How to Launch Your Signature Course
There are a million ways to create and launch an online course — and the only ‘wrong’ way is to give up. As a professional educator and course creator, I’ve helped experts create and launch courses for years. Each course was different, and each launch was unique to the creator. All were just as impactful to their students, industry, and allowed for entrepreneurs to scale their businesses.
Launching a signature course is one of the stepping stones in scaling your business and getting back the time freedom you love, and whatever you need to do to reduce the overwhelm is valid.
And, although there is not one ‘right way’ to do it, I want to share some tips on launching your signature course (that might make your life 10x easier).
Please note that this post contains affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links at no extra cost to you!
What is a Signature Course?
Your signature course is a unique offer in your offer suite that showcases your expertise and provides a huge amount of value — and impact — to your clients or customers. It delivers specific results or outcomes and is created with a deep understanding of what your clients need to succeed.
Your signature course can be a standalone product, the curriculum for your group coaching program, a resource for 1:1 clients, or any combination of the above! A signature course should present you as an industry expert and build trust with your clients, customers, and community members.
When Should You Create a Course to Add to Your Offer Suite?
Although there is no specific sign that your business could use a course, I recommend creating a course when you start feeling constrained in your business, you want to scale your income, or you’re delivering consistent client results (but you’re capped on how many clients you can serve).
A course (or, truly, a curriculum) is a must for online entrepreneurs who want to increase their income or grow their businesses. If either of those two things are on your to-do list, it’s a good sign it’s time to create a course.
5 Steps to Launch Your Signature Course
When you’re launching your signature course, there are five main phases to plan for: Ideation, outlining, curriculum, design, and selling.
Step #1: Ideation
Ideation is when you take your course idea from your Notes app and turn it into something a little bit bigger. You plan out what its purpose is, what type of transformation or outcome your students should experience, and how it will fit into your current offer suite (this is exactly what we do in my free workshop).
Step #2: Outline Your Contents
Outlining doesn’t have to be as formal as it sounds, but you should always put your ideas and plans to paper (or Google Docs) so you don’t forget them. This step is for taking your idea and flushing it out a bit more. You start thinking about what you want to include — anything that is an absolute must to provide the outcome you want for your students.
Step #3: Create Your Curriculum
Now that you have a specific idea of what you want to include in your signature course, it’s time to build out your curriculum. This may take you the longest, but it is the most important step. Your curriculum is what delivers your information to your students — it’s how your students will learn.
Step #4: Design Your Slide Decks
After you’ve created your curriculum and you’re satisfied with your results, it’s time to create your slide decks and record your videos! Never create your slide decks BEFORE your curriculum. I know it’s fun, but you can end up skipping information, making it harder to learn, and providing a poor experience for your students (leading to low course completion rates).
Plus, once you create your curriculum, your slide decks and speaking notes practically complete themselves!
Step #5: Sell!
Once you have your slide decks and your curriculum (and you put it all together in your course), it’s time to sell! Build out your funnels, plan your launch (I highly recommend looking into Reveal Studio’s Digital Seller’s Copy Kit for this, use code LAUREN10 to get 10% off), and sell it evergreen or make it a time-limited offer — it’s up to you!
What truly sets Entrepreneur, Academic (and its resources) apart is that we spend the majority of our time creating a transformational, impactful product, whereas other course creators spend 5% of the time on product development and the rest on marketing. I totally get it, but what’s the point of marketing a half-assed product?
Now that you have your signature course built out, you can use it to create mini-courses, masterclasses, and even complementary offers to your 1:1 clients!
What Happens Next?
Just because your course is live doesn’t mean your work is over (which is why I don’t like to use the term “passive income”); you’re still responsible for your student outcomes.
To provide the best experience possible, it’s important to continue to monitor your course and check your assessments for feedback. You should also keep an eye on your course completion rates and where students are ‘falling off’ so to speak.
As you gather more information, continue to work and improve your course so it’s truly the best in your industry (and something your students will rave about for years to come).
If you’re ready to start building your signature course, sign up for my free workshop, “3 Steps to Create More Impact & Income with an Online Course.” -> Join the Workshop.
