Mar 17

Mar 17 All You Need to Take Your Class Online

Sometimes circumstances force us to redesign our business model. Right now, the COVID-19 crisis impacts many companies and small business owners.

As we speak, limiting social interaction is a top priority for many countries around the world. If you’re in the fitness and wellness industry you probably feel the stretch. Yoga and fitness studios are closing temporarily, workshops and company events are canceled, people start skipping classes. If you ever wanted to take part or all of your business and classes online, now is the right time to do it.

Where do you start? What do you need in order to offer your services and products online?

Decide on the Type of Class/Course. What will work best for your business goals? Do you want to increase brand awareness or do you have a steady flow of clients you wish to serve? Will you design classes for people that are already your clients? As an incentive or as an extra service? Membership classes or live interactive online courses? How often? Are clients in different timezones? What format do you have in mind? Short video stories or long-form tutorials? And where do your clients hang out? Is it Social Media? Facebook? Instagram? Linkedin? What’s their age? Do they open their emails daily? Do they easily have access to different platforms? Are they willing to download yet another software? Everything depends on your client and your business goals. It’s enough to consider but if you already have an established business you probably know more or less what it is you need to do. And if not, test it and tweak it and test it again. Until you get it right.
Decide on the Platform/Software. Once you are clear about the type of class or course you want to take online it’s time to decide which software or platform will be best for your clients. You’d want to think of the user experience first before you take into account your business priorities. Understand which platform will work best for your clients. Where are they when they access your course? For instance, If you would like to offer live private sessions, video call software such as Zoom can be a good option. If you want to create a video for brand awareness then YouTube is your friend. On the other hand, if you want to launch a membership programme then a platform like Teachable, Patreon, or Namastream (for a wellness business) will work best for that. They will take care of payment and set-up membership and you can focus on content quality.
Decide about additional video & audio equipment. If you feel you aren’t technical enough or if the additional equipment is what’s keeping you from launching your online courses, I wrote an article with some of the gadgets and equipment you might need. There are many options and alternatives and I understand it can be overwhelming. If you don’t know what you will need, start with what you have and update your equipment along the way. You can even register for your course on your mobile phone. A microphone is important but again the latest phones are okay for starting out. What you should consider though is that if you’re offering membership or if your clients are paying for your video or video series you should offer them high-quality content.
Decide on your launch strategy. Will you need a lead magnet? For example, is it sales content or is it an additional private service for your clients? Would you like to beta test (always a good idea) with a small group of clients/students or just go ahead on YouTube and post a few videos before you start promoting your channel? Or maybe look for early adaptors and ask them to try your services or your video product for a discounted price in return for feedback or a review.
It will all depend on your goals and on the time you have. Start simple and update as you go. In any case, once your business expands your design needs will grow as well. And then you can redesign and scale-up.

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