🗣️Transcript
Welcome back! We’re wrapping things up for this module by tackling an important topic: Finding Your First Students.
So here’s what you’ll learn:
- Why you should start thinking about this now
- Finding students for your beta versus your full launch
- Launch promotion tactics you can use
So far we’ve focused on defining who the people in your target market are then putting some structure around that using a simple template.
But we also need to think about how, when the time comes, you’ll find enough people fitting that description to tell them about your course.
Remembering that only a relatively small percentage of the people who hear about your course will end up actually buying it. That’s just the nature of sales.
And there are two scenarios for us to think about when it comes to recruiting new students.
There’s your beta launch, which I still strongly recommend you do. And there’s your full launch, which happens once you’ve made a few tweaks after running your beta.
And you’ll need to find students for each type of launch.
You might be wondering though, why are we worrying about this now, before you’re ready to launch anything at all?
Firstly, because part of the process of making sure you’ve picked the right target market is having a workable plan for reaching those people when you need to.
And secondly, if there are gaps between where you are now and where you’ll need to be for a successful launch, you can start taking steps to close those gaps.
So maybe you’ll need to be more active on social media. Or join some communities where your target market hangs out. Or get friendly with well-connected people who have access to your market.
If so, you can start putting those things in place before you need them.
Make sense? Right, let’s get back to the two types of launches, starting with the beta launch.
Remember, the aim of the beta is to test a “no-frills version” of your course with a small group of students and get some feedback.
What needs to be said about finding those beta students?
Well for starters, you’re only trying to recruit a few people, about 5 to 10, which makes things a little easier.
Next, you’ll mostly rely on existing connections and relationships to get people on board.
Lastly, you probably won’t need a formal pipeline to convert a lead into a sale. Just a friendly conversation or two.
Essentially, you’re just “working” your list of existing contacts until you have the students you need.
Moving to your first full launch things are a little different. Remember, this is the revised and polished version.
Firstly, you’re not limiting yourself to a small number of people. You’ll want to aim bigger this time around.
Secondly, you’ll usually promote your course beyond your own network to give you access to a wider pool of people.
And thirdly, you’ll need a more structured pipeline with specific steps to warm people up to buy your course.
After all, we’re now talking about people outside your immediate network – people who may not know you yet or even have a contact in common with you.
So those are the two scenarios. Your beta launch and your full launch.
Now, the tactics for promoting a beta launch are a little different to the ones you might use for a full launch but there’s a good amount of overlap too.
This lesson has an attached resource with a list of tactics you can use. I’m not going to cover them all in this lesson but I will give you a quick taster.
So here are three of the tactics from the list.
If you have an existing professional network, for example on LinkedIn, you can reach out directly to any people who may be a good fit for your course. Just start a conversation and see where it leads.
Likewise you can contact any other relevant connections, e.g. from your email contacts.
This is a great way to find people for your beta. It can also work for a full launch but unless you keep expanding your network you’ll see diminishing returns.
If you’re active on one or more social media platforms, you can promote your course to your followers. When someone wants to find out more, you can take the conversation to a private channel, e.g., direct messaging.
This tactic works for finding students for your beta launch and for a full launch. However, you’ll need a good-sized – and growing – following if social media promotion will be your main source of new leads.
If you can find people who’ve built an audience that overlaps with your target market, you may be able to strike a deal with them: they promote your product in exchange for a commission on any sales.
This works best when you’re in full launch mode because you’re asking people to promote a more polished product and since the price will be higher it’s easier to offer a commission.
Okay, those are just a small selection of the tactics you can use to find your first students. Make sure you review the rest in the resource under this lesson and start thinking about which tactics could work for you.
Remember, having a rough plan for recruiting students for your beta launch and your full launch will give you extra confidence your target market will work for you.
And it’ll give you early warning of any steps you’ll need to take before launching.
That’s the last lesson in this module. Make sure you complete your assignments and I’ll see you in the next module!