This document discusses four key pricing strategies for online courses:
1. Subscriptions/memberships, which offer access to a portfolio of courses for a recurring fee and provide higher profit margins through monthly recurring revenue.
2. Pay as you learn, where students purchase courses individually or in bundles, increasing revenue and engagement.
3. Training tokens, which are purchased upfront and then redeemed for specific courses, improving cash flow and potentially increasing loyalty through unused tokens expiring.
4. Free courses to generate interest, gather feedback, and increase sales by exposing new audiences to a provider's offerings. Setting the right conditions and follow-up promotions are important to maximize the strategy's benefits.
3. Agenda:
• 4 Key Pricing Strategies:
• Subscriptions/Memberships;
• Pay as You Learn;
• Training Tokens;
• Freebies;
• The ideal users;
• The benefits;
• How to Set Them Up;
6. Subscriptions/Memberships – The Ideal User
Training Providers who offer:
• Big portfolio of courses;
• Higher-cost or long-term courses;
• eLearning (access to archived content);
7. Subscriptions/Memberships - Benefits
• Higher Profit Margins;
• MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue):
• predictable revenue;
• protects against seasonality;
• Loyal customer base;
• More accessible and desirable courses (even those hard to sell);
8. Subscriptions/Memberships – How to Set It Up
• Develop Subscription Plans:
• Limit content duration access per plan (LMS);
• Limit course access;
• Offer more value by providing course materials, tutoring sessions etc.
• Specify clear PaymentTerms:
• Monthly/annual;
• Instalments;
• Types of Payments accepted;
• Keep it simple and straightforward on your website and in yourT&C’s
10. Pay As You Learn – The Ideal User
Training Providers with:
• high student turnover (for ex. students might be buying certification
course only);
• Event Bundles - (buy 2 courses and get 3rd half price, free equipment
rental etc.;
• High demand for low-cost courses;
11. Pay As You Learn – Benefits
• Increased revenue;
• Easy to set up;
• Increased engagement (loyalty);
12. Pay As You Learn - How to Set It Up
• Match up courses – what courses work well together (Event Bundles);
• Go by number of Events vs. Specific Events (for example, you may look to
offer bundles of Events which are picked by the Student themselves and
not necessarily linked to one another);
• Decide on your “Deal” price so that it is attractive to bring in new business,
but also leads to increased revenue. Don’t want to price too cheap so that
your customers never buy individual courses;
14. Training Tokens – The Ideal User
Training Providers who:
• have customers with budgetary constraint (government-funded);
• Look to increase customer loyalty;
• Want to improve their cash flow (upfront payments);
15. Training Tokens - Benefits
• Spike in Revenue;
• More income per course delivered (CNN – 50% are not redeemed);
• Can be used as gift cards (get new clients through the door);
• Improved customer retention rate;
• CompetitiveAdvantage;
16. Training Tokens - How to Set It Up
• DefineTokenTiers:
• Silver, Gold, Platinum etc.
• The monetary value of each token per tier;
• Define token course list;
• Define Course token price;
• Set Expiry Date on tokens;
18. Free Courses – The Ideal User
Training Providers who:
• Want to introduce new courses;
• Measure interest;
• Get feedback;
• Want to Generate More Interest (for ex. new business venture);
• Brand recognition;
19. Free Courses - Benefits
• Increased interest in your courses;
• Increased sales;
• Good way to gather constructive feedback on your new courses before
going to market with them;
• Customer loyalty – if you’re willing to offer free courses this will get a lot of
buy in from your customers
20. Free Courses – How to Set This Up
• Decide if the Course you’re offering for free is going to be free for a
set period or will it be ongoing?
• Decide what is a good follow-up paying course;
• Get your marketing in place:
• To promote your free courses;
• To promote other paying courses clients might be interested in.