Do you have an online course that you’re ready to sell but you’re struggling on how to actually sell it? Well look no further because I am going to teach you how to set up a simple course sales funnel that works!
If you already have an online course or if you’re thinking of creating one, then you might know that the most important thing is to actually sell the dang thing, right? What happens, and the problem that a lot of people run into, is that they create a course, they try to launch it — or they try to offer it and it flops. It’s a very real fear, and it does happen.
I personally have a friend that I spoke to who spent all of this money developing her course.
She recorded all of the modules, hired someone to write out the sales page, and took at the right steps to create an amazing, beautiful product.
Then the worst thing happened… she offered it to her audience and nobody bought it. It’s a tragic story but it happens more than you would realize.
This is why I have a strategy on how to make sure your course will sell with the simplest sales funnel ever.
Now, if you are not familiar, a sales funnel is like dating. It’s a very simple way for people to get to know you, get to like you, get to trust you, and ultimately open up their wallet and make a purchase. When we’re thinking about a core sales funnel, we first want to think about:
- Where are people finding us?
- Where are they getting to know us?
Think about how people first meet you. Do they find you on a social media platform? Are they finding you because they heard your podcast? Did they maybe find you on YouTube?
What is that first spot that they’re typically finding you?
For me, most people find me first via YouTube or Instagram. Sometimes they find me via a Facebook ad, but for the most part, my buyers and my organic audience are really coming from YouTube. This encourages me to spend more time on this platform and tailoring my content to fit the needs of my viewers. Since I know that that’s where the majority of my audience first finds me, I’m going to create content for that person who is meeting me for the first time.
I do a lot of topics that are “how to’s”, or business growth, or things that people will find if they’re researching a specific topic and need a quick tutorial.
Once you know where your client first finds you, you can kind of put that in your back pocket. Don’t do anything with it yet because this is where a lot of people get tripped up. Most people think that they spend all of their time creating content on Instagram, and YouTube, and Facebook and wherever else. Or they think they need to hop on every bandwagon, thinking “oh, I got to start a podcast, or I need to start writing blog posts, but there’s not a clear path all the way to the end.
This is why when I create a sales funnel we always begin with the end in mind.
That being said, the next thing that you need is a conversion piece. This is how you’re going to capture an email or phone number — whatever you need to create a lead. You can do this by giving them some sort of training or freebie, just as long as you’re opening the door to a conversation. From there we’ve started courtship. You strategically keep the conversation going until you get to the end piece, AKA the sale.
Now that we know what our sales funnel looks like, let’s talk about how to actually build it. Start by thinking about what your online course is about.
For example, one of my clients has a course on how to improve your staffing at your daycare. If that’s her end goal, our conversation piece needs to be about getting people interested in that topic.
For her, it might be something like “10 reasons your staff will leave in the first 60 days”. This could be a PDF, video, or a full-blown training series, just as long as she’s capturing an email address to opt-in.
Once she has their contact info she can follow up via email, establish a relationship, and eventually offer them the course. Now that that’s set up, we can go back to the beginning and revisit how your new clients find you. For this client, let’s say it’s YouTube.
In her case, she might want to create some YT videos about “How I retained my staff” or “How I increased staffing by 50%”. Just as long as they are relevant, on-topic, and can lead to that conversation piece that eventually gets the viewer into your course.
On the topic of giving away too much information… you can never give away too much information.
If you think you’re giving away too much information at the start, that just means that you don’t have a valuable enough topic for the person who really has this problem. If the client really wants their problem solved, or is actually invested, they’re not going to be satisfied with just watching YouTube videos, or just listening to a podcast, or just reading a PDF.
There you have it!
How to Set Up a Simple Course Sales Funnel That Works!