Which Gives You the Edge? Long or Short?
The e-learning space is exploding reaching $51.5 billion in sales in 2017. That's up $15 billion from 5 years ago when it was at $35.5 billion. These are staggering numbers. Any business owner should consider offering some aspect of their business in a membership program or online course format. There a demand for out. The big advantage of course is that it's a build once / create a profitable revenue stream that requires little ongoing involvement on your part. It scales really well.
Let me go over one thing to consider as you move forward with a effort line this.
What is Your Minimally Viable Products (MVP)?
When we work with a lot of clients on their online courses. We see this issue a lot. Someone who's an expert in a topic and has spent 10 to 20 years becoming that expert wants to pack all the knowledge into a program. It's like they want to teach their students what it took them a lifetime to learn.
That is NOT usually what their audience wants. To make matters worse, it's likely to overwhelm the students which is the number one reason why members leave a program they've purchased.
Anyone taking your course isn't looking to become an expert in your field. They have a problem the need to solve and are looking for help to overcome what they don't yet know. So long involved courses are NOT what these people want.
Getting all the knowledge into a membership program or online course takes a lot of work. Do you really want to spend a lot of time on project that involved? If you did, wouldn't you first want to take a step-by-step approach that confirms your market will buy what you are selling? I know I would want to test and confirm my assumptions before doing anything that like that.
What we recommend is coming up with a minimally viable product or MVP. This offering:
- is limited in scope,
- provides high value and
- proves you have something people will buy.
Most business owners that want to offer a membership program or online course have a following. These are people that know them well. Those are the best people to introduce to an offer like that to see if that's what they want.
Keep in mind that your potential customer are NOT waking up thinking, I need a course. They are thinking, I have a problem that I need to address. They need solution that get them closer to their goal. If you give them that that solution they need and it gets them to their target goal, you have a winner on your hands. And I will guarantee you that is not a huge course. It's usually something under 20 lessons and maybe closer to 10 that has something they want badly.
So you know, my Building and Selling Your Online Course PROFITABLY, is focused 100% on topics you need to address in order to get to your MVP. It's short and to the point, fully aimed at defining and proving you have something that will sell.