← The Amy Porterfield Show
The Amy Porterfield Show
#743: A Course Worth It's Price Tag... The Key To Creating Courses That Sell
00:36:57
Keep your students engaged and motivated with perfectly designed digital course modules.
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When you hint at the fact that you have frameworks in your course and that you're going to teach them the exact roadmap, then they are willing to pay.
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I'm Amy Porterfield, ex corporate girl turned CEO of a multi seven figure business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, the budget and the time to focus on growing my small but mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned and you'll see the business I have today. One that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible. One that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step by step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur or one in the making who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and a life you love, you're in the right place, friend. Let's get started.
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Foreign hey there. Merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate and welcome back to Online Marketing Made Easy. Today I'm re releasing one of my most popular episodes, how to Create the Perfect Digital Course Module. In this episode, I take a deep dive into the art and science behind designing the perfect digital course module, sharing everything you need to know to keep your students engaged, motivated and moving toward transformation every step of the way. Whether you're using some time off over the holidays to work on your course outlines or you're planning for a course refresh in the new year, this episode is full of practical strategies that you'll want to apply as you create your digital course content. Let's get to it. So before we get any further, let's get on the same page around what a digital course module is. Imagine your digital course is a journey you're guiding your students through. Each module represents the main steps they need to follow to reach the outcome that you've promised them. Think of it as a road trip. Each module is like a sign on the side of the road, guiding your student closer to their destination. Within each module, you're going to include lessons. These are the detailed instructions that go even deeper into each step so your lessons can get detailed and specific. But when developing your modules, you want to communicate only the most fundamental steps towards that promised transformation. So to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, let me share some course topics and module names from two of my STAAR students. So first up, my student, Alyssa Small has a program that simplifies surrogacy to help intended parents not feel so overwhelmed during the process. Her course is called the Surrogacy Blueprint and she has four Demystifying Surrogacy Steps for Surrogacy Success, Maximizing youg Finances and Mastering the Match. So those are her modules. That is the roadmap. And then of course, under each module would be individual lessons that teach whatever that module is about. So another one of my students, Karen Jackson, has a course called the 40 plus face achieving complexion perfection. Her modules are named Getting to know your Skin, Understanding foundation and Applying your Foundation. So not tons of modules, but her promise is to help you have this perfect complexion. And this is how she's going to teach you how to get it. Now you can see the modules in each example above are just the main steps that help organize the content. Their lessons will dive much deeper into specifics. The lessons are under each module, but the modules really help students understand where they're going. So clarity and progress start to unfold for your students when you help them zero in on one thing at a time in each of the modules. If you're multitasking, come back to me because this is important when creating your modules. Set your students up for success with a singular goal per module and help them stay focused on this. Once the modules are set for your course, you can fill them up with lessons that provide all the details your students need to accomplish these main steps. Each lesson within the module should house a 5 to 10 minute video. Keep it short, keep it sweet, and most importantly, keep it actionable. So let's say you have four modules and typically under each module you have three to six, seven individual lessons, each giving instruction on how to get results for that one specific module. Now, when you're putting this structure into place in your course, you don't want your students just passively watching these videos. You want to motivate them to take action. I found that the best way to do this is to include a PDF download within each of the lessons, or at least in many of the lessons. So this helps outline the action steps your students need to take to implement what they're learning. Now, I also love to use my PDFs in a way to keep my videos short. So if I have a module teaching people how to do a high converting webinar, which I do have a module, it's module 5 in digital course Academy. It's all about the profitable webinar framework. Now under that module I have multiple lessons teaching you all the things you need to know about webinars. I want to keep my video short. Typically they're between 10 and 15 minutes. To be honest, I like five to 10 minutes and that's your goal. But sometimes you need to go 12 minutes, 15 minutes. But regardless, I try to keep them as short as possible. And one of the ways I keep my video short because it feels like you can get through them easier. No one wants to watch a 30 minute video when it could be 10 minutes, right? And so I try to keep my videos around 10 to 12 minutes and then I use the PDF for more of a step by step kind of framework. So I explain the big picture, I give a lot of examples in the lesson and then when they're ready to do the work, they could download the PDF and that is where they're going to get their action steps all laid out. I don't have to put that in the video to make it longer. It's already in the PDF. And the great thing, and here's a little secret that I wasn't planning on telling you, but I'm going to tell you right now, and I teach this in Digital Course Academy, is that before you record any of your lessons, you should know if you're going to include a PDF or not. And you should decide what that PDF is going to be so that you can reference it in your video. And it eases your student's mind. Like, hey, don't worry about the step by step action plan. I have that in the PDF that goes along with this video. So then they're like, oh, okay, great, now I can focus and relax. So I love referencing the PDF if I can. Now, another way to get your students fired up and ready to take action is by sharing relatable examples. Whether it's a story from your own journey or success stories of past students or clients, these real life examples can be a game changer. When your students can see someone else achieving the outcome they want, they'll start believing, hey, I could do this too. So every time you introduce a new idea or concept in your course, pause and ask yourself, how can I showcase a real world success story here? Remember when I mentioned my students modules names earlier in this podcast? That's me walking the talk, showing real world examples of what I'm teaching to help you grasp the concept better. Now I know that if you're new with creating your course and you are your only success story, which is totally fine, then you're going to need to tell more stories about your own experience. But you can also tell stories about about celebrities or people in your industry that you're teaching that have had great success. So you can use people that you haven't necessarily worked with specifically, but you could tell their stories. A great example of this is Tony Robbins. When he's on stage, he tells tons of stories, and they're not all stories of people that he's worked with personally. He'll tell stories of celebrities and actors and entrepreneurs, and he really brings these stories to life and he acts them and he does such a great job. So not every story he tells is of a person that he's worked with specifically. A lot of them are, but not all of them. So that's where I first saw this happen. And I'm like, oh, that really puts some context around it or adds a few layers around what I'm teaching. So I'm all about that. But examples can be such a magic ingredient in your course. So invest some time now to gather and weave these stories into each module and lesson. And if you're looking for guidance on this, I've got just the thing for you. So I want you to check out my podcast episode titled behind the Scenes How I Collect Money Making Testimonials. Because if you do have students out there and you don't yet have testimonials from them, well, the thing is, they're never going to knock on your door and say, hey, I've got a testimonial for you. That's rare. You have to go to them with a system in place to help them tell you their success and really get it out of them. And then you create that story for them. You've got to do the work. And I've got an entire system of how I collect testimonials. So it's episode 370. So just go to amyporterfield.com 370 and you can learn my strategy and my framework for collecting really great testimonials. All right, next up, I'm going to introduce some more advanced strategies that I use to help up level my course modules. And here's the deal. I want you to start with the basics from these strategies I'm about to share. And over time, as you revamp and relaunch your course, you can sprinkle in some of the more advanced strategies. I certainly did not start by offering all of these strategies I'm going to teach you here with my first course launch, but I want to share these with you to plant a seed of how you can increase the value of your course over time. Remember, I've been doing this for 14 years, my friend, so this is not how I started, but I think this insight will be really valuable for you. So first up is developing frameworks for your course and your modules. Simply put, a framework is your approach to teaching. It's how you visually show your students how to navigate through your content to get the best results. So when creating a framework, you're basically laying out a roadmap with directions like a gps. It makes your students feel like you've got them. Now, when you take the steps and the phases of your course and illustrate it, you're showing your students they don't have to go hunting and pecking all over the web to figure it out on their own. This is how the content of your course is part of your marketing strategy too. So let's say you have a student out there that's or a potential student that is thinking about buying and they think, why would I pay for this information when I can search on YouTube for free and learn how to do this? However, with a visual framework to show them, like in your marketing, if you're using these frameworks and then in your courses you use them as well, they can see that there's a sale system, there's a step by step process to help them get the results that they want. That's what people pay for. A proven and fast transformation that helps them sidestep mistakes and hours of research on their own. Tell me exactly how to do it. And when you hint at the fact that you have frameworks in your course and that you're going to teach them the exact roadmap, then they are willing to pay. Finally, a framework makes you a better teacher. When you're outlining your course visually, a natural flow will appear to guide you. So when developing your framework, I want you to start by asking these four questions. Number one, what are the results I plan to get from my students? Number two, what's the best possible way I can get my students from point A to point B as quickly as possible and not lose their attention? Number three, how do my students want to learn this content? And number four, where do I anticipate stumbling blocks? So once you have these questions answered, sit down and brainstorm the simplest way to visually represent your framework or frameworks. I have multiple frameworks in Digital Course Academy, so I have a framework for how to do a high converting webinar. I have a framework for how to outline a digital course in five easy steps. I have a framework for how to validate your digital course idea. These are all in Digital Course Academy. It's easy for me to teach because I've already mapped it out in a visual framework that my students can understand quickly. So, for example, you could lay it out in steps or phases, or a system you're teaching, or a process, a formula, or a recipe. Those are different ways to look at how to put together a framework. Now, I'm a step by step kind of girl, so I do a lot of my frameworks in step one. Step two. Like I have the Porterfield Process for Outlining a Digital Course. That's my framework. I give it a title, the Porterfield Process for Outlining a Digital Course. So original and it's five steps. So that's one of my frameworks in dca. But I have many students who have cyclical or nonlinear frameworks because that's what best supports their content. So the thing to keep in mind here is that your framework should help simplify the process for your students, whatever that looks like for you. Hey there. A quick word from our sponsor, Shopify. If you sell digital products in your business, such as templates, planners, checklists, guides, any kind of printables, you should definitely check out Shopify. In fact, I just did a whole podcast about how selling digital products like printables is a great way to get a quick cash injection. So I want you to upgrade your business and get a high converting checkout. When you use Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com convert made easy, all lowercase. So go to shopify.com made easy to upgrade your selling today shopify.com made easy. Now from here you do want to draw out the framework. There's an illustration part of this that's important. So when I develop mine, I literally draw it out. I grab a notebook and a pen and I draw it out. And I'm the worst illustrator ever. So it never looks good, good, but that way I can just see it laid out and then I can make changes and move things around. And then I can give it to my designer and say, can you make this look good? By the time she works on it, it looks so good compared to mine. But just like a simple illustration is where we need to start. And then when I think about writing copy about that framework, I try to keep it as simple and concise as possible. Like I use single words or short phrases, nothing longer than one or two sentences to really simplify what this framework is about. And real quick going back to me asking my designer to make it look good, you might not have a designer. For years and years I did not have a designer on my team. So I would go to Canva. They have templates that you can use to build out your framework visually. So just use Canva. Great resource. So once you have the framework designed, there are a couple different places that you can use this in your course. I like to include one framework in my welcome module, so this gives students a 10,000 foot overview of what they're about to embark on. People want to know where are you taking me? So when it's laid out visually in the very beginning, it makes it all feel so much more doable. So you will always find an illustration of a framework of what this course is all about in my welcome video. So like in Digital Course Academy, one of my signature courses, the framework in my welcome module, it is named the Course Creation and Launch Framework. Now notice I don't get super cheeky or super creative with these titles. Just say what it is. Course Creation and Launch Framework. So that's the first framework you'll see in Digital Course Academy in the welcome video and it details the overarching steps from Module one all the way to Module six of the course. And I also share it multiple times throughout the course modules. Since I drip my content week by week in this program, this is especially helpful to remind my students where we are and where we're going. So when you get into module four, I'll probably start that module with hey, just want to remind you of the Course Creation and Launch framework and show you what we've done, where we're at now and where we're going. So I use it over and over again. Another place a framework can help is inside a particularly long or complicated module that brings up fear or doubt in your students minds. So let me give you another example from Digital Course Academy. As I talked to my students over the years, I heard a lot of fear and doubt around delivering webinars. But webinars are one of the most important marketing strategies that I teach to get my students big results. So I knew I needed to figure out a way to help them develop confidence in this area. That is how the profitable webinar framework was born. I took the exact steps that I used to create my own high converting webinars and I laid it out step by step, slide by slide in a framework to include in this module. My students now just need to follow and plug in their own content and deliver their webinar with confidence. There's no guesswork or room for fear because I've given them a tested and proven framework to follow. So Think of the areas where your students tend to get stuck or in their head and think how a visual representation can simplify it for them. Because at the end of the day, people want to get through your course as fast as humanly possible. They don't want more videos from you, they don't want more lessons, they don't want more PDFs, they just want the fastest way to get the results that you're promising. And so if you can show them a visual look, this is what we're doing. We don't need to overthink it, we don't need to over complicate it. This is exactly what we're doing in this module per se, that creates some ease. Now, before we move on to the next strategy, I want to remind you that your frameworks won't be developed overnight. It's an evolving process that will change with each iteration of your course. I remember developing and reworking the frameworks that I use in Digital Course Academy a couple years ago. I invited my director of content at the time, jaws, who's now my CEO, and my senior content manager, Jilly, to my home. It was the three of us at my house, basically debating what over the new order of things that should be taught in Digital Course Academy. We went for two days, we hashed it out, we came up with a plan, we punched holes in it, we came back to the table, we slept on it, we talked about it more. So this took two full days and three people to figure out. So give yourself time and grace to put this strategy into place. And once you have a framework out there and once you get feedback, you could always tweak it and make it better. Now to dive more into frameworks. In one of my most recent podcast episodes, I had a chat with my friend Rory Vaden and we did this episode how to create a signature Framework. And I got really great feedback from that one. You all loved it, those of you who heard it. So it's episode 613. So amyporterfield.com 613three very popular episode. Highly recommend it. All about how to do frameworks. All right, so the next advanced strategy that you can consider to up level your modules is to include live bonus trainings. I genuinely believe having a live component in your course is essential these days to stand out online. Offering one off bonus trainings inside your modules is a great way to accomplish this at scale scale. So live bonus trainings should be structured to help remove roadblocks and provide an extra motivation boost for your students. So for example, In Digital Course Academy, I do three live bonus trainings that are presented to students in modules 1, 3 and 5. Now I know that these are places that my students struggle to make a decision or feel particularly overwhelmed in my course. So for example, in Module 1, many DCA students need help building their email list to align with their course topic, but they get so overwhelmed with what to offer as a free lead magnet versus what to include in their paid course. So I do a surprise live training. You don't even know about this when you buy DCA and it's called the lead magnet topic Test Drive Training. And it's all about showing up with an idea for your lead magnet. And I do five minute test drives where they get on camera with me, they tell me their lead magnet idea, they tell me their course idea and we hash out if it's a good lead magnet to grow their list for their course. So I do that with as many people as I can within the hour. But not everyone needs this in Digital Course Academy so I don't want to include it as a core lesson in the program. Some people come into DCA already have built their email list, so when it comes to digital courses, less is more. But since I know it will help many of my students, I include it as a bonus live training. And it's a great way for me to connect with my audience since all of my trainings in GCA are pre recorded. So I love mixing in some live engagement. You so to figure out the best modules for live trainings in your course, listen to your students. Where are they getting tripped up? Where are they asking the most questions? It's such a good cue for you to come up with a live bonus training for your students. Now if you're just starting out and you're not sure yet, get on the phone with your ideal student and ask them where they've lost motivation or given up in the past. So this could give you some insight where you need to provide safety nets for them. But also you know your content well, you know where people are likely going to get stuck. So if you could think of one or two live bonus trainings to add to your modules, by all means, just start there. Also, you could bring in a guest trainer. So a great live bonus trainee would be someone that could help shift people's mindset. So it's one thing for me to teach webinar strategy all day long, but if you don't believe you're worthy of selling online, well then all my webinar strategies are never going to work. So in the past, I've brought in some people that are mindset experts, like coaches, business coaches that can help you with getting your mind on straight around, creating courses, launching courses, putting yourself out there. So there's different ways you can do this. It doesn't have to be you. You can bring in a guest as well. Another thing that I do is every week I do a live Q and A for tech questions. But I am not a big techie person. And so I've used the same guy, his name is Dave Kaminsky. For years and years he's helped me with my own tech and then he's helped teach my students tech when they get stuck. So now we do a live bonus Q and A every single week with Dave. And if you've got a tech question, you can show up. So those are the kind of things that I try to think about, okay, what do my modules look like? What do the different frameworks look like? And then where are people going to get stuck? And can I offer some live engagement during the period that my course is live so I could take things to the next level? So next up is one of my very favorite strategies for keeping students engaged and progressing through my course. And that's sprinkling in some pep talk videos. Now, I know my students like the back of my hand. In fact, I know the moments my students are tempted to throw in the towel and head out for a happy hour instead of working on their course. Like, I've been doing this for a long time. Now, I also know my students well, not just from listening to them and talking to them over the years, but also I've had all the different insecurities and challenges that they have had. And so I'm very clear what's showing up for them. And I want my students to know that all the challenges, all the confusion and awkwardness of just getting started, totally worth it. So what I do is I create pre recorded motivational videos, but in very specific areas. So if there's an area that I know my student's going to get in their head, they're going to think they're not worthy of this or not good enough or not educated enough or not ready, I pop up at that time. Now, it's a prerecorded video and I will usually email it to my student at the exact time that they're starting a module where I know they're going to feel stuck. And I'll say, listen, before you start this module, you're going to feel XYZ or You might have feelings of whatever pop up for you. I know this because I've been in your shoes. So here's what I want you to do. These videos are five to seven minutes, but they come at the most perfect time. You don't even know how many times I have gotten a DM on Instagram where someone said, amy, I was about to give up. Or I was about to throw in the tail today because I was so overwhelmed. But then I saw your pep talk video. You spoke directly to my insecurities. I'm back in the game. I hear it so many times. And so random pep talk prerecorded videos inside of your modules A great idea. I really believe that what sets the best digital course modules apart is finding the perfect blend of motivation and strategy. The majority of my videos are strategy and how to, but you will also find motivational, inspiring pep talk videos sprinkled in throughout when I think my students need it the most. Now, before we wrap up today, I have one more advanced strategy that I want to share and that's to think about mixing up the type of content in your modules. It's important to remember your students will absorb information differently. Some will learn best through audio, others are visual learners, and some may identify as hands on learners. So let's dive deep into the importance of visual aids. First, when you're creating the core video content for your modules, it's incredibly beneficial to incorporate slides. Not only do they emphasize your key points, but they also visually showcase the concepts that you're teaching, especially those frameworks that we discussed earlier in this episode. And speaking of visuals, you can also use the PDF downloads that you're going to create to incorporate illustrations in those so that they can see it as well as just learn it and hear about it from you. Now let's talk about content for audio learners. One way I've done this over the years is to offer audio versions of each lesson in a module. I use a tool called hello Audio and it lets me convert my lessons into a podcast style format. This way those auditory learners can soak up knowledge even while they're on the move. So I have a private podcast that you can get on Apple Podcast and other platforms that is only for my digital course academy students. So that's pretty cool, right? So if you want to talk about or look into a private podcast for your digital course, look into hello Audio. Now for my hands on learners, I've got this super fun post it note party that I do every year where I get on Zoom. I encourage them to grab a stack of post it notes and Sharpie pens and we do an entire hour long exercise together where they are on their feet. They are doing this post it note strategy and I'm guiding them. So that's an example of a little bit more hands on. I don't have a lot of that, but that is one of them. So as you grow as a course creator, think about how you can mix it up with audio and interactive activities and visual exercises to cater to all the ways that your students learn all right my friend, we've made it to the end of today's episode and as we wrap up, I want to leave you with a few key takeaways to reflect on. First, when creating your digital course, start by asking yourself, how can I lay out the simplest and most straightforward steps for my students to follow to achieve their desired transformation? These steps will make up your modules. Then look at the video lessons that you're going to create within each module. Ensure you're concise yet impactful, and pair them with PDF guides that outline the main action steps so you don't have to put all of that in the video, making the video long and drawn out. Use your PDFs to make your video shorter. Next, think about how you can enhance your content with visual tools like Frameworks. Now, once you have all of this established, consider where you can add in live bonus sessions taught by you or guest experts to address any challenges your students might face in certain modules. And then when you start pinpointing common sense stumbling blocks or areas where people are getting stuck, you can also sprinkle in those pep talk videos inside different modules to make sure that your students know Look, I understand where you're at, I see you, I hear you, and this is what you do to get unstuck. Lastly, it's important to remember that every student is unique. See if you can offer a blend of audio, visual, hands on exercises and experiences to cater to diverse learning styles. So I hope this episode showed you that effective course modules are not just about providing information to your students. Rather, it's about crafting an organized structure that genuinely captivates, motivates and engages them right through to the finish line. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Online Marketing Made Easy. I'll see you next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.