As a business owner and online course creator, one of the BEST things you can do is put effort in to drive repeat business.
When you create obsession-worthy courses, you’ll turn your one-time students into raving fans. Because, after all, it’s so much easier to keep people engaged than it is to land new students.
The key to driving repeat business is absolutely to build out an intentional product or program suite!
But what does that mean…and how do you actually do it?
How To Create A Program Suite That Drives Repeat Business
Let’s dive in!
What Is A Program Suite?
Let’s get started by explaining what a product or program suite actually is.
This can apply to any business model—in a typical business, you’ll have a product suite.
…But as an online course creator, you’ll have a program suite! Those terms are sometimes used interchangeably.
Basically, your program suite is the group of things you sell or offer in your business–the courses, offers, digital products, programs, and more that you sell.
Anything that’s a paid offering is part of your program suite.
Even if you’re offering one-on-one services, those count as a part of your program suite!
Physical and digital products both count, too.
- For example, my high-ticket group coaching program is HerPaperRoute Society. That’s my main focus and main money-maker.
- And then I have several smaller, lower-priced entry-level products such as self-study courses and ebooks that attract leads who would be a good fit for the Society program.
Why Is A Program Suite Important For Driving Repeat Business?
When you intentionally create and structure your program suite in a specific way, driving repeat business is easy! And with more repeat business, you’ll experience more sales—which means more money in the bank for you.
Plus, when you build an intentional program suite, you’ll create better results in your business and give people true success stories.
After all, a huge part of being a course creator is serving, mentoring, and educating your audience.
That cycle continues: when someone feels truly supported and inspired by one of your offerings, they’re likely to invest in another one. That repeat business is KEY to help you grow even more!
I’ve created a framework for building an intentional program suite, and it’s called the Aligned Product Path.
With this strategy, you’ll create a path for your ideal student or customer to walk along, and you’ll meet them where they are at every step along the way.
We’ll present them with one offer or way to work with us, and then strategically offer other opportunities along their customer journey.
This helps drive that essential repeat business!
If you’re brand new to the world of online courses, this strategy is going to help you shape your program suite right from the start.
But if you do have some offers in place, you can audit your program suite and identify gaps you need to address in order to create repeat business.
Here are the 5 steps of the Aligned Product Path that you should follow if you want to drive repeat business through an intentional program suite.
1. Make Sure Your Courses Solve A Specific Problem For Your Audience
First, you need to make sure that your courses and programs solve a specific problem and help your students achieve a specific goal. The online course business is all about helping people get results!
You aren’t just creating general courses around broad topics, like healthy eating or online business. Instead, you’re targeting specific problems, goals, and needs to help generate true results and transformations for your audience.
And at every stage of your ideal customer’s journey, they’re facing different problems and striving toward different goals.
So YOUR job is to create a program suite that serves your ideal audience at every step along their journey. You have to meet them where they’re at in order to generate that sought-after repeat business!
Related: 5 Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing Your Online Course Topic
2. Know Your Ideal Customer Inside and Out
In order to meet your customers where they are, you have to know your ideal audience inside and out. If you’ve been in business for a while, you might already have a good handle on this! But if you’re new (or feel like you need more information), it’s time to do some market research.
Ask people insightful questions and take notes on discovery calls. Send out surveys to your email list or run quick polls on social media.
All of these strategies help you know your ideal customer in the following ways:
- Who they are
- Who they want to be
- What they want to become
- What their journey will look like
- Their goals and dreams
3. Create A Program That Addresses The Biggest, Initial Problem Your Customer Is Facing
When your ideal customer first comes to you, ask yourself what the biggest, most pressing problem they’re facing is. How can you solve that huge problem for your audience?
Before you create a course, you need to know your audience. But more importantly, you need to understand their initial, biggest challenge so that you can build a foundational offer. After all, driving repeat business starts with an enticing and relevant initial offer!
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Creating Your First Wildly Profitable Online Course
4. Create Repeat Business By Addressing Their Next Big Hurdle
Finally, you’ll need to consider what’s next.
After someone purchases that initial offer from you and solves that first big problem, what’s the next hurdle or challenge they’ll face? What will they want to achieve next?
THAT, my friends, is where you first start to generate repeat business.
When you understand the core of what happens next in your customer journey, you can create the next segment of your program suite in an aligned, intentional way.
5. Repeat The Process!
Now, you’ll just repeat the process! Keep figuring out what comes next in terms of customer challenges, goals, problems, needs, and desires. Then, develop your program suite around every stage of your customer journey.
In this Aligned Product Path, you’re walking your customers through the journey and showing them opportunities to continue engaging with you.
That’s exactly how you drive repeat business to your various offerings!
Why You Should Prioritize Repeat Business In Your Program Suite
When you prioritize repeat business when structuring your program suite, you’ll see more sales. Your existing customers are way more likely to purchase from you again (especially if your course does what’s promised!).
And honestly, in any business, it’s much easier to sell to current customers than it is to acquire new ones.
You’ll build an audience filled with raving fans who buy every course and program you release—because you truly help them get those desired results!
You also get to position yourself as a go-to authority in your niche and industry…especially because you can serve your ideal customer at every stage of their journey!
Just remember: there’s no magic number of offers or programs that you need to have.
For some businesses, it’s two, and for others, it’s five or more! And all of the items in your program suite don’t have to be courses.
You can also offer resources, products, or one-on-one coaching! No matter what you offer, remember to serve your audience where they’re at so you create those raving fans and repeat business.
How To Drive Repeat Business By Creating An Intentional Program Suite – Conclusion
Driving repeat business through an intentional, aligned program suite is a great way to grow and scale your business!
When you choose to create offers that reflect different stages of the customer journey, you open yourself up to so many opportunities for growth.
Now, I invite. you to scoop up your free copy of my course creation roadmap:
