Hello there and welcome back!
In the last lesson I walked you through a proven structure for your course sales page, and gave you some tips for creating a more minimal version.
In this lesson we’re going to look at what the free training you’ll create to warm people up for your sales page actually looks like.
And we’ll start by going deeper on what exactly it’s designed to do.
What’s the Purpose of the Free Training?
With a relatively small amount of content, your free training has a lot of important things to do!
Specifically, it needs to:
- Catch the interest of people in your target market
- Position you as a relevant and credible expert
- Shed new light on the reasons why they’re not moving forwards
- Reignite their desire to achieve their big goal
- Introduce your course as the most effective path to that goal
To do all of these things, your training needs to have a very intentional structure. So let’s look at that next…
The Content Structure
Remember how I said you can use the same basic structure for the free training regardless of whether you’re using a mini course or a webinar?
Well, it consists of six parts, all with a specific role to play, and we’ll cover them one at a time.
I have a separate resource which breaks each of these parts down into its lower-level elements so I’ll focus more on the role of each part in this lesson.
Note: The logistics of delivering each part will depend on whether you’re using a mini course or live webinar. But don’t worry, I’ll cover that separately.
Okay, so let’s get into it!
Part 1: Give a Warm Welcome
The first part of the training is super simple.
It welcomes people to your training, tells them what to expect, and introduces you as the expert behind the content.
In a mini course this would be presented as a short introductory lesson delivered immediately after registration.
For a webinar it would be the opening couple of minutes of your live session.
Part 2: Introduce the “Hidden Hurdle”
The second part is where the teaching actually begins. You can think of this part as the first of three valued-packed lessons at the heart of the training.
And the idea is that you set the scene with what I call a “hidden hurdle”. It’s a specific issue that’s blocking your target market’s progress towards their goal.
Now, this is NOT the same as the broader obstacle that’s preventing your target market from reaching their goal.
It’s a narrower, more immediate issue at the start of the journey and it’s best if it’s not too obvious, which is why I call it the hidden hurdle.
Ideally this is something you already help people overcome early in your course. Meaning you should be able to reuse content you’ve already created.
Essentially, you’re educating people about a roadblock they didn’t even know they had, and helping them understand how it’s keeping them stuck.
So let’s say your course is about weight loss. If you tell people the reason they can’t lose weight is because they eat unhealthy foods and don’t exercise enough, that’s not very compelling because it’s such a widely known idea.
But if you say the reason is that they don’t know what specific foods to avoid and exercise to do based on their body type, then that’s more interesting and likely not something they knew already. So it’s a hidden hurdle.
To ramp up the emotion, you’ll end this part by reminding them of the pain and frustration that this hurdle is causing them by keeping them stuck.
Part 3: Reveal Your “Magic Method”
The third part is where you present your specific approach to overcoming the hidden hurdle, which I call the magic method.
Again, this can come directly from your course. You won’t cover it as deeply as you do in your course. Just enough to be both useful and interesting.
The method doesn’t have to be totally original but it helps if there are distinctive elements to it. You want people to feel like they’re getting information that’s a little different to what they’ve seen elsewhere.
Using the weight loss example again, your magic method might be a model that identifies four fundamental body/metabolism types, and provides nutritional and exercise recommendations optimised for each type.
After you’ve revealed the method, you’ll remind people of the bigger goal and get them excited about the possibility of getting closer to it.
Part 4: Share a Time-Saving Tool or Tactic
The fourth part is where you share a valuable tool or tactic taken from inside your course that people can put into practice right away to get a quick win.
This tool/tactic should relate directly to the method you presented before. It needn’t overcome the hurdle entirely, but it should:
- Take 10 minutes or less to complete
- Produce tangible results worth having
- Get people a step closer to their end goal
So for the weight loss example, the tool might be a five-minute questionnaire helping them to determine which of the four body types they match so they can work out the type of food and exercise they need to finally lose weight.
This part ends with you encouraging them to use the tool or tactic as soon as possible so they can get that valuable quick win.
Part 5: Recap and Reveal the Road Map
In the fifth part you recap what’s been learned in the three core parts of the training and reveal the next part of the road map that leads to the end goal.
You also paint a positive picture of that end goal and remind them that overcoming the hidden hurdle is an essential next step on that journey.
If they haven’t put the tool or tactic into practice yet, you encourage them to do that as soon as possible.
Part 6: Pivot to the Pitch
In the sixth and final part of the training you introduce your course for the first time, and begin to position it as the end-to-end solution for not only getting people past the hurdle but through all of the steps that follow.
You’re not giving a heavy pitch here, just saying: “By the way, if you do want some help on this bigger journey I’ve got something that might interest you.”
And you don’t need to lay out all the course details. Just tell people how to find out more, which essentially means linking to the dedicated sales page.
Side note: this is also a good opportunity to offer some kind of limited-time incentive to buy your course, like a discount coupon.
Then you quickly wrap things up by thanking people for participating and wishing them every success on the journey ahead.
Ready to Build Out Your Free Training?
Okay that’s it! My six-part structure for creating free training that gets the right people ready to buy your course.
If the idea of creating more content brings on a sigh rather than a cheer, just remember that much of it can be drawn from your course content itself.
See you in the next lesson!