proposition of your course by doing so.
3. Sell the transformation, not the information
People don’t buy courses and programs for information. Information is freely available. It’s really interesting to me that the online course world is still attaching themselves to this belief that they are the ‘knowledge economy’ or the ‘information economy’. Because information is actually free.
If I want information, I can go and research it. I can Google it. I can go and find YouTube videos.
The courses that are the most valuable, don’t just provide information, they facilitate transformation.
Separate yourself from the competition by focusing on the transformation, rather than the information. This will inherently increase the value proposition of your program, because you’re not just teaching people something, you’re helping them to achieve a transformation – solve a problem, achieve a goal. Something tangible.
That’s what increases the value proposition of a course or program. That’s what makes them sell like hotcakes.
4. Community – access to the other people in the program
There used to be a philosophy of ‘divide and conquer’ in the online course world. I remember looking at a few courses early in my business journey and in order to join, we had to promise we wouldn’t reach out to other students. Yep, I would have to sign a contract to say I wouldn’t try and find the other students online and talk to them. It was a really yucky one, and I never agreed with it or wanted to include something like that in my own programs.
We are seeing more and more that consumers are wising up to the divide and conquer mentality and they are not having any part of it.
One of the things that adds value to a course or program is being able to connect with other students. They are people who are going through the same process. This is of course different for different markets and niches, and depends on the transformation you are facilitating. However, in most cases being able to partner up, or form small groups is a value-add and something people really value. To be able to share, learn from each other, engage with each other is a big value proposition for a course or program.
Can you attach community to your course in order to increase the value proposition? It could be as simple as having a Facebook community that goes with the course. Or you could use things like moderated chat boards, and frequently asked questions, running Facebook Lives or having online group calls.
5. Be present with your students
For most of the courses or programs that I purchase, I want to get access to the person who is helping me achieve the outcome that I’m trying to get. Can you add live support, group coaching calls, or even just support through an online community such as the Facebook group to increase the value proposition of your program?
Before you start screaming at me, “But Tash, I create courses to leverage my time and I don’t want to be giving my time away for free”… or something similar, let me explain:
Adding access to you, even as a group, will add a significant value proposition increase. This will therefore increase the price at which you could sell your course or program. To give you an example, my Take Off program is over $1,500 for people to join it. At that price point, it makes sense for me and it’s reasonable for me to provide access to me as part of that value proposition.
If I was charging $200 for the Take Off program, I wouldn’t be able to be as present for my audience.
The thing is, is that people who are starting a business need a mentor. In my experience, people who try to start a business through a self-study course end up going around in circles, or running off in the wrong direction. They have an idea that feels good for them, and they follow some rudimentary steps… but they don’t actually make significant progress. They haven’t got their niche nailed, or their messaging is a bit sparkly… And without an experienced mentor giving feedback, they don’t know why their offers aren’t selling.
That is why the Take Off program includes my eyes on people’s businesses, and I charge appropriately for that access to me. There are ways you can boundary that access to you and you can create structure around it, but your presence, your ears and eyes on what’s going on for your ideal clients can often mean the difference between a $200 self-study course and a $2,000 supported group program.
Access to you can be deeply valued by your audience and your particularly your ideal clients.
How could you restructure your course or program to increase the presence that they feel from you, and therefore, increase the value proposition? I know, there are a lot of business coaches out there who will tell you that if your course isn’t $2,000 or more, it’s not worth having a course. That’s not what I’m saying here. I’ve purchased enough $2000 programs that are low-quality to tell you that the price doesn’t fix the problem.
Regardless of whether you need to increase your prices, or you need to increase your conversions, value proposition is an important focus point. Adding your presence can be a really easy way to increase that value proposition. It doesn’t have to be forever, it can just be for now.
Yippee!!
Hopefully that helps you to review your program and start increasing the value proposition so you can charge more, and/or get better conversions.
If you would like to go through the entire course design and course launching process with my help, I have a really juicy resource for you. It is a free training called Create and Launch your Online Course. It goes for just under two hours so it’s not a light skim. It goes through the entire course creation and launching and review process step by step by step. And yes, it’s absolutely free. I’ve previously charged upwards of $395 for this training as a course, but I decided to put it all into one big training and give it away for free.
Check it out and let me know what you think! I am always happy to receive your feedback – good or bad. Speaking of feedback, have you got a minute to leave me a review on iTunes? Click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/heart-centred-business-podcast/id1110906437 – and then click on “Reviews” down the bottom.
If you have any other insights and “aha’s” from this episode, make sure that you use #podcastaha, when talking about it in the Heart-Centred Soul Driven Entrepreneurs group, and I always love seeing any questions or aha that come up from each episode.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
