So, you have an evergreen course and you KNOW it can help a ton of people but the problem is – nobody’s buying it.
You’re thinking, “maybe I should lower my price”, but you know your course is worth more and lowering your price wouldn’t be profitable. You’re really hoping to grow this year and you know that’s not possible unless you can sell your course profitably.
Over the last few years of growing a multi-million dollar online course business and helping thousands of clients create and sell their own courses, I can confidently say that price is rarely the problem.
Today I’m sharing the top 3 reasons why nobody’s buying your evergreen course so you can stop worrying about the price and start making some changes to get things moving in the right direction.
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.
So, your evergreen course isn’t selling – now what? Today I’m sharing the top 3 reasons why nobody’s buying your evergreen course so that you can get things moving and get your course in the hands of more people who really need it.
Here is Reason #1 why nobody’s buying your evergreen course.
1. Your evergreen course doesn’t solve a specific problem.
I’ve encountered loads of course creators who have grown their business to millions per year and there’s one thing they ALL have in common.
Their course teaches people how to solve a specific problem and obtain a tangible result.
Let me explain.
The reason why someone buys a course is because they want to solve a specific problem they are actively experiencing. Not a problem they might have at some point in the future, a problem they are struggling to solve right now.
Now, they may have been struggling with this problem for a day, a month, or a decade – but TODAY is the day they are ready to solve their problem for good.
So, these people are looking everywhere for a place where they can learn HOW to solve their problem – I mean they are literally thinking about their big problem day and night.
What kind of problems are people looking to solve? Well, there are four main categories of problems that people are actively looking to solve – which is why they’re super profitable course topics.
- Category 1: Relationships Problems
Examples include learning how to get your first date after a bad divorce, improving the relationship you have with your teen aged child, or even how to manifest your soulmate.
- Category 2:Health Problems
Examples include learning how to build strength and flexibility for your physical health, how to overcome anxiety for your mental health, or even how to improve the health of your skin.
- Category 3: Finance Problems
Examples include learning how to get your personal finances on track and grow your savings, learning how to grow your email list to grow your business, learning how to get a promotion at work, or even learning how to improve your money mindset so that you can attract more money.
- Category 4: Skill Problems
Examples include learning how to make visual reports from spreadsheets, how to speak a new language, how to paint a portrait of your pet with watercolors, cleaning your home in a timely manner, or even how to train your dog.
So you might be thinking to yourself, ok, well my course DEFINITELY solves a specific problem, but still – nobody’s buying it.
This takes me to Reason #2 why nobody’s buying your evergreen course.
2. Your evergreen course doesn’t solve a specific problem in a new way.
The best courses don’t solve new problems, they solve old problems in a new way.
Whether you know it or not, there are a lot of course creators selling a course that solves the same problem that your course helps people solve. Whether that problem is learning how to date after divorce or learning how to get a promotion at work. That’s because over the years, the online course industry has blossomed to billions of dollars in revenue generated each year – and it’s still growing.
This is good news for you because it means that people are buying online courses so they can learn how to solve their problems – even problems that YOUR COURSE can help them solve.
The problem is that if you are teaching the same thing in the same way as everyone else – you don’t stand out and people don’t notice you.
You might be thinking to yourself, but Caitlin, I DON’T teach the same thing in the same way. My method/process/formula for helping people solve their specific problem is completely different than what my competitors teach.
Well – if that’s true, then you need to highlight that inside your sales and marketing. When you’re different, you stand out. When you stand out, you get more attention from the right people…and when you do that – you sell more courses.
The first course I ever sold that made over a million dollars in one year was all about how to grow a free Facebook group. It was a topic I knew a lot about as I’d been able to grow my own very quickly.
At the time, A LOT of people were creating courses on how to do the same BUT, I was able to stand out because my approach to helping people grow a free Facebook group was completely different from what everyone else was teaching.
I don’t sell that course anymore because I got really tired of talking about FB groups and was more interested in teaching people how to sell their evergreen course on auto-pilot, which they don’t even NEED a free Facebook group to do.
But, even though I had a course that solved a specific problem in a NEW way, it never would’ve crossed the million dollar mark IF I didn’t know how to build an audience of people who WANTED to solve their FB group problem.
Which takes me to Reason #3 why nobody’s buying your evergreen course.
3. You’re not attracting people who are struggling with a problem that your course can solve.
You can have the best course in the world and it can help people solve their problems in a way that is completely new and different, but if you don’t have a system that attracts and builds an audience full of people experiencing the specific problem that your course solves – WHO are you going to sell it to?
Marketing your course, whether it’s on social media or a podcast or whatever will require you to build an audience of people actively experiencing problems your course can solve.
The reason why I LOVE teaching people how to sell their evergreen course is because you don’t need to wait until you build an audience BEFORE you start selling. My clients do BOTH at the same time. So, their audience is always growing and their course is always selling.
The content that you’re creating for paid social or organic social media must be relevant to someone who is struggling with a specific problem. Whether you’re making content for ads, social, or even publishing a podcast, the whole point is to attract people who need your course.
They might not know about your course, yet – but they need it – and they need to know what makes your approach to solving their problem different from all the other stuff they’ve tried or heard about before.
So, the VERY first course I made taught creative business owners how to develop a social media marketing plan for their business. I did this because I used to be a social media manager for other people who owned creative businesses. I was teaching what I knew!
Now, when I first began selling that course I struggled a bit because I found myself attracting people who didn’t even know if they wanted their business to BE on social media. I wasted so much time and energy trying to convince them about WHY social media was great and HOW it could benefit their business.
…when I could have been focusing on building an audience of people who ALREADY KNEW they wanted to put their creative business on social media and they were just looking to learn how to make it happen.
If you find yourself attracting people who need to be “convinced” that they need the course you’re selling – that’s a losing battle. You need an audience of people who WANT to solve their problem, and they’re just looking for the best way to do it.
Here’s a quick recap of 3 things you need to do in order to sell more copies of your evergreen course
- Your course should teach people how to solve a specific problem and obtain a tangible result.
- Your course should teach people how to solve that problem in a NEW way.
- You need to build an audience of people actively experiencing the specific problem that your course solves.
I appreciate you being here and make sure to tune in next time for another episode of Scale With Success® The Podcast.
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