Courses are a fantastic resource for your business.
They educate your audience, provide immense value to your clients, and they allow you to boost your income by selling your knowledge to the people it will help the most.
But, that’s not all courses are good for.
Courses can actually be a great business support tool.
Not only useful as a paid resource, courses can be used for a whole bunch of other things in your business. So, let’s explore how you can use online courses to support and streamline your business operations.
Courses As An Add-On
Let’s talk about courses. As a business owner, you will know how popular the ecourse has become in recent years. They are a fantastic way to deliver solutions and oodles of helpful info to your customers and clients.
Short or long, produced with videos or workbooks, they deliver immense value and diversify your offerings. But, they don’t necessarily have to be a stand-alone item that you charge people to access. They can be an add-on to a service you offer, perform a key function in your business or deliver an extra bit of value at the end of a working relationship.
In fact, you can offer an ecourse for just about anything in your business. It’s all about getting creative and utilising digital resources to streamline your processes and create efficiencies.
Ways To Add Value With Courses
Alright, so now you know that you can use courses for things other than generating revenue. Let’s explore some of the ways you can utilise an ecourse as a handy business tool:
Onboarding
Do you have a process that you repeat every time you onboard a new client? Then, why not devise a short course for your clients to work through to stop the need to repeat yourself every time you sign on a new client?
Of course, this does not replace the interaction that you have with a client when they first start working with your business. But, an informative mini course can add to the positive experience by explaining how clients will work with you, demystifying any terminology they need to know or elaborating on any concepts they need to understand.
By the time they have finished the course, they will know exactly what is going to happen when working with you. It also makes it easier for you and them to be more focused on the work you do together and how you can help them the most.
Additional Project Support
Want to add a bit of extra customer support and wrap around services? Wow your clients and remind them that you are still thinking about them with some helpful ecourse content that will assist them after the project delivery date.
Instead of wishing them well and waving goodbye, offer them video support that they can refer back to. For example, if you are a web designer, you can provide video content that shows your clients how to upload blogs, make amendments to their content, resize their photos, optimise their content for mobile and so much more.
Not only will this help them to get the most out of their website, but your excellent customer service will encourage referrals and repeat business.
Answer FAQs
Got a bunch of questions that you get asked all the time? Then, why not create a series of video responses? This has the dual benefit of creating efficiencies in your business, but not losing the all-important personal touch for your customers.
Then, package all those videos up into a short ecourse and share it with your customers. Make it easy for them to navigate by loading the answer to each question as a standalone lesson within your course platform. That way, people can select the questions that they want to know the answer to individually, without needing to listen to the whole course and receive info they aren’t interested in.
Value Adds or Lead Magnets
Free courses can be a great way to add value for your clients or encourage them to join your mailing list. Think about things that your clients will find useful and informative, plus the things that can lead into your other paid offerings.
For example, a personal stylist could create a free course demonstrating how to accessorise different outfits, scarf folding techniques or which belts and jewellery items should be staples in your closet. Or, someone who sells makeup could provide tutorials on how to apply various makeup varieties in a flattering way or a how-to on caring for your makeup brushes.
The possibilities are endless and there will definitely be course content that you can create that is relevant to your industry or profession.
Published Book Companion
Have you published a non-fiction book? A short course could be the perfect companion to add further detail for your readers. This will basically turn your book into a how-to course.
Often, books can’t include every bit of detail you’d like as it would make them unnecessarily long and cumbersome. But, a companion course can guide your readers through further information and expand on the ideas raised in the book. With a companion course, you can even include downloads, worksheets and quizzes to add to the learning experience.
Handling The Course Tech
Courses are awesome, but they can take a lot of work to put together. Luckily, if you don’t have much time spare or the thought of the tech is sending you crazy, I’m here to help. I offer a range of different ecourse support packages that provide a little or a lot of support.
So, if you are ready to add value to your business with some ecourse content this year, find out all about how I can help you make it happen here.
Task Diva Support
If you’re interested in setting up a course or want to know more about how it all works, sign up for your FREE four-page online course planning checklist.
Perhaps you just want to get started on your online course, then my 60 min Zoom Online Course Planning Session might be just what you need.
Checkout my Online Course Packages:
Online Course Planning Session
Online Course Setup Package
Online Course Complete Package
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Would you like to check out my preferred online course platform, here's a one month free trial of Thinkific (note this is an affiliate link).
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Author
Debbie Mills Robertson
Thinkific Specialist for Online Courses
debbie@taskdiva.co.nz
027 345 7000
