How to Strategize Pricing for Your Cohort-Based Courses

It is quite likely that by now as a creative, you have designed your course. Perhaps, you are trying to gather as much information before you begin designing one. Whatever the case may be, you wish to determine the perfect price point for your course(s). Figuring out pricing for your cohort-based courses is a tricky task.

What aspects should you consider while calculating the cost? Is the price too high? Or is it too low? It is just so confusing. Moreover, it can be particularly daunting too if you are not comfortable with numbers. Therefore, to help you out of your troubles, we have created this guide to help you determine the right pricing strategies for your cohort-based courses.

According to a Harvard Business Review article, a 1% increase in pricing strategy can result in an 11% increase in profits on average. This study proves just how crucial pricing strategies are for any business in general. Unfortunately, there is no hard-and-fast rule for figuring out which pricing strategies will suit your particular cohort-based course the best. The process can be somewhat tedious and requires going through several trials and errors. Hopefully, by following the tips below the task will become easier for you.

Pricing strategies for your cohort-based courses

Set pricing expectations for your cohort-based course

Begin by asking yourself what are your expectations from the course. How much do you hope to enlist it for on the market? What is the target that you are trying to hit? In case you have not yet made a target, now is a good time to do so. Having a target sets a much-needed direction. Once you have decided on an estimated price, start evaluating the expense incurred in creating the course and compare the total cost with your estimated price. After all, you can not simply write down a price out of thin air, it has to be relational to your actual cost.

This step is about knowing your worth. The best of quantifying your input is by determining the hourly rate that you usually charge. Then calculate the number of hours you spend on the course. Multiply the hours invested with the hourly rate and you get the worth of your input. Remember that this is not the total cost but a fraction of it; factor in advertisements, paid tools, and miscellaneous costs to get a proper cost rounding. The number you get is what you want to be returned and as a rule-of-thumb, your price should be greater than this, or else your cohort-course business is doomed.

Never undersell your course

In order to compete with your competitors, your first instinct would be to lower your price. Competing on the price is an unwindable game, instead, compete on the basis of value i.e. what will the customers be gaining from purchasing your product. Anyways, there is always somebody out there with a lower price than yours so it's simply not worth the hassle.

1. A lower price can reduce your perceived value

Most importantly, by underselling your course, you will be doing irreparable damage to your brand's perceived value. Prospective customers will start suspecting that your course does not have a good quality which is why it is listed for less. It is a psychological trap. We all believe this, things that are cheap are not durable.

2. Reduces return on investments

Lower prices have a limited profit margin which in turn limits the amount you can invest in your course to grow it further. For instance, you won't have sufficient funds to invest in brand advertisement. As a result, you will get lazy with marketing and use inefficient methods to market your brands that won't be able to get your course business the traction it requires. Consequently, your return on investment (ROI) will also drop.

3. Attracts demotivated learners

Another major drawback of underselling your course is that it will attract the wrong kind of audience. Such people are interested in your course only for the cheap price and not the value you are providing. They are hardly invested in your course. The minute they find a cheaper option than you're providing, they will drop out. Besides, we humans tend to value cheaper things less. Think about smartphones, for example, you would be very particular about the expensive iPhone that cost you nearly a limb than you would be towards a super affordable phone. Cohort-based course pricing also works in the same way. A slightly expensive course will compel the students to invest in it more.

Offer a variety of pricing options

It is always a good strategy to provide your prospects with a greater choice, be it for pricing packages or course types - recorded/live. By providing a choice you will be tearing down the fixed-rate notion: take it or leave it. And chances are, quite a few people will leave. Also, you can't adjust everyone's expectations in a one-size-fits-all kind of pricing option. Create a minimum of two pricing options and justify their value. By doing such a comparison you can actually people opt for the pricier option too. As they will think that for little more money they can get loads of extra features.

For reference, check out the pricing option Teachfloor provides its customers.

👉🏽 Learn how to create a cohort-based course and scale it from 50 to 500.

Run Beta tests for pricing your cohort-based course perfectly

In case you are new to all this and are about to launch your first ever cohort-based course, this step is crucial for you. Beta launching can help you see any necessary changes that you need to make without having to take any major risks. It will allow your course to adapt and grow simultaneously.

That's what the entrepreneur and founder of Thinkific Greg Smith did when he started his first-ever online course. He launched a smaller version of his original course and listed it well below the market price. It enabled him to test whether the public wanted such a course. After he received a positive response, he gradually started to increase the price. Alongside, he also got feedback from his students to improve the course. With time, not only was the price of the course increased but also its perceived value, and its customers also increased.

Ways to increase your course value

In order to charge higher prices for your cohort-based courses, you will have to justify it to the customers. Put yourself in the place of a customer and then evaluate your course. Ask yourself why should you buy this particular course. As talked about above, you can justify charging a higher price for a greater product or course value. Here are some of the ways by which you can add value to your courses.

Stay specific

By ensuring clarity in your course description you will attract a particular audience. The audience will find it easier to determine whether your course fits their demands properly and if they should invest in it or not. Staying specific will also make it easier for you to achieve your goals for the course and enable you to meet your students' expectations effortlessly. The more satisfied your customers will be from your course the better testimonials they will leave, and they will keep coming back for more.

Offer exclusive one-on-one sessions

To be a successful instructor, it is important to be available to address your students' queries. By conducting one-on-one personalized interactions with your students you will be able to convey the concepts in a better way to them and get valuable feedback from them. You hold live monthly calls and guest webinars to the course for further value-addition. Besides, Courses with live coaching calls tend to be expensive as an expert is taking out time from their schedule especially to guide the learner. This will give a unique edge to your course too.

The founder of Forte Labs, Tiago Forte did a similar thing with one of his courses, as shown below. The basic edition is listed at $1500, whereas the premium edition with live coaching sessions is listed for a whopping $6000.

Integrate the course with tools and downloadable resources

To prove to your customers that they will be getting their money's worth, it is necessary to include downloadable resources like exclusive E-books, podcasts, worksheets, etc. This will increase student engagement and enhance their learning. Integrate your courses with tools and partner with software to make your course more attractive. You could also provide special discount codes for certain tools to your students e.g. some design courses come integrated with Protopie and Adobe XD. As students will be saving money on buying these courses, such software integration will work as an incentive for them to buy your cohort-based course.

Conclusion

By now we can all agree that determining pricing strategies for your cohort-based courses is no joke. Hopefully, this article must have cleared some of your confusion. So far, we have reviewed both the Dos and Don'ts for pricing cohort-based courses and suggested some tips for course value-addition. A good way to go about pricing is to set clear goals and try to strike a balance between your expectations and reality. Remember, if you overprice the course you risk making it unaffordable for most people, but if you undersell it you diminish your perceived value. There is no hack for this, just keep testing and improving with time and you will eventually hit your perfect price.

If you wish to see more of such informative and helpful articles on cohort-based courses, feel free to check out blog.