How to Create a Solid Plan for Building Your Online Course
Every course project we do in our digital product creation Studio starts with a planning kickoff call. I spend 1.5 to 2 hours with the client going through each part of their project and making a plan for what we need to do and in what order.
How many lead magnets do they want to create? There’s a plan for that.
Do they want to do a pre-sale to bring in early buyers? There’s a plan for that.
Where are they in the production of their course content? There’s a plan for that.
Nothing happens without a plan. That’s not to say the plan always goes smoothly. Some things get reordered or pushed back. Sometimes the client decides to go in a different direction or scrap something entirely. But because we have a core plan, making those adjustments is easy.
During this kickoff, I often see the client realize just how much work their project is going to take. Before this session, it’s kind of an abstract thing. They know building a course is gonna be work. But they haven’t quite conceptualized what that work actually is. That’s why we plan. Because it’s so much, we need to have every single thing laid out - ideally with dates attached.
If you’re planning to create a course or some kind of program, you’ll also need a plan. Doing this up front will mean you can see the work ahead of you and factor it into all the other things you have to do. It may also mean you can see where some of your ideas for your course just aren’t viable. A plan does more than lay out the tasks. It also helps you see the landscape of what you’re about to take on.
Here are the areas you need to factor into your plan so you can get your course done without it becoming overly burdensome (which is often when people abandon their plan all together). And if you have a course ticking around in your brain, get it on paper in The Online Course Development and Planning Blueprint, a 3-part blueprint that helps you work through each of the essential parts of planning and preparing to create and market your next online course.
SOLIDIFYING YOUR PRODUCT SOLUTION
Every product starts with an idea, but not every idea if fleshed out enough that the product created is actually valuable. These days, it’s not enough to just throw something out there and say “This is a great product. You should buy it.” People are way more discerning nowadays - especially with where they spend their money.
Your course or product solves a problem. So the first part of your plan is making sure you can explain that solution and what your buyers will get from your product. This drives every other part of the plan. Because everything comes back to your solution.
Your course content needs to follow your process for achieving the solution.
Your collateral needs to be useful and help your students work toward the solution.
Your marketing message needs to talk about your solution and how your product helps people achieve it.
See? It all comes back to the solution you’re offering.
Everyday I see people on Threads (my main platform) talking about their product or service. What it is, how you can get your hands on it. Why it’s so amazing. But what they never talk about is the solution it offers. What does your thing help people DO? If you can’t tell me that when talking about your product, I’m not gonna go searching for it. I’m just gonna scroll.
So since the idea for your product is so important, we need to start with it in your plan. We need to understand what you’re trying to create and its value in the market. We need to know the specific problem it solves and the specific solution it offers.
Start here and everything else will flow.
YOUR CONTENT OUTLINE
Once you know the solution you’re offering, creating an outline for your content becomes much easier. Because you’ll know what you need your students to learn and do and you’ll be able to see where some things might be unnecessary or just filler content.
The best way to create an outline is to start at the macro level and write down all the things your students will need to know. Get it all down in a Google doc (or in this Blueprint) - even the things that might not be that important.
From there, your modules and lessons will take shape. You can see in what order your modules need to go and where your lessons will fit into those modules. And you will be able to see what collateral (if any) you need to create in order to help your students do various tasks.
Your outline should look like this.
MODULE 1: THE BEGINNING
Lesson 1: Setting your students up for success
Lesson 2: Preparing to learn
Lesson 3: The things they will need to do your course (collateral: PDF checklist of those things)
Your outline should lay out every single piece of content you need to create. From this outline, you can create your video scripts, written parts of the course and the collateral to go with it. Will it be a lot of Google docs? Yes. But that’s another benefit of the outline. You can use it to link to all the different parts you’re creating so you have one central place to find it all.
Once your outline is done, go through it and look for these things:
Gaps in your content: Are you missing essential elements or have you forgotten something that really should be there?
Opportunities to consolidate: Are some of your lessons too long? Can you combine two lessons into one and make the module shorter?
The filler: The days of huge courses are over. Make your course easily digestible by cutting out as much as you can while still maintaining the core teachings.
Spending a good amount of time on your outline will actually save you time in the long run. You’ll know exactly what you need to create instead of winging it and hoping for the best.
THE MARKETING PLAN
This part of the planning process is a bit more fluid because marketing is an everyday thing. And you really can’t focus on marketing while you’re in the creation process. Our clients have tried and they always get overwhelmed by having to do so many things at once.
At the very least, you should have an overview of the messaging for your product. Because you will want to start talking about it well before you launch. A course - or any new product - should never be a surprise to your audience. You need to start nurturing them ASAP to build awareness about your product.
You can’t just say “Here’s my product that I’ve never told you about before today. Wanna buy it?” That’s not how consumers work.
So your initial marketing plan needs to cover these areas:
Your content topics: What do you need to start talking about in your content in order to attract the people interested in those things?
Incentives: Do you want to do a waitlist or some kind of incentive to attract early buyers?
Product messaging: When do you want to start talking about the product that’s coming? Do you have a hard launch date? Do you have any stories that you can tell around the creation of your product?
This can all be planned out in the second tab of The Online Course Development and Planning Blueprint.
PLANNING FOR YOUR TECH
This is one of those things that can coincide with your content outline. You will need tech to run your course, but how much tech will depend on a number of factors.
Do you need to drip or lock your content to control how your students access it?
Do you need a bunch of automation?
Are you planning to use email as part of your student experience?
As you’re planning your outline, think about how you want to run your course. If you already use some tech tools, you may be able to continue with them. But if what you’re using won’t work for whatever reason, then you’ll have to look for something else.
There are plenty of options to choose from so don’t get bogged down in this part. But just have it in the back of your mind as you’re doing the rest of your planning.
This article was originally posted on Cason Creative Studio’s website
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