#204: How To Make Your Course Binge-Worthy

Welcome back to another episode of the Course Creation Incubator podcast. I’m your host, Gina Onativia, ready to help you launch market and scale your online course and keep your students excited every step of the way. Today we’re diving into something that I feel is so important. How to make your course feel binge worthy. So your student, your customers, your clients actually finish it and see real results.

And we’ve all been there before investing courses that we never complete. So I want to flip the script on that for your students. And I remember back in the day when I worked for Tony Robbins and we would make these physical products and we would hear these statistics that 50% of people wouldn’t even open the box. So if they did open the box, we tried out all these different ways to make sure they took the next step or the first and then the next step to actually implement the product.

And we would have letters on top. We’d have envelopes that said Start here in red and tried out different ways to make sure he engaged with this product. Get started. This episode is brought to you by our Done for You services. If you want to know how to create a course, it’s truly binge worthy and how to market it.

Join us as part of our Done for you services. We will hold your hand throughout the entire process. Of course Creation Bootcamp slash course to set up a call and chat with me about your dreams, your vision of what you want your course to become. First off, let’s explain why course completion really matters. And it’s not just about making those initial sales, it’s about creating meaningful transformations for your students.

You want them to see the before and after. You want them to get the result. I want that more than anything for my students. You’re putting your expertise out there to provide the transformation. We’ve talked about course promises on this podcast and you’ve clearly laid out where you want to take them the journey, you want to take them on, and when you don’t complete that journey, then that means you haven’t done your job as an expert.

So you want them to experience the change you’ve promised, which ultimately leads to powerful testimonials and success stories. And on the flip side, sometimes unfinished courses can harm your credibility a little bit. Or people could say, I didn’t get through it. You don’t want people saying that, Hey, I couldn’t even get through it. I felt overwhelmed. I felt like it was too much.

We we just don’t want that. Okay. So that’s why we’re talking about how to make your course really binge worthy. And here’s the cool part. When your course is binge worthy, then you create this ripple effect. Students become brand advocates, they leave raving reviews, they become repeat buyers, and they spread positive word of mouth. So for the copywriting playbook, I had a couple students come back.

They took the six week accelerator and I’ve got students I mentioned this on the podcast a few months ago who reach out and say, Hey, what else you got? And they’re repeat customers. They’re repeat students because they know the value of what I provide and they like how I teach. So they come back for different kinds of content and they help me spread the positive word of mouth.

They give me referrals and ultimately binge worthy courses, build trust and long term relationships, turning one time buyers into loyal fans who will hopefully help you grow your business organically. It’s a win win. So let’s talk a little bit about what makes a course something you’re soon just can’t stop watching. Think Netflix series level and first and foremost, it’s shorter impactful lessons and I’ve seen hour long lectures this not so much lately but when I first started out there were a lot of hour long videos and really long and nobody was thinking, Hey, maybe the students won’t hang on on this.

Maybe the student won’t be completely connected to these videos. So I want you to aim for lessons around 5 to 10 minutes each, give students quick wins and that hit that says yes, I’m making progress. For example, for our conversion copywriting playbook course, we have short, punchy content that we then break up over a live session. Now with our replays, we’ve been putting the replays directly up and K.G.B., which is our core site.

However, I could have broken them up, I could have cut them up, which I will do forever. Green version. And I want to talk about that 5 to 10 minutes for a second. So I’ve got a course creator creating a certification course right now and he’s going more 35, 14 minutes, even 15 minutes. However, his content is so good, number one to his delivery is tremendous.

He’s really comfortable in front of the camera. And three, he’s got a little visual elements. So I said, don’t worry about going longer with these videos. You’ve got it. Your material lends itself to it so you can break the rules is what I’m trying to say. These are guidelines to think about, but it’s all different for every kind.

Of course I don’t want I don’t want you having to come up to me and say, Well, Gina, you said I should keep my lessons to 5 minutes. Okay. The second piece to create binge worthy content is think about bite sized content that creates quick wins. Now, every lesson should offer an immediate and actionable takeaway, something your students can do right away and some lessons It’s going to be a lighter lift and some it’s going to be they have to fill out a worksheet.

 

Maybe they have to test the content on someone. Think about how to vary up your implementation steps because quick wins, build confidence, keep that in mind, and they create momentum and excitement for what’s next. Here’s a third point You want to have a clear and compelling course roadmap. Students want to see exactly what they’re looking to achieve. They want clarity from the moment that they log in.

So include visuals, milestone markers, progress trackers to give your students a clear path and sense of accomplishment. For example, we are onboarding for a certification and other certification course right now, and there are some questions about the pre-work and how the live classes will go. So I’ll add that to see the announcements. And good job you are in that first lesson to help them orient them for our copywriting class.

O’Leary and I built a visual roadmap so each students can see each milestone clearly so they know, okay, cool, I can check this off. I’ve completed this lesson and I know what’s next. So keep them engaged, keep them excited, Don’t leave them confused. You want them to make sure that they feel confident as they go through each step.

Here’s another piece that I feel like really helps for a binge worthy course, and that’s a personal touch. The power of authentic, personalized communication shows students that you really care tailored messaging, personalized feedback, make sure students feel uniquely valued, not just another number. Now, especially when you’re starting out and your numbers are small. So for the Playbook, O’Leary and I purposely kept these numbers small.

We have about 22 people in that class and we wanted to keep it smaller because we wanted to be able to give feedback and make sure we reviewed everyone’s email or copy that they put in front of us and we have been staying on for extra time after the class has ended. So we teach our core content, we wrap it up and then we go through additional homeworks to give our students the opportunity to get that, customize feedback.

And then we didn’t get to one student. We went longer on this last class. O’Leary went ahead and recorded somebody’s album and sent it to her because we want to have that personalized touch. We know how important it is, especially for a live class where we’re promising workshop, promising that personalized attention, and we know how far that goes and we know those people are more likely to come the next week.

Those are by far more engaged students, the ones that are putting in their homework and then to getting the feedback each and every week. It’s addictive, right? When you see someone paying attention and giving you that specialized attention, you want to show up because you want more of it and you see the progress that you’re making as well.

So please, if your course is small enough or if you’re just starting out with a certain course or you have a program or charge for it, right? So say you have a smaller group, but it’s an advanced class charge for it. If you want to give that personalized attention, know in advance, Hey, I’m charging a little bit more because you’re going to get custom feedback on the work that you present to me.

Don’t be afraid to say that up front. People will pay for it. Now that we covered a few content pointers in terms of making your binge worthy content, how do you keep the momentum alive? How do you keep them going through the course? One way to keep the momentum going is creating regular intentional check ins, reminders that build excitement and remind students why they signed up in the first place.

Quick check ins asking them how they’re feeling, what’s challenging them, encouraging their process. So O’Leary and I have a series of emails that are regular check ins. If we haven’t heard from someone, we will ping them. Hey, I didn’t get your homework or I haven’t heard from you in a couple of weeks. That’s part of the regular check ins that we have baked in.

We also celebrate each milestone that the students hit no matter how small wrecking Nation keeps morale high. Right. We can celebrate each other. You could celebrate by finishing a module, submitting a key assignment, hitting halfway points, celebrating these publicly in maybe your community if you have one, or through emails and messaging. I’ll never forget creating a relationship course where there was a really difficult looking back lesson where it was kind of like digging up your old relationships.

And at the end of the lesson, the two ladies, the two experts had these big goblets of wine and they cheered like you did it right. So just having those spontaneous moments of celebration, I think your students really appreciate. And it gives them that excitement and that feeling of accomplishment. Also, I mentioned community leavers, community and pure accountability.

It creates a space for students who really motivate each other. There’s strength in numbers, so create forum Slack groups could be communities where students can share wins, ask questions and cheer each other on. This peer to peer engagement can really boost your completion rates. When I did the six week Accelerator live, we would post people’s feedback, live in the community and I think that helped really encourage and inspire the other students inside the course and they loved it.

So if you’re going to put the energy toward a community, really get the most out of it, how can you really encourage people to share their ideas, share their wins, talk about their challenges? Right? If somebody has a challenge, don’t bury that, celebrate that and say, okay, thank you for flagging that. Please do not struggle in silence. Okay.

And then that’s a way for you to show your expertise as an authority and show them that you can help them out of it and you can help that help them turn that that challenge into a celebration. All right. Hopefully I got you thinking about some binge worthy course material and how to create your own binge worthy course.

And remember, it’s not just about creating great content. It’s about creating real connections and showing who you are. Like, I just said, in terms of the community and showing your students how much you care and how much you’re invested in your success. Because when your students feel seen or valued and supported, they not only complete the course, they become your biggest advocates.

Like I said at the beginning of this podcast, and they celebrate the word about how your incredible your program is. Hopefully this was helpful. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss one single episode. And remember, you’ve got this. I believe in you. Whatever you’re building. I can’t wait to see it. Ping me on Instagram or LinkedIn. I would love to know about your course creation success.

Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, go create be you and be brilliant and get it done.