Traditionally you create an online course for a general audience, both for ease of production and for the largest possible market. For example, you may teach an online course on how to play the guitar.
But years of market research has shown that you can charge more for a course when it is aimed at a particular niche. So whereas your general guitar course may be a $47 course, the more specific courses may be $77.
This is possible because people want something that is taught specifically for them. The closer you come to providing information for specific niches, the more valuable the information is perceived to be.
Here are three things you can do to customize your online course for a more specific niche.
1. Re-title the course to include the niche. For example, Beginning Guitar becomes
- First Lessons On Guitar For Seniors
- Advanced Guitar Techniques For Women
- Romantic Guitar For Lovers
Each of those titles makes it easy to determine whether or not this course is for the person considering registration.
2. Add customized information. One of the biggest reasons course creators do not typically aim their course at multiple markets is that they think they have to redevelop all of the materials.
Instead of doing that, use your existing core course. Then add segments that are specific to the audience you have specified.
For example, in the guitar lessons for seniors, you may include a segment on
- exercises to loosen the fingers
- how to handle arthritis problems when playing the guitar, or
- adaptive devices that makes guitar playing easier.
Each of these lessons segments can be added to existing materials, eliminating the need to recreate the course from scratch while still maintaining the focus on the niche audience.
3. Reduce the size and focus of the course. Instead of teaching guitar, teach a subset of the full course that is everyone’s favorite. For example, 16 Songs You Can Play Tonight – Even If It’s Your First Day to Pick Up A Guitar.
While that title may seem a little long for a typical online course, it says exactly what they will learn. Plus, it’s designed to get the student playing quickly. For many would-be guitar players, this is all they want to know.
When you provide these short courses, aimed at a single and specific outcome, you create a way for people to experience your teaching style, as well as get an immediate result. These short courses become lead generators to get students into your longer courses.
Since these short courses are merely parts of your full courses, it’s easy to separate them. Other than creating a new introduction and retitling them, they do not require any additional work on your part.
These three techniques – retitling, expanding, and reducing – can turn your existing online course into multiple courses for multiple audiences. Start today to look for ways to refocus your online course for multiple audiences – and increase your profits.
Don’t have your own online course yet? Start today with the best-selling book from Dr. Jeanette Cates – Teach Online: Design Your First Online Course.
These are great suggestions, Jeanette! Sometimes I worry that being too specific would narrow the number of people interested. From a reader’s perspective, however, I would be more interested in the something that is targeted to specifically to me. I’m finally starting to get it!! Thanks for the excellent examples in this article.
Glad they were helpful, Sharon. I think we’ve all worried about being too specific. It’s something you have to “get over.” When you do, you find that we all want something for US. So specificity works!