Noele Flowers

When you tell friends and family you build online courses, you may hear some ask, “How is that different from reading a book online?” or even, “Why would someone buy an online course, when they can just watch YouTube videos and learn for free?” It’s easy to follow the logic of questions like this. But as a course creator, you know more than anyone the value of an online course. You know a course’s value lies not exclusively in the content but in the format: the way you guide learners to an outcome through a combination of information, practice, and interaction with other people. Cohort-based courses, or “CBCs” for short, take this idea one step further. And creating a community to support a cohort-based course takes it one step beyond.

A perfect match: community and cohort-based courses

Cohort-based courses, or “CBCs” for short, take this idea one step further. In CBCs, creators guide a group, or cohort, through a course together at the same time. They also have a couple of key differences to standard self-paced courses. Firstly, they often run with smaller or limited-sized groups (This very author runs a CBC for community-builders that’s capped at 15 students per cohort).

Secondly, they often sit at a higher price point than evergreen courses. In fact, it’s not uncommon for a CBC to run in the thousands, whereas self-paced courses are typically in the hundreds. Lastly, CBCs derive much of their value from shared experiences with other students. This makes them a perfect fit for pairing alongside an online community. In this article, we’re going to explore some best practices for creating an online community to support cohort-based courses.

Start with purpose

As with any community instance, starting with a strong sense of purpose can help you stay focussed on delivering real results for both your business and your students. And, there are a couple of common reasons to build a community to support cohort-based courses.

Increased learning outcomes

Course completion rates vary significantly. Some industry reports suggest average completion rates can be as low as 5%. Therefore, adding accountability to your students’ experiences can help them stay on track and help you deliver brag-worthy outcomes that become social proof in the future. For context, the CBC this author runs for community builders has graduation rates well over 90%.    

Adding value in between or after courses

By nature, CBCs are time-bound. And when they end, you run the risk of losing touch with your students. A community can have the double benefit of  serving students after the course ends and maintaining an active channel of contact to let them know when you have a new offer.

Adding value through network

Oftentimes, the biggest selling-point of a CBC is not access to the course content alone, but to the other qualified individuals going through the course. Offering a community to support your cohort-based course gives that value space to flourish. It also allows you to talk about it in a concrete way.

Solving logistics and the “single contact channel”

Lastly, it’s important to remember that getting a group of people through an experience at the same time requires some logistics. By establishing your community as your primary channel of contact with students, you can help everyone stay on the same page. You’ll also avoid confusion coordinating things like homework, feedback, or meeting links.

The strongest community strategies align business outcomes with community member outcomes. So, it’s important not to simply assume which things will be most valuable to your community members. We recommend doing some lightweight user interviews with prospective students prior to locking in your community’s purpose. For example, you may assume that networking is most valuable. But in reality, students may find it more valuable to stay on top of logistical info like due dates and meeting links. It’s always beneficial to ask.

Piecing it all together

Even if you have a crystal clear sense of purpose, you may still need to give some thought to how your CBC community fits into the rest of your business or existing community. This usually means considering how cohort members will interact with other members of their own cohort and with other students outside of their cohort.

A common set up is to create a private space just for a specific active cohort. (You may expect this space to be more focussed on logistics than other areas of the community.) Later, you can still give them access to a broader community of students, either of past cohort alumni or students of self-paced courses you also offer.

The cost of community

However you decide to architect your community, make sure to consider how cohort members can continue to get value from your larger student network once their cohort ends. You will also want to consider how your community impacts your pricing model.

It’s not uncommon for CBC builders to charge a subscription fee to access a community once a course ends or to simply consider a community a large part of the value proposition that influences price to begin with. You may also find the community adds so much value to students across your CBC and self-paced programming that it’s “worth it” to offer it for free because of the impact it has on course sales.

Create thoughtful programming

Regardless of how you price your course, your community will be a big part of the value proposition you communicate to your prospective students. Because of that, it’s important to make sure your community actually delivers additional value beyond the course curriculum. Many beginner community-builders will make the mistake of expecting their community to be an “if you build it, they will come” experience. But, by planning just a small amount of thoughtful added programming, you’ll already create one of the best community experiences your students have seen.

Whatever programming you include, it should serve your purpose. Most likely, it should enhance learning and make it easier for students to complete your course. Here are a few programming ideas that work well with CBC communities:

• Weekly, drop-in based office hours with the instructors
• Ritualized peer feedback days where students can share work with fellow students
• Optional guest speakers and instructors that are relevant to both current students and alumni

Your CBC community is also a great place to test new content and respond to student requests for supplementary materials.

Test, measure, and iterate

An important element of community building in any context is to maintain a testing mindset. It’s important to always continue testing new ideas and programs and measuring their impact. There are a few major ways we recommend doing this:

• Try comparing the completion rates of those who had the benefit of the community and those who didn’t. If your programming is effective, you should see an impact on completion rates. If not, it may be time to try something new.
• Always survey CBC students at the end of each cohort. Specifically ask about the community component. This author usually asks a multiple-select question that lets students say what outcomes they got out of the community, including things like accountability from peers, social connections to peers, logistical information about the course, and more. There’s usually an optional, open-ended question about the community that helps spark new ideas and identify blind spots in programming.
• Measure engagement rates within the community. While these can be limited in what they tell you, they do provide a good snapshot of whether your students are actually using the community experience you’ve built. If other numbers (like your completion rates or your survey data) aren’t doing well, this info can help you identify if you should focus more on teaching students how to use the community and building habits, or improving the quality of programming within the community.

Lean into the “power of the CBC”

If you’ve ever tried to launch a community before, you may know that garnering early engagement is often one of the biggest challenges of new communities. However, CBCs in particular have a few built-in components that give you a special advantage in this. Being aware of these and leaning into them can help you optimize the experience for yourself and for your members.

The big advantage a CBC gives to a new community is that it’s time-bound and happens alongside high-quality programming. Because of this, it’s easy to build “circles” into your course that promote engagement in your community. For example, try ending each lesson with a prompt to continue discussion within the community.

Similarly, you can position your community as a necessary logistical component of your course, rather than an optional supplement. Try having students “submit” homework for peer feedback within your community, rather than via an email or file request to ensure they’re regularly using the community. More often than not, once they already have it open, they’ll also use it to interact with peers.

Designs like these can help you use the time-bound nature of your CBC to build long-lasting habits of community usage. It can also build community “super users” that add value to your entire business, even between cohorts.

Black Friday is a promotional opportunity course creators don’t want to miss. Everyone with an email inbox is aware that major businesses use Black Friday to bring in new customers, sell products, and connect with an existing customer base. But, just because you’re a small, online business owner doesn’t mean you can’t get a piece of the Black Friday pie, too. We’ve put together 7 tips to up your Black Friday course sales.

Black Friday is a crucial time of year to sell to your existing and potential customers because it’s a time when your audience is used to engaging with their favorite products and are excited about buying. What’s more, your audience has likely saved up for extra holiday spending and are ready to pull out their credit cards—for the right offer.

We know it’s a busy time of year, so we wanted to take something off your plate and put together a list of 7 fun Black Friday tips you can try with your audience this season. These seven tips can be used as-is, or you can give them your own special spin—as only you can! We can’t wait to hear how you use them!

1. Get a department-store-level rush on your sales page with a coupon

Go beyond a classic discount this Black Friday by using coupons and by building in some of the same excitement of a department-store rush into your Teachable school—you know, minus the bickering with other shoppers over that one last pair of shoes. But how do you build a frenzy around your course sales page, even though it’s not a brick-and-mortar store? With coupons.

Who should try it:

Running a discount with scarcity is a great strategy for Black Friday if your course is at a premium pricing point, and you do not normally run a lot of discounts throughout the year.

Offering one great discount a year lets your audience know you’re not devaluing your product, but rather that you’re trying to give them the best deal you can during an expensive time of year.

How to do it:

Create a coupon for the course you want to promote, and then mix and match the strategies below to create added buzz and excitement:

1. Tease your discount in advance to let your audience know a sale is coming—this’ll have them “waiting outside the door” when the sale goes live.
2. When creating your coupon, make only a limited number available and let your audience know they’re limited.
3. Add a countdown timer to your sales page to let people know when the discount will be available, or when it will expire (note: This isn’t a native functionality of Teachable sales pages—but you can embed a third party tool pretty easily. This one’s simple and free).
4. Ask your buyers to share their purchases on social media with a special hashtag and add screenshots of their posts to your sales page as social proof in real time as the sales come in.

2. Get “bundled up”

A bundle is a collection of two or more courses. Bundling courses is a great low-lift way to run a promotion on your Teachable school that’ll make old content feel fresh.

Who should try it:

If you have a few standalone courses already launched on your Teachable school and don’t have much time to create new content this season, this is the strategy for you.

How to do it:

Use Teachable’s native course bundling feature to create a special bundle of courses from your Teachable school that you’ve never sold together before. Set the price on your bundle so it’s a better deal than it would be if your audience bought the courses separately.

To make the deal a no-brainer, consider creating a seasonal theme for your bundle or creating some never-before-released bonus content to include in your bundle.

For example, if the courses in your school focus on personal finance, you might consider creating a bundle called “The Ultimate End-of-Year Personal Finance Toolkit,” and including an end-of-year personal financial health checklist. Even if the majority of content (your existing courses) isn’t new for the season, selling them in a new way can help your audience understand why now is a good time to buy.

3. Create the “group gift” of online course promotions

Making enough content to put together a compelling bundle for Black Friday is a lot of work, so consider a partner to contribute to your bundle.

Who should try it:

If our previous bundling tip sounded good to you, but the idea of making enough content to create a bundle sent you into a cold sweat, try teaming up instead. Teaming up with another creator gives you all the benefits of bundling but with the added bonus of helping you build your audience as you cross-promote with a partner.

How to do it:

Put together a list of other online course creators who would appeal to your audience and reach out to the creators asking them to build a special bundle that you’ll both promote to your audiences for Black Friday. Just like before, set up the bundle so that the final price is a better deal than buying the individual courses as stand-alones.

A couple of pro tips:

1. Your partner’s course doesn’t have to be in the exact same niche to be a good fit—it just has to also appeal to your audience or target audience. For example, if your courses are on fashion illustration, you might look for a course from an adjacent niche, like online makeup tutorials.
2. Not sure how to find other courses in your niche or an adjacent niche? Make your Googling a bit easier by typing “site: teachable.com” followed by the keyword you’re targeting.
3. As long as one of the schools is on a paid plan with Teachable, write to our support team for help transferring a course from one school to another to create the bundle easily.
4. Use Teachable’s native author tools to share revenue with the partner easily while you’re both promoting the course.

4. Add a ribbon to it

Adding bonus content to your course is like the virtual equivalent of tying a bow to the outside of a wrapped gift. Everyone loves the extra flair, and just like a ribbon, the bonus doesn’t have to be anything crazy in order to delight your audience.

Who should try it:

Adding a bonus is a great fit if you don’t want to run a discount. Whether it’s because you already offered a big discount this year or because you’re generally not a fan of sales, adding bonus content is another great option to favorably change the value-to-price ratio for your audience.

How to do it:

Up the value of your core offering by adding a special one-time bonus for Black Friday purchasers only. The bonus should be something small and thoughtful, like a PDF guide, a mini course, an extra video, or section in your course.

5. Give your audience a gift

‘Tis the season after all. Your audience will likely be shopping for gifts this Black Friday, so show them you care by giving them a gift instead.

Who should try it:

This is a great Black Friday tip for those who may not even have a course published yet but still want to tap into the Black Friday excitement and build their audience or drive traffic and engagement to a new course.

How to do it:

Drive traffic to your email list, sales page, or both this Black Friday with a giveaway. Choose a physical item you think your audience wants. For example, if your course is an intro to baking, a holiday cookie cutter kit would do the trick and would incentivize them to enter to win by buying your course, joining your email list, or referring a friend.

6. Check off your audience’s wish list

Try a content series that’s all about fulfilling your audience’s wishes.

Who should try it:

This is a good Black Friday tip for creators with an engaged audience who are looking to “give back” to their audience in a sea of sales emails or who may be preparing for a sale in the new year and don’t want to exhaust their audience with too many offers.

This is also a great fit for those thinking about developing a new course soon and want to test a few different types of content to see what resonates with their audience.

How to do it:

Go through all of your interactions with your audience—comments on your course lessons, comments and DMs in your social channels, notes from your email inbox, etc.—and make a “wish list” from your audience’s perspective of FAQs and requests. Then, create a content series just for them to address their “wishes” and share it on your social channels or via your newsletter throughout the Black Friday weekend.

7. Spend quality time with your audience

The end of the year is all about spending time together—and the same holds true for your audience. For this Black Friday tip, offer a limited number of a super high-value bonus—your time.

Who should try it:

This is a great Black Friday tip for those who want to offer a bonus without creating any new content. It will work especially well for those who are considering adding a coaching upsell to their business and want a test run.

How to do it:

Let your audience know that when they purchase during Black Friday only, they’ll be entered to win a limited number of hour-long, one-on-one coaching sessions with you in addition to their course purchase. You can choose the winners randomly or make it so the first five buyers win, the choice is yours. During your coaching calls, take the opportunity to get to know your audience even better.

{{salespage-component="/blog-shortcodes/blog-popup"}}