How To Validate An Online Course Idea? 4 Proven Steps

Rahul Mehta

on Jun 14, 2023

• 9 min read

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Picture this: You have an amazingly great idea for a life-changing course. You can already see the effect it'll have on people's lives. You're bursting with excitement and passion to share your knowledge with the world.

You put your heart and soul into every single detail of the course, from its benefits to the course outline.

Then comes the big moment: You launch your course, only to find out that there’s not enough demand for the course or you find that your course is not doing well as you hoped it would.

That’s quite sad, isn’t it?

Don’t worry I’ve got you covered 🙂

After working with thousands of creators in helping and observing the key characteristics of being a successful course creator, we bring here the steps which can help you ensure your course success even before creating it.

So if you're ready to turn your course idea into a successful online business, keep reading!

Why Should You Engage In the Course Validation Process?

Basically course validation is the process of ensuring that a course meets particular standards and criteria and will help students learn what they need to study.

It's similar to a course quality control check.

Here are some reasons why you should engage in a course validation process:

Ensure that there's sufficient demand for your course

As I said, knowing that your course doesn’t have enough demands after you’ve created a full-fledged course can be a NIGHTMARE!

So, in order to ensure that there is enough demand for your course, it is crucial to validate your online course idea.

This means, you as a course creator have to analyze the market and check if there is a demand or interest in your course

As one of our creators noted, “Gone are the days when course concept validation was a laborious and time-consuming process requiring specific skills to construct the appropriate survey questions.“

Many course creators avoided this critical phase entirely because they didn’t want to go through the time-consuming process.

“But today, idea validation can be finished in about 60 seconds thanks to AI technology, which rules the globe.”

Because AI has completely changed how we assess course ideas, the complexity and monotony of the past are now nothing more than distant memories.

Note: Validating your course is not just about checking if people are interested in taking up your course, but it’s also about whether people are willing to pay for it.

People may be interested in your course but unwilling to pay the price you had in mind. And, you definitely don’t wanna be caught in such a situation!

Trust me, taking the time to validate your online course idea will be worth it. It allows you to make more informed decisions and increases the likelihood of your course's success.

So, don't skip this important step - work on validating your course idea, modifying your pricing approach, and refining your content. With a little effort, you'll create a course that's both valuable to your audience and profitable for you.

Help Identify the target audience

Another reason why you need to validate your course is to identify your target audience.

I feel, as an online course creator, one of the most important things for you is to study your market and your students.

I say this because this study can further assist you in pinpointing the precise demographic that would be most interested in your course.

Let’s say you have a concept for a course called "Digital Marketing for Small Business Owners."

Before you start your own course creation journey, validate the concept to make sure there is a market for it.

So, how do you do that?

To start off, you can conduct market research by surveying small business owners.

A better idea that I would suggest is, to be keyword savvy and conduct keyword research to discover how many people are actually searching for topics connected to digital marketing for small businesses.

This way you can discover that there is a high market demand for this type of course, and you can proceed to defining your target audience.

Now that your research is complete, you can proceed further and tailor your course content, marketing efforts, and pricing and put them all together in action.

Another useful tip I’d like to add here is to offer your course at an affordable price or at least give a free trial. This way you can give a snippet of your course for learners who are on a tight budget.

Helps In Testing Your Assumptions

Yes, You heard that right!

Validating your course idea can help you to evaluate that your assumptions about your learners’ needs are on point.

Not to scare you off, but there are a number of courses available on the Internet. And If you move forward without a proper course validation process, you might end up making a course that is just another similar course which might make you super sad.

So, take that extra step, conduct surveys, hold group discussions among focus groups, 1-1 interviews with the potential students so you get a clearer picture of your course idea.

Also, remember to stay up-to-date with the trends, so that you don’t make an old-school course with no demand and competition

Your entire course creation, distribution, pricing and marketing strategies rely on the course validation.

And, this will also be your biggest pillar that will determine your course’s success or failure.

Saves Time & Money

Time and money are everything in a business. And starting an online course business is no different.

Many of the online course creators that I’ve interacted with always tell me that it would be better if they knew what would work for them or what wouldn’t.

I always respond, "You can validate your course ideas even before launching them, saving you time and money that you can use for other important work."

By validating your initial online course idea, you can gauge interest in your course and see if it's worth spending your time and money on.

Not only that, validation can also help point out the problems or areas your course is lacking, thereby giving you a clearer idea of which area you should focus more.

So, take my advice and avoid those costly methods of running an online course.

Reduces the risk of course failure

All of the pointers that we’ve discussed above all boils down to one fundamental point i.e. validation actually reduces the risk of course failure.

Have you ever imagined running a marathon without any training beforehand - it just doesn't make sense!

Similarly, launching a course today without any validation is like committing a sin!

It's like taking a big leap without knowing if the ground below is solid enough to support you.

Validation helps you to identify and address the problems or failures at a very early stage which gives you enough time to fix your flaws before you pay big bucks.

If you're getting lost in deep thought about how much time and energy it would take, let me interrupt you for a moment.

Remember when verifying an idea required long questionnaires, copywriting, and design skills? Those days, however, are long gone! You can now validate your idea in 60 seconds! Cool right?

4 Steps On How You Can Validate Your Online Course

Step 1: Generate Ideas and Narrow it Down

The first step is very simple i.e. to create a list of potential ideas. At this stage, go crazy and come up with as many ideas as you can think of without any regard for viability.

Once you’re ready with your list, it’s time to filter down your ideas based on the need of the market, competition and your experience(MOST IMPORTANT)

Next, go on social media forums, visit websites and read some blogs to find out if your course is interesting.

This will also give you an idea if your course has a unique viewpoint or if you need to add some to make it more interesting.

In order to make your idea generation process easier, you can use FreshLearn’s AI page builder.

Imagine being able to bring your vision to life in a matter of minutes, without the hassle of coding or design. Let me show you how:

1. Navigate to FreshLearn’s AI page builder. Your page will open up. Click on ‘Get Started

2. Next, Enter your name and click on Next

3. Now, click on any topic that you want to create a course on. I’m clicking on Content Marketing

4. You can also choose a subject of your choice Since I want to create a course for beginners, I’m typing ‘Content Marketing for beginners’

5. The AI will give you a list of ideas and you can choose any subject based on your preference

See, it was that easy. It was so simple for me to come up with multiple ideas.

Step 2: Create a Course Outline

The course outline is one of the critical steps in validating your course concept. The outline of your course is the bone structure of your course that joins your course together.

It gives your learners a detailed overview of the course and what your learners can expect to learn from it.

Start by building the course’s learning objectives. Ask yourself, ‘What do you want your students to take away from your course?’

Now, that you have a clear objective, create a list of topics and subtopics

Also, decide the sequence of how you will discuss the topics and assess them in achieving the course objectives.

Another important reminder is, to think about the tools you want to use like e-books, videos, etc.

Just to give you a clearer idea, let me show you an example of a course curriculum that was created for me by the AI page builder.

Since I created a course titled, “Content Marketing for Beginners” here’s a course curriculum of what my course would look like

Basically, having a course outline is like a guiding light that keeps you and your students on the same page, so that you don’t get lost in your learning journey.

Step 3: Create a Course Landing Page

Creating a course landing page is an excellent way to validate your online course idea before launching it.

It is a single web page which acts as a stand-alone page that promotes your course with a signup option for students to enrol.

When you check the sign-up information on landing pages, you can get accurate feedback from your target audience and gain some insight into the students who are most interested.

Additionally, you can also add a form and gather their email addresses, which will help you grow your e-mail list to promote your courses successfully.

With the help of landing pages, you can monitor engagement and feedback. This will also help you to make necessary changes before the course release.

With FreshLearn's AI page builder, you can whip up a complete landing page in just a matter of seconds.

It's pretty amazing considering it could have taken you days to create the same thing from scratch.

If you think, just creating a landing sales page will work wonders for you, you’re wrong!

You need to create a series of social media posts and distribute your landing pages so that prospective learners click on them and check out your course.

Utilize platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to reach your audience and drive traffic to your landing page

Bring out your creativity in you and design eye-catching posts highlighting all the points that make your course the best.

Don’t forget to use hashtags and engage with your followers by answering any questions and replying to their comments.

Evaluating your social media post engagement, you can track the number of visitors on your landing page and the level of interest people have in your online course idea.

Validate Your Online Course Idea With FreshLearn!

Validating your course concept with Freshlearn is a game-changer for creators looking to ensure the success of their courses. The procedure has never been simpler or faster, thanks to the power of AI technology. You get the fastest AI course landing page builder with Freshlearn to validate your course idea.

In a matter of seconds, you can gain useful insights into your course concept, allowing you to make informed decisions about pricing, content, and audience targeting.

This cutting-edge tool is a must-have for anyone serious about developing a successful course.

So, don't leave your course's success to chance - trust FreshLearn to help you create a course that's not only appealing to your target audience but profitable for you too!

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