The biggest difference between a course that flops and one that makes millions is connection.
Genuine Connection with your audience can build like a snowball over time when you start selling your course on auto-pilot 24/7, which is the exact opposite of what happens when you’re trapped in the launch cycle and every time you start to build just a little bit of momentum and connection, your launch ends – and so does all the excitement and interest in your course that you worked so hard to generate.
Imagine what your sales would be like if that momentum didn’t end and the Genuine Connection you created with your audience just kept getting stronger and stronger with each passing day.
Today I’m sharing three very specific ways that you can create Genuine Connection with your audience to ensure that your course surpasses your revenue goals.
My name is Caitlin Bacher, CEO of Scale With Success®, and I’m on a mission to help course creators all over the world grow their business in a way that is profitable and scalable. I’m sharing revealing insights about what it really takes to scale an online course business to millions of dollars per year. Join me here to discover the tough decisions I’ve had to make, the biggest failures I’ve had to bounce back from, and the learnings that emerged every step of the way. I’m so grateful that I have the chance to tell you everything right here on Scale With Success®: The Podcast. Let’s get started.
If you’re like me then you’ve probably had your fair share of mistakes, flops, and failures when it comes to selling courses.
Most people don’t know this, but the first course I ever sold that crossed the million dollar mark was a complete flop the first time I opened up enrollment. But, even though it was a flop initially – I knew I could turn things around.
So I quit launching and made my course evergreen – which gave me the opportunity to hone my sales and marketing skills – and it’s when I discovered the importance of connection and how Genuine Connection was a powerful tool that could make or break my success.
There were three specific things I did to build Genuine Connection with my audience and turn my flop into millions and today I’m sharing them with you.
Whether you have a flop on your hands or you’re just not selling as many courses as you wish you could, this episode will give you actionable strategies you can deploy immediately to get results.
1. Speak about problems your audience is already AWARE they have and want to solve.
When you pitch your course to a captive audience and you hear things like:
- Maybe later
- It’s a little out of my budget
- Timing isn’t right
…this is a massive indicator that you (and your offer) are not connecting with your audience.
If you were, then you’d be hearing things like this:
- Take my money right now
- It’s more than I expected, but exactly what I need – I’m IN!
- I’m going rearrange my schedule to MAKE time for this
See the difference?
Your audience wants to invest in programs that solve the CURRENT problems they’re experiencing. These are problems they know they have and they are actively searching the internet for solutions to solve them.
Don’t waste time trying to convince someone they have a problem that they don’t realize they have.
I see so many course creators trying to sell what they think their audience SHOULD want as opposed to what their audience actually wants and because they’ve put so much effort into trying to CONVINCE their audience that, “Yes – you actually have this problem,” the course creator has a REALLY hard time letting go.
The thing is, you don’t have to change anything about your course, but you do have to change the way you TALK about your course if you want different results – because the reasons YOU think people should buy are not connecting with your ideal buyer…and that is WHY they are not making enrolling in your program a priority.
Here’s an example of what I mean. Let’s say you have a course that teaches people how to paint a portrait of their pet with watercolors.
Would it make sense to create a bunch of content for people who DON’T have pets trying to convince them they should get a pet just so they can buy your course?
OR should you create content for people who already have pets AND who are actively searching for information on how to create a watercolor portrait of them because a) they don’t know where to start or b) they did it before and it looked terrible?
If you feel like the ONLY way people will buy from you is if you nurture them for 6 months and then do a big, fancy launch – it’s because your content isn’t attracting people who are actively experiencing the problem your course helps them solve. You’re attracting people who are “just thinking” about it and aren’t looking for a solution.
You will greatly shorten your sales cycle and attract BETTER customers if you stop trying to convince people they have problems they aren’t aware of and start creating content that attracts people actively experiencing the problems your course can solve.
2. Investigate why people didn’t buy.
Let’s say you built an audience of people experiencing problems your course can solve and maybe they’re even signing up for your webinar – but they’re not buying.
They’re telling you they loved your webinar, BUT they’re not going to enroll.
I used to hear this all the time and I’d get so frustrated with myself. I knew webinars worked, but why didn’t they work for me??
Do I need to jam even MORE information into my webinar? Do I need to lower my price? Should I change my pitch? Does my audience just not like webinars?
The problem isn’t the webinar, it’s what’s IN the webinar that’s not connecting and moving people towards the sale.
If people are watching your webinar, but not buying – that is a clear indicator that you need to do some investigating to determine precisely why they think this offer won’t work for them.
Here’s the truth, many times people will be on your webinar and think your offer WILL WORK, but not for them – because there is something special and unique about their specific situation – when in fact ALL YOUR CLIENTS are in that exact same situation.
If YOU know that, but THEY DO NOT – then you’ve got a connection problem and it’s time to get on the phone and start getting to know why people aren’t buying.
When I first started selling one of my courses years ago I thought people were going to snap it up in no time – but, I was wrong. It was a big flop and I knew I had missed something important in my marketing message to people. I mean, the topic was popular – so I knew the demand was there – but I couldn’t figure out WHY my audience wasn’t enrolling.
I got on the phone with 15-20 people that week who went through my funnel and didn’t buy – and my mistake became crystal clear. There is no way I would’ve figured it out if I didn’t get on the call with people because I was ONLY seeing things through my perspective.
I was overly focused on promoting what I thought was great about the course, but was under focused on what THEY valued about the course. Once I realized that, then I was able to talk about what THEY valued most and the next year that flop crossed the million dollar mark.
All because I stepped out of my comfort zone, got on the phone with people, and was willing to let go of what I thought they SHOULD be excited about in favor of what they were already excited about.
Doing this was key to strengthening the connection I had with my audience.
3. Make small tweaks and track improvements over time.
Now, saying that my flop turned into millions in one year may lead you to believe that things just got better and better each week – but, this wasn’t the case.
Each week I reviewed the data from my funnel and chose one thing to improve that would result in an increase in sales. For example, let’s say my email open rates weren’t meeting benchmark. Well, I knew that if more people opened my sales emails, then more people would be clicking through to enroll. And I knew that if I wanted more people to open my sales emails, I needed to test out some different subject lines.
So, I’d pick some new ones, test them out for the week, and review the data again. If things improved, I kept them, if not, I tried again.
And most of the time – I had to try again. Sometimes I’d work on one small thing (like email subject lines) for weeks, testing new copy each week until it would FINALLY work.
It was a time when my commitment to meeting my goals was also being tested – like I said, things typically did NOT work out as I’d hoped the first try.
But, instead of feeling defeated – I felt excited. Because knowing what DIDN’T work was just as important as knowing what DID work. I was learning so much and I could feel my marketing skills getting stronger.
If I’d been launching, there’s no WAY I could have improved so quickly. Since my course was evergreen I had more opportunities to get better. I mean think about it, if you want to get really good at something – wouldn’t it make more sense to practice every day instead of 4 times a year?
Each week I sought to improve the connection between my audience and my offer, which meant more testing, more mistakes, and more opportunities to say “this is too hard I give up!”
I could’ve said, “Welp. I haven’t become a millionaire overnight and therefore I guess evergreen just doesn’t work for me.”
But, being committed to achieving my goals even when it felt like I wasn’t moving as fast as I’d like to be moving and even when I encountered unexpected challenges (which was pretty much every week) saved me. My commitment to moving forward got stronger each week.
Just like my marketing skills were getting stronger, my resilience was getting stronger. Things that used to put me in a tailspin became easier to brush off and bounce back from.
The most important thing is to not give up.
My growth wasn’t perfectly linear and there were lots of ups and downs the year I crossed the million dollar mark, but over time things began to feel a little bit easier. Not because the problems were getting smaller, but because I was getting stronger.
I know some of you listening right now feel like your commitment to growth is being tested, but what if you started being grateful for that and started seeing every challenge as an opportunity to strengthen your commitment. Because let me tell you, getting to six or even seven figures doesn’t happen without commitment and it doesn’t happen without mistakes and failures.
I appreciate you being here and make sure to tune in next week for another episode of Scale With Success® The Podcast.
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