2 Surprising Ways Increasing Your Course Completion Rate Can Impact Your Business
As a course creator, people buying your courses is essential. It’s how you make your money, right?
But what about after they buy? Does it really matter if they complete the course?
The answer is yes. Sort of.
While only a small percentage of people actually finishing your course might not hurt your business, increasing your course completion rate can grow your business in 2 ways.
Increasing your course completion rate can grow your visibility
Imagine you have a course on taking better pictures of kids. You’re an amazing photographer who takes great pictures of children, so you KNOW your stuff and can help people learn how to take great pictures of their kids.
So, you create a course and people buy it.
As you may know, I’m a mom of two boys. I love my boys, but I can’t take a good picture of them to save my life! #truestory
I decide I want to learn how to take better photos, and I ask my friends for recommendations.
Two people share their thoughts:
- “I wanted to take better pics, too. I bought a course called ___________________ by ____________. I started it, but I didn’t finish it. It was ok, but my pictures haven’t improved much.”
- “I used to have that exact problem! I did ______________’s course _______________________, and it changed everything about how I photograph my kids. Now I love taking pictures, and most of them look amazing!”
If these comments were promoting 2 different courses, I (and most people) would be Googling the 2nd course before the conversation is over.
Do these comments mean the second course is better than the first? No. The first course could be amazing, but the course taker never finished the course to realize that.
That’s why increasing your course completion rate can grow your visibility.
Referrals from friends are powerful!
And now, math.
Statistics show that the average course completion rate is about 15% and about 80% of people will refer others if they have a good experience.
We’ll stick with the average to crunch some numbers. 100 people buy your course, so about 15 would complete it. Of those 15 people, about 12 tell their friends how amazing your course is.
If each of those people tells 3 other people about your course, that’s 36 people who now are aware of you as an expert.
Now, imagine increasing your course completion rate to 40%. You now have 32 people telling others about your course. If 3 tell their friends, you now have 96 people who have been told you’re an expert.
When you factor in that people are 4x more likely to buy when they hear a positive referral, you want to get people to finish that course so they will tell their friends!
What this means for course creators
People who finish your course are more likely to have a positive experience. People who have a positive experience are more likely to talk about you and your course. And people talking about you (in a good way😁) definitely increases your visibility.
Increasing your course completion rate can grow your revenue
Now that you understand how your course completion rate impacts your visibility, it’s time to talk about your business bottom line.
Earlier I mentioned how people who get a recommendation from a friend or family member are significantly more likely to buy from you.
That makes you money.
If you get more eyeballs on your course, more people will buy the course.
That makes you money.
But, the biggest reason increasing your course completion rate grows your revenue is because of repeat buyers.
Did you know that happy repeat customers are 5x as likely to convert as new customers?
Plus, it takes less time to get repeat business because of the know, like, and trust factor.
People who complete your course know you. They like you because they were willing to give the time needed to complete the course. And they trust you because they were able to get the desired transformation from your course.
They bought from you before, so they’re more likely to buy from you again!
What this means for course creators
When people finish your course, it can grow your revenue.
You want to make sure you’re doing what you can to increase your course completion rate so you have happy course takers that tell their friends about you and are primed to buy from you when you release your next course.
What to do to increase your course completion rate
Now that you understand the two ways increasing your course completion rate can impact your business, you might wonder how you can increase it.
I can help you with that!
My Course SUCCESS Framework uses instructional design and strategic design to make your course unquittable.
To learn more about how the framework can increase your revenue and visibility, schedule a call now.
