Course or Membership?

23 May 2021 | Courses and Launching, Scaling and Growth

Not sure on whether to create a Course or Membership?

When it comes to deciding if your idea is best suited to being a course or membership program, there are THREE important focus areas to consider.

The FIRST is about what’s best for you… what feels best? What will you be able to maintain easily? How do you want to serve?

Part TWO relates to your ideal client – What do THEY need? What is going to work for THEM? What do THEY want to achieve and what will help them to achieve that best?

And part THREE – the content. Is this something that actually WORKS as a membership program? Is it something that needs to be a course? What’s the learning curve like, and how long will it take for transformation to occur.

These three areas of consideration will help you work out whether a course or membership might be best, or at least give you some insights to consider.

PLEASE NOTE: There’s no one hard and fast rule – you can create a membership that delivers like a course, and you can run a course that feels like a membership. But it’s a brilliant starting point.

THE QUIZ:

This questioning process is designed to help you gather clues about what model might fit best. We explore the 3 key focus areas through different angles.

Take note of your answer for each question – 1 or 2, but also WHY you feel that way.

I prefer to support learners:

  1. Intensely for a short period of time
  2. Gradually over a much longer period of time

My ideal client’s biggest issue is:

  1. Knowing what to do
  2. Consistently doing what they know they need to do

My followers get most value from:

  1. Practical information on what to do and how to do it
  2. Exploring and uncovering insights about themselves and why they do what they do

My style of supporting people is:

  1. Let’s fix it quickly and move on
  2. I’m here for the long haul

The outcome I am aiming to achieve with this program is:

  1. To help people achieve a specific goal
  2. To help people hard-wire a specific change

The topic of this program is:

  1. Complex, and often difficult to understand
  2. Easy-ish to understand but hard to master

My audience needs:

  1. To learn and implement something once
  2. To learn and implement something forever

When I work in my business, I generally work best:

  1. In short, inconsistent bursts
  2. More gradually and consistently

My main financial goal for this program is:

  1. A large influx of one-off income
  2. Creating a consistent baseline of income

When I think about committing to delivering the same program forever:

  1. I feel restricted, suffocated, or bored
  2. I feel excitement, calm or ease

 

If you answered mostly 1’s:

You may be best to create an online course or short program. 

Based on the combination of your style of working, your business model and your target market, this is probably best served up as a modularised learning program that has a defined start and end point. Online courses can be delivered live, and have live support calls – but it’s a Point A to Point B journey that has an eventual end point.

This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, but it can give you an indication of what might work best. It’s also not a forever decision – some courses become memberships eventually and vice-versa.

For each questions that you answered with a 2, remember to consider how you could ensure that your course still meets that need.

If you answered mostly 2’s:

You may be best to create a membership program. 

Based on the combination of your style of working, your business model and your target market, this is probably best delivered in an ongoing membership. There are a range of different membership models, including some that incorporate courses or course-style teaching, so there’s plenty of flexibility with this model. If you don’t feel like you’re ready to commit to an ongoing membership, there are also courses that can convert into memberships later, or pilot membership programs that can help with that concern.

For each question that you answered with a 1, remember to consider how you could ensure that your membership still meets that need.

 

Want to dive into this deeper and work out a plan to create your leveraged product, regardless of whether it’s a membership or course?
Grab my LEVERAGE workshop – tashcorbin.com/leverageworkshop

 

Tash xoxo