How to Succesfully do Market Research for your Online Course Like A Boss

Market research is so important because it could make or break your online course business.

One thing to bear in mind, when you are doing market research, you want to make sure that your brand new course is on demand.

The idea of doing market research (of what already asked and sold) is when people already purchased the course topics meaning a lot of people are having that problem and they want to solve it. 

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When I started my business, I bypass this important step to do market research, hence I was stuck for quite a long time.

When I said long, it was about 2 years of going back and forth back to square one. I was unclear about my course topic, customer problem, and the demand.

My point is if you are trying to create an online course, don’t miss this step. ‼️

By following the tips in this blogpost ??3 Tips To Choose Your Perfect Course Idea, you will have already done the most important part of researching your market which is identifying your ideal client.

One point to keep in mind here, your ideal customer should also be your ideal potential clients. 

Ultimately, looking at the bigger picture you want the ideal customer who takes action and “graduates” your course to go on to become your one-on-one client or a member of your Elite VIP Group or Mastermind.

Market research strategy #1 : Attend similar webinar

Here’s a great way to research your market:

➡️ Attend webinars given by top related-field coaches.

Focus on the comments streaming in the chat box on the webinar. That’s where you’ll often find real pain points.

For example, if you are a life coach specializing in confidence building, listening to a “How to Become Wealthy” webinar can actually be very valuable since a common complaint of those lacking in confidence is they don’t make enough money so you can pretty much count on them being interested in attending webinars on financial well-being.

The comments streaming in the chatbox of a “big” webinar (where the attendees number in the thousands) very quickly begin to take on a common theme. 

You will hear things that may surprise you repeated over and over again. 

For example:

• * “I’m overweight”
• * “My husband is not supportive of my business”
• * “I feel like a fraud”
• * “I’m broke/I’m in financial trouble”

Comments like these that are repeated multiple times in a variety of ways but essentially mean the same thing. It will tip you off to:

• Ideas to put on the back burner for future launches, campaigns or courses
• Take out groups of people you don’t want to deal with
• Get brilliant “sparks” of ideas for your perfect course!

People say unguarded things in the heat of the moment. They let slip what’s really bothering them in the comments. It’s almost like a confessional.

And what you’re hearing are their real issues.

So, just from our four little examples of common complaints in our wealth webinar, you as a life coach might want to ignore comments not relevant to your area of expertise, and focus on the personal expressions of doubt repeated over and over. 

Based on reading those repeated comments, you first want to create a course that repels those in financial trouble, since that’s not your focus. 

If your brand focus is on reaching already-achieving, competent businesswomen with hidden, self-sabotaging insecurities, the repeated complaint of feeling like a fraud might inspire you to create a course called: “Freeing Your Successful Self from Your Inner Imposter (and Claiming Your Place at the Top)”. 

Market research strategy #2 : forums

Forum like Quora is great for you to your market research.

Complaints and wishes expressed in social media groups, blog comments, and forums are also helpful in identifying pain points and problems related to your course niche. 

You can compile all the input that you get from reading forums and the comments but remember to always run them through the filter of “is this right for your brand or market?”

P/s A great place to compile and organize all your input and ideas that you get is by using Trello! Don’t mess up your brain. Your brain is only to capture ideas not storing them 😉

Market research strategy #3 : Udemy

One more very good and effective way to see if people will really pay for the type of course ideas you have in mind is to check it in big teaching websites like Udemy or Lynda.com , where there are over 4,000 courses (over 900 for business).

Your Tasks Today is

• 1. Open Udemy.com or Lynda.com 
• 2. Search for popular topics in your field or niche…
• 3. Then note what is missing in the course
• 4. Check what is the common question that being asked for. 

Market research strategy #4 : Amazon

You can also do market research with Amazon.com. 

Check to see if there are books teaching your topic and especially if many of them are best sellers. That proves that there is a paying market for your niche. 

Then you can also read the reviews to find out:

• What people loved about these books (your essential components or focus)
• What people didn’t like (what’s missing … that you can teach!)

Market research strategy #5: Youtube 

You check out video sites like Vimeo and YouTube  to see how many videos are uploaded there on your topic and which specific sub-topics are most popular or viewed. 

(Checking large marketplaces is a necessary step to throw out ideas for which there is no paid market.)

Market research strategy #6: Facebook

Lastly, my favorite and personal tip to do highly targeted market research is to ask in Facebook group. 

Your Tasks Today is

• Join Facebook groups that are related to your niche 
• Start posting by asking questions related to your course topics or niche in the group feed. 

You might write .. 

Hi beautiful, I need help with my market research. What are most [x] problems when it come to [x]. 

• Eg What are most moms’ problems when it comes to parenting? 
• What are most students’ problems when it comes to achieving a good exam result? 
• What are most coaches’ problems when it comes to getting leads and making consistent income? 

You might be surprised how many people will respond to your specific question. Choose FB groups that are active and has a high engagement rate. 

Check out my FB group Trello board made specifically for coaches, course creators, and service providers here.

Hopefully, you are getting so much input in this post.

If you have already created a course before, let me know in the comment section below how do you personally do your market research?

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