The $100K Method #5: Is your course READY to scale to six figures?
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You can also listen to the series as a podcast here!
Let’s be honest, is your course ready to scale to six figures?
Because a course simply not being ready is one of the most common reasons that courses fail to live up to their passive-income-potential. It can leave you wondering WHY you’re not making sales with something you know people want.
Now, it might not be that you don’t have a good marketing strategy, understand how funnels work, or have a bad course… you might just have not set your course up to profit.
Thankfully, the solution to this problem is simple: you need to start with validation.
But I’m not just talking about validating the course itself… it goes beyond that. You need to validate:
Demand for the outcome your course creates
Demand for the format your course is in for that outcome
Your course price
Your course name
Your marketing message
Before we get deeper into each of these points, let’s break down the validation process itself.
The Validation Process
The validation process has three phases:
market research
target audience research
the beta launch
Start with market research to analyzing the competition and search data so you can see what similar products on the market are already working.
Target audience research is a little different — this is where you interview potential customers to learn how they describe their desires, motivations and obstacles. Talking to real people is so important! Our Validate and 100K students often tell us that our process for these interviews is what equipped them to be able to actually be able to scale their course! If you only do ONE part of the validation process, do this.
Finally, put your product to the test by beta launching it. But this shouldn’t be just throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing if it sticks! At this point, you should have enough information to make an informed guess at what will work.
Beta launching allows you to prove your idea and make your first dollars online before ever creating your course. This gets the ball rolling quickly — which is always the hardest part of making money online — and allows you to get some great testimonials, which you can then leverage in your 100K Funnel for even higher conversion rates!
Now that you understand the validation process, let’s take a look at each component you need to validate:
Demand for the Outcome
Do people actually want the outcome that your course offers to help them achieve?
Too often, people try to sell courses that offer results that nobody even wants.
I’ve seen this SO many times… and it’s actually one of the main reasons I created Validate. Before worrying about your course’s name, price, or how you should structure your marketing emails, you need to get out there and find out if people even want the help you’re trying to give them.
To do this, first make sure that your course is providing one clear outcome so that the results of your validation process are crystal clear.
Then… proceed through the validation process, as outlined above. All three phases will show you whether there is demand for your outcome:
Are there other products that have a similar outcome?
Are people are searching for help getting this outcome?
Is a desire for this outcome is expressed in your interviews?
How does your audience respond to your beta launch?
Demand for the Format
How you set up your course matters.
The second phase of the validation process — target audience research — is going to reveal what obstacles your potential customers face to getting the outcome you provide.
For example, if time is a major obstacle for an audience of busy moms, then you will want to consider how you can deliver your product in a concise way so they can see short-term results quickly. You’ll also want to add done-for-you components such as schedules or planning templates.
On the other hand, if you are walking your client through new habit formation for a healthier lifestyle, these long-term results will need ongoing training and checking-in.
Will the format you have in mind for your course satisfy the desires and work along with your customer’s motivation for why they want those desires?
If, during your interviews, your audience says that they want an outcome, but then during the beta launch they don’t actually buy your course that promises that outcome, it might be the format of your course that they are objecting to.
Course Price
Price is less important than you might think. Most of the time, it isn’t what makes or breaks a marketing campaign. But, of course you still want to choose the price that will support your course’s greatest success.
When choosing your price, think carefully about the target market you have in mind and what the outcome of your course is worth to those people:
Is your offer priced within what your audience believes the outcome is worth?
Start analyzing your course price at the beginning of your validation process when you check out your competitor pricing. This is a good indicator of what general price you want to aim for. I always recommend erring on “the high side of average.”
For example, if you see products similar to your own priced between $25 and $450, but most of the prices fall between $225 and $300, then a price of around $300 will be your best option.
Course Name
In 100K, we have formulas to come up with a course name but, ultimately, however you come up with your course name, the most important thing is that you test it. Start buy doing a poll (if you have an audience) or asking your interviewees for their input and opinion. Getting people involved in the creation of your course not only gives you valuable intel, it also gets your potential customers involved and emotionally invested.
Is your course name appealing and meaningful to your target audience, reflective of the outcome that they want?
Marketing Message
Do you know what people want out of your course, why they want it, and what obstacles they are perceiving might stop them from getting it?
The three core aspects of your marketing message will speak to your target customer’s desires, motivations, and obstacles.
Desires — what your target customer wants / what outcome they’re looking for.
Motivations — why they want that outcome.
Obstacles — what your customer perceives is in their way, preventing them from getting their desire.
Phase 2 of the validation process includes specialized interviews that we call DMO interviews because the questions we ask specifically draw out the Desires, Motivations, and Obstacles around the outcome your course provides.
Go into your target audience research with an open mind. The majority of students in Validate and 100K that go through the DMO process are surprised that the main reason their course wasn’t profitable was because they were guessing about what marketing messages would work, rather than using this proven strategy to speak their target market’s language. They end up substantially changing their marketing message based on what they learn!
This is what enables them to be successful and scale their courses to six figures and beyond.
We can think we know what our audience wants, but if we don’t market it in a way that connects with our target customer by using the words they actually use to describe their desires, motivations, and obstacles, they won’t be confident that your course is what they need.
When considering whether your course is ready to scale… my #1 question for you is:
Have you successfully sold it yet?
If not, that doesn’t mean that you’re doomed! You may have a great course with amazing potential. It’s just a little too early to tell, so you’ll want to make sure you do your research, talk to some real potential customers, and then have a successful beta launch before you spend 3-6 months trying to build a profitable funnel.
Now, if you’re considering joining 100K Mastermind, this is much less of a worry because if you haven’t already validated your product then we simply send you through VALIDATE first (at no additional cost) so you can be confident that you’ll be able to be successful when you build your funnel.
You may be tempted to skip this validation process because you’re so eager to get to building your funnel and earning passive income. But… you’ve read this far because you’re not seeing the passive income you expected from your course. The reason I’m walking you through the process of this important first step is because it’s going to be a determining factor for whether you’ll be able to scale to six figures or not.
I want you to avoid spending 3+ months building a funnel, only to find that it doesn’t generate any revenue at all!
Once your course idea is validated, your next step is to create the course itself. Click here to learn how to create an online course that sells.
If you are ready to scale your course to six figures, then now is the time to take action.
Learn more and apply for $100K Mastermind by visiting: https://gillianperkins.com/100k-waitlist-apply
About this $100K Method series
Throughout the rest of this blog series, we’ll look at how YOU can take action and successfully implement a money-making system like this for yourself, including how you can easily generate leads — even without a big audience AND without social media, how you can strategically structure your funnel to passively convert 5-10% of your leads, and how you can scale this system to consistent ten thousand dollar months.
If you’re ready to build a $100K Funnel on your own, then now is the time to start taking action. Head to https://gillianperkins.com/100K to find out how you can build a $100K Funnel to start making you money in the next 3 months or less!
I know you are capable of this and I know it will change your life.
YOUR NEXT STEP
In the next $100K blog in the series, I’m breaking down all about how to create a profitable course that will sell, using my predicable and proven formula.
