Tag: online education

How to Name Your Online Course – Clarity over Everything

Posted on by marg
Reading Time: 2 minutes

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”

~ William Shakespeare

Naming your online course can easily be one of the most difficult things about building it. Client’s of mine have spend DAYS trying to get the perfect name, and in turn, the perfect URL to launch their online course with.

Don’t get too hung up on this!

Courses, as with websites are a growing evolving creation, and 2 years from now it’s highly likely that your online course will look much different than it does today, especially if you’re just starting out.

Clarity over Cleverness

If your customer has to sit and figure out what the name of your course means, you have lost them as a customer.

Boring course names sell much better than clever and potentially confusing names. Naming your online course is your first opportunity to clarify your offer to your customer. It must be clear, literal and concise.

If a customer is unsure of your offer, they will lose trust in you, and it becomes much more difficult to allow them to see your value.

The aim when selling online courses is to make it crystal clear who you help, and how you help them.

Online Course Name Suggestions

If you’re in the initial stages of naming your online course, use these prompts to brainstorm and get started! Take your primary online course topic and fill in the blanks, mad-lib style.

The _____ Blueprint

______ Mastery

______ Academy

______ Companion

______ Success Path

Your Guide to ______

Mastering ______

______ Masterclass

The ______ Society

 

This activity will get the creative juices flowing, and spark up some succinct and clear course name ideas.

Many course creators will take the examples above and keep them to themselves, but there’s no gatekeeping here!

Drop me a message anywhere @margreffell to let me know what you names your online course.

Take care and happy launching,

M

Online Course Objectives: Keep your focus on these 3

Posted on by marg
Reading Time: < 1 minute

When you begin the process of creating an online course, there are 3 areas you must consider and fully flesh out during the planning stage.

  1. Receive Payment/Registration
  2. Content Delivery
  3. Monitor Progress/Assistance in Completion

 

Everything you need to setup for your online course will fall into one of these objectives.

Receive Payment/Registration

This objective will contain all of your acquisition actions. For example, your sales pages, marketing, funnel creation, cart configuration, and payment gateway setup. The goal of all of these is ultimately to get users to register and pay. That is the final step that all of these efforts lead up to.

Content Delivery

Once a user has registered, you then begin to deliver content. This can be in the form of videos, transcripts, PDF’s, worksheets and checklists etc. You will need to make decisions on how to best organize and drip your content to best serve your audience. All of this organization and execution is focussed around the objective of content delivery.

Monitor Progress/Assistance in Completion

During or after the delivery of the content, your next objective is to encourage your members to complete the actions and teachings of the course. This is often done through community calls, assessments, periodic checkins, community forums, or certification procedures.

 

So, when considering adding an extra feature or new technology, always come back to which one of these objectives it will support. This will help to keep you on track and on task with your online course creation.

Until next time,

M

Avoid Being Labelled as a Scammer. Sell Online Courses with Integrity

Posted on by marg
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Over the last couple of years, online courses have started getting a bad wrap.

A select number of people have seen the financial result that you can achieve with creating and selling online courses, and turned that into their own personal get-rich-quick-scheme.

This had led to many people handing their money over to these charlatans, and either never receiving the product, or receiving a poor level instruction.

This forces legitimate educators to rise above the noise, and provide more value upfront to gain the trust and respect of their audience before they ask for a sale.

Another result of the rise in online course scams is that customers have become much more critical before they hand over their well-earned dollars.

This is great news!

It forces online course creators to list their credentials, continue their education, be clear and realistic about results, as well as stick by their money back guarantees.

Course creators are being held accountable, and it’s a GOOD thing.

To create a course with integrity is to always follow these guidelines:

  • Be honest about who the course is right for, but also who it is wrong for
  • Lay out exactly exactly what is included, so there’s no misinterpretation
  • Have a period of time where you allow refunds (even if it’s only 7 days), and be clear about your refund policy
  • Prepare your audience for what to expect (6 modules + 1 coaching call per week etc.)
  • Be clear with the expected results
  • Make sure the format best serves your users, and the content (not just how you ‘want’ to deliver the course)
  • Be open to feedback, and constantly iterate on your programs to best serve your audience goals

Remember, the cream always rises to the top!

Until next time,

M