How to Design an Online Video Course that Sells

The online course industry has been exploding for the past 5+ years and is projected to grow to over $240B in 2022 and to $375B by 2026. The industry targets a very diverse, wide variety of learners from all age groups, industries, and socioeconomic statuses.  The COVID-19/Coronavirus Pandemic, in particular, helped to boost this already trending industry to new levels as more and more consumers sought ways to continue to learn, train, and grow for work, school & recreational purposes from remote locations. If you’re thinking about how to design an online video course to get in on a piece of the action, you’re certainly not alone!

Learning how to design an online video course that draws the attention of learners that are interested in what you have to teach could prove to a profitable business venture for you. In fact, many course creators make a full-time income from the sale of their online video course products while others appreciate the passive income that online video courses provide. But before you can make money with an online course, you’ve got to figure out how to design it in such a way that it attracts the attention of your target audience and elicits a sale!

Define Profitable Course Content Ideas

It all starts with defining a profitable subject for your course content. How will you know that an idea, skill or passion that you have for a particular subject or concept that you want to teach is something that others will pay to learn? You’ve got to perform some research. Consider the following:

• Are there other competitors already teaching course or providing online training on the subject that you’re considering? Keep in mind that some competition is healthy, but too much may signify over-saturation!
• Are people searching for things like “How to” or “Learn how to” perform whatever task or skill you want to teach? You can use a keyword research tool such as Ahrefs.com or SemRush.com to find out if there are searches being formed for the keywords relative to your subject. 
• What is the potential income from selling a course like this online? Is it something that is “enough” for you to consider producing the course for sale? 

You might have other questions that relate to your content ideas or the decisions that you’re trying to make in regards to what course subject to sell. Carefully plan for this as you’re navigating the idea of whether or not to sell an online course and if so, what subject to produce your course on!

Define the Type of Course You’ll Create

Not only is the subject of the course important to sales, so is the type of course! Research shows that some types of online courses sell better than others. Your goal is to define the most appropriate type of course that your ideal student audience is likely to engage with and purchase. Many different course types exist including:

• Assessment style coursework.
• Demonstrations and online workshops.
• Orientation and onboarding course.
• Short or mini-courses.
• Live courses (these are often provided in real-time via livestream).
• Training & certification courses.
• Niche specific courses.
• Drip style courses.
• Hybrid courses.

Of course with any of these types of online video courses you’ve got to be sure that it’s the most suitable course option for your target audience, which means you need to know your target audience!

Know & Understand Your Target Audience 

Learning how to design an online video course that sells is the result of a lot of planning and careful consideration about various points and important areas of interest relative to the course. In order to know how you can get your audience to learn and achieve a specific educational goal that brings them from point A to point B, you’ve got to know:

• Who your audience is and what they are like?
• What your audience wants to learn?
• Why your audience wants to learn what you teach?
• How experienced your audience is in the subject that you’re teaching?
• Whether your audience has taken other courses that are like yours?
• What they thought about the courses that they’ve taken, especially if they are on a similar subject?
• How you can attract your target audience to your course and get them to purchase?

This may seem like a lot to learn about an audience, and it is, really! However, once you have all of this information, learning how to design an online course that sells is going to be a whole lot easier than it will be if you don’t have this information!

Where to Host Your Online Course 

This goes back to knowing your audience! If you know who your audience is and what steps they take when they look for information or to answer questions that they have, and where they are most likely to spend their time learning online – then you can create an online video course that specifically targets them. You can make sure that you host your online course on the right learning or educational platform such as Udemy, Thinkific, Kajabi, or right on YouTube. Creating content that you post direct to any of these platforms, or to your own website, to teach or train students is an important step in learning how to design an online video course that sells!

Film Interactive Video Content with the Help of a Professional

The final major step in learning how to design an online video course that sells is to find a professional film crew that you can work with to produce your video content.  Professional video production companies, like Beverly Boy Productions, bring expertise, energy, and experience to your project to ensure the success of your video content. If you think this is something you can DIY, from home without professional equipment, you’re wrong!

Producing interactive, engaging video content that your audience is going to appreciate and learn from is about more than just a point and shoot process with a simple camera, or your iPhone! A professional film crew, like ours, can help you learn how to design an online video course that draws the interest of your audience, and keeps them fully engaged and learning for the duration of the course. Professionals can help with:

• Great lighting.
• Top quality audio.
• Ensuring proper storytelling.
• Including engagement opportunities in the video.
• Incorporating interactive opportunities into the video.
• Making sure that the video appears professional quality.

Need help learning how to design an online video course that sells? Give Beverly Boy Productions a call!