139 - Why 68% of People Skip Live Courses (And What I Did About It)

Currently, the talk is online programs are over. I found trying to fill a live online training challenging too. 

In this episode, I share my experience running a video bootcamp when the live format made the program attractive yet kept people from signing up. What the data told me, and what I changed. 

Top takeaways:

🔹Format matters as much as content. How you deliver can make or break enrollment before anyone sees what's inside.

🔹 Your potential customers are having the same issues, it's time to change things up 

🔹Benchmark statistic: 68% of people cite other commitments as a reason they don't sign up.

🔹 Live, self-paced, membership — the right answer depends on your learners, not your preference.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Identifying the Problem: Content vs. Format
01:52 Adapting to Customer Feedback
03:31 Transitioning to Self-Paced Learning
05:09 Looking Ahead: Future Possibilities

🔷If you're ready to stop thinking about video and start doing it, sign up for my Smarter, Faster, Fun Self-Paced Video Bootcamp. Start anytime, learn on your schedule.   

Visit ➡️ SFFVideoBootcamp.com

Join me in The Lab on Substack, my space to test, tweak, and share smart ideas worth chasing, especially around video, content strategy, and showing up online without burning out (or wasting your weekends) Click Here

📌 When you’re ready to make creating engaging social media videos a priority, I offer 1:1 coaching and done-with-you video services. 😉 Click Here

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➡️ Need more? Check out the 300+ videos on my YouTube channel Click here for my YouTube channel 

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For additional insights, connect with Annette Richmond and Black Dog Marketing Strategies on social media.
Substack: https://substack.com/@annetterichmond
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetterichmond/
YouTube: ...

Transcript

Annette Richmond 
Hi, I'm Annette Richmond. Thanks for joining me today. Now, most of us build an offer, we put it out into the world and assume that if it's not selling, the problem is the content. Fix the pitch, fix the price, fix the copy.

Annette Richmond 
Sometimes that's true, but sometimes the offer is fine and the format is the problem. So today I want to share with you a real example from my own business how my live boot camp went from four sessions in one week to a spread out three week format to an online program. Now, each change was me reading what my customers were telling me.

Not what I assume they were thinking. So let's dive in.

Annette Richmond 
When I launched the Smarter, Faster, Fun Video Bootcamp, it ran four live sessions in one week. On paper, that seemed to make a lot of sense. Fast focused done. In practice, it asked people to clear a huge chunk of one week back to back while still running their own businesses. People dropped off, some didn't have time to do the work.

Annette Richmond 
It wasn't that the content was wrong. It was too much too fast. And that's the first lesson in reading your customers. When people start dropping off and not being able to do the work, don't assume that they lost interest. Look at what you're asking of their time.

Annette Richmond 
So I changed the format. Instead of four sessions crammed into one week, I spread it out over three weeks. Two training sessions in week one, a training session and a QA in week two, and a closing or follow up QA in week three. People had room to breathe between sessions. This version ran for two cohorts, January and June.

But a new pattern showed up. People who wanted in would look at the schedule and tell me that they couldn't make one or more of the live dates. So they didn't sign up at all. Not because the offer was wrong or they didn't want to learn from me, because live at a fixed time excluded anyone whose week didn't match mine.


Annette Richmond 
Then I looked it up, and the benchmark statistic of people who cite conflicts for not signing up for a live cohort-based course is 68%. That's the second lesson. When people are saying yes to the idea, but no to the calendar, that's not a content problem. That's a format problem. And no amount of rewriting the sales page is going to fix that.


Annette Richmond 
Here's what reading your customers actually pays off when you're actually trying to see behind the lines, when you act on what they're telling you instead of trying the same thing again. I decided to retire the live boot camp and rebuilt it as a self-paced online program.

Annette Richmond 
Students learn the same core lessons as I taught in the live training, plus a few more to clarify things that I talked about during the live QAs. No live sessions, no deadlines, just the process available whenever someone has the time. That single change removed the exact friction people had been telling me about for three cohorts straight.

Annette Richmond 
Now, the program just launched this week, so I can't say if this was the magic fix, but I do know that doing the same thing over and over and expecting something different doesn't really work either. And I'm already thinking about doing a live group coaching cohort to run alongside with the five module program. And perhaps even a membership in the future for people who want to keep Learning from me.

Annette Richmond 
And possibly a membership in the future for people who wish that the program was longer.

Annette Richmond 
Now, which solution is going to end up being the best option? I don't know yet, but in the words of Henry Ford, who knew a thing or two about building a successful business. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. 

And that's unsustainable. So thanks and that's just unsustainable. So thanks again for joining me today. If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a friend. I bet they'll thank you. And I'll see you next time.