Training courses are expensive and time-consuming to put together, and they often need to be run several times in order to become profitable. Creating and executing a profitable training course isn’t just about selling places on it (although that is crucially important), it is also about creating something that people will recommend to their friends and colleagues.
There are some very important measures you should take in order to ensure that your training courses turn a reasonable profit.
Assess demand in your industry
Before you start to construct the mechanics of a training course, you need to know that there is sufficient demand out there to make it profitable. This means some detailed market research is necessary. But instead of paying a company a small fortune to carry out this market research for you, save a significant amount of money by meeting with your colleagues and clients in order to get ideas for potential courses.
Ask HR managers and people responsible for training in your industry where their training needs lie. Is there a particular area of the industry where training courses are in short supply? Is there a specific course that just isn’t available, or that is in great demand? Also, speak with your peers in order to find out what specific training and development needs they have.
You can maximise your chances of creating a profitable training course if you can find a specific niche that isn’t being catered for. Follow the simple principles of demand and supply, and you shouldn’t go far wrong.
Create training goals
Only by creating training goals in advance will you be able to give your course a clear and consistent direction. Specific goals will also allow you to be concise and informative when it comes to creating the all-important course description.
- Who are you training? Knowing this will help you to create relevant course descriptions that resonate with a particular demographic.
- What are the objectives of your training? Try to identify trends in your market, and use them to give your training real-world relevance. Also, ask employers (your clients) what they expect to see from their employees once they have attended your course
- Be aware of changes in your industry. This will allow you to take advantage of new training needs, and determine the specific skill-set you will be instilling in your attendees.
Create an eye-catching course title description
The likelihood is that your potential attendees will view dozens of different courses before booking one. It is imperative that you grab their attention with an eye-catching, concise and informative title – and then follow it up with a description that both stokes the imagination and delivers easy-to-understand information.
Develop a cost-effective marketing strategy
Marketing your course once it has been created is a hugely important task, but it has the potential to make the whole endeavour unprofitable unless you keep a tight rein on the costs involved from day one.
While glossy brochures, telemarketing campaigns and sophisticated advertisements might all deliver results, they come with a hefty price-tag. The Jivjav online marketplace for training courses allows you to list courses and take payments for booking completely free of charge.
The Jivjav platform allows you to list your courses and course descriptions quickly and simply, and different marketing options ensure that your courses are seen by the people who are in need of the training you’re offering. An optional referral programme allows users to click straight through to your website or email at a highly competitive price per click. And a pay-per-click advertising option, the budget of which you control directly through the site, is a highly cost-effective way of getting your courses to the front of the queue when users search for training in your specific industry.
Review the effectiveness of your training
What is the ultimate objective of your training? For instance, if it is to teach people how to make effective use of Microsoft Word, you can measure your course’s effectiveness by setting a specific word processing assignment at the end of the training. This will provide you with tangible evidence supporting the effectiveness of your courses – which you can use as testimonials at a later date.
Ask for feedback… and act on it
No training course is perfect, and quite often the people best placed to offer suggestions for improvements are the people who experience a course first hand. At the end of every training session, ask your attendees to provide some anonymous feedback on your course, and where trends are identified, make the necessary changes. Doing so will improve the effectiveness of your training, which will increase word of mouth and grow sales.
Only by creating in-depth, relevant and cost-effective courses will you be able to make them profitable. Construct a quality course that meets a demand and market it effectively to guarantee long-term profitability.
Disclaimer: This post is brought to you by Jivjav – The complete marketplace for training courses. For more information, please visit – jivjav.com
