Whether you’re talking about a text-based course or a video course, customers tend to love these types of products. And you’ll love selling them, since the high perceived value means you can charge more for a course versus other infoproduct formats (such as ebooks).
So, with that in mind, check out these three steps for creating courses your customers will love…
Step 1: Do Your Market Research
The first thing you need to do is figure out what your audience wants. A good way to do this is to find out what they’re already buying. You can check:
- Udemy.com to see what sort of video courses they’re buying.
- Marketplaces like Amazon and ClickBank to see what sort of info-products they’re buying in your niche.
- Websites in your niche to see what they’re selling.
- Paid advertisements (such as sponsored ads) to see what they’re promoting.
Look for bestsellers and multiple vendors selling similar topics – these are both signs that a particular topic is “hot” in your niche right now.
Select a topic that looks like it will sell well, and then move to the next step…
Step 2: Decide What to Include
Next, you need to decide what to include in your course and start creating your outline. To do this, take two steps:
1. Brainstorm. Think up all the sub-topics, steps, tips, examples, mistakes, etc. you’d like to include in your course.
2. Research. Find out what similar info-products. Use this information for inspiration – do NOT copy.
NOTE: While you may choose a topic that others have done before, and you may even look to similar products for inspiration, your goal is to create something fresh. This means:
- Sharing novel tips.
- Sharing unique information such as case studies, personal stories and personal examples.
- Sharing information in a new way, such as turning a step-by-step formula into an acronym/formula. (E.G., “AIDA” (attention, interest, desire, action) is an acronym that describes a copywriting formula – you can create your own acronym-based formula around a step by step process.)
Step 3: Develop Your Course
Once you know what all information you want to include, then organize it into a step-by-step format. If you’re delivering the course in parts, then create equal-sized modules. (E.G., you might create a 12-module course and deliver one lesson/module per week for three months.)
Keep these tips in mind:
- Use a light, conversational tone. Look at this article as an example.
- Add relevant stories to keep people engaged. For example, what problems did you have when you first started with this niche topics? What mistakes did you make?
- Add value to your course. Offer worksheets, checklists, templates, swipes, planners and cheat sheets to help people take action on what they just learned.
- Proof and polish. If you have errors in your course, people will judge the information as a whole to be low-quality. If needed, hire someone to proof and fact-check your course.
- Insert backend offers. Promote related products and services inside your course.
As always, you can outsource this entire task to a freelance writer (or video editor) to produce a polished end result.
You can easily turn a course into a premium offer or even a residual income offer, which is why you’ll want to start creating your own courses!
