Chris Newman Builds an Online Course in Business Teaching Drone Flying
Chris Newman is a professional drone pilot, who specialises in remote-controlled aerial videography as well as photography. In essence, he is spending his time traveling to cool destinations around the globe to fly drones and record stunning videos for clients. This is a very sweet job.
With over seven years of experience in film and cinematography under his belt and a strong dedication to what he does, Chris has become one among the most skilled drone pilots in the industry. Chris has the ability to create stunning, vibrant and cinematic shots in virtually any environment.
It's no surprise that his rolodex of clients includes firms like Subaru, Ford, Mazda, Mountain Dew, Monster Energy, and more. He's also worked with filmmakers such as Robert Duvall, and even YouTube stars such as Devin Super Tramp. And he creates and manages himself his helicopters. Very cool.
In addition to being a successful drone pilot, Chris is also doing extremely good as an online instructor. Chris is the creator of a successful YouTube channel where he publishes drone flight videos. Additionally, Chris is the author of a top online course, CineChopper University and has attracted a multitude of students from around the globe, eager to gain through his experiences.
We sat down with Chris to get a better understanding of his experience as a drone pilot, and online instructor. He also spoke to us to snag a few pieces of wisdom to give to other online course creators.
The creation of Online Courses
As is the case with most of the online instructors we've spoken to, the decision to create an online course was sparked by the constant influx of questions he was receiving from his audience. While Chris posted more drone-flying videos his YouTube channel, many users would pose questions via the comments section of the videos, and occasionally, by reaching at him directly.
In April 2014 Chris published a short video to his YouTube channel to announce he was going to create an instructional course on drones flying. Basically, he asked anyone keen to learn about drones to contact him with their questions. Not only did the questions help him create an outline for his course, they also helped him create an email list of individuals who explicitly told him they were interested in taking his class once the course was developed.
Here is the video that he released, so that you'll be able to witness what he said:
Use to provide his online course
When Chris designed his course online, he made use of his WordPress site with an e-learning theme to host the course. Once his course was in operation He began to run ads and hosting webinars to promote his online course. After spending approximately $1500 on advertisements that drove a lot of traffic to his site that it went down. After the same incident occurred another time and he realized he had to locate a more reliable platform to host his course.
As Chris researched different platforms for hosting his course, he had some specific criteria in mind. In the first place, he was looking for to find a platform capable of handling large amounts of traffic in very short time. This would ensure that whenever the site ran advertisements or held the webinar for the course, his sale page would not crash with a huge number of visitors visited the site simultaneously.
Selling his course from live webinars
Chris has tried several different strategies to market his course, but the one strategy that has been the most effective for him has been hosting webinars.
Chris uses WebinarJam for hosting his webinars, and then the webinars are promoted using Facebook and Instagram Ads to market the webinars. The first method was image ads at first, but after a while he changed to video ads and was getting more effective outcomes. A majority of those who visit his advertisements register for his webinar, and from those who register, around 30% will show up to the live event (this is the typical participation rate in live webinars in all fields).
A typical webinar presentation consists of Chris sharing some of his best drone flying tips upfront, followed by giving his presentation to audience. To encourage people to buy his course right away, he includes special bonuses which he does not offer else except on his webinar. Sometimes he gives away an 80-dollar drone and sometimes, he gives discounts on his courses as well as sometimes, he'll enter everyone who attends his online seminar into a competition which awards an $1,000 drone.
With these benefits, Chris will typically enroll 15-20 new students into his classes each whenever he conducts webcasts. The most popular webinar he hosted was one in which a wasp was floating around in the room and he spent 5 minutes panicking and trying to get it out of the way before returning to his lecture. After that webinar, he signed up 30 students who had never been in his course. Maybe they were hoping to thank him for the hysterical entertainment that he had unintentionally offered.
3 ways to increase course sales from webinars:
1. Host a live webinar with an interactive Q&A at the end
If you're contemplating organizing a live webcast and using ads on a pre-recorded one, consider hosting a live event instead. The benefit of a live webinar is you get to engage participants throughout the course and even when it's over. After you present your course, spend at least 10-15 minutes answering any questions attendees want to ask before they make a decision to purchase from your company.
2. Offer freebies and other incentives to increase participation
In your webcast, you want to give your attendees a reason to purchase your course. But you also want to offer them an incentive to purchase it right now. One way to accomplish this is by offering some special offers or discounts on your course price for only those who attend your webcast. Another tactic that works well is to provide a no-cost incentive to all who stay until the conclusion of your webcast. This will stop people from dropping off early prior to the time you have to give your presentation for them.
3. Close with a powerful call to action to buy the course
The majority of creators of online courses love to teach, but they dislike selling. Most webinar presentations consist of the audience being educated prior to your presentation and then transitioning into the sales aspect of the course. The transition point is when a lot of instructors on webinars feel nervous and avoid making a sale. Make sure you are presenting your class with confidence, concluding with a clear appeal to the user to go to the sales page for your course and buy your course. If you're confident you've created a the best course, don't be afraid to invite others to join it.
Some tips for other online instructors:
To wrap up our conversation with Chris, we asked him to share a couple more tips to help other online instructors succeed. This is what Chris told us:
1. Concentrate on creating truly great content
One of the keys to Chris' achievement as an online teacher is his dedication to producing great content for his audience and his students. And he doesn't just create content that he thinks they will enjoy. He asks them what they want to know from him, and then creates instructional videos based on the responses.
Creating really great content has added benefits as. Great content helps you to justify charging a higher price to your class. In the beginning, when Chris made the first Version of his program he sold it for $200. Since then, he has continually improved the course and added additional content to it. His course currently sells for $1,497. "If you deliver high value for your students, and are always available, you may be able to charge more", says Chris.
2. Tap into the potential of webinars
In addition to the various marketing avenues instructors online can use in order to promote their course, Chris suggests using webinars. If you've never held a webinar before you'll face an initial learning curve. "Your first couple of webinars won't do so well", says Chris. "The most important thing is improving and learning. I change my webinars every week. I'm always improving them."