The excitement of launching your first online course is unmatched.
You are prepared, you are excited and just can’t wait to see the results.
The last thing you would want to experience is some sort of setback right?
While online courses are a great way to monetize on a passion or skill you have, expand your reach and help people, the possibility of having a disappointing launch is very much there.
So why don’t we just look at the top 3 common mistakes that course creators can make and really work on avoiding them. Sounds good?
1st Mistake: Not Testing Your Course Idea
Yes you must ask and know what your audience needs while planning to create an online course but that’s not enough.
You need to find out if your product carries enough worth for them that they are willing to spend money on buying it.
Is there a demand for your course? Will your sales cover the time and expenses that you put in?
Test your product and test it right! Let’s discuss some ways by which you can do that:
Sell it before you make it. The audience’s money has to say ‘yes’ to your course. They need to actually buy what you offer rather than just saying “Oh, that’s a great course.”
The key here is lots of planning.
You have a well-researched online course idea that you’re passionate about and you’ve given it a name. You’ve started listing down the content that’ll go into it i.e. the basic outline is ready.
Now this is where you need to pre-sell your course. And of course find out if people will buy it.
You can find this out by a pre-sale email or message giving importance to the best customers and making them feel special about getting a discount.
You will need to tell them that the course will launch in the next XX days but if they pre-register, they get a discount and whatever feedback they give will help in improving the content further.
This way the customer feels like an integral part of the journey and is most likely to buy from you.
Another way is to do a beta best. This means creating a ‘dilute’ version of the course with maybe some or half of the content and offering it to the best customers. Again you’ll be offering a discount and tell them how important and appreciated their feedback will be.
This testing phase works out really well for course creators. It’ll tell you straight up if people are willing to spend money on your course and you get access to valuable feedback.
Competition nowadays is huge. Your product needs to stand out. It has to blow people away and exceed their expectations. So really work on delivering that.
2nd Mistake: Not Marketing Your Course Enough
I’ll start off with the cliché, time is money. If you are spending too much time on course creation, research and setting it up you’ll be left with no energy or time at the end to market your product properly.
How will people buy your product if they don’t know about it?
This is another reason why pre-selling works. Prioritize spending time and energy into marketing with of course spending enough time on course creation as well.
If you’re someone who is all set to launch a course for the very first time, I know there is a lot of creating involved – the content, the marketing assets etc. The creation and launch for the first course can be daunting but it doesn’t have to be.
You need to have a mindset where you can simplify a few aspects and not overwhelm yourself with ‘perfecting’ your course. Instead make sure you’re paying due attention to marketing.
Then you’ll see second, third and later courses that you launch will become way easier for you.
The problem occurs when due to inadequate marketing the first course doesn’t do well and people get discouraged and give up.
However the truth is they didn’t prioritize the right thing and quit too easily.
3rd Mistake: Taking Too Much Time
Coming to the third big mistake people make when launching online courses – waiting way too long to do it.
Don’t pay heed to the popular myth that a profitable and successful online course depends on having a really big audience. Online courses don’t work that way.
The old fashioned ‘blogging’ way of relying on sponsorships and ads while building up a huge audience is not the right approach here. It takes a lot of time and effort – that’s precious time spent on something avoidable.
With online courses and products, you don’t need millions of followers. What you do need is a clear identity of yourself, recognition of your audience and their needs and you’ll be set to sell your course successfully to the list of people you have.
With each course launch, your list will be building up anyway. So some old favourites combined with new fans is a good enough number for a successful launch.
So when is the best time to launch a course? NOW!
The more you delay it the harder it is going to become, not to mention losing out on the money you might have made during this time. Plus there’ll be added competition down the line.
Competitors are miles ahead of you while you’re still in the planning phase. Don’t delay – act now!
Waiting will do you no good. Prioritize and get working!