A guide on how to price your online courses in 2024

Rahul Mehta

on Feb 24, 2023

• 12 min read

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Unable to choose course pricing that enhances your earnings while attracting more customers? Check out this guide on how to price your online courses.

How to price your online courses in 2024 - Simple steps

Are you struggling to figure out how to price your online course?

So, you have your course ready to be published but are not sure what it’s worth.

You may be feeling anxious & may have already sifted through 10's blogs that did not help you much.

Don't fret, we've got some tips and tricks to help you figure out how to sell online courses with the right pricing.

Here are a few simple steps:

Consider the factors affecting the course pricing

Our goal with this post is to help you decide your course pricing with objective pointers. Let’s have a look at them.

A). Target market:

The first step in determining how to price your online courses is looking at what your competitors are doing. And, to do so, you need to perform market research.

In the process, you will find out who your competitors are and how they have set different price points

With this information, you can have a better understanding of how much your target customers can afford or are willing to pay.

That said, you also must not limit your course price based on what your competitors are charging.

A common psychology here is that - “If competitor A is selling online course memberships for $100, let’s set my course pricing to $50, so more people will buy it.”

But don't anchor yourself with your competitor's pricing strategies.

More often than not, selling it cheap won't achieve your goals

There are a number of other ways to sell your online courses based on their perceived value and not just their pricing.

If you are only making sales because your course is cheaper than others, you are more likely to lose customers once they find out that your products do not offer them the value they are seeking.

So, the best way out here can be to focus on both creating a valuable course and setting pricing that does not undervalue it.

B). Impact on your audience

An important thing that you need to figure out is how the course is going to affect or change your customers’ lives.

Know who your audience is and what their pain points are - this way, you can determine how much they may be willing to pay for a solution to their problems.

Ask yourself the question, “Are they really going to benefit from this product?”

If yes, how many people are willing to benefit from and pay for your course?

FreshLearn creator Nathan H. says, “The general rule of thumb is that around 2% of people from your email list are likely to buy your product. So, if you have 2000 people on your list, 400 are likely to lap up your course when it goes live.”

The pain points your course addresses and the number of people that share these pain points are intrinsic to deciding the value your course holds and the price it should demand.

C). Customer acquisition cost:

So, you have a fair idea of who your target market is, how your course helps them, and how others in the market are performing.

But, that isn’t all.

You also need to factor in the money you are spending in marketing your course or trying to gain customers.

While your course may not be cheap, depending on the marketing strategies you adopt, it may cost you just as much as a high-budget one would.

So, here you have to do some basic math to figure out how to price your online classes.

David M. has been successfully selling his online courses on FreshLearn for a year now. Here’s what he has to say about the relationship between course pricing and customer acquisition cost. “If you spend $1500 to get 100 leads for a $50 course, you need at least a 30% conversion rate to meet your marketing cost. Now, if you were to sell the same course for $100, you would need only 15% conversion rate.”

So, you can figure out the proportion between the customer acquisition cost and your course pricing to set the latter optimally.

D). Your experience and time invested (the amount of time invested should give an adequate return)

Last, but not least is the time and, effort you invest in creating your course.

Your skills and experience matter the most when deciding the price of your course.

Here, you have to put yourself in the shoes of another person who would pay you to get the same job done for themselves.

So, ask yourself questions like -

How many days and hours did you spend creating and recording the course?
What did it cost you to gain all the knowledge, degrees, and training with which you put together the lessons?
What would you charge another person to create the entire product for you?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can have a rough estimate of what you want in return for the course you created with your hard work.

Remember, you are trading a valuable piece of information that is unique to your experience and knowledge.

Align your course pricing with your income goals

First, align your course payment plans with your earning goals.

Determine how much money you want to make from this class and take into consideration how much time and effort you will put into it.

When you have decided to monetize your online content, you must already have an average online course price in mind that you want to earn with this gig, right?

Your online course business is definitely a way to supplement your regular income. However, the bigger goal has to be earning at least 10% higher than your salary.

This is the only way to turn your hobby into a way of living.

And it's easier to set a profitable online course pricing this way too!

Now that you are well acquainted with the factors that you must consider before pricing your course, you must decide how to price your online classes to align them with your income goals.

A). Know your audience and their pain points

Now, this may sound repetitive, but we cannot stress enough how important it is to understand your audience’s pain points.

Previously, we discussed how you need to figure out the benefits they will gain from this course.

Now, they will only be able to benefit from your course, once the course solves their problems.

FreshLearn creator Niki J. discloses how keeping the following checklist of questions has always helped him crack the pricing goal:

What transformation are they looking for?
What is their preferred learning style and format - audio, videos, e-books, etc.?
How much time will your course save them? Will your course help them learn the topic faster?

Once you are confident that your product addresses all the above concerns, go ahead and set a pricing that will do justice to the unique knowledge and experience you are sharing with them through your course.

B). Determine the solution your course will provide

Now, we mentioned that your product has to offer your audience the change in the learning journey they are looking for

But, what is that change?

How is your course going to impact or transform their lives? The answer to this question is primary in deciding how to price your online courses.

The solution your course provides you learners can be any of the following -

Knowledge of a new skill
Potential to earn better
Personal development
Advancement of career
Better quality of life
More fulfilling relationships
Spiritual guidance

And these are only a few of them.

So, you have to figure out which of these solutions your course offers. Is it the same as what your audience is looking for?

If yes, then they will be more likely to sign up for all you have to offer and grow with the same.

C). Calculate your net value

Consider the solution your class offers and calculate its net value to your audience.

We have said this before, and we will say it again - lower pricing doesn’t automatically mean higher sales.

On the contrary, if you price your course way cheaper than that of your competitors, your learners may come to the conclusion - that this course definitely lacks something that the higher priced course offers, or how could someone sell it for this lower price?

So, the value of your course must also be reflected in the pricing of your course.

If the transformation your course is offering your students is rare and enriching, then the price should also level up to match the energy!

Remember, there will always be someone selling similar courses for a price lower than yours.

So, instead of focusing solely on lower pricing to enhance sales, factor in the actual worth of your course.

In the long run, customers will only stick to your content if it offers them the value they are seeking, and not just because it’s cheaper than other courses out there.

If you are still confused, use an online course pricing calculator to get a better idea.

D). Offer payment options (installments, different pricing plans offering additional benefits)

Now, we have talked all about setting the right pricing based on factors like customer demand, the value of the course, etc.

But, how about you don’t restrict your course to just one pricing?

In other words, it’s only clever that you have different pricing tiers for your course. This way, you can cater to more than one group of customers.

Offer payment options for potential students. This allows them to choose how they want to pay for the class and may entice them to enrol.

Our FreshLearn creator David A. explains how creating different pricing tiers for the same course helped him garner more sales and better engagement. “When I started with the research for my course on programming languages, I understood that there were people at different learning stages. While some simply wanted to get started with the basics of HTML, others wanted to know how to build a website and even others wanted to debug their gaming app code. Here, I had the knowledge to help them all. But, all of that definitely wasn’t possible on the same plan, right? So, I created different pricing plans for modules offering different stages of knowledge on the same broad topic.”

The key here is to club modules of your course under different pricing plans depending on the value they offer.

Now, there are 3 basic pricing tiers:

Free plan:

Now, it’s really easy to find free online courses on almost everything these days. It’s more common among newbies in the online content creation industry to put up courses for free in a desperate attempt to get them to reach more people.
And it’s a common impression among most people that anything that comes for free doesn’t hold as much value as much one that comes at a price.
FreshLearn creator Nancy G. seconds this, “Most people tend to invest more time and effort into completing a course they paid for. So, it’s natural that the engagement in paid courses is better than that in free courses.
So, what you can do is offer a small snippet or introduction to your course for free to the people on your email list in a way to grip their interest. This way you are using the free snippet as a promotion for your actual course, which should be priced in order to provide a sense of value to your customers.

Basic pricing plan:

You can have one affordable pricing model to appeal to the masses. The lower the price, the larger will be the number of people subscribing to your course plan.
This way you can market your product to a wider audience. However, at the same time, you must keep in mind that a lower pricing tier gives away the impression that your course holds a lower value. This will also mean a lower engagement rate.
You can include the preliminary lessons in this basic plan. once, these students have the base knowledge in them, they can proceed to the higher-priced plan to gain expert-level knowledge.

Ultimate or premium pricing plan:

You should only consider having an expensive pricing model when you are confident that you have the high-value information and services to offer that you are charging for.
The very name and price of this plan are indicators that this plan provides the ultimate solution to all your customer is looking for - from knowledge, communities, and different content formats, to customer support.
The expectation of a learner automatically shoots up with the pricing plan of a course. And they are more likely to complete the course to get their money’s worth, thus leading to a better engagement rate. The high return from this plan also means you will be able to meet your revenue goals faster.
At the same time, you must also keep in mind that the higher price will attract limited customers - customers willing to gain advanced knowledge at that cost. Because a majority of students will not be able to afford the course.
Here, you can deploy another one of the pricing models: Installments. So, if you have a pricey course plan, you can allow your students to pay in parts to ease the process for them. Think about it - Paying $100 every month for 3 months is definitely a lot less burdensome than getting $300 deducted from your bank account in one go. This can also attract more customers even to the most expensive online courses.

Besides offering different pricing tiers and payment options, consider extending discounts and offers to lure more customers. You can easily create individual or mass coupon codes on FreshLearn to offer your students.

David G. has been creating online courses on FreshLearn for 1.5 years now and confirms that extending coupon codes and discounts is a great way to attract more customers to paid courses.

Evaluate if your pricing is set correctly

So, you have factored in everything affecting your course pricing, and the ways to price your course, and hopefully arrived at a final pricing strategy for your course.

But, still not sure if the price you just set for your course is going to get you any sales?

First things first, know that there is no hard and fast rule to setting a price for a successful course creation journey. Let’s get that out of the way first.

But, if you have actual value to offer through your course, know that you will achieve your goals for sure.

Now, if you are not getting your expected results in terms of conversion or traffic, you might need to re-evaluate a handful of things - and pricing online courses isn’t one of them!

Check:

If your targeted audience is right - We cannot stress enough the importance of targeting the right audience base. No matter how much you invest in marketing a course or how competitive your course pricing is, if it’s not reaching the right people, you are likely to make negligible to zero sales.
If your CTA is intriguing enough - While it may not seem like a big deal, the message your sales landing page’s CTA button conveys plays a huge role in making or breaking a deal. The CTA text has to be engaging, straightforward, and compelling, while not being too aggressive at the same time. It is something that should interest visitors into subscribing to your course instead of driving them away. Check out these top 50 call-to-action texts that are bound to make your visitors hit that button!
If your offer relays accurately what your course offers - We have already established that it is important for you to identify the pain points of your customers. But that is not everything - you also need to let your customers know that your course actually solves their problems - and convey that clearly. Here, the message you relay via promotions and on your membership site plays a huge role. If you are not sure if your sales landing page clearly communicates what your course offers, check how you can create an effective membership site to attract customers and actually get them signing up for your course.

Fixing these few things can aid in your course sales after you have figured out how to price your online courses.

Setting a price for your online class takes some thought and consideration. With these tips in mind, you'll be able to confidently price and sell your course like a pro!

However, remember - pricing is always dynamic, if users are getting higher value, the pricing should also be levelled up to do justice to the value.

This high value can be in terms of a number of factors -

Access to the creator
Being a part of a like-minded community
Addition of more content, resources, and other valuable information

As an online course creator, you should always be on the lookout for high-paying gigs. Making the most out of your online course is one of the many ways to eke out maximum money to turn it into a full-time business that can give you returns equalling more than what your regular job is paying.

To further supplement the income from creating courses, most successful and high-earning full-time online creators prioritize activities like consulting, speaking, online training, and 1:1 and group coaching - activities that offer a great way to earn extra bucks!

So, here is our ultimate guide on selling online courses at the best price.

Now that you have the worry of "how much should I charge for a class" out of the way, go ahead with finalizing one for your course on FreshLearn and get the subscriptions flowing!

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