4 Online Course Pricing Models -

Jun 23, 2022
Woman deciding on her online course pricing.

Pricing can be one of the trickiest parts of launching the first course. There's a need to strike a compromise between giving value to your audience and determining a cost they're willing to pay, or making the decision to be charging for your classes at all.

If you are deciding on a pricing model, it's an excellent idea to evaluate different options and think about your revenue goals. These are the most popular pricing methods to take into consideration when you are planning and pricing your courses.

1. Free courses

2. Baseline courses

Basic courses can reach a large population by providing information that appeals to many people for a low cost. The courses should be ones which you are able to create rapidly. They also shouldn't require an enormous amount of time from students or deal with subjects that are overly detailed or technical. These courses may result in a lot of signups with smaller participation rates due to the cost-effectiveness and low risk.

3. Premium courses

Premium online courses are the primary goal for many content creators when they are contemplating pricing strategies. The courses that are premium have the most prices and provide high-quality and in-depth information. Content must be distinctive and taught by a respected or known instructor, or address the subject you can't get elsewhere. All of these factors help justify the premium price.

4. Subscription-based to courses

No matter which pricing option you decide to use, how can ensure that you're setting the correct pricing for your courses?

The formula for setting your price for your course

Pricing courses isn't exactly a scientific procedure, however you can use the formula below to eliminate some uncertainty from pricing.

In order to begin it is necessary to know some key pieces of information.

  • Goals for revenue. You should think about the amount you would like or must earn from the course. Do you need to cover the costs in order to be profitable? Do you have an income target? What's the maximum amount you'd like to receive?
  • Conversion. How many people in your target audience will actually buy the course? Using data from your email list, social media following and landing pages as well as any other data related to your campaign You can calculate an approximate conversion rate for your audience. The rate must be expressed as a percentage in decimal form. For instance If you anticipate that to convert 10% of your followers to convert, you can use 0.10 in the formula that follows.

You're now ready to test your hand at the following formula:

      Revenue = Audience Size Conversion Rate x Price      

Plug in different numbers to observe how the cost of the course changes according to your revenue goals and how the revenue grows or decreases with different prices for courses and conversion rates.

The optimal course price is the one that allows you to meet the revenue targets you set for the size of your audience and conversion rate.

Be successful while remaining in the present

The last element of the pricing strategy is ensuring the content of your course is in line with the pricing. If you apply the formula and you get an exorbitant course price then you may need consider rethinking your plans It's not reasonable to charge $10,000 for 10 minutes of instruction like that, for instance.

In the end, contemplating different pricing models with the formula of pricing used to guide you will help you choose an appropriate pricing plan that will work for you and for the customers you serve.