How to Price Your Online Course in a Competitive Market
When creating an online workshop, several decisions need to be made, from choosing your workshop topic to the recording equipment and even what content will be included. A crucial choice you will have to make is determining how to price your online workshop.
If you’re like most of our online instructors on Klatch, pricing online courses can be a difficult task. Unfortunately, deciding how to price online workshops is one of the decisions that are hardest to make.
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The price of your workshop affects everything from the marketing you can do to promote your workshop, to how many students sign up for it, to the level of support and attention you can provide them.
After reading this post, you’ll have valuable tools for developing your online course pricing strategy.
Know your audience
When making your online course pricing strategy, focus on what your audience will gain from taking your online workshop. Consider the challenges they currently face in their lives and how you can help them overcome them. This is where the real value lies – for both you and your students!
One of the benefits of having a workshop taught by an expert is that students will be able to learn more quickly and effectively, minimizing wasted time and resources. When determining how to price your online course on Klatch, consider how much time your students will save by not having to figure things out for themselves.
Research the competition
When pricing online courses, many people suggest researching the prices of competing facilitators and then setting your price somewhere in between. You should not take this approach, though, as your fee should be determined by the value of your student’s results and the value of the training and support you provide. When pricing online courses, do not choose your fee based on what other workshops are selling for.
Despite this, researching your competitors is an excellent approach to confirm that others are interested in the subject. By doing this, you’re also validating the market’s need for this knowledge—not solely as a gauge for how much your workshop should cost.
If you can’t find competing workshops on your topic that are selling for a premium price, that doesn’t prevent you from being the first to offer your course. However, it is essential to consider whether a premium price is justified before launching your workshop.
Your workshop is valuable to students because of the time they will save studying with you. Without your online workshop and the guidance of a skilled facilitator, it would take months or years of trial and error to get the same result.
Compared to the price of your course, this other option is probably more expensive and time-consuming. This is good news for you. It means your course can be perceived as a bargain when compared to more costly options.
Consider your time
Our time and expertise are more important than hard costs when it comes to deciding how to price your online course. Making a course takes a lot of effort, and there are many materials available to students.
Ask yourself two questions right now:
- How much would you charge a customer for that much time?
- What did learning this cost you?
Have you paid for specialized instruction or earned a degree? How much time and effort did it take to learn the skills or knowledge you are currently sharing in your workshop? These are all crucial things to consider when you are developing your online course pricing strategy.
When pricing online courses, keep in mind that you are not exchanging hours for money. Instead, you’re imparting only knowledge you and your experience can provide.
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Set your price
Don’t automatically assume a lower price will mean more sales when pricing online courses. On the contrary, a lower price can devalue your workshop, leading to fewer sales.
Examine your workshop’s curriculum and the enhanced quality of life you provide for your learners. Your fee should increase in proportion to the quality and worth of your transformation.
Before you determine the price of your workshop, it is essential to understand what income you hope to achieve. This is a crucial first step in developing your online course pricing strategy.
For instance, if you’re hoping to make $5,000 with your online course, then pricing it at $100 will require 50 people to purchase it. However, if you price the course at $250, only 20 people need to buy it for the launch to be successful. And if you price the course at $500, only ten people will need to enrol for a successful launch.
Pricing Tiers
Pricing tiers make your course accessible to a broader range of students and those who may not be interested in all the bonuses you offer. So first, decide on which pieces of bonus content you want to include. Then, determine what each piece is worth based on its value to your audience and the ROI it will bring.
Offer Payment Plans
Students may not always be able to pay the whole amount up front, but smaller payments over a few months might be more manageable. Additionally, plans that are paid out over time typically have higher price tags.
Promote Your Workshops
It is often thought that if a workshop is inexpensive, more students will take it, making it easier for the instructor to promote and find an audience. However, people don’t typically purchase something solely because it is inexpensive; they buy it based on its value.
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Email marketing is one powerful tool you should incorporate into your online course pricing strategy. However, collecting emails (or leads) can be difficult. You may provide a discount to clients who give you their email addresses to entice them to do so. You can develop your email list and boost the likelihood that those leads will become purchases by providing a discount to those who join up for your list.
That said, discounts can harm the value of your course. Generally speaking, a small discount (5 – 10%) will be enough to counteract any lowered perceptions caused by significant discounts.
Now you can price your virtual workshop
Pricing online workshops correctly can make a big difference in the success of your business. There isn’t a magic price to charge for online courses, but there are several things you can do to guide your decision on how much to set for online workshops:
- First, consider your target market and what they’re likely willing and able to pay.
- Second, look at the competition and determine your online course pricing accordingly.
- Finally, consider factors like production time, shipping costs, taxes/fees associated with sales (if applicable), and royalties/royalties percentage.
In the case of online workshops, there is an apparent trade-off between cost and quality. That’s why higher prices will be better for you and your students.
Follow these tips on how to price online workshops, and you’re sure to create a successful online course pricing strategy.
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What is Klatch?
Klatch is a first-of-its-kind all-in-one social learning platform for live, hands-on, virtual workshops across every topic – from hobbies to professional development. Say goodbye to pre-recorded lectures and passive webinars; say hello to real-time, group-based learning. The Klatch platform enables experts to launch a workshop in minutes and provides the tools to unify their communities, grow their audience, and monetize their expertise. Apply to join the Klatch Facilitator community here or browse featured workshops here.
