Utilizing Coupons and Discounts

“Should I offer free classes?”

“Should I make my classes really inexpensive and raise the price later?”

These are just a couple of questions I get asked when new teachers are trying to increase their enrollment.

My answer to both is, “No, but sometimes yes.” 

Confusing, right?

I don’t think classes should be offered for free.  I think any business owner should value what they are offering.  If you don’t value your product or service, how can you expect others to?  Now, I have offered free classes; however, these free classes are to my repeat participants, and it is beneficial on both ends.  I typically offer free courses when I am developing a new course and I want feedback before making the course public.  I don’t list classes and make them free to everyone.  As for raising prices later, this is a matter of how the class is adjusted as time goes by.  I may start with a lower price and realize the amount of time I put into the course requires me to raise the price or I might increase the length of the course which requires a price increase.

 

Rather than giving out free classes, consider using coupons and discount codes.  Depending on the platform you’re teaching on, you may be able to generate coupons.  This can be used as an incentive for participants to enroll in your courses.

Real-life example:

If you have every joined a gym, you’ve probably heard all the offers:

Buy three months, get three months free!

Sign-up now and get the first month free!

Try a free trial enrollment for one week!

These sound like really attractive offers because who doesn’t like FREE!

But, that first offer, while it might seem free since you’re not getting billed, is usually combined in the total cost of the six months (the originally price is just added to those last three months).  So, if the monthly fee is $30, those next “free” three months are $60.

How about signing up and getting that first month free?  If you don’t read the fine print, you’ll quickly find out that the unenrollment fee is even higher than the gym costs.

Ugg, the trial membership.  Make sure you set the phone reminder to cancel and then be prepared to ban/block the emails and phone calls with the attempts to get you to stay enrolled after the trial is up.

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Don’t forget, coupons and discount codes can work great with marketing too!

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Are you ready to start your online teaching journey but don’t know where to start?  Join my Masterclass or sign up for additional services.

If you’re interested in adding your classes to Outschool, use my referral link.

Maybe Outschool isn’t what you’re looking for, especially if your audience is broader than ages 3-18, use my Grinfer referral code by sending me a message (I’ll send you the secret code to get started).