🗣️ Transcript
Okay. This is it. The final lesson for this module and it asks the question: what’s your unique advantage?
So here’s what you’ll learn:
- Why there’s one more step to make your course an easy decision
- Three ways to differentiate your course from the competition
- A simple template for describing your unique advantage
In the previous lesson I shared a simple template for describing your course’s powerful promise.
But as appealing as that promise may be to your target market, there’s still one step to ensure that your course is an easy decision for them to make.
And there are three reasons why you need to take this extra step:
- Your future course won’t be the only way for people to achieve their goal (or get closer to it)
- Most people aren’t only interested in the result, but how you deliver it
- Your course will struggle to stand out if your “how” isn’t distinctive enough compared to other options
To give you a quick example, imagine there are two courses costing the same amount.
They both promise to help you lose 10lbs. One does it by helping you to eat less and exercise more. The other has downloadable audio using self-hypnosis techniques to help you make better food choices without ever feeling hungry.
The second option is much more attractive, right? It just sounds easier and more interesting compared to the conventional advice in the other course.
What we’re talking about here is market positioning. It’s what you say about your course when compared to other ways of getting the same result.
And this isn’t just marketing gloss applied after the fact. This is a real point of differentiation that’s baked into your program.
It’s your special sauce or magic ingredient, and here’s why we’re talking about it now:
- It’s part of the wider promise of your course
- It affects the next stage – designing your course structure
- If you can’t nail your positioning, you may have to go back and choose a different result
Another example should help to bring this concept to life.
Let’s say your online course helps freelance graphic designers attract more high-paying corporate clients.
And let’s say the unique advantage is that students get a whole bunch of time-saving resources that make every step of the process much quicker and easier.
So there are crib sheets that tell them exactly what copy to put on their website. There are scripts they can use on the phone or in an email to get a prospect to agree to a meeting. There are templates for their sales presentations, and so on.
Those crib sheets and scripts and templates give your course a unique advantage over other ways to land high-paying corporate clients.
You’re not saying your course is superior in every respect. You’re just saying: “Here’s one area where my course is different and better.”
It puts your course in a category of one which also makes it easier to justify a higher price.
Here’s one last quick example. Imagine your course helps people to learn the acoustic guitar. It uses a special method you’ve devised that’s different to what other people are teaching and helps people learn faster.
If you can give this method a unique name, like Strumming by Numbers, you can say your course is the only one out there that teaches that particular method.
Now, you can’t just teach the same approach as everyone else and give it a fancy name. You need to be teaching something that’s a little different.
But if you can say that, it gives your course its unique advantage.
Here’s a summary of the three main ways you can differentiate your course:
Include tools, templates or resources that simplify and/or accelerate students’ progress.
Incorporate an original process, strategy or framework with specific steps or stages people follow.
Leverage some other unique attribute of your course that’s difficult for others to replicate
So for example, maybe it’s based on the latest research in your field, or it’s the only one created by someone with a certain endorsement or accreditation, or includes some done-for-you element.
You may have to get a little creative here but it’s absolutely worth brainstorming a few different options.
You know I love templates and so here’s a one for describing your course’s unique advantage:
[Course] is [Adjective] than other options because [Attribute]
Course is the name of your course, or just “my course”
Adjective describe how your course is different
Attribute describes why it’s different
So let’s see some examples:
- Email Marketing Jumpstart is simpler than other options because it gives you fill-in-the-blank templates for the five most common email campaign types.
- Effortless Selling Bootcamp is more reliable than other options because it teaches the unique CLOSER framework for successful sales conversations.
- Crypto Mastery is more future-proof than other options because the tools and tactics are reviewed and updated every month.
When it comes to devising your unique advantage, try revisiting your target market description, the one including the Obstacle.
Because this works best if your unique advantage also neutralises that obstacle.
So if your target market is “smartphone owners who want to take better photos but never have time to learn their camera’s features”, your unique advantage could be that your course is less time-consuming than other options because it’s designed to turn people into better photographers in just 5 minutes a day.
Or if your market is “office workers who want better productivity but haven’t found a method that works for them yet”, your unique advantage could be that your course is more adaptable because it helps people pick the best productivity method for their personality type.
The takeaway here is that your unique advantage gives your potential customers a strong reason to pick your path to get to that destination, instead of someone else’s.
Okay, that’s it. We’re done with the lessons for this module. Good luck with the assignments and I’ll see you in the next module!