today, I’m going to talk about the biggest changes in online course sales, and this also applies to coaching and consulting and events, in 2020. Now we have created an eight-figure business selling knowledge online.
We’ve done over 12 million in sales, and I’m not saying that to brag. I’m saying that because it gives us a lot of data. It gives us a lot of things to look at to see what was working in ’17, in ’18 and ’19, and now in 2020.
And what changes were made as well? We have hundreds of clients that we help create and sell their online courses. And so we see the changes in their businesses as well. And that is what I’m gonna go over in this video.
Also if you stay till the end of this video, I’ll give you a link on where you can get a copy of my new book absolutely free. Also, let me know the comments. Have you done anything that has worked prior and now is not working so well? I’d love to know what that is.
Let me know in the comments. Okay, so we wanna share our message with the world. When we have an online course or a coaching program or a consulting program, it’s because we’re good at something, and we believe in something.
And we have a message, and we wanna reach as many people as possible. And I know for me, it’s really helped sell my online course to not only make money but create an impact. I’ve been asked to speak on massive stages, I’ve been asked to be interviewed on TV, I’ve seen the lives of my clients change.
And all that is extremely fulfilling, way past just money. But the thing is we get so caught up in the marketing and the advertising, in the selling of the course that sometimes it makes it not so fun to have an online course business because we’re struggling so hard to sell it that we’re not getting to enjoy the part where we teach and where we impact lives.
And so I really wanna help navigate that for you and make that a lot simpler and easier in today’s video. That said, let’s jump into the very first thing that I have seen a huge trend and how to fix it and that is simplicity.
So we started moving to a much simpler way to sell online education than most people do early. So we were lucky. Well, I’m not necessarily gonna say lucky, I kinda saw it coming. But what we’re seeing traditionally is not working anymore in 2020 because people are impatient, people have a lower attention span.
But moreover, they just want the information now. So what was working before was a lot of this auto-webinar where people would be able to select a time. And for those of you who don’t know what a webinar is, basically, you’re giving away a free class.
You’re giving some value and at the end of the class, you’re saying hey buy my premium class. Or book a call then sell them the higher ticket class. So the thing is when you have a webinar traditionally, you’re either doing it live constantly.
So a lot of times people can’t make it, or they miss it or what have you. Or if you’re doing an auto-webinar, they choose a time, they miss that. And a lot of people are still doing those types of things.
And the fact of the matter is people want the information now, so we switched to a much simpler way to market. When we say do a webinar, we will go ahead and allow them to watch the webinar on the very next page.
Whereas before, we had this whole system where they had to register, pick a time, and then on the next page it was like a confirmation page. And they had to go to another page, and that was a countdown page.
And they had to go to the live room. And it was just way too many moving parts, way too much friction. And so what we did was we did landing page, and we went right to the webinar. You register to watch the class, the very next page is the class.
That doubled our conversions. We also started deleting a lot of unnecessary pages from our funnel. And just being more direct and presenting the offers sooner and keeping everything simple. So instead of doing like a five-day launch, we would just have a one really good video.
Instead of doing multiple live webinars, or times where they can select when to watch their webinar, we would just have the watch it on the next page. Instead of making people go through this long sequence, we would just get them on a phone call.
So everything from asking them in the emails, hey would you like to get on a phone call, all the way to posting on Instagram and saying, hey here’s some value. By the way, if you’d like us to help you with this, send us a DM.
And then they’d DM us, and we either sell them right there on the DM or get them on the phone and sell them one of our products. So the trend that I’ve seen is that the complicated funnels, the complicated email sequences, the complicated launches, the complicated video sequences, is all just, people are too impatient.
They want the information now. Now, now, now, now, now. And so making things less complicated and more simple is better. The fact of the matter is the more you put in between your message and your customer, the fewer customers you will have.
And your message is what sells, not a button, not an email sequence. It’s what’s in the email sequence. It’s what’s in the videos. It’s what’s in the funnel, not the funnel itself.
So realizing that and making things simpler for your customer is gonna work a lot better. Okay, the second thing I’ve noticed is that people are paying way more for courses. Now, what does that mean? So a lot of times, in the online course space, you’ll have people that sell things for like 50 bucks on Udemy.
Or they’ll sell, they’ll have a whole webinar funnel made out, and they’ll have this whole system made out, and they’ll sell their program for like 500 or 1,000 bucks. And what’s happening here is people are getting course buying fever, they’re buying 500 or $1,000 or even $50 course after course after course.
And because they’re priced so low, there’s not really a lot of support with the program. There’s not really direct coaching. Because there’s a difference between knowing what to do and how to do it.
And knowing how to do it well. And the only way to know how to do it well is to have somebody literally consult you and coach you through it. But to do that, you have to charge more for your program.
You can’t be getting on two or three calls a week helping your group for a measly 500 bucks. It just would not make sense in the market. You would have way too many people on the call, and you wouldn’t be able to give value.
And so what’s happening here is not only are people willing to pay more for courses because they want higher-end stuff. They want more help. They don’t wanna buy 500 or 997 courses anymore and have a collection of a dozen of them.
They wanna buy one premium product that solves their entire problem and gets the support to go with it. So what we started doing, and we started doing this a while ago, is we raised our prices, and we provided way, way, way, way more support.
Everything from the actual program to downloadable systems, fill in the blank, all the way to really intense coaching calls. Like on our coaching calls, we literally brainstorm copy and ads with our clients.
That’s very difficult to find in a $500 course. It’s unheard of, and the thing is people would rather pay a premium price for a product that is going to get them their actual problem solved, or get them their result than pay cheap for something that is kinda gonna solve their problem.
And, yes, there are people out there who are still wanting to pay 50 bucks or $500 for a program, but are those really the customers that you want? Like, think about it. Would you rather work with somebody that pays you 500 or 5,000? The person that pays you 5,000 is, believe it or not, gonna ask less of you.
They’re gonna take it more seriously. They’re gonna take action. You’re gonna get better testimonials, and you’re gonna have more resources to work with that person. Because you’ll have more money to invest in those resources.
And so my advice is to think about selling your products and your services and your coaching, consulting courses for a more premium price. And use that money to help your client more. Or adjust your offer.
For instance, if you sell a weight loss course for entrepreneurs, think about this. Think about how you frame it. Instead of just selling weight loss, you sell weight-loss for busy traveling entrepreneurs.
Hey, are you on the road? Do you find trouble maintaining your weight when you’re on the road because of bad food? We can help solve your problem. Now you’re taking a business person, somebody that’s traveling, who obviously has money because they’re traveling, they’re a business person.
And you’re solving a really big pain point in their life, rather than just a general weight loss course. That’s the difference between selling a course for 100 bucks and selling a course for 5,000.
I travel all the time. I speak. I would gladly pay $5,000 for somebody to get my nutrition and my fitness solved, personal attention on the road. That’s worth 5,000 to me. I’d rather pay 5,000 for that than 500 for a general course on how to lose weight.
So the more specific you go, the more you can charge. The more support you give, the more you can charge. People are willing to pay for it. They really, really are. We have sold so much more revenue, a lot more revenue in our high ticket products than we ever had in our low ticket products.
And we’ve got so much better results. And we’ve been able to give so much more to our clients. I highly implore you to get on this. Plus, it is so much easier to sell high ticket because most of the time it’s just a phone call.
There’s virtually no refunds, no chargebacks, no piracy, so I understand that a lot of people don’t wanna do sales calls. They don’t wanna get on the phone. But it’s like here’s this one thing you don’t wanna do that if you do it, you cut out five things you don’t wanna do.
‘Cause nobody wants to deal with piracy. Nobody wants to deal with refunds. Nobody wants to deal with chargebacks. Nobody wants to deal with massive amounts of support tickets. When you sell high ticket, there’s hardly any support tickets.
So you think you trade one thing you may not wanna do for five things you don’t wanna do. Think about it like that. A high ticket is a new trend, and it’s not just because people are making money.
It’s because people can give more impact, and people are willing to pay more. So far, if you found these tips helpful, make sure to smash the like button. Let me know. Moving on to the third tip I have for you today, and that is this.
It’s becoming far, far easier to sell other people’s knowledge. So look at Masterclass. The masterclass is a thriving company. They go out, they find directors, actors, screenwriters, runners, athletes, and they film them teaching a masterclass and sell it on a masterclass.
com Look at Andrew Warner from Mixergy. He interviews high-level business people and sells access to those interviews. It is getting easier and more accepted to, if you’re not an expert, sell someone else’s advice on something you’re interested in for a price.
Think about this. Let’s say you’re trying to be a hairstylist, and you’re just a normal person going up in the world as a hairstylist. But you know like four, five, six really successful hairstylists.
You could create a course where you say, hey my name is Mary and I’m an aspiring hairstylist. And what I’ve done is I’m on a journey to become the best hairstylist and start my hairstyling business.
And so interviewed these five massively successful hairstylists on all these different topics, and you can get access to this price. That is becoming easier and easier to do and more accepted. So if you don’t have your own advice to sell you can definitely sell somebody else’s advice.
All right, just to summarize, simple is better, get people to your message quicker and with less complicated funnels. People are willing to pay more and it is a much better business model to charge more.
You can give more value. And it’s getting easier and easier to sell other people’s knowledge if you yourself are not an expert in any one particular category. Now if you enjoyed this video and you want more tips on how to grow a profitable online education business, check the link in the description and get a free copy of my book.