Creating an online course is just a part of successfully establishing a profitable course business. Setting reasonable pricing that makes sense for your audience is another important part of it. Are you curious about how to price your online course? Here are a few course pricing tips you might find helpful!
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How to price your online course is one of the most common questions I get.
As a course creator myself, I have been on this rollercoaster of a journey for a decade already. And if there’s anything I have learned – it’s that pricing rarely matters as much as we think it does. As long as you have a solid marketing strategy, you can rather easily sell both $99 and $999 products…
However, it’s still important to know how to price your online offer to kickstart this journey.
Even though there are plenty of course pricing tips I could give, there isn’t one perfect formula. Keep an open mind and take this as an inspiration instead of a rulebook.
There are many different factors that come into place when making pricing decisions and I hope this post will help you to explore the key elements to keep in mind when pricing your course.
What to keep in mind when pricing an online course?
Your offer pricing will depend on various factors and the key ones would be:
- How TRANSFORMATIVE is your offer
- How in-depth it is
- How much support do you offer
- What kind of materials and bonuses are included
- Who is your target audience
These really will be the key elements of any of the following course pricing tips so let’s take a closer look at each of these points.
How TRANSFORMATIVE is your offer
There’s a distinctive difference between an offer that teaches you a 5-day morning yoga routine and an offer that turns you into a yoga teacher.
The transformation is all about the ultimate goal: are you helping with just a specific question, giving a step by step guidance into one clear task OR are you providing thorough insights in various aspects of a bigger goal.
A few samples:
- “Course sales page design” vs “Launch a $50K offer” course
- “Instagram marketing” vs “Social media management” course
- “Healing lower-back pain” vs “Holistic healing” course
- “Morning meditation guide” vs “Mindful living” course
Of course, it doesn’t have to be ALL OR NOTHING. However, be mindful about that promised transformation and how big of an impact
How IN-DEPTH is your offer
Tailored to the previous part, you also should consider how many insightful details you’re giving.
The “Launch a $50K offer” course can include 3 modules with 5 lessons each or it can include 8 modules with 10 lessons each.
My point is, there are a lot of different levels of information you can be providing. Are you staying on top of the surface or are you giving your audience behind-the-scenes?
The latter one will definitely be more valuable in most cases.
How much support do you offer
This one can play a huge role in pricing your digital courses!
On average, courses with Live group support like regular coaching sessions or Q&A calls will be priced quite a lot higher than courses without such support.
However, there are also various other support features you can include that will increase the value of your course.
What kind of materials and bonuses are included
Some course creators offer just the bare minimum of content variations. For example, only PDF printables with the key info. Such courses won’t rank on the same level as courses with video guidance, added worksheets and templates.
Along with that, consider what and if there are any bonuses, for example, swipe files your audience can use or additional lessons they can unlock.
Who is your target audience
A not-so-talked-about fact: business owners or people into business space of any kind will know the return on investment (ROI) and understand the concept of investing for the gain better than those who are NOT into business of any kind (for example, “hobbyists”).
So if we consider this question, you should look at the questions like:
- Are you selling to starters who might have little to no money to invest? Or are you targeting those who are already making $$$ with their offers?
- Are you targeting people who want to expand on their hobby – photography, art, yoga, etc – or are you talking with those who are learning to make money?
- How old is your ideal target audience? In some instances, younger people might not be as able to invest big sums as older ones. They also might have other priorities. Not always the case but might be something to consider.
I could give you all the course pricing tips in the world but if your specific audience won’t be able to afford the offer, it will not matter. Keep them in front of your mind!
Course pricing tips
Don’t underestimate yourself
Perception is everything and it also plays a crucial role in your course pricing.
We often hear that smaller offers will sell better or it will be easier to make a $20 sale rather than $200, however, it’s not always true.
Perceived value means that your audience will think that the price you’ve put on the offer is what they’re getting out of it. A “Pinterest course” for $20 will look A LOT less valuable than a “Pinterest course” for $200 or even $79.
Therefore, if you undersell yourself and put your price as low as possible in your case, your audience might automatically put your offer in the box of “offering less value” and if you’re targeting action=takers, they’re not going to be interested in that.
Start with a lower price rather than a higher one
You can always increase the price! At the same time, lowering it might leave a bad taste…
It’s important to find the sweet spot between a reasonable price for you and what might seem like a lower end of the offer. This can be your launch price and from there you can increase the offer bit by bit, depending on your audience’s interest to purchase.
This is one of my favorite course pricing tips, although it often gets a lot of resistance.
So let me clarify – this doesn’t mean that your course pricing should start at $12 or $99… The starting price should be relevant to what is the ultimate value within the course. For example, if you’d like for it to be priced at $499 later on, your initial price could be $199 or even higher. Don’t sell yourself short!
Evaluate what is happening in your competition
Oh, this is a juicy one!
While you shouldn’t fully rely on how your competitors are pricing their offers, this can definitely serve as a great starting point for pricing an online course.
Consider the following:
- How much do similar courses cost?
- What is the lowest vs highest similar offer?
- What is the size of the audience for these creators and how successful do they ~seem~?
- What do they offer within their courses? Are there any special bonuses or additional support?
- How in-depth are the offers?
Once you have the answers, you will also have a price range for similar courses like yours. Again, I must say – this shouldn’t serve as the single one of course pricing tips that you keep in mind. You still should consider the rest before you set a price.
Remember, it’s YOUR PRODUCT
Focus on what feels good and fair FOR YOU. It’s important to price your offer in a way that you’re CONFIDENT in selling it for. And, again, falsely you might think that “it will be more comfortable to sell for a lower price” but it’s not always the case.
I’ve had Your Course Creation Membership active for 1.5 years now and for a while I thought that pricing lower would be my perfect comfort zone as it’s more accessible.
Turns out, it demotivated me a ton and seeing a $16 was a ton less motivating than seeing one for $33.
Now, as I have eventually increased the pricing, I am a lot more confident in selling it and – what’s important – each new sale brings up a ton more good vibes than it did when the pricing was lower!
So even if you have gone through these course pricing tips and have calculated somewhat the “right price” for your course, make sure to check in with yourself as well before you make that final decision.
I hope these course pricing tips gave you some inspiration to set the right pricing for your digital offer.
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