Ever feel like you’re talking to “crickets” when promoting your offerings?

Maybe you think you just need a better marketing strategy. Or if you “just had a bigger Facebook Ads budget” you would start reeling in those sales left and right.

The truth is, you can have the biggest ad budget in the world and have the most complex marketing strategy, but ads and marketing are not going to sell an offer that your ideal clients don’t want, and are not willing to pay for.

That’s why it is SO important to really take the time to strategically create offers tailored for your ideal clients’ wants, needs, and desires. After all, you can have the prettiest sales page, and the fanciest copywriting, but if your offer sucks (though love), how can you expect people to want to buy it?

Whether you’re tired of hearing “crickets” when you talk about your offers, or you have yet to create your first paid offer, here are 4 tips to create and sell your next HIGHLY lucrative online course:

 

Market Research

Market research will play THE most critical role in creating any offer. A profitable offer is one that provides your audience with what they want, while also giving them what they need in order to achieve their desired outcome.

One of my favorite ways to conduct market research is to conduct short interview calls with ideal clients. Yeah, you’re gonna be getting on the phone with a total stranger, and yeah, it can be uncomfortable. But when we do those scary and uncomfortable things in business, THAT’S when the most growth happens, my friend.

I highly suggest that you conduct your market research calls on a video conferencing platform (my personal recommendation is Zoom so you can record the interview and watch it back later). Getting on video with the ideal client is SO much more personal, and it will create more of a space for your interviewee to open up about the questions you ask them.

How to Conduct Market Research Calls:

When conducting a market research interview, be sure to dive deep into discovering your ideal clients’ struggles, goals, and what they would look for when choosing to invest in an offer. If you want a more detailed list of questions to ask your audience, check out my course Profitable Offer Builder, where we go super in-depth with how to conduct market research interviews and other, non-1:1 ways to gather up that juicy market research.

Your action steps: Go on Instagram (or whichever social media platform your ideal clients are most active) and write a list of 5-10 profiles of people who fit your ideal client profile (be sure that these are TRULY your ideal clients, otherwise these calls will end up being a waste of your time).

Reach out and ask for their permission to schedule a market research call in exchange for something of value to them (an audit, 15-minute coaching session, 1 hour of VA work, etc.). I like to do the exchange of value because not only is it an incentive for my ideal clients to say “yes” to the interview, but it is also a way to thank them for their time.

 

Choose a Topic

Base it off your market research:

After gathering those market research findings, your next step in course creation is to choose a topic.

Take a good look at the notes you gathered from your market research findings. The more research you do, the more common themes will start popping up that you can use to help choose your course topic.

Pay attention to what specifically your ideal clients are struggling with the most in your niche: your course should provide the tools to achieving the solution to your ideal clients’ pain points.

Take a look at some of the specific pain points that are brought up during market research. Oftentimes, creating a course that solves a specific pain point versus a course that teaches everything and the kitchen sink will be a better topic for a course format.

• General struggle: “I want to make more money in my business”
• Specific pain point: “I need help booking more sales calls and actually closing the sale”

Solution:

• Course on “How to book more sales calls and get more clients in your business”

Choose a topic you’re actually passionate about:

Make sure to choose a topic that actually excites you. Try to consider:

• Specific things related to your niche that you LOVE talking about?
• Any topics you could talk about for hours on end
• What are you truly passionate about

When you choose a topic that actually lights you up, your energy when creating and selling the course will be WAY more powerful. Remember, sales is all about that powerful energy.

You want to make a course that is SO GOOD that you literally could shout it from the rooftops. Write a list of a few topics in your business that excite you the most – odds are, one of them will probably be your golden ticket to a profitable course.

Create a Curriculum That Gets RESULTS!

Your curriculum will be the bread and butter of your course. Having a curriculum that is unique to YOUR signature process is key to differentiating your course from similar ones in the market.

One of the most critical things in course creation is to create a RESULTS-driven curriculum. I.e., when your students actually go through the course and implement what they learn, they will achieve the results your program promises them.

How to actually create a results-driven curriculum? Start with the ultimate transformation, or promise that this course will help your ideal clients achieve.

Starting with the transformation, break it down into easily digestible and ACTIONABLE steps that are necessary to execute in order to achieve that transformation. Make sure the steps are organized in the right order to lead your students to achieve results. Keep in mind what needs to be done first in order to move to the next step, and so on.

Using the same example:

• Course: “How to book more sales calls and get more clients in your business”
• Transformation: Book consistent sales calls
  •  What are the essential steps that are necessary to book sales calls? In what order do these steps need to be completed to book more consistent sales calls with clients?

You’ll probably end up with 4-8 steps after completing this exercise. Each of these steps will be its own module in your course. After you have the steps written out, you will want to write out the steps that are needed to achieve each specific step *phew*.

This will take time, so be thoughtful about this! Again, the curriculum will be the bread and BUTTAH of your course.

Choose How & Where You are Going to Present Your Online Course

How are you going to present the information provided in your offer?

There are a few factors to consider when choosing how you are going to present your course.

Hosting Platform:

I personally use and LOVE Kajabi for hosting all of my online courses. Click Here to get an extended 28-day free trial for Kajabi!

Some alternative options to Kajabi include Podia, Thinkific, and Teachable.

Method of Presentation:

How are you going to teach the course content once your curriculum has been created? Video? Text? Powerpoints? All of the above?

When choosing the method of presentation, keep in mind there are a variety of different types of learners: Auditory, Visual, Reading, and Kinesthetic.

• Auditory Learners learn the best by LISTENING to course content
• Visual learners learn best by SEEING course content
• Reading Learners learn best by READING course content
• Kinesthetic Learners learn best through a HANDS-ON approach (aka, these peeps need homework and action steps to implement on their own)

I always suggest trying to cater to each type of learner in your course content. My personal course format is achieved through video, with a PowerPoint presentation + worksheets.

 

My Course is Created… Now what?

Did you use this post to create your course? Tag me on Instagram stories @kerryirelandco and I’ll give your course a shout out!

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