Creating a digital course is a great way to create extra streams of income and passive income. But it can also be overwhelming. To make it easier, I’m sharing the most important steps to creating your first (or next) digital course!

Step One: Dial in on your ideal course topic

For your course topic, you might have some great ideas. You might even think you know what your ideal customer wants. But it’s important to be specific here and really dial in on your dream client’s wants, and more importantly their needs. For this stage, you need to go beyond deliverables and think about the transformation you will be giving them. What problems are you solving for them? What stage are they at right now in their own journey, and how they are feeling? 

We also want to get really specific on the type, of course, you want to create. Is this going to be an extensive signature course covering all aspects of one topic or a mini course deep diving into one specific thing? You might even come to the conclusion that the transformation you want to deliver might be more suitable to be packaged into a membership…

Step Two: Extensive Research

Yes, your idea might be great BUT you don’t know that until you validate it. 

Every new digital course idea should always start with extensive competitor and competitor research.

With market research, we want to connect with people who would be our ideal customers.

We want to understand what they are going through, what they are struggling with,  the language they use, and what their ideal transformation would look and feel like. Here we also want to validate the offer, and the price point they are willing to invest.

Once you do your research, you might see lots of other similar courses out there. Don’t let that scare you! We want to see that as it means there is a market already for your course.  This will allow us to see what’s been done, and what’s already working and then we can create something better, more targeted, or with our own unique spin on it.

Step Three: Your Unique Value Proposition 

The next step is to figure out your unique value proposition. Use the market research you performed in step two to help you determine what will be the biggest takeaway for those who go through your course. What will their transformation look like?  This can also be referred to as your promise to your client and needs to easily demonstrate what they can expect 

Step Four: Validate Your Offer

When it comes to validating your offer, there are a couple of ways you can go about it.

The first option I recommend, and is sometimes debatable in the industry, is to pre-sell your course. This means that you have your course outlined and the deliverables planned before you actually create the actual course content. The content creation part can be very time-consuming, based on how extensive it is and we want to avoid spending too much time creating something that your ideal audience won’t buy. This also allows us to get our audience to join in on the actual course creation process by giving feedback and ideas during the creation process.   Pre-selling is one of the best ways to validate that people are willing to pay for your online course.

Another validation method is conducting a lot of market research. Get on Zoom calls with your dream clients or tell your email list what you are working on and ask for feedback through surveys. Creating a waitlist launch is another great way to gauge the interest of your audience before going into full creation mode.  

Step Five: Course Creation

Yey you have got this far! If you have really done all the groundwork you are now ready to actually create your course with confidence! 

Map out your modules, lessons, and any bonuses, and let’s start recording. Remember, each lesson should have a purpose. Keep them short and to the point.  Most people’s attention span is not that great so breaking them up into 5-15 minute sessions is best. 

I see it all the time with my clients, they want to overdeliver. However, the number one reason people don’t finish a course is that there is just too much content, and it becomes overwhelming for them. Quality over quantity!