To Sum It Up
After spending all the time and energy of launching your course a few times, what happens if you hit an income ceiling with it?
At some point, there’s just going to be a market maximum on how much you can charge for your course, or how many people will join at one time.
But the thought of taking more time, energy and money to create a second or third course doesn’t sound like a good option either!
So what should you do?
In today’s video I’m breaking down 4 ideas on how you can continue to make more money from your existing course – without changing a thing about the content, member’s area or the delivery method.
No, it’s not clickbait! It’s the truth.
And if you don’t have time to watch the full video, here’s the cliff notes version for ya:
1. Include an premium VIP level.
2. Offer an instant upsell.
3. Offer member-only discounts bi-monthly or quarterly on 1:1 session, your services or other products.
4. Monetize course alumni with a membership-pricing model.
To get the details on how to do all of these ideas (and make more money from your existing course!) watch the video above, or check out the full transcript below.
Your Turn
Have you ever felt stuck or stunted from growth with your course? If so, tell me about it in the comments below! And if you found a different solution then what I’ve outlined above.
Or, if you’re inspired to implement one of these new ideas – tell me what you’ll be adding on for your next launch. I’d love to support you!
Full Transcript
After one successful launch or even a couple, sometimes you can start to feel like you might have to waste all the time and energy of creating another course to make more money in your business, but today I want to give you a little shortcut for how you can make the maximum ROI on the course you’ve already created by just adding a few extra ideas at the end.
I’m Jessica Castle, your Stress-Free Launch Strategist, and today I want to share with you four ideas for how you can make more money from the same exact course without changing a thing.
I can totally understand when you’re starting to feel like even though you already probably got most of your money and time back from all that you put into it, you feel like you’ve hit a ceiling level of what you can charge for it.
If you’ve already kind of worked up the pricing points, you may feel like you’re stuck and you’re not really sure how to take this course to the next level, how to make more money from it, and so you think the answer is to create another course, but you’re kind of dreading the time and energy that it’s going to take to get there.
So today I wanted to share with you four ideas for how you can make the maximum ROI on the course you already created and there’s a couple of reasons why I think that’s really important.
One, I’m going to say ROI again. I feel like I’ve already said that a ton in this video, but you spent a ton in time and energy on creating this course. You may have even already up-leveled it or you may have already made some changes or rerecorded videos in the second or third iteration, so you’re into this course. You’re invested and you want to make sure that you get your money back for all the time it really took to build it.
The second is because your course customers are your best customers. These are the ones that you can rely on to come back to you again and again. That doesn’t mean you have to create a new offer for them. I’ll give you some tips on that in a minute, but they will be the ones that are most likely to continue to buy additional features and things from you, so how do we get them to do that?
Let me dive into my four ideas with you now…
Your VIP Policy
The first simple tweak I want to suggest for making more money from your existing course is to add a VIP level. You may have been running your course for a flat rate or with a payment plan, and you’ve been offering that as it’s going, but one easy tweak to take it up to even $1,000 or more than what you were making before is to add a VIP level.
This could look like one-to-one calls with you. It could be group calls. You could figure out that there’s a mix of them. Maybe they also get their own private Facebook group that’s more mastermind-sized, maybe involves a retreat with you or a live event or some other kind of access, but if there’s any way you can add on levels of access to you within the program, that is a super easy way to make more money on the time you launch it, so you’ll have your regular offer still, at let’s say $500. This could be $1,500 – $2,000 for this kind of VIP level.
The VIP is also really easy because it doesn’t take a lot of time and effort for you. Basically you’re just showing up. You don’t have to recreate the course content.
It’s also really good because it’s going to have you in touch with people as they’re going through the course. It might help you come up with new ideas for bonuses or other features that you can continue to add to even enhance it even more, so VIP is one of my favorite options if you are looking for a quick way to make more money from an existing course.
Offer Them Even More
Now sometimes having a VIP level with a payment plan and a regular price, and then the regular course with the regular price and a payment plan, too many options can get confusing, so the other way you can do something like this is to have an instant upsell after they purchase.
So you get them to commit at the regular price point and then immediately after purchase, you have them do an upsell whether that’s to a one-to-one session with you, whether that’s to add on a tiny, little bonus program training, whether that’s anything else that you can think of that might be helpful. Then getting more out of the course or finishing the course faster or getting personal attention, those are really good ideas for upsells. Now obviously that’s not something you can do in PayPal checkout directly, but you could get a really great tool like SamCart, or if you use Infusionsoft or Ontraport, they have built-in features that will kind of help you put those upsells into place.
Make Them Feel Special All-Year Round
My third idea is that you could do a not-so-instant upsell. I’m actually in a program and I saw this happen, and thought it was a really smart idea, so I’m borrowing it, but what if you offer upsells throughout the lifetime of the program?
This program I have lifetime access, but about quarterly, this business owner reaches out and says, “Hey, I’ve got a few one-to-one spots open. Would you like them? I’ll give them at this discounted rate because you are a member of this program.”
Can you find other, you know, products, books you can sell them, your time to do one-to-one sessions like she did, or is there anything else you could offer on a quarterly or semiannual basis that they could upsell into then?
Maybe they finish the course and they’re like, “Sweet. I’m all set, but I’d love an extender or I’d love to pick your brain about the next steps.” Those are really good times to reach out and share to the entire class that there’s this opportunity.
The other piece is that someone might email you a question and you could say, “Hey, that’s a really great question. I’d love to spend some time on it. Would you be willing to invest $97 for 60 minutes with me, and we can talk about it?”
The key with this is that you are discounting in this third idea, because you do want the incentive there for them to want to feel special and feel like a valued member, that they’re getting this incentive because they’re a member of this program, so it’s not available to anyone else. You want to make the people in your program feel very special.
Make Alumni More Valuable Than Ever
Then my fourth and final idea for how to make more out of the same course is to think about how you could involve and get money on a monthly basis, a membership kind of model for alumni.
Now I know a ton of courses over lifetime access and I think that’s super valuable, but something that’s even more valuable is if you got those members to invest, and I’m not even talking a lot. Something like $25, $35, maybe up to $100 a month if your program is super top notch, but just a tiny fee for those alumni to feel involved, and so this could look like maybe they do get lifetime access to the program, but after their program ends or the timeframe ends, they’re kicked out of the Facebook group, but they have the option to stay in the Facebook group and continue to get a monthly, biweekly coaching call as a group and be in this alumni thing.
The other option is you could have the current students in one group and the alumni in another group, and the alumni get continual and additional training, so thinking about a hybrid model with this is, how can you tack on extra value, extra incentive for alumni to stick around and stay involved?
Because again, your course customers are your best customers, and if you can keep those alumni hot and in the loop, whenever you do launch another program or a live event or a mastermind or whatever comes after this first course, they will be the ones who are most excited to jump in.
To recap, 1) you can do the VIP option. Very easy.
2) You could do an instant upsell. Kind of easy if you got the tech for it.
3) You can do quarterly or kind of semiannual incentives for one-to-ones or other bonuses that you can offer for a slight discounted fee. That one is also pretty easy to implement.
4) Then also how can you extend the value of alumni, but turn it into a recurring monthly model? I hope those ideas are helpful to you.
I know that I love thinking kind of outside the box about how you can get the most out of something that you created, and so I hope these ideas were super helpful to you.
If you will be implementing one of them, please tell me about your course and how you plan to use one of these ideas on your next launch in the comments below, and if you have any other questions for how you can get the most value out of the course you already created, please feel free to leave those below as well, and I will see you next time.
Oh, Jess! You really are a launch genius.
These are SUCH awesome ideas. I honestly wouldn’t have ever thought of any of them. I love the idea of continuing to sell to your members by offering special deals on your 1:1 services. And the membership model is SO appealing — any way to transition over to that consistent income is a great idea. Already having the course material in place would make things so much easier.