144: Launch your online course with confidence (with no complicated tech or no funnels!)

In this episode 144 of Online Business Uncovered, I’m diving into a topic that so many entrepreneurs overcomplicate… how to launch your online course with confidence without getting lost in tech headaches or building some massive, fancy funnel.

If you’ve been putting off your launch because it feels too big, too messy or too “techy” then this episode is going to feel like a breath of fresh air.

I’m breaking down exactly what you do need (I promise that it’s a lot simpler than you think!), what you can skip and the most common mistakes that slow first-time course creators down.

I’m also sharing real stories from my own early launches including what worked, what absolutely didn’t and how I finally learned to keep things simple so I could actually get my course out into the world. You’ll hear why clarity beats complexity every time, how to show up for your audience in a way that builds trust and what to focus on so your launch actually creates results.

If you’re ready to ditch the overwhelm, stop tinkering with tech and finally launch your course with confidence then this episode will give you the clarity and momentum you’ve been craving.

Let’s get your brilliance out there!

Transcript

Karen [00:00:01]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 144, and in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about launching your online course with confidence so that you can generate sales. So let's jump right in and let's get started.

Karen [00:00:29]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This show helps you turn your expertise into digital products, passive income, and most importantly, into time freedom. I'm your host, Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting the play button to listen to today's episode. 

This episode is sponsored by the Digital Creators Hub, and if you're not in the hub, then I highly encourage you to head on over and sign up for free because I've got master classes, I've got tools, I've got resources that I share with you to help you get your online business started. Today, head over to www.sell your brillianceonline.com/community and go and sign up today. Okay, so back to today's episode. And today I've got a really good one actually, because I'm going to be talking about launching your online course.

Karen [00:01:31]:
So over the past nine weeks I have been dropping episodes which cover the 10 steps to online course success. And every week I have been breaking the process down to give you some insights and way forward to planning your course, creating your course, building your course, and then in today's episode, we're going to be talking about launching your course. So if you are new to this podcast and you are curious about what it takes to create and launch an online course, then you've absolutely landed at the right place and I would encourage you to go and have a look at the previous episode. Episode. Now, from episode one three, six is where I kicked off, where I was talking about how to choose your best online course topic. And then in episode 137, I was talking about creating a course that actually people actually want. Now, episode 138 is about pricing and what to actually charge for your online course. And then in episode 139, I shared the one line that can actually make or break your online course sales.

Karen [00:02:46]:
Episode 140, I've been talking about the hidden ingredient that often gets missed but is so important when creating a profitable course. And then in episode one for one, I talk about what the best courses all have in common. And then with episode 142, I share three strategies to simplifying your course creation process so you can do this without feeling overwhelmed. And then in last Week's episode, episode 143, I also shared three simple strategies to delivering an online course that your students will actually enjoy and complete. So as you can see, over the past nine weeks I've really kind of tried to really share the process so that you understand what is actually involved. And today I'm finishing the series by talking about how to successfully launch your course so you can generate sales. So this is launching without spiraling into tech overwhelm, overthinking or disappearing down a rabbit building.

Karen [00:04:09]:
Or disappearing down into a funnel building rabbit hole where you just end up giving up because you just don't know what you're doing. So today I'm going to be breaking this all down to give you an insight into what is actually involved when it comes to launching your online course.

Karen [00:04:29]:
So if you are in a position where you have an online course, then it's going to be time to get it out into the world. Now, before I talk about launching, I want you to hear a few things. I want you to know that number one, you do not need a massive, complicated launch to generate sales. You don't need that. You also do not need a 47 email sequence running 10 ads with a full blown webinar funneling place where you just end up getting lost in the tech and and you end up giving up because you're just so overwhelmed you don't want to continue.

Karen [00:05:10]:
However, what you do need is a simple clear path for people to buy and you want to provide the confidence to guide them to that place. So when it comes to launching, it is all about conviction and confidence.

Karen [00:05:27]:
So in today's episode, I'm going to be breaking down the bare essentials to launching your course. The common mistakes that tend to stall your course. And I'm also going to talk about how I launch my course as well to give you a little bit of insight and context as to what has worked for me and what I would definitely recommend others to be thinking about.

Karen [00:05:55]:
Okay, so I want to kick off with covering simple launch essentials because I see so many other business owners and entrepreneurs believing that they need to build a really massive launch machine just to generate a few sales. And honestly, that belief alone can stop more people launching than anything else. So what you actually need to launch your course is number one, you need a clear offer. So you need to be really clear on what it is, who it's for and the transformation that it delivers. So you must nail that down because that will be infused in your marketing messaging. You also need a really simple sales page. Now, I know that a lot of people doing this are not Designers, they don't have a design degree. Design is not their thing.

Karen [00:06:54]:
And if you're sitting there thinking, I don't know how to create a sales page and I'm certainly not a designer, then I want you to hear this, because it doesn't have to be fancy, you don't have to use a lot of tech. It just needs to be clear. It needs to be simple and needs to be compelling. I would focus on spending 80% of your time on, on the copy, the written word, because that is what your visitor is going to be reading and that is what's going to compel them to buy. Yes, having fancy graphics and pretty colors and all of that stuff adds to the appeal because it sets a tone. But you don't necessarily need to have this when you start out. Keep it simple, keep it compelling, and make sure that your messaging is so nailed down that the person that you're trying to speak to is nodding because they resonate with what you're saying, they agree with you, and they want what you have to offer. So it's much more important to focus on what you're saying rather than how the page looks.

Karen [00:08:05]:
However, what I will also say is that there are a lot of tools out there these days that offer templates. I build in a platform called System. I talk about Systeme all the time. I love Systeme. It comes with templates. So if you are not a designer, use the template, because then you can just plug and play your content. You can add your colors, add your images, and you'll have a nicely designed page. But focus then on the copy so that your what you're saying really stands out.

Karen [00:08:43]:
So design is important because design sets the tone and it adds to the appeal. But I would focus 20% on design, 80% on the copy, so that you really do nail down your messaging.

Karen [00:08:57]:
The other thing you need is a way to take payment because you want to generate sales, so you want to make that as easy as possible. So in your sales page, you need to have one button with one link that goes to checkout page. Now, again, in Systeme, they make it super easy to do this. So you can use Systeme IO to create your sales page with a checkout page and a thank you page. That's a very simple funnel. That's all you need. And for those of you who don't know Systeme IO, one of the reasons why I tend to recommend it is because when you're starting out as a course creator or a product creator, you're not generating sales. So you don't want to be adopting tech that requires a hefty investment upfront.

Karen [00:09:51]:
Now the great thing with System IO is that they do a free tier so you can create your first course, your first membership, first community. You can have abundance of different funnels, you can have lots of different things before you even start paying. And then at a point when you're then ready to upgrade, it's only, it's only $17 which equates to about 12 pound. Now I've tested out a lot of these products on the market. I'm a bit of a tech geek. I love the whole tech side of it and I've, you know, I've adopted systeme because it's by far the best platform for online business entrepreneurs. And I've actually built it as the back end of my website and I create all my sales pages or my reg pages, my funnels, all of that good stuff I have created in System IO. So if you are just starting out and you want to play around with it, I would encourage you to go and check this platform out because you can get started for nothing.

Karen [00:10:57]:
Please do not let tech stop you from taking action because you can figure it out as you go along. And if you need help with it, then just come along and join my membership which is sell your brilliance online membership and come and learn because I teach system in my membership as well and my membership, there'll be a link in the show notes. It's very affordable but it gets people started using this tech. It's absolutely brilliant. I even in the, in the membership I have templates that I share so that my members don't have to create funnels from scratch. I try and just break it down and make it as simple as possible because you don't want to be spending all your time in the tech. What you want to be doing is focusing on ways that going to get your product out there so you can start making money. But do check out System IO because honestly it's absolutely brilliant.

Karen [00:11:57]:
Okay, so once you've got your sales page and your checkout then you want to create a few emails for because you want to tell people about it. So if you've got an email list, absolutely brilliant again you can have this in System. You can write email marketing, all of that good stuff. If you are new to email marketing then maybe start to consider building an email list because that will be your audience where you'll be able to sell your online course. But what you really want to be doing is ideally sending some emails out so that you're telling people about your product. If you don't have an email list, that's absolutely fine. Then it's a case of maybe creating a few social posts. Wherever you hang out, wherever your audience are, you just want to get your message out there so they know your course exists.

Karen [00:12:57]:
The other thing you really want to do is you want to give people the opportunity to ask questions. So this could be through direct messaging, it could be through email, or it could even be through a reply button. It doesn't matter. It's about you being accessible to your audience because they may be on the verge of buying, but what might stop them is a question that they have. So make yourself available so you can answer those questions. Now, if you are on Instagram and you love Instagram and that's your platform, then you can do IG stories where maybe you do frequently asked questions. So maybe you answer those questions ahead of people asking them. You just want to kind of make sure though, that you are accessible so people can reach out to you.

Karen [00:13:51]:
And that's it. That's all you need for the foundation of a successful launch, because everything else is optional. So as said, you don't need lots of different things. You just need the right things that you have in place that is going to get you in front of your audience so you can start talking about your online course.

Karen [00:14:16]:
Now. I see a lot of mistakes that people are making.

Karen [00:14:21]:
And what this does, it slows down their launch or it kind of blocks their success. And I don't want you making mistakes. So I just want to kind of run through a few common mistakes that I, you know, if you've launched a course before, maybe you can identify with this. If you're new to launching, then I just want to sort of share it with you so you know what to avoid. So mistake one is trying to automate everything before you start. What I would recommend here is deliver your process first. Get comfortable with getting everything in place, get confident everything works. Start generating sales, and then once you have those sales, then look to automate.

Karen [00:15:12]:
You don't need to get caught up in the weeds of automation at the very beginning, especially if you are trialing and you're tweaking and you're doing things to see what works. I think automation comes when you're confident that everything you are delivering works and that your audience are responding really well to it. So don't try and sort of get ahead of the game, really. Like spend some time making sure everything's working. And then when you're confident and you've got those sales in, then focus on automation. The second mistake is building too many assets at the beginning. And what I mean by that is we are often told in the online space to run a conversion event. So that could be run a free challenge, deliver a webinar, create a funnel, a nurture sequence, so on and so forth.

Karen [00:16:11]:
There's so many things that, that you can be spending your time doing, but you don't need to do them all at once. What I would say, if you are new to launching, keep it simple. Because when you create a launch, there's often quite a few things that need doing and you can get lost in the weeds of that and then you can kind of miss the activity because you're so bogged down with what needs to be done. You're not actually getting stuff out there and getting it launched. You can launch in many different ways. There's not one way that suits everyone. So keep it simple and make sure that you're only focusing on one thing. So for example.

Karen [00:16:57]:
If you want to deliver a webinar and then sell at the end of a webinar, only focus on the webinar. Don't run a challenge before a webinar. Then do a webinar and then do like a, you know, a 56 email sequence where, you know, you're kind of bringing people into your funnel and trying to nurture them and doing all that stuff. Just focus on the webinar because the more stuff that you put in your way, the more overwhelmed you're going to feel and the less action you're going to take. And we want to avoid that at all cost. Mistake number three is waiting until everything is perfect. Perfection is a moving target. You know, I don't believe perfection really exists, to be honest with you, because what I think to be perfect, somebody else could think is really not perfect.

Karen [00:17:43]:
So all subjective. I think what's most important is gaining clarity from taking action and doing. And I think when it comes to launching, that's the best way you're going to learn. Now, I think launching anything, whether it's an online course, a digital product, a new service, whatever, it's a skill that needs to be learned. So you need to give yourself time, space and grace to learn the skill and to get better at it. And you can only do that by taking action and repeating that process. So if you are somebody that maybe you've tried launching once and it didn't work and you didn't get the results and then you've given up, I would encourage you to revisit it. Because often success comes from being consistent and repeating what you're doing and taking the learning and then making, making changes from the stuff that you're learning.

Karen [00:18:44]:
So if, if you're doing something and it doesn't work, why is it not working? Ask yourself that question. Be inquisitive, be a scientist, really get into the, you know, the nuances of it. You know, why has this failed? Don't be afraid to fail, because through failure you will learn to succeed. So keep going, keep launching, take action and you will generate the results that you are desiring.

Karen [00:19:13]:
Mistake number four is kind of hiding behind your content instead of actually making an offer. I think a lot of us are guilty of this. I know this is something that I've been guilty of in the past.

Karen [00:19:30]:
Teaching somebody how to do something without giving them the next step is going to stall your sales.

Karen [00:19:39]:
Teaching somebody and then providing the next step is going to enhance your sales. Because when you teach somebody something, logically, they're going to want to implement and do whatever comes next. And if you are not presenting your offer when you are teaching, then you are leaving money on the table. You are missing out on those sales. So don't hide behind free content. It's easy to do that because it's free. And if you're only offering free content, then there's no expectation. But set yourself expectations.

Karen [00:20:18]:
If you're going to give that value and you're going to show up and you're going to share your expertise and your knowledge, be it through, you know, tips that you share online or a webinar that you deliver in person. You need to present an offer because the people that are consuming that content are going to want to know where to take the next step, how to take the next step, what do they need to do. So you need to signpost them to your offer. I know it's scary and sometimes sales can feel a bit icky because you know, we're not. It's not a kind of built in skill that everybody knows you have to learn the skill of selling, but the only way again to learn that skill is by doing so. Don't shy away from it. Take a deep breath and present your offer. Because.

Karen [00:21:09]:
Because you know what.

Karen [00:21:12]:
That offer that you're offering may be the very thing that somebody needs to have today because they're looking for that solution to a problem that they're currently experiencing. And you could be that person that is going to give them what they need to achieve what they want to achieve. So don't hold back on your offer.

Karen [00:21:37]:
And then the fifth and final mistake is not asking people to buy in a very clear and succinct way. We may think that we do, but it might be confusing. So we need to make this really easy. Your audience needs an invitation. Give them a confident invitation. As I said in sort of the mistake number four, signpost them to where they need to go next. Don't assume they know because they most likely don't know. You need to tell them.

Karen [00:22:10]:
So if you are giving them content that's going to help them and the next step is your offer, give them that next step because that's where the sales are going to happen.

Karen [00:22:24]:
I love simple launches. I've tried to get into big, heavy launches. I struggle a little bit with it because there's a lot of moving parts. I like simplicity because simplicity builds momentum, it gets you selling faster and it also builds confidence. So don't underestimate the power of simplicity. I think all too often we make things a lot more complicated than what they really need to be. Keep it simple and take action. Be consistent.

Karen [00:23:02]:
You'll build momentum and you'll generate those sales.

Karen [00:23:08]:
Now.

Karen [00:23:23]:
So I've been launching now for quite a few years because I started with my very first branding course back in 2018, 2019. It was called Crafting youg Brand. And it was kind of born out of this idea of making branding accessible to startups and solo entrepreneurs who essentially couldn't afford to pay a branding studio like mine to help them with their branding. And so I devised this online course. It was quite simple, but it was basically a roadmap, if you like, through the branding process to get them started. Now, when I first started, I, I spoke about it, I went networking, I put things out on social, all of that Stu. But I also really like the idea of sort of delivering webinars. So when I moved into the online course space and I was starting to promote my programs and my online course for my pro for creating online courses, I started sort of, if you like, developing like a simple launch strategy for my selling and that consisted of me delivering webinars.

Karen [00:24:39]:
Now, my relationship with webinars has. Has been an interesting one because at the beginning I really struggled. I would.

Karen [00:24:54]:
I would organize the webinar, I would set it up, add it to zoom, I would create the sort of collateral for the webinar and then days before I would cancel because I was really nervous and I just felt like it was, it, you know, it was too uncomfortable. I couldn't go through with it. So I did that the very first year and then the second year I started to actually show up and deliver the webinars. And at the beginning the numbers were low and I was looking back sort of, if you like, learning the skill of it.

Karen [00:25:37]:
That was a few years ago. And over the years I have kind of fine tuned the webinars that I now deliver and I've tried other things. But for me, when I launch something, a webinar is the best way to do it. It's the way that I've got more consistent results because I can teach something, I can add value, and then I can present a no brainer offer that helps people to take the step. Now, my launch system is really simple. I keep it simple for a reason because I've got a lot going on. But keeping it simple, being consistent, taking action is what generates sales.

Karen [00:26:23]:
Now you may not like the idea of delivering webinars. It might not be your thing and that's absolutely fine. But it's just about trying and testing different approaches, seeing what works, seeing what you enjoy and then developing a system that, that works for you. And when you have that system, it's about showing up and being consistent with that because the more consistent you are, it kind of, kind of creates a compound effect. More and more people will get to know you, they'll look at your staff, they'll DM you, you'll start to engage with each other. You know, things happen when you show up and do the work. So even if launching feels really scary, even if you know it kind of terrifies you and you don't know where to start, I would encourage you just to keep it simple. Your success is going to come from clarity and consistency, not complexity.

Karen [00:27:24]:
So the more simple you keep it, the more success you're going to achieve.

Karen [00:27:33]:
And, and.

Karen [00:27:38]:
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope this episode has given you some clarity and sparked some new ideas for your business. If you have found it helpful, then I would love you to share with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur who's building their online business. Because this episode could be exactly what they need to listen to today. And if you are ready to start launching your online course, then why not check out my membership? Sell your brilliance online by visiting my website,

Karen [00:28:19]:
www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com/membership. I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a wonderful week.