How To Sell High-Ticket Online Courses

In the same way as the start of your discovery event is about storytelling and building trust and rapport with your audience.

The start of an online campaign is the same.

The only difference is that you are sending 4 videos to your list every other day. 

What's in each video?

1. Story
2. Information
3. Action

You know that storytelling is the most powerful way to build an emotional connection with your audience. That's why you tell so many stories at your live events. So you do the same thing online.

You tell a story to build trust and rapport with your audience... and... set up the need for the information you are going to share.

For example, if the information is how to run a 21-day campaign to sell high-ticket workshops online. The story part of the video would be how I discovered this simple system.

The story shows the audience the struggles that you endured to discover your system... and builds the need for your system... if they want to skip 5 or 10 years of the school-of-hard-knocks.

The story is MORE important than the content that you will share!

I know that sounds crazy, so please let me explain.

You find talking about the content easy. This is what you do, day in and day out. So it's easy to jump to how your system works.

It's also easy to think that because prospects have been on your database for some time that they know who you are and why they should trust you. 

And...

Remember that you are not the most important person in their life!

So they don't remember every email you've ever sent them. They won't remember every video you've ever recorded.

So, you've got start your presentation by showing your prospect who you are... how you can help them... why they should trust you... and what makes you different.

You've got to start your presentation by building an emotional connection with your audience. 

And...

You can only do that with a story.

Especially right now when fear is sky-high. You've got to show your prospect why they should trust you before you show them how you can help them.

The information part of the video shows your prospect the overview of your system and explains the moving parts.

It could show them the first step that they need to take.

The point is you need to get them excited about the opportunity. And you need to show them how it works and what they need to do. This further earns your prospects trust and leads them by the hand down the Yellow Brick Road Of Agreement to the sale.

The video is pure value. So why am I thinking about the sale already?

Because this is the start of the sales process. Making prospects believe that they can use your system to change their life.

Getting prospects to believe that your system has changed your life is relatively easy.

Getting prospects to believe they can change their life with your system is hard. It takes time. It takes a series of agreements. And that process starts with the first video you send.

You are earning their trust through your story. You are earning their belief and agreement through your content.

This brings us to the final part of the video. Action.

When you get your audience to take an action. You transform your video from entertainment into a tool that helps them change their life. A tool that your prospect knows how to pick up. A tool that your prospect feels the weight of. A tool that is surprisingly easy to pick up and use.

When your prospect takes the first action. You've got emotional buy-in from them.

And...

When they see how easy it is to take action. And how that first action leads to the result that they want. Then you've won part of their belief and agreement.

If you're thinking that's a lot of fit in one video. Then you're right. That's why each video is anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes.

Why are there 4 videos?

Because each video leads your prospect farther down the Yellow Brick Road Of Agreement to the sale.

Because you want each video to be a manageable amount of time and content.

Because your system has many moving parts. And you want to show different parts to win more agreement.

And...

Different videos will appeal to different people on your database.

You know that no one reads every email you send. No one opens every email you send. So showing different aspects of your system will appeal to different people.

In other words, 4 videos give you 4 bits of the cherry.

And...

If each video is good. If each video gives the audience an Ah-Ha moment. If each video makes your audience see in enough detail how to do something new... then you will earn their trust and they will watch the rest of your videos.

How do I know that?

Because I'm the most sceptical prospect. I watch other US gurus running campaigns like this. And winning my focussed attention is hard... really hard.

A couple of years ago I was watching a launch by Lisa Sasevich and the value she gave in her second video was so good... that I went back to watch the first video. And I watched the rest of her campaign with great excitement.

If I'm honest, the second video was the best part of her campaign. And that was enough of an emotional hook to drag me along for the 21-day ride.

So, the upfront value part of the campaign earns the readers trust. It makes them believe that they can use your system. It gets them excited about the opportunity.

It does this with 4 videos and 4 ebooks.

What's in the ebooks?

The same information that is in the videos. And it's information that they will keep.

So...

Make sure you put your stories in the ebooks. They are not textbooks. They are information bundles that inspire people to change their lives.

I send the videos out every other day. This gives prospects tie to take the action.

That brings us to the end of the Upfront Value part of the campaign.

So how do you turn the prospects trust and desire to change their life into sales?

With...

A Time-Limited Sales Window

The time-limited sales window uses two tools to make the sale...

1. Live Webinar
2. Long Copy Sales Page

The transition from the value part of the sequence to the sale part is registration for a live webinar.

I can't stress enough the importance of the live webinar. You want people to give up their time to watch a sales presentation. And you want them to watch it all the way through to the end.

A powerful way of asking them to make time in their day... at a specific time... is to ask them to join you live.

This gives them the opportunity to ask you questions.

As you know a webinar is a sales presentation. A sales presentation that starts with stories. Stories to earn trust.

Then it uses content to build belief and agreement that the prospect can use your system to change their life.

This is how you lead the prospect by the hand, down the Yellow Brick Road Of Agreement. The Yellow Brick Road that ends in the Promised Land of the sale.

So...

What's the sale?

If you are normally selling a 3-day workshop. What are you selling now?

How can you use the disruption of Coronavirus to overdeliver with your offer?

One of the US marketers that I follow is Perry Marshall. Here's how he over-delivered with a live event that he had to cancel.

1. Virtual Live Event
2. Online Course
3. Live Event Later In The Year

So your audience gets MORE than normal. In fact, they get a lot more. They get a live event from the safety of their home. And if broadband and family challenges mean they can't spend 3 days with you. No problem. Because you are giving them the online course.

And...

You are giving them the live event later in the year.

Plus...

Online support for a few weeks after the live event.

When you overdeliver in your offer. You build a stronger relationship with your email database. You are showing your community that you want to help them through this difficult period. And you are proving your desire to help through your actions.

This brings me to an important question...

What Should You Charge For An Online Course?

Is the perceived value of an online course less than a live event?

Not in my experience!

I've sold live workshops. Then I sold the same information as an online course at the same price.

And...

Sales increased for the online course.

So, don't kid yourself into thinking you have to cut the price of an online course.

And...

If you overdeliver with your offer by giving prospects three events for the price of one... then you won't sell yourself or your customers short.

So the webinar is only the first day of an 11-day sales window.

Sales Day 2

Day 2 sends your database to a long copy sales page.

Why?

Because there are plenty of people that won't register for your webinar. This might be because they are busy at the time of the webinar. It might be that they don't want to give up 90 minutes of their time. 

And 70% of people that register for your webinar will not attend.

So, use a different sales vehicle. A sales vehicle that gives your prospect the freedom to read the message when they can.

A sales vehicle that allows your prospect to read as much or as little as they want before deciding to buy.

A sales vehicle that allows your prospect to read your message as many times as they want before deciding to buy.

That's why you need a long copy sales page.

What exactly is a long copy sales page...

A long copy sales page is a salesman in print. Or in this case online.

The sales page uses stories and social proof to earn the readers trust. It shows the reader the opportunity and what they need to do to seize it.

By showing them the steps that they need to take to seize the opportunity. You lead the reader by the hand down the Yellow Brick Road Of Agreement to the sale.

To reinforce the belief that the reader can change their life with this system. The sales page uses social proof to show that other people just like them, have used your system to change their lives.

Finally, it makes an irresistible offer. An offer that shows them...

1. What they are buying
2. What that will do for them
3. Why they need to act now
4. Why they risk nothing when they buy today
5. What they need to do to buy.

If you're thinking, that's a lot to put in a letter. You're right. And that's why sales pages are 4,000 to 10,000 words.

The beauty of a sales page is that the prospect can read as much or as little as they want before deciding to buy.

With a sales page, the prospect can re-read certain parts before making up their mind. They can read at their own pace. And at a time that suits them. Something that is not possible with a webinar.

Sales Day 3

Day 3 sends the database to a social proof video.

Why?

Because each piece in this campaign puzzle is designed to lead the prospect by the hand further down the Yellow Brick Road Of Agreement to the sale.

As I've already said, it's easy to make the prospect believe that you can achieve stunning results with your system. It's much harder to make them believe that they can use it.

There's nothing more powerful at showing that ordinary people can use your system than testimonials.

I don't really like the word testimonial. I prefer customer success story.

Why?

Because a good testimonial is a customer success story. It shows the journey that you took the customer on. It shows their level of experience before they started working with you. It shows why they wanted to make a change in their life. And it shows why they trusted you.

Then it shows the results they have enjoyed by using your system. And it explains the difference your system has made to their life.

That's an inspirational story. A story that will inspire your database to do the same.

At the end of the customer success video. A button appears below the video that takes prospects to the long copy sales page.

This gives value and inspiration in the campaign.

Sales Day 4 to 8

Days 4 to 8 ask the database to register for the second webinar.

This keeps the value high in the sales part of the campaign.

Why run 2 webinars?

Because 10% or less of your database will register for the webinar. And only 30% to 40% of registrants will attend. So there is a second webinar for people that couldn't attend the first one.

You can exclude webinar 1 attendees from this part of the campaign and give them a different message. This will be more direct sales messages because they have seen the webinar. And more social proof to lead them farther down the Yellow Brick Road Of Agreement to the sale.

Sales Day 9 to 11

Days 9 to 11 drive traffic to the long copy sales page.

The emails in the campaign use storytelling, social proof and urgency to persuade readers to take a specific action.

The start of the campaign uses more storytelling emails. As we get closer to the deadline, the emails become more offer and urgency focused.

A live event has quantity scarcity. The number of available seats. Something you can't do with an online course.

And you can create scarcity with your bonuses. You can have a bonus that is only for the first 10 people.

The other aspect to scarcity that is more powerful... is personal scarcity.

Let's face it, we all think about changing our lives for days or months or years before we actually do it. There will be people that have sat on the sidelines and watched opportunities disappear for years. By tapping into their personal motivation to change their lives you introduce a much more powerful form of scarcity.

The final form of scarcity to introduce is market scarcity.

As you know, we are now living in dog years. The changes that happen in a week are what normally happen in a year.

Do you think that creates some scarcity for your offer?

Tap into that and you'll create a stampede for your offer.

So that's my proven system to sell high-ticket workshops online.

A system that I use to turn an email database into a 6-figure campaign.

A system that I use to create a stronger relationship with your database... which set's up future sales.

Bottom Line For Today

If you remember nothing else... please remember these three things...

1. Overdeliver in your offer
2. Personal urgency
3. Market urgency

These are the extra tools that you can use to carry your prospect the final steps on the Yellow Brick Road to the Promised Land.

Please don't think I'm suggesting you do anything unethical. I'm saying this based on the assumption that you have an online course that can help people improve their lives at this difficult time.

You've now seen how to use my simple system to sell high-ticket workshops online. 

If you would like me to run a campaign like this for you then please email me on roland.eva@rolandeva.co.uk

If this can help someone you know, then please share it with them.

Until next time...

Carpe diem

Roland Eva

P.S. If you'd like to learn more my simple system to turn email databases into 6-figure campaigns. Then you need to read my book How To Turn Expertise Into Cash.

To download your free copy. Click the link below. 

http://rebrand.ly/How-To-Turn-Expertise-Into-Cash-Book