How to Price Your Online Course to Attract the Right Customer
What’s up with pricing your online course with a number that ends in 7? I know, I know, there’s “research” behind it. But have you ever stopped to wonder why we so easily adopted that number as the number to use in our pricing models? Do you know how many $97 courses are there right now? It’s just noise. Want to cut through the noise with your online course? Start by creating it. Focus on creating the best course you can based on what your students need. And then, give it a price that doesn’t look like everyone else’s course.
In this article, I’m talking about how to price your course in a meaningful way. In other words, how to break free from what everyone else is doing because it’s the new trend in pricing.
Why You Want to Price Your Course Like Everyone Else
Let’s start by examining why most course creators are using the “7” pricing model. “Research.” Sure. Let’s stick with that. But there’s more to it than that, I can assure you. You price your course to be the same price as everyone else because that seems to be what’s selling, but have you actually asked any of these course creators if their courses are selling? You’re leaning in the direction of the $97 price tag because you don’t want to go against the grain too much, right? You don’t want to be the one out in left field with a weird price or a high-ticket course that nobody can afford. Except, maybe that’s exactly what you want to do. In fact, I know it is: I know you want to stand out. But not with your price.
Well, you should. Stand on your own two feet. Do something different from what everyone else is doing. We keep saying that, but we actually just keep doing what everyone else is doing. I’m here to tell you that in order to stand out with your online course, you need to build one that people want, that actually teaches them what they need to learn. Then, you need to make sure you get the exact right price in place. And that’s going to hold you up for a while. Because there is no exact right price.
How the Market Lies to You About Pricing Your Online Courses
Listen, I’ve been creating courses a long time. And yes, there is a threshold for how much consumers can afford to pay for these things, but it’s not as low as you might think. We’re talking about education here. We’re talking about providing people with the skills, knowledge and ability to USE that knowledge in a systematic way. You know what happens when people have the right skills, knowledge and ability to use that knowledge in a systematic way? They. Get. Things. Done.
When you sit down to price your online course, you’re not setting the price to reflect the amount of hours you spent working on it. Hell, if that were the case, I would have closed up shop years ago. I created online courses with 80,000+ word counts in days, not months. I don’t get paid for the time it takes me to create the courses, I get paid for the information that is transferred to those students and the intellectual property that I sell. And this is something a lot of course creators overlook: you’re giving a piece of yourself away with every course you create. You need to get paid – very well – for that.
Creating Your Own Pricing Model
The “7” does not rule the pricing model and at any time you can choose to price your course in a different way. What’s wrong with this pricing model is 1) everyone is doing it. 2) it’s limiting and you back yourself into a corner because some of those number aren’t even considered.
You go for $97 or $197 or $297 or $497 or $997. What about $397? Huh? Nobody is charging $397. What about $779? Nobody is charging $779? It’s got 7’s in it. What about $846? That would turn some heads. But no, we are slaves to what mass marketing has taught us and we aren’t questioning it. Instead, you’re trying to retrofit your course – whether it’s worth $97 or $997 or not into a set of rules that you’ve chosen to accept because you heard it online or saw it online. But isn’t that what everyone is doing?
Yup. They are.
I create Courses that Sell For thousands of Dollars
My done-for-you course creation option starts at $20,000 and goes up to the tens of thousands if you want me to build a long online course for you. My course creation framework is informed by 20 years of experience, a Master of Adult Education degree, a Train-the-Trainer certification, a Tutor and Instructor certification, an English and Communications degree, a diploma in administration and thousands of hours of course creation experience. The courses I create are worth the money people pay for them. And when I create a course for you, whether you offer free seats or sell that course for thousands of dollars, it will be valuable and change lives.
When I work with a client to create an online course for them, I have to price it so that it justifies never using that information again. But my framework? That’s a lather-rinse-repeat system I created years ago so I could bang out $25,000 projects, 3 at a time, and still have time to have a life. And it works. So when I think about what I’m charging you to create your online course, it’s these three things that need to be considered: Speed. Accountability. Systems. The three things entrepreneurs need to create online courses successfully.
Rabbits Holes Cost You Time and Money in Creating Your Online Course
What I want to do is help you see that what goes into your online course is more than just words and activity sheets. There’s a part of you that goes out the door with every sale you make, one that took you years to develop, and one that, when done right, provides guaranteed results for your student. So why on earth would you take all that amazingness and try to fit it into a pricing container that someone said was a good way to market your program? Why?
Because marketing wins. We spend way too much time thinking about marketing and not nearly enough time thinking about what we’re creating to market. And that’s how your course ends up in a pile of crap with the rest of them: if you don’t spend the time building the right kind of course for the right kind of people at a price that can sustain you and in a reflection of your work in the world and the results your students get.
Why You Worry About Pricing
You’re worried nobody will buy your online course.
You’re worried that you’ll look greedy.
You just want to get a few under your belt and then you’ll raise the price when you can prove the model.
Are you worrying that you won’t be able to reduce the price if you start out too high?
You worry that people will think you’re nuts.
Are you worrying that people won’t think it’s worth it?
You’re worried you’ll lose customers.
See what’s happening here? What I want to tell is that I can create a course that will blow the socks off your students. And I teach you how to deliver a course that is exactly what they want, with them in mind, using their problems and marrying them with your solutions.
But the price of your course? The ticket to ride that train? That’s all you, baby. You get to decide. You get to set that bar. Market value is a perception, just like everything else. So don’t worry about what is everyone else doing – you can’t compete on price anyway. If that’s how you’re rolling just get out of the game right now. What you’ve got is gold and worth whatever you charge for it. You just don’t believe that. Yes, the course content is all about your students. But the price? That’s what it costs to work with you. If people want the privilege of working with you, they have to pony up.
Apples to Oranges and Everything in Between
Just because running an online course is less work than consulting or live coaching or delivering a live workshop doesn’t mean it doesn’t provide the same great result and value. In fact, I’d argue that it has more value because of the constant touch factor. If I teach you a live lesson, you only have a short period of time to get information from me.
So here’s where you draw the line in the sand, because, yes, there is a method to pricing your courses that will make sense when I explain it to you. I know it seems like it’s all just pulling numbers out of the air and mindset shit but it’s not.
Empower Your Customers to Create the Lives They Want
I want you to think about this: you’re not doing ANYTHING for people. You’re showing them HOW to do it for themselves. What is the price of THAT result? If I do it for you, it takes up so much more of my time. It takes up so much more of my capacity and resources. I charge a hefty price for my time. It’s not even about how long your course is, frankly. People sell 7-day courses for thousands of dollars, weekend retreats for thousands of dollars. It’s about the result.
I’m going to create an online course for you and help you price your course. The result is you have a fully finished, ready-to-sell online course, but the REAL result is that you can guarantee results to your customers. And you can do it again and again.
Set Yourself Up for a Different Kind of Success with Your Online Course
So when you sit down to price your online course, do me a solid: forget about what everyone else is doing. Forget about what you think people can afford. Forget about outpricing the market – set a new standard in the market. Someone has to. Everyone is floundering here over with “this ends in $97 nonsense” and it’s a snooze.
If you want to chat about pricing your course or you want to learn more about how I can work with you to create an online course quickly and easily, I want to invite you to book a call with me today. The call is free, but it might be the most important call you make for your business this year.
