There are several excellent reasons you should consider creating online programs as part of your consulting business. Here I will give you nine:
#1 First, you get to share your passion and what you love to do with other people.
#2 Another reason is like in the movie The Matrix. If you think about Mr. Smith and how he duplicates himself, he just pops up all over. With an online course, you get to duplicate yourself, so instead of repeating yourself over and over, you can put some of that content into instructional videos and courses.
#3 Think about if you could be like a good version of Mr. Smith and share your knowledge to help more people learn and grow.
#4 With an online course, you get to grow your passive income while you’re sleeping.
#5 In addition, having an online program adds to your reputation as an expert and an authority in your industry.
#6 Also, you may not think so, but you can actually create content that you can repurpose by having an online course. Your online program can turn into books, presentations, and social media postings. For example, I just had a class go through my online program on how to create meaningful and profitable online courses. Based on that first beta run, I had one of the students say: “oh, please put it all together and workbook for us. It would be so helpful.” So now I’m working on the workbook.
#7 The other benefit was that I took five-minute short video snippets, put them into a transcribing program, got transcripts from the videos, and turned them into articles. Based on that one piece of content, I have enough substance for social media posting for an entire month, based on that one little video. So, there are many ways to work smarter, not harder, while creating different types of content that position yourself as an industry expert.
#8 Your content on social media consistently generates more leads for your consulting services. That’s been my experience, primarily through LinkedIn.
#9 On top of that, you can expand your business model with other tiers to bundle the online programs with your services. Online programs are great ways to strengthen your business with different offerings to help your customers depending on where they are in their business lifecycle.
Why create an online course right now?
There are some exciting data from the eLearning industry I’d like to share with you. The learning management platform I’m using has created a learning trends report. And as you can see, there are some interesting trends regarding the growth in student demand over the past three years.
And as you can see, many students are looking to learn through online courses.
The report on learning trends refers to a survey done among 2000 adults about why they prefer online learning. And the main reasons are that online learning is:
- Flexible
- Accessible
- Go at your own pace
One of the barriers I’ve heard when I’ve been talking with experts who want to create online courses. A common question I get is:
“What if I don’t have a whole bunch of followers on social media? Can I create an online course and still be successful with it?”
This graph shows an increase in students attending courses by creators with less than 10,000 social media followers. So it is possible, and I will go more into what it is you need to focus on when you have less than 10,000 social media followers.
Another trend shows that more students come from multiple continents, meaning that the global market is growing. So as you create your online course and put it out there in the worldwide marketplace, you have a chance to get into areas you might not usually reach with your regular consulting services.
Other facts from techjury.net show some interesting numbers about the eLearning market:
- The worldwide e-learning market is projected to be worth $325 Billion in 2025.
- The US e-learning market is set to grow by $12.81 billion between 2020 and 2024.
- E-learning increases retention rates by 25% to 60%.
- The corporate e-learning market could increase by $38.09 billion between 2020 and 2024.
- E-learning has led to an increase in income for 42% of US organizations.
- A survey of 2,500 companies found that those with “comprehensive training programs” have 218% higher revenue per employee and 24% higher profit margins.
- IBM saved approximately $200 million after switching to e-learning.
As you can see, the data shows many good facts supporting why creating an online course now is a great idea.
How much can I make from having an online course as part of my consulting business?
Another question I get is:
“well, how much can I make from having an online course as part of my business?”
The truth is, you can make anywhere from $500 to more than $100,000 by having an online course as part of your business offerings.
It all depends on the size of your audience, the conversion rate, and the price. The price is affected by the subject matter of your course.
If you have an audience of 1000 people, and they are converting at 2%, at a price point of $399, that will give you a revenue of $7980 per promotion you’re making on your online course.
I recommend doing market research to determine the pricing strategy for your course. For example, the average rates for leadership courses can be between $1500-$4000 for classroom-based leadership training. On the other end of the spectrum, you have executive getaways around $25000.
Suppose you charge $3500 for your online leadership course, and you have an audience of 2000 on your email list and a conversion rate of 2%, which is the typical conversion rate for an email campaign. In that case, you can make a revenue based on your online program of $140,000 per launch promotion. That’s pretty good.
So those were some of the numbers and nine great reasons you should do online courses as a consulting professional.
If you are curious and would like to learn more about how I can help you create your online course, you can check out my website https://sophiehhiggins.com or reach out to mere on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiehhiggins/
I have created a project package description with different tiers of service that I provide for helping professionals create meaningful and profitable online courses. I also have an Information Packet where you can see examples of different classes that I’ve helped other people make. I’m happy to share these documents with you.
Link to the report with eLearning trends.