10 Ways an Easy To Create Mini Course Can Have Massive Impact In Your Business

I love mini-courses, they are such a great place to start with digital products, especially if you’ve never created a course before.

Often new course creators are attracted by the glitz and glamour of creating a big signature program and the thousands you can charge for it, without realising just how much work it takes to create a program like that.

(#spoileraltert - it can take many months, sometimes years)

I think the best place to start is with a quick and easy to create and launch, mini-course.

A mini-course is something you can get to market quickly, without all the stress and pressure of creating a big program, plus it can impact your business in a number of positive ways.

1) Quickly builds momentum

After working with course and membership creators for more than two years, one of the most common things that keeps aspiring creators from getting their course launched is momentum.

Whilst creating an online course is often touted as the quick path to success and riches, (usually by those trying to sell you a course on making money with a course) creating digital education products is actually a big undertaking. ESPECIALLY if you've never created a course before and you don't already have an audience.

A mini-course is a perfect segue into this online education world because it is much quicker to move through the process from idea to content creation to selling.

For most people, there is nothing more motivating than getting an email that says "you've got a new student in your course"

You can absolutely get a course idea validated, up for sale and lessons created within a few weeks (even a few days once you've had some practice).

Often that can take months, sometimes years if you create a big program first and it's easy to lose steam and mojo when a project takes such a long time to bring to market.

2) Mini-courses are easy to sell

Selling a $1,000 or $2,000 program is often the goal for many new course creators. Personally, I think it's smart to have a program around that price in your digital product overall business model.

However, when it's your first time selling a course, pricing at that point can bring up a whole lot of resistance and often money mindset issues can derail your confidence selling a product at that price, especially if it's a brand new offer.

When you're selling a course for under $100 or even under $50, it puts you in a completely different mindset and it takes a lot of pressure off.

Often perfectionism issues and fear it won't be good enough can stall progress on big programs, but mini-courses don't tend to have the same issues

It's also a totally different buying process for a $2000 course to a $47/$37/$27 course.

A $2k purchase is a strongly considered decision, whereas a $27-47 purchase is on par with the decision to eat out for dinner and doesn't require as much thought.

Because of this, mini-courses don't need elaborate launch funnels to sell, again taking pressure off the creator (as learning to launch and create funnels also takes time, skill and practice).

3) Makes learning course creation skills fun

Knowing how to create an online course (and importantly, sell an online course) is not a big secret. Tens of thousands of people are having amazing success with digital education businesses in every niche imaginable.

However it does take skills you may not already have, so you'll likely have a big learning curve when you start out in the online course world, which can sometimes be a little overwhelming.

As well as the course creation itself, you've got the tech set up, audience building and sales strategies to master.

The great thing about creating a mini-course is that you can gain the skills you need in an easy and fun way.

Because mini-courses are quick to launch and market, you get quick feedback, which allows you to improve and iterate.

You can craft your skills as a lesson creator, course validator and marketer on a smaller product, that doesn't come with the pressure to get it "perfect".

I've met countless creators who've given up after spending months (or sometimes years) creating a course that didn't get the sales they hoped when they were launching.

Doing a mini-course first takes the pressure off, as if for some reason it doesn't work, you can get feedback from your audience, tweak things and try again.

4) Create extra revenue streams

If the last two crazy pandemic years have taught us anything, it's not to have your eggs all in one basket!

Creating a mini-course (or courses) allows you to have additional revenue streams in your business without having to invest a whole lot of extra money (or time). 

Not to mention, being fully online, your course can keep selling even if your physical doors are shut for any reason.

Even if you're a service provider or sell physical products, educating your customers is a helpful part of relationship building and can increase trust (and subsequently increase sales) which you can do through a mini-course.

Mini-courses also allow you a way to create courses that could be completely different to your main business, just for fun as a way to bring in some extra moolah.

5) Positions you as an expert

When you're selling high-end coaching or done for you service packages, getting leads will be one of your biggest priorities.

Then once you get a new lead, you'll need to nurture them and take them through your sales process - perhaps an email series, webinar or other ways for that lead to get to know like and trust you.

But what if the leads in your pipeline already trust you and see you as an expert, because they've already taken a mini-course from you? 

You could flip your business and instead of paying for leads, you'll get paid straight away when someone takes your mini-course and that course could turn leads into customers who can't wait to work with you, making it a win-win. 

It's a GREAT way to grow your service or coaching business.

6) Brilliant for upselling

A mini-course is great on its own, but where it REALLY shines is as an entry-level offer to upsell into a higher ticket program.

Mini-courses not only show your expertise and help people to know like and trust you,  but it also gives the chance for quick wins and almost instant progress.

A mini-course just has one simple outcome and if someone takes the course and gets that outcome, the natural next step for the student is "how can I keep working with you?"

Whether the next step is a bigger course or your signature program, it will be an easy and obvious step if someone has already experienced learning from you and that's been a positive experience.

Someone who has purchased before, even if it was a small purchase, is far more likely to purchase again

Your mini-course can be a great way to ensure customers are aware of your other offers as well.

7) Repurpose content into assets

Have you already created an ebook or written a detailed free lead magnet?

Perhaps you've got a comprehensive blog post that does really well in google or a YouTube video that gets far more views than anything else you've done.

Have you run a training session for staff or clients in the past and still have the slides or outline for it?

Things like this are a fantastic head start to putting together a mini-course so you're not starting from scratch and can turn your creative assets into digital assets that can bring you passive income now and in the future.

Take the content you've already created and break it down into lessons, so you can then sell it as a mini-course. Voila, instant digital asset!  

8) Great as a lead magnet

One of the most important things to online entrepreneurs is getting leads and growing your list. It is literally the lifeblood of your business!

The most common way to attract leads and potential new customers is through a lead magnet.

You give someone a digital item of value in exchange for their email address and the permission to keep emailing them. 

A short mini-course can be a great lead magnet to introduce new ideal customers to your teaching style and expertise.

It's especially helpful if followed up with an email sequence that can introduce new mini-course students to your other offers.

That sequence can start as soon as someone signs up for the mini-course and perhaps after 7-10 days, you can introduce them to a bigger course or program. 

9) Use as a bonus

When you create a mini-course, you're not just creating an asset you can sell now, you're creating an asset you can use in other areas of your business.

Perhaps you have a signature course or coaching program and the mini-course aligns nicely with that, making a great bonus resource for the bigger program, which could help increase sales.

Or if you're selling physical products, your mini-course might show the customer how to use those products or some advanced/specialised ways to use them. 

Instead of selling the course, it could be a part of a promotion (get the course free if you spend over $250)

For example, if you sell sewing machines, you could include a sewing machine basics course free with purchase during a promo period. This also ensures the customer knows you have courses available if they need help sewing.

 10) Use a mini-course in Bundles

Have you ever seen bundles of courses advertised for a crazy cheap price? Like $15,000 worth of courses for $99?

Bundles like this are incredibly popular and an amazing way to grow your list as a course creator - especially if you offer a course that is specific for your ideal customer.

How bundles work is that a group of course creators come together and pool their resources.

Each creator shares a course and for doing that, has the benefit of the collective group advertising the bundle, enabling them to get in front of potentially tens of thousands of people they otherwise wouldn't be able to contact.

You offer your course for free and the people who've purchased the bundle that want your course will sign up for it.

Rather than give away a big program, you could include a mini-course you've created, which is a perfect intro to your offers and business and helps build your list.

So how do you create a mini-course?

If creating a course is on your wish list, but you'd love some step by step instruction, lucky for you - we've got just the ticket!

Join the 30 Days to $1k challenge and you'll get step by step instruction over 30 days via email and video lessons, so you'll not only build your mini-course but do the important steps of validation, setting up all the tech to host and sell your course and crucially - market and promote it so you get sales.

The 30 Days to $1k challenge comes with loads of support and you can start right now.