Introduction
Should you include bonuses with your digital or online course? So often we get the advice that bonuses should be even better than your course, they should make people buy your course just to get the bonus, and they should overcome objections.
But do they really help? Yes and no.
But the real question is should you include them for your online course when you launch?
Today we are going to talk about the pros and cons of including bonuses with your digital course launch and 3 things to consider as you make your decision.
The Bonus Game
I always love watching big course launches like Product Launch Formula with Jeff Walker, The Membership Experience with Stu McLaren, and Digital Course Academy with Amy Porterfield. In fact, right now two of those three are either wrapping up or getting going and I’ll stay glued to those emails to see what they are testing out this year.
And one of the things that I’m watching for is what bonuses they are offering. If you are new to digital courses or maybe haven’t analyzed a digital course launch before, bonuses are the add-ons that a course creator includes with their course to sweeten the deal that you are getting.
A lot of times you will hear the advice to make your bonuses even more enticing than your course content, make it worth the entire price of the course, and make sure that you can’t get the information any other way.
You might see bonuses like how to set up Facebook ads to sell your offer, webinar slide templates to keep things simple, and even access to a Facebook group for a limited time.
These are great right?
Each of these are things that you would probably find helpful, but should they be bonuses that are only available to a certain number of people, if you buy by a certain time, or only available if you pay in full?
Let’s talk through some pros and cons of offering bonuses that live outside of your course content, let’s talk ethics, and logistics so that you can make the best possible choice for you.
Pros of Offering Bonuses
Let’s start with the pros of offering bonuses as part of your course launch. Bonuses can generate a lot of enthusiasm for your offer and even spur people to purchase your course, especially if they are highly desirable and you can’t find them in any other place.
You can also use bonuses as a way to encourage people to purchase right when your cart opens instead of laying until the very last minute. In other words, they get in the door faster and you breathe a little easier because you have a better idea of what your revenue will be.
The bonuses that you offer can create a real difference for your course students in helping to bridge the gap between learning and implementation.
These all seem like good things, right? Your students get what they need and you welcome more students into your course. Win – win, or is it?
Cons of Offering Bonuses
There is a darker side to offering bonuses that exists. For example, those bonuses that spur excitement and push people to purchase your course might be putting someone outside their financial comfort zone when all they really wanted was the bonus. Maybe they don’t need your course, but the resource you are offering as a bonus would help them immensely.
Maybe the person who is purchasing your course needs to wait for their paycheck to clear before they purchase, but you have a time sensitive bonus. They miss out because they have chosen to be fiscally responsible.
And what about the fact that if your students need the bonus content to be successful, then shouldn’t that content be in your course as part of your course cost and available to all students?
If you know, for example that one of the biggest stumbling blocks for your students is when they have to put together a presentation. They get stuck in the design process in Canva or PowerPoint and find themselves spending months tweaking the colors, the design, and even the slide number font. If you can eliminate this stumbling block with a template and you see a big bump in course completion because of this, shouldn’t those slide templates just be a part of the course?
Ethics of Course Bonuses
This is where the pros and cons become a bit of an ethics issue for me. I do love bonuses and think that they can be a fun addition to your course, but I’m not a fan of calling something a bonus, or making it available for a limited time if it is necessary for student success.
That feels manipulative. I know that some might disagree with me and that is ok. Ultimately you have to follow your own inner ethics compass, but from a course creation standpoint ethically we need to set up our students for success. We need to provide access to the assets and resources that will help them to succeed with our course.
This doesn’t mean handing them everything on a platter, but it does mean that we can’t ethically withhold something that will be a make or break resource.
The reality is that when someone purchases our course, they are trusting us with their hopes, dreams, and money. It is our job to follow through on what we promise in a very straightforward way.
That being said, there is one case of bonuses where I have absolutely no ethics issues whatsoever and I’ll share that in today’s Sixty-Second Solution.
Bonus Considerations
With the pros, the cons, and the ethics swirling about, what questions can we ask ourselves in planning out whether or not to have bonuses?
First, you can ask yourself what should a course student really have already mastered before getting to your course that they might not have or might need a refresher on? This might make a good bonus because it is not part of your course, but you are seeing the need and instead of having them go out and scout that information you are providing it for them in a neat and tidy package.
For example, if you teach cake decorating and someone should already know some good cake recipes, you could include a few of your trusty, tried and true cake recipes that they can use if they haven’t found their favorite recipe just yet. This will allow them to bake a cake and then apply your cake decorating lessons.
Think about a course that is an advanced tutorial on maximizing your YouTube Channel impact. But you’ve noticed that there is something that most people do wrong in their initial setup of their channel. You can create a bonus that walks them through that remediation so that the course content you are teaching will be effective. By calling the course advanced, this kind of basic setup tip wouldn’t ordinarily be included but you want them to get results and are including this.
Second, you can look at what might be a tipping point for your students to jump into the course with you. Is there something that they are worrying about that you can help them with? If so, this might make a good bonus because you are showing your potential student that you genuinely have their best interests at heart.
Thinking about that cake decorating class, you might give your students a breakdown of different brands and cake decorating tools with the pros and cons of each so that they can more easily know what to purchase, even beyond what is used in your course. That saves them hours of research.
Or for the YouTube Channel course you could offer a channel review for each person in the cohort. Obviously, this would only work if you run smaller cohorts of students. But hopefully, you are seeing the point. Not having a channel review does not impact their ability to be successful with the course, but it does give it a boost.
Finally, after thinking about what needs to be mastered before your course, what would be a tipping point for wanting to join your course, you can also explore whether you want to just go without bonuses at all and incorporate all of these amazing ideas into your course content.
You can always let potential students know that you value their time and commitment and instead of offering bonuses that feel disjointed and add more questions than they answer to your course, you’ve decided to incorporate all necessary information into the course content so that you get it regardless of whether you pay in full or on a payment plan or whether you purchase on the first the cart is open or the last day.
Action Item
With options like this you can really chart your own course and let people know why you decided to do what you do. Your potential students will always value your honesty and integrity more than a flashy bonus that may leave them feeling like they missed out because they couldn’t join within 24 hours or had to choose that payment plan instead of paying in full.
Your action item for this week is to explore how you view bonuses. When you purchase a course, how do the bonuses make you feel? Do you get excited or feel more anxiety over the bonuses? Have you found the bonuses to be more helpful or are they a roadblock because you have to decide what to do and in what order?
We all have different preferences. I rarely look at the bonuses available and focus instead on the core content of the course, but there is one exception.
Sixty-Second Solution
Bonuses for digital or online courses have been touted as something that should be highlighted and used as a sales mechanism to push past objections, lessen the money worry that happens when you purchase an expensive course, and even as a way to get someone to see more value in your course. There are definitely pros and cons to offering bonuses and ethics comes into that mix.
One place that I’m wholly in favor of bonuses is when someone is acting as an affiliate for a course creator. For example, last year I purchased a second seat in a popular digital course because I wanted to be in the live course group. I purchased that seat through an affiliate and I chose to purchase through that specific affiliate because of the bonuses that they were offering. In fact, I got an entire course as a bonus. It was a course that I had been wanting to purchase.
Another time, I purchased a course through a specific affiliate because it meant that I could attend their annual mastermind event.
People shop around for bonus packages when choosing who to purchase a course through. So, if you are using affiliates to help launch your course, be sure to work with them to identify great bonuses. If you are acting as an affiliate for a course or service, be sure that you are offering a fantastic bonus package. People love to get something “for free”.
Where to Go Next?
Now that you are thinking about your course launch and what to include in your course content or as a bonus, it is time to start thinking more closely about actually launching your course. I know many creators who get stuck here. If that is you, check out Episode 184: How to Overcome Course Creation Paralysis and Finally Launch Your Course.
And if you are in the thick of creating your course content, be sure to listen to Episode 174: How to Get Students to Finish Your Digital Course.
Until next time, happy creating!
