How to make your course stand out

When I left my last full-time role, I didn’t focus on online courses right away.

The truth is, my ego took me on a bit of a detour.

You see, as well as building courses, I’d also been running operations for the $1m+ per year business I worked for.

So I positioned myself as an online business operations specialist (which felt more “important and impressive” than online course specialist) and went looking for clients.

But I soon realised that I’d put myself in the mix with lots of other types of people who were also essentially helping businesses run better.

Business coaches, “growth hackers”, OBMs, online mentors and strategists. The list went on and on.

It wasn’t until I focused on the online courses aspect of my experience that I started cutting through the noise.

For instance, I’d joined a paid networking group a few months earlier to find clients. Now I was the only person in that network of 300+ people who specialised in courses and suddenly I was the “online course guy”.

People understood more easily what I did and many were happy to give me referrals.

So if you’re worried how to stand out in your market, that’s one way to do it.

Have a distinctive FOCUS.

That could mean creating a course that solves a very specific problem rather than a broader one.

Or solving a more general problem for a narrower group of people who see it a little differently to everyone else.

Another way to stand out is to have a distinctive METHOD.

So maybe your course competes with others that deliver the same result, but yours does it in a unique way that appeals more strongly to certain types of people.

(And if that method also makes the whole process simpler, quicker or more painless, all the better!)

A third way to stand out is to have a distinctive STYLE.

Even if your course has a similar focus to others and teaches a similar method, it can still stand out as long as it delivers its information in a distinctive way.

Maybe your style of teaching is humorous, or quirky, or chock-full of attitude. Or it’s a super practical, down-to-earth course in a niche that tends to be a bit more “woo woo”.

You could even switch up the format and create a text or audio-based course for a market saturated by video (‘cos not everyone likes video you know…)

Whichever approach you take, you’re looking for a convincing answer to the question:

Why will people choose your course instead of the other options?

Once you’ve worked that out, most of the other pieces will fall into place.

See you soon,

Glen