You're Not Fully Serving Your Audience With Free Content. Here's Why.
We all start with free content.
It's base 0 when it comes to starting a personal brand or online business. That's because giving value is such a huge factor when it comes to building a profitable course business. If you want your ideal audience to know, like, and trust you to the point where they'll be willing to invest in you, one of the best ways you'll do so is by putting out consistent, valuable content.
I've been blogging for almost four years now. Although I've changed niches way too many times before I finally stick with my current niche of helping female entrepreneurs launch a course, I have proved time and time again that free content is necessary. Without it, I wouldn't have built my credibility and some of my clients wouldn't have known me and decided to work with me.
But having said that, you must know that there's a point where continuously putting out free content is not doing you and your ideal audience any good.
Let me expand on this.
Why Doesn't Free Content Do You and Your Audience Good?
You've most likely been a content creator for quite some time now but you've been on the verge of taking the leap to launch your course as a content creator. In this blog post, I'm going to enumerate the reasons why keeping yourself stuck in the same place and putting out free content may be detrimental to your business or life. Let's talk about them one by one.
It Adds to Information Overload
Let's face it, content is everywhere. You search for one thing over another in Google or Youtube and whatever information you need is right at your fingertips. Try scrolling in your Instagram or Facebook feed and you'll find content with countless tips, advice, and strategies.
So, yes, putting out free content is necessary if you're just starting out in your business so you can build your credibility and expertise for your audience. But, if putting out free content is all you're doing for months or years already, chances are you've built an audience who are ready to take action, learn from, and invest in you. So why not launch your course as a content creator, then?
Going back to my point, your free content is just adding up to the information overload that's already out on the worldwide web. People don't need any more bits of information. Instead, they need a structure, a system or a framework to follow that tells them where to start and what to do next.
It May End up Confusing Your Audience Even More
To piggyback off from the previous point, throwing more information to your audience or potential course students may end up confusing or overwhelming them even more. This is more specifically in the case of How-To or educational content.
If you think about it, your audience is most probably downloading too many freebies, signing up to too many webinars, reading too many books, or consuming too many blog posts or podcast episodes. They're constantly filling up their minds with content from so many people and all this content may be conflicting or different from each other.
So, their minds are going like "okay so what do I do? What should I follow? Who's telling the truth?"
So throwing unintentional free content really doesn't help them at all.
It May Encourage Your Audience to Figure Everything Out on Their Own
Free content gives the illusion that your audience can figure everything out on their own. But hey, this is NOT at all to say that we're not capable of figuring everything out by ourselves. We definitely CAN!
But, there's a HUGE difference between piecing out the puzzle pieces together on your own and getting the help of someone who already knew how to solve the puzzle.
What's the difference, you ask?
TIME!
If you launch a course as a content creator instead of just giving how-to content every single time, you would've helped your audience save SO MANY hours and countless nights trying to figure everything out. By investing in your course, they're saving time, their most important asset and something they can never ever gain back.
It Doesn't Factor In the Power of Accountability and Putting Skin in the Game
Unless you offer free content with some type of accountability like free challenges or free FB group as a community, there are fewer rates that your audience will actually implement your tips and tricks. Some probably will but the question is -- are they going to stick with it?
Because most strategies and tactics need consistency to be able to work, right?
This is exactly what free content lacks -- the power of keeping your audience accountable and asking them to put skin in the game. Because when people invest something (i.e. money or time), that means they put a commitment to it. And when they commit and take action, that's when they get results.
Solution: Launch Your Course as a Content Creator
So what's the solution then? Well, I consider this your best option -- launch your course as a content creator now.
An online course puts a system to what you're teaching and how you're serving your audience. Instead of free content that does the things I listed above, launching a course helps your audience get results in less time. You're literally providing them a step-by-step process through your course which means they don't have to spend so much time figuring everything out on their own anymore.
Also, as a content creator, you're already teaching something to your audience. At this point, you might have posted How-To content or content that educates and gives value. So, why not leverage online courses to scale both your income and impact?
Does This Mean You Stop Putting out Free Content Forever?
Absolutely NOT! Content is still king. It still remains one of the most important factors in building, reaching, and selling to an audience. You see, I haven't stopped blogging and posting free educational content on my social media, have I?
What I'm only saying here is -- if you've been putting out free content for a long time and you're still keeping yourself at that place, maybe it's best to launch your course now! Stop being afraid of launching because if you are, you're always gonna be in the same place.
The people you look up to, the thought leaders you follow, they TOOK ACTION. They took a leap. Maybe your next step to uplevel is to launch your course now.
Your Next Step
For your next step, I invite you to sign up for my FREE “Simple 3-Part Course Launch Framework” training that teaches you how to ditch the complicated strategies and launch your course with ease. If you want to learn the step-by-step process in launching a course so you can finally make passive income, this is perfect for you. This 22-minute training is going to change your perspective on online courses big-time, so don’t miss out!
SIGN UP HERE NOW.
To your course success,
Myrra
