Pricing The Value of Your Course

By: Justin Ferriman • November 11, 2015
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stacking-coinsMaking the decision to sell a course is pretty easy.

Figuring out the perfect price-point is a bit more difficult.

First, it’s important to remember that there are quite a few options for pricing your online course, all of which should be considered.

But no matter what pricing format you choose, you will ultimately need to land on a number.

And not one that “feels good”, but one that you can justify.

Price For Value

There is unfortunately no exact formula for choosing the price of your course. In general though it will come down to your industry expectations, competitors, and overall value that your course provides for people.

The first two you can determine through some market research and looking at the data.

Value pricing is more of an art than a science.

In fact, it’s the value that you articulate to potential customers that will act as one of the major ways you differentiate your offering. It’s your unique selling proposition.

To help land on a value-based price, take out a piece of paper and begin listing any benefit that you can think of for your course.

Once you have listed all the benefits, create short “benefit statements” that all answer the question “what’s in it for me?”

Your customers are going to arrive to your sales page with this in their mind so it’s best to have an answer for them.

From your list of benefit statements, choose the top three to five that you believe best articulate the value of your course for the customer.

Use your knowledge of the industry to pick the best ones (for example, if there is a benefit that your competition doesn’t satisfy, it might be worth including).

With your preferred set of benefits in front of you it’s time to pick a price-point. Don’t just think about this from your own perspective. You should ask others in your field how much they would pay to obtain the benefits you have chosen.

Save your list of benefit statements. As you begin marketing your course you may find that certain combinations work better than others so you can experiment accordingly.

Picking a price for your course is never as simple as it sounds. Simply picking a number because it “feels right” is hardly a smart business decision (about just as bad as choosing to be the lowest price option).

Take your time, experiment, and ask others for their feedback. Eventually you’ll find the sweet-spot for your market.

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter