Small Course, Big Gains: Scaling Your Content With Mini Course
Introduction
Sometimes, less is more! - isn’t it?
As a creator, you might have felt that creating a full-length course takes a great deal of time. A trial offer can help you determine if the efforts will pay off or not. To overcome this challenge, you can utilize a mini course — a bite-sized form of a traditional course that can be a powerful tool for concisely teaching a topic.
With a mini-course you can better evaluate your idea, see if people are excited about what you have to offer, and it will fit neatly into learner’s schedules, allowing them to learn new abilities at their own pace.
When used right, you can easily convert your mini-course to generate more leads, create a community, earn income, and much more. This article will be your ultimate guide in building a mini course and give you tips and tricks for making it more productive. Let’s dive in!
What is a mini-course?
A mini course is a condensed, short form of a conventional course. It usually covers a specific topic or ability and is meant to be finished quickly — a few minutes to many hours. A mini course usually lasts 30 to 120 minutes. Mini courses are faster to complete, have great practicality, and more concise than full-length courses.
A mini course features practical exercises, case studies, and hands-on activities for learning the required skills. Often used as a marketing growth technique, they cover a hyper-specific topic. They could also be a unit from a more extensive online course or content reused.
When you might create a mini course (Examples)
- A marketing coach whose core product is a comprehensive course on social media advertising might launch a mini course offering a quick guide on editing and posting videos on TikTok.
- A fitness influencer aiming to monetize their platform might plan to sell a comprehensive program on a full-body workout plan but might start by launching a mini course on quick, effective exercises for a toned core.
- An English teacher might offer a flagship course on advanced grammar for non-native speakers, while their mini course could cover the essentials of using common phrases in everyday conversation.
Why Create a Mini Course?
Opt for a mini course for the following reasons:
1. To develop an online audience:
A mini course is a great tool for creators whose main focus is locating and expanding an online audience. It is particularly effective if presented to learners who pre-pay for the entire course or utilized as a lead magnet and offer a free course.
A mini course can help you become more recognized as an expert on a particular topic. For example, a mini course teaches learners about ‘DaVinci Resolve,’ a post-production software. This mini course aims to build an online audience covering a very specific topic in a larger niche.
2. To begin small (eventually scale up):
Begin with a mini course to test and polish your ideas before scaling up. This first phase will help you gather feedback, plan better, and learn your audience's tastes. It will also allow you to create and present smaller-scale content, flattening the learning curve and reducing the risk and investment required.
Gradually increasing your offerings as you grow confident and experienced will allow you to produce more courses or extra materials. This slow-progressing method guarantees that your content satisfies your audience's learning needs and lays a strong community basis.
It also offers a chance to review your course model and what you can modify. Starting small helps you build sustainable development and learn important lessons to help your more ambitious activities.
3. To have a source of income:
A mini course might be a consistent source of income, particularly in the beginning stages. Making and marketing a mini course brings in revenue and allows others to benefit from your knowledge.
Potential consumers find a mini-course as a go-to option because of its shorter length and lower cost; this increases conversion rates. You can reuse the content of your full-length course and offer it as a mini course to make money.
The income from your course can support marketing initiatives or make additional development, helping you create a strong financial basis.
Why Mini Courses are Effective?
Mini courses are an effective way to teach a topic for the following reasons:
1. Easy to create and deliver
Developing mini courses are simpler from a creator’s point of view since they are shorter and less complicated than a full course. It is important to know that mini courses should focus on enabling students to learn a new quick skill with great practicality or attain an immediate goal. This implies that the content will be direct and brief. Mini courses also call for a lesser investment from you, if any.
2. Show and sell
Mini courses can be an effective way to let your learners understand your expertise and teaching style. By providing bite-sized courses for free or at a low cost, you can attract learners by simplifying the learning curve and eventually make them invest in your comprehensive, premium online courses.
This show-and-sell approach helps build credibility among your audience, highlighting your main offer. Prospective students can experience your instruction’s quality and content’s value before making a higher financial commitment.
3. Fine Tunes the course topic
Before devoting time and money to a far more extensive course, mini courses assist in determining the demand for a given issue. Should an audience enroll in or purchase your mini courses, it is a probable sign that they are interested in buying your full courses.
Then, you can be sure to create your content for the whole course with confidence. Also, by launching mini courses, you can make data-driven adjustments to your comprehensive course by getting feedback and understanding the audience’s learning preferences.
4. Attracts more leads
Mini courses are versatile. You can use them as lead magnets - digital products that gather information, including name and email address, to compile fresh "leads"—possible consumers within your target audience. Mini courses are far more interesting and action-packed than traditional PDFs or eBooks.
5. Upskilling and reskilling
Since mini courses provide focused instruction in a limited period, they are perfect for up-skill and reskill development. These online courses let professionals interested in staying on trend or changing roles quickly pick up fresh skills or update current ones.
Unlike traditional online courses, mini courses concentrate on a specific topic and are ideal for filling quick skill shortages or adjusting to industry changes.
It is also possible to include mini courses in corporate training programs to address specific employee needs, such as learning new software or understanding updated compliance regulations. Mini courses also complement traditional training by offering on-demand learning options that employees can access.
Step-by-Step Guide For Creating a Mini Course
The basic thing you should consider is to keep your mini course short, simple, and to the point. The following steps will show you how to ideate your mini course.
1. Identify the course topic
Given your profile, you can choose the mini course to deliver that resonates with your target audience. For example, if you are a social media influencer, a podcaster, or a blogger, you may already have your line of audience. Select a topic they can relate to and what they might expect from your expertise.
Jenna Kutcher, an online marketing expert, educator, and podcaster, conducts a mini course on how to drive traffic on Pinterest to cover her niche audience.
Use a simple topic and cover a course that is reachable quickly.
For example, the following are a few examples of mini course topics in which experts from different business fields can have to make sure overall simplicity:
Professional bakers can conduct a mini course on - “How to bake multi-grain bread.”
Digital marketing experts can conduct a mini course on - “Build your lead magnet.”
Beauty influencers can conduct a mini course on - “3-day eye makeup challenge.”
2. Leverage existing resources
Use what you have. You can offer a lesson from a full-length course as content for your mini course. Also, decide on the topics you would create - a mini course or a traditional course, depending on the demand and the existing material you have.
For example, if you already have more material on a topic and there is an increasing demand, consider conducting a full course. Conversely, if your topic is compact and you want to create a benchmark in an emerging niche, consider conducting a mini course.
Protip: When you revamp and restructure your already existing course, the original content might not have potential value. You can repurpose this content by offering it as a free course with lifetime access. This business strategy can help draw potential customers to your course and give them a taste of your current mini course.
3. Offer a transformation
The main motive to build a mini course should be to provide a transformation. Consider a specific problem, and your mini course should solve it. Instead of focusing on a single audience, spread your wings and cover a larger group of people who would benefit from your mini course.
For example, Tyler Mitchell's mini course ‘Telling Stories with Photography’ focuses on a large audience, including influencers, photographers, and public students. Through this course, the learners can understand the lighting and composition required to take a photo, transforming them into better photographers.
4. Design a mini course as a challenge
You can offer a mini course as a challenge to make the transformation more effective. Challenges are time-based online courses where all the students start on the same day. You can make it pre-recorded and have time schedules for its release. A mini course in the form of a challenge is an excellent way to make the course effective and engaging.
Protip: When you offer mini courses, you can do it as an ‘order bump,’ which means upselling another offer to your learner during checkout. This marketing strategy helps increase the customer’s order value by promoting impulse buying when they check out your mini courses.
5. Outline the structure and create content
Once you have settled on the topic and your audience, the next step is to do extensive research and build your mini course content. Pay more attention to value than to creativity. When designing a course, ask yourself why someone would buy it and what benefits they would get.
Everyone sees education as an investment; thus, make sure you provide sufficient value to yield a profit. Having a to-do list when developing a mini course helps you make sure that your curriculum is well-organized.
When you draft a course overview, Include subjects that offer insights, in-depth analysis, and problem-solving ideas that can help you add value.
A mini course developed to teach the ‘vegan food recipes’ could be:
- Introduction to the course & basics of veganism
- Common challenges & solutions with practical tips
- Quick & easy vegan recipes
- Meal planning & prep
- Tools & resources
6. Creating course content
Now that you have the outline and curriculum, you can create content for your mini course. It is good to have a to-do list for better management. Record videos, take screenshots, and develop your lessons. If required, create worksheets or printables.
An important point to remember while creating mini courses is not to dump too much information, as they only have limited time. Always aim to have a narrow and direct content-conveying approach.
But do not confuse shortness with a lack of content. Mini courses should contain all the important information on the topic. You should carefully choose the materials to guarantee students a whole picture of the subject. Mini courses give students a strong basis, therefore arming them to gain knowledge to investigate the topic further, even if they do not cover every minute detail.
Repurpose your content
Creating content takes time, so why waste it? If you find your existing content relevant to other courses, you can repurpose it. Use your existing resources when you create content for a new mini course. However, do not use the entire course, including a single module or a lesson, to help you reach a wider audience.
You can reuse your course content in your other digital products as well. For example, you can repurpose a page from your workbook into a similar blog post or structure and format your blog post into an ebook.
Protip: Use FreshLearn's AI Course Creator to generate an outline for your course within minutes; you can then narrow it down and make a tweak that better suits your ultimate goal. Click here to get started.
7. Choose the Right Platform
One of the mini courses' notable qualities is their adaptability in design and delivery techniques. As course creators, you will know that each student has different course delivery preferences. Mini courses can thus be offered in several ways and using various approaches, accommodating a broad spectrum of learning experiences.
Many course creators prefer video lectures. These interactive mini courses let students view and hear the course content, facilitating understanding difficult ideas.
Another often-used tool is interactive tests, which allow students to validate their information and strengthen their comprehension. Downloadable materials, including PDF guides or cheat sheets, give students a handy reference to consult even when the course ends.
You can even include discussion rooms in your mini courses, where learners communicate with teachers and fellow learners to build community engagement. Creating these interactive mini courses allows them to ask questions, discuss ideas, and grow from one another, enhancing their degree of involvement.
Try our community feature and form a group with individuals having common interests. This can help you have engaging discussions and sharing knowledge with one another.
8. Design a compelling sales page
Finally, design a compelling sales page to attract and convert potential learners. Craft a strong headline that clearly states your course's benefits and highlights the key transformations and outcomes.
Include social proof or testimonials to build credibility and create a clear call-to-action (CTA) to facilitate easy enrollment. Use engaging visuals like videos or images to make the page more appealing.
With FreshLearn, you can seamlessly create and launch sales pages customized with your course outline. With suitable images in less than 60 seconds, build a persuading landing page with automatic copywriting of course titles, outlines, and perks using our AI page builder.
FreshLearn for Mini Course Creation
FreshLearn supports you in creating and launching a mini course with our various resources.
AI Course Creator Tool
With FreshLearn, you can effortlessly create, market, and sell your courses. We have the AI course creator tool. You can leverage this feature as an AI mini course builder that is both easy to use and powerful, allowing you to develop courses with various content types in a matter of hours and without coding experience.
FreshLearn offers a cost-effective yet complete tool for course creators to enhance support and customer engagement, with features like:
- All content types: Create, upload, or embed mini courses of various types, including video, audio, documents, assignments, assessments, and live sessions.
- Drip: Unlock your mini course’s chapters based on days, specific dates, and after the completion of a chapter.
- Certificates: Design and upload your mini course certificate and award them after completion.
- Feedback: Get member feedback throughout the course to continuously improve it.
- Engage: Send personalized course emails based on conditions like payments, completion, and certificate delivery.
Psst: Building email lists for marketing mini-courses could be challenging. With FreahLearn, choose email templates, edit them with a drag-and-drop builder, match them with your brand colors, and send or automate them.
Double Psst: With FreshLearn Digital Downloads, you can use your PDFs, e-books, or video content as monetization or a lead magnet tactic. You can leverage this as an additional revenue stream or to turn your audience into customers.
Creator mini course spotlight: FreshLearn Case Study
Sealing Up
If you have an idea that you want to convert into a mini course, choosing the right platform is the basic step to consider. As you leverage your mini courses to become profitable full-length courses and to create a community, we help you in all possible ways.
With the help of our advanced tools, you can use your mini courses to generate leads, use them as a digital download to monetize or sell them as your additional revenue stream. Visit FreshLearn to launch your course journey.
FAQ
- hat is a mini course?
A mini-course is a short educational program that is usually highly niche-specific for a quick learning experience. It focuses on providing skills and information to students in a specific field within a limited period with a well-structured curriculum. Mini-courses are more targeted so that you can complete them faster than your standard online course.
2. How big is a mini course?
A mini course is a digital tool that is cheaper and shorter in duration than an online course. Usually, it lasts thirty minutes to two hours and is a brief online course without including any prints or additional digital downloads.
3. How to design a mini course?
5 steps to build a best-selling Mini course
- Identify the mini course topic
- Offer a transformation
- Outline the structure and create content
- Choose the right platform
- Design a compelling sales page
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