To Sum It Up

Sometimes you just know when it’s time for a change, and maybe you’ve got that feeling for a course or program you’ve run a few times.

But you also don’t want to start from scratch!

Here’s some of my best ideas for upgrading the look and feel of a program (even if you’re on a budget!).

1. Upgrade the Design

I know when you put a course out there, you’re just like to glad to be done with it that you can’t bear to think of going back in! But if its been a year or two, it may be time to invest in upgrading the branding and the graphics.

Maybe even re-record the videos if you have changed a lot, like those realtors with 20 year old glamour shots…

Nothing wrong with that but it can be off-putting for your students if they are learning from you and the branding doesn’t match where you, or the course, are now.

2. Upgrade the Tech

My second suggestion is to look at upgrading the tech of your course or program by updating where its hosted and how its delivered.

If you started your course at a lower price, and now its at $1000 or more, it may be time to move off Teachable and into your own membership site. Or, to move your resources and handouts out of Google Drive and into a secure delivery method.

Another piece you could try with the upgrading the tech is to put your course materials in multiple media formats, such as video, audio and text. Allowing people to take the training with them or learn in their preferred style may help you take enrollment to the next level!

Or you could bring your course into the smartphone era and create it as an app, or even just an app hotlink.

3. Upgrade the Experience

After upgrading the tech, you may feel a desire to take things more offline, and that’s when you can upgrade the onboarding experience.

Maybe after they purchase your course, you send them a card in the mail. You could also leave a voicemail to welcome them personally.

And if you’re upgrading the experience, it’s also worth a price increase as well.

4. Upgrade the Language

I think this is one upgrade idea that’s really overlooked, especially in English speaking countries. Even if your students do know English, it may not be their best learning language.

So if you’re really looking to expand your reach in 2017/2018, I would highly recommend upgrading the language of your course and making it available in a couple of other options, especially the worksheets and transcriptions.

Your Turn

If you were inspired by any of these ideas, be sure to comment below with your course/program name, and let us know which of these strategies you’ll be using!

Full Transcript

So last week I shared my journey from upgrading my website and there was something in me that was just telling me it was time for a new look, for a new feel, for new photos, for a more cohesive kind of design.

If there’s a course or program you’ve had for a couple of years you may be feeling that idea too, to like step it up a notch. To re-engage alumni and get people to come back to the program and attract new people to it as well.

So today I’m going to share a few ideas for how you could upgrade your course or program, and take it to the next level.

These are things that I have done with my clients, that I’ve seen in numerous programs that I’m a part of, and things that I think could really re-inspire you around your program.

I work with health coaches who do a detox every season and I know they can kind of feel like it’s the same old, same old, and they don’t want to start over from scratch ’cause they have all the materials done. Or maybe you’ve run the same program like a B-School launch and you open it once a year but you want to keep up leveling it. I’ve been in the B-School program since 2014 and it’s already had three different iterations of the program since I’ve been a part of it.

So you do want to upgrade your course even if the main core content stays the same, you do want to keep things fresh. Especially with being online these days the internet moves so quickly, you want to make sure that you’re not looking like a 1993 website when it’s 2017.

So my first idea for you to upgrade your course, is to of course update the graphics. Really just giving the look and feel of your course an update, whether that’s doing a whole cohesive branding or that’s just tweaking a few parts.

I would definitely suggest doing kind of a more cohesive re-branding if you’re going to invest in this type of upgrade and make the membership site look different, make the worksheets look cohesive with that. Maybe even rerecord the videos if you have changed a lot.

You know sometimes you’ll see those realtor cards that people pass out and you meet the realtor in person and she’s 20 years older than her photo. Nothing wrong with that but it’s a little off putting if people are learning from you and the branding doesn’t match where you are now, or the course, or the photos, or the graphics don’t match the level of investment.

I know when you put a course out there, you’re just like to glad to be done with it but maybe think about if it’s time, if it’s been a year or two, if it’s time for you to invest in upgrading the branding and the graphics.

The second piece I’d recommend upgrading, if you are kind of feeling that itch, is to upgrade the tech. There’s so many options online that maybe you started with a Teachable account, maybe it’s time to move over into your own membership area on WordPress, or Squarespace where you actually own the content and you can drive people there. Maybe you just did a Google Drive course or it’s all in Facebook, it could be time to step it up a notch and create your own membership site.

Another piece you could try with the tech is going multimedia. Taking the video lessons, getting them transcribed, turning them into just audios. Allowing people to kind of take the training with them or learn in their unique style. Maybe they just love podcasts, so they’d love to be able to download all of the lessons as audios and play them in the car with their kids. Maybe they are really kind of into taking notes, so they’d rather just have the whole video transcribed and write on the piece of paper.

Then my third and final tip for upgrading the tech would be just think about if there’s an application that you could create for a smartphone. There’s even applications that you could have that’s actually more of a hyperlink where they can download an app, but what it really is a hotlink to the membership site. Even just kind of being on their phone the whole time is great.

Or are there parts of the membership that you could put into an app capacity, like a calculator or something like that, that goes along with the course materials. But think about how you could use new technology and new things that are happening to upgrade your course.

The next upgrade I’d suggest is upgrading the experience, especially if you are wanting to do more and more of the personal touch that is going so well. You could really upgrade your onboarding experience. Maybe after they purchase your course, you send them a card in the mail and there is apps that will even do that for you. You don’t even have to hand write them, but you can if you want. When someone purchases from you, you do have their address, so you it’s so nice to send something in the mail.

You could also leave a voicemail and there’s a couple of courses that do this. They welcome you personally into the course. You can send gifts. I was talking with a client today and she is thinking about rewarding them for staying in her membership by offering gifts at like 6, 12, 15 month, the longer they’re in the course they start to receive these little incentives.

I think just upgrading the experience is one, going to impress the alumni, if you can find a way to send some alumni gift and two, just create the most raving fans for this new generation that’s coming into your course or program, and it’s also a way to justify an updated price or if you change anything like that.

If you’re upgrading the experience, if you’re upgrading the level of access to you, or the gifts and things that they’re receiving in the mail, totally worth a price increase as well and it just feels good to upgrade in a way that’s not so tech heavy, maybe you want to just upgrade the onboarding experience.

Then my fourth and final idea for upgrading your course, is to upgrade the language. We’re on the internet and it’s only going to be bigger and bigger, as it reaches to further, and further places, that maybe don’t have internet access now, but will in three to five years.

Think about upgrading your course by getting it translated. Could you maybe not rerecord the videos but could the worksheets be in Spanish, English, and Chinese? Could you add in other language options? When you do get a video transcribed for the multimedia upgrade, could you also get that translated into a couple of the most common languages?

I think this is one piece that’s kind of really overlooked, especially in English speaking countries where we kind of assume everyone knows English. Even though they do, maybe that’s not their best learning language. So if you’re really looking to expand your reach in 2017, 2018. I would highly recommend upgrading the language of your course and making it available in a couple of other options, especially the worksheets and transcriptions, if the video and audio is still English because that’s what you speak, that’s totally fine but think about ways you can make it easier for other international students to participate and get the most out of your course.

So if you’re feeling like your course has been online for a while and it really needs a facelift, I hope these four ideas will be helpful to you!

And if you loved any of them and will be implementing them, pop a link to your course and how you’re going to upgrade it in the comments below and I’ll see you back here next week.