Planning your Online Course – Learners, Topic, Niche and Strategy

Have you ever felt like you're drowning in a sea of sticky notes, scribbled diagrams, and half-ready ideas trying to create an online course? I get it! Planning your online course can be overwhelming, but with a clear strategy and guidance, you can do it quickly. This post covers a step-by-step guide to planning your course topic, finding your audience, and developing a strategic plan for success.

If you ever felt like you were drowning in a sea of sticky notes, scribbled diagrams, and half-finished ideas when trying to create an online course, this post is for you.

In the upcoming post series, I’ll guide you through a Six-Stage Model to Manage the Online Course Planning, Development Implementation, and Launch. This model will take you from that initial idea to a fully launched online course: from refining your expertise into a structured curriculum to figuring out which tech tools to use. It covers everything from planning and design to development and marketing, ensuring you’re well-equipped to complete the project of creating and launching an online course. It will help you stay organised and ensure everything runs smoothly. There is more! I will give you templates to organise your course data and manage the project.

Why Planning Matters

First things first – before we dive into the details, let’s talk about why planning is crucial. Creating a successful online course isn’t just about throwing together some slides and hitting “publish.” It’s about crafting a cohesive learning experience that delivers real value to your audience and achieves your business goals.

A well-structured plan helps you:

  • Stay focused: It’s easy to get sidetracked when creating an online course. A plan keeps you on track and ensures you’re moving towards your goals.
  • Save time and money: By planning ahead, you can avoid costly mistakes and rework, streamlining your development process.
  • Create a better learning experience: A well-planned course is more likely to be engaging, effective, and enjoyable for your learners.

As a learning designer and project manager, I’ve helped many clients and managed big corporate projects; I assisted solo entrepreneurs in turning their ideas and expertise into successful online courses.

This particular approach I present here is more relevant to business people and solo entrepreneurs – experts who, on their own, are trying to figure out how to create and sell their expertise online.

So, how do you do that? How do you start planning your course?

Project Management

First of all, it is good to be familiar with the concept of project management. Creating an online course is a project, so it requires a project plan. The typical stages of the traditional project management process include Project Initiation,  Project Planning,  Project Execution,  Project Monitoring and  Project Closure.

Project mgmt

However, in my opinion,  project management models on their own are not enough for the type of project you are embarking trying to design a course.  A more specific approach is required, considering certain characteristics of the learning project. 

Over the years, I have worked with different models and frameworks. I often had to adapt them to meet particular client or project requirements – sometimes merging different stages, sometimes splitting them, and sometimes adding elements that a particular model did not include.

I don’t have a one-suit-all model that I consider to be the best.  So today, I have brought you an approach where I combine project management and selected aspects of instructional design models, topping them up with marketing elements necessary to promote and sell your course:

Six-Stage Course Creation Model

The 6-stage model to guide you through the eLearning development process:

  • Stage 1: Plan Your Course and Project – Audience, Topic, Strategy
  • Stage 2: Design Your Course Content
  • Stage 3: Create Course Content
  • Stage 4: Deliver Your Course – Implementation, Enrolment and Support
  • Stage 5: Promote Your Course – Market, Sell, Launch
  • Stage 6: Support and Evaluate – Post-Launch Evaluation and Continuous Improvement


In this post I will focus on stage one  planning tasks

Stage 1: Planning your Course and Project - Audience, Topic, Strategy

When creating your online course, the first step will revolve around your audience, topic, and strategy, specifically these three things – what you want to teach, who you will teach, and how.  This stage is all about laying the foundation for your course and proofing your idea.

You will do some basic research to ensure that there is a demand for the topic you are considering and that you will be able to find your niche and sell the product. In other, more professional words, this is an analysis and research stage around the demand and profitability.

This is also where we look at branding and strategy. You might already have that, but if you are only entering the online training stage, it is important to present yourself and your brand to the world in a coherent, unique and impressive way.  You will need this to start promoting your product. A strategic plan that ensures your course will deliver the promised outcomes to your learners and help you achieve your business goals.

1.1 What You Will Teach (Topic)

Identify Course Topic

The most frequent scenario is that people have an idea for their online course. But don’t worry if you are not sure yet, or if you. Exploring possible topics or redefining what you intend to teach is part of this strategic planning process. There are various possible approaches to identifying the course topic – essentially, it is usually something  related to your:

  • passion (what you love doing),
  • know-how (what are you good at) or
  • background (experience and qualifications).

These are the starting points on your course topic discovery journey.

I have put  together this worksheet to help brainstorm ideas and decide on your course topic. By the end of the exercise you will have a rang of potential areas to consider for your online course. 

You will receive this course planning worksheet and the Trello project plan when you subscribe to my newsletter!

1.2 Who Will You Teach (Audience)

Identify Your Learners

You need to consider your audience – its needs and expectations. Sometimes, your course offering may be a response to existing problems. But often, if you want to teach something you are good at, you need to find the audience.

Think about what you have to offer in the context of your target audience and their needs.  Look at what you are good at and think about where it overlaps with the skills and knowledge required in the market.

Here are some questions to consider:

  • Who are you creating this course for?
  • What do they want to achieve?
  • What are their needs, goals, and pain points?
  • What problems can you solve for them?
  • Are there existing courses in that area?
  • Which courses are already successful, and what can you learn from them?
  • Are there any gaps you can fill?

How to find the audience for your topic and learn more about them? Here are some practical tips. 

Finding Your Audience

  • Online Communities: Join relevant pages and groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media platforms that host communities specific to your area. Monitor discussions and pay attention to recurring themes, frequently asked questions, and pain points mentioned in comments. Engaging in these groups will help you learn about members, their issues, and their challenges. Ask questions and actively participate.
  • Professional Organizations: Reach out to professional organizations in your field. They can offer valuable research, reports, and access to their members, providing you with deeper insights into your target audience.
  • eLearning Platforms: Study reviews from similar courses on platforms like Udemy, Skillshare, and Teachable. Pay attention to demographics, student feedback, and what learners value most. Identify any gaps that can be addressed to improve your course offering and meet unmet needs.
  • Professional and Networking Events: Attend events to network directly with potential learners. These events offer an excellent opportunity to ask questions, understand their needs, and gauge their interest in your content.
  • Your Own Network: Don’t overlook your own network. Talk to friends, colleagues, and family. They can often provide valuable insights and feedback.

In addition to observation, networking, and community engagement, you can take some intentional actions to learn about your audience.

Understanding Needs and Expectations

Conducting thorough audience research will help you to create a course that speaks directly to them. 

Surveys: Use tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to ask specific questions and distribute surveys within your online communities or network. You can also ask professional organisations to help share them.

Some key survey questions:
      • What are your biggest challenges in [the topic]?
      • What problems have you faced around [the topic]?
      • What did you need to figure out on your own?
      • What do you wish someone told you/taught you about in [the topic]?
      • What are your motivations for pursuing [your topic]?
      • What specific areas of [the topic] are you most interested in learning about?
Custom Questions:

Tailor your surveys to address specific concerns or trends you’ve noticed in your community.

Interviews: Conduct one-on-one interviews with potential learners you’ve identified through online communities or at events. Interviews allow you to dig deeper into their challenges, learning preferences, and expectations, uncovering valuable insights that surveys may miss.

1.3  Finding Your Niche - An Overlap Between Audience and Topic

Decide on Your Topic and Niche

You are merging topics and audience research to find a niche. You might have several ideas about topics you’ll be good at for developing a course.

The next step is to narrow these ideas down – consider your audience,  its needs and expectations, and decide what will help others to solve a problem.

After that, you will test your ideas and find a crossover between your offering and market needs – a gap in some niche you can comfortably fill.

Validate Your Course Idea

 Initial Research

Doing research at the beginning stage of your project is crucial because that is when you will find out what the audiences lack regarding the topic.

    • Consider your idea and audience, and make sure there is a demand for your offer. Your topic should derive from the audience demand, need, and knowledge gap. It will dictate your learning outcomes too.
    • Review what your competitors are offering. Is there already someone offering what you want? Do they offer exactly the same course? Studying what competitors are doing will give you a thorough insight into your customers’ expectations and develop your course accordingly.
    • You can do a SWOT analysis of your topic or course idea.
    • Analyse trends – maybe there is a trend, but there is not much information about it, and you have a massive opportunity to create something that is not out there.
Market Research

Once you have decided on the topic for your course development, you should conduct more specific research to determine what exactly to include in the course. Consider doing additional surveys and asking audience-specific questions:

    • What do they want?
    • How do they want it to be delivered?
    • Is there a market for your topic?
    • Who exactly is the audience?

This exercise will help you to target your audience.

1.4 What is Your Strategy?

With your preliminary research in place, it’s time to map out the strategy.

Plan Content Strategy:

Create Course Roadmap

The initial content planning involves creating a high-level outline of your course structure, including key milestones. This plan will serve as your roadmap throughout the design and development process. You are not writing content here; you are simply organizing your ideas in a more structured way. A clear content strategy ensures your course is logical, engaging, and effective.

Some questions you need to answer here:

    • How will you structure your content?
    • Will you need to break it down into sections, modules, and lessons?
    • Do you know the main sections or areas you plan to cover?
    • Are there any areas you will need to research? 

Recording it and document it in the course outline –  you can refer to it in the future and fine-tune it.

There is no one best way to create your course structure. It is very much an iterative process. Here are some possible strategies:

Zoom-In Approach (Start from Big Picture): The Zoom-In approach begins by focusing on broad concepts or themes and gradually breaks them down into smaller, more granular topics. It is ideal for instructors who prefer starting from a high-level concept and drilling down into specifics. This approach works well for courses that revolve around comprehensive topics where the learner needs a structured journey from general to specific.

Zoom Out Approach (Focus on Small Details): The Zoom Out approach starts by identifying the specific skills or tasks learners need to accomplish and gradually organises these into broader topics or sections. This is ideal for instructors focused on specific skills or behaviours that need to be taught. It allows you to ensure that each skill leads to practical applications and that the course is built around concrete outcomes. It is especially effective for hands-on, practical courses.

Consider Type of Content

As you plan your course structure and roadmap, it is a good time to consider the type of content you will be sharing with your learners:

    • What formats will you use (video, text, interactive activities)?
    • Will there be a live element?
    • Are your decisions aligned with learners’ expectations?

 

Draft a Project Plan:

Now that you’ve completed your research and have a solid content foundation, it’s time to map out your initial strategy. Think of your project plan as the compass that will guide you through the design and development phases of your course.

Start by setting realistic timelines for when you’d like your course to launch. Consider the resources you already have and what you may need. This includes potential collaborators—will you require any help for content creation, design, or tech? Establish who your key stakeholders are, and define your team structure if you have one.

Tip: Be realistic about your deadlines. Rushing can lead to burnout and frustration. Break down the process into manageable steps and stages to keep things moving smoothly.

For example, you can start with a high-level plan but dive deeper into specifics as you move forward. When you begin designing content, create a checklist that covers each element of your course structure. You can break it down further by topics or modules. For instance:

Topic 1 Tasks:

    • Welcome Blurb
    • Detailed Video Content (Script and any additional visuals planned for the Video)
    • Case Study
    • Quiz
    • Resources/Downloads

A good starting point is a spreadsheet with all your project stages, milestones and tasks. Here’s an example of how it can look. You can start and continue with a simple, high-level plan that has milestones and weekly deadlines.  If your project requires that, you can go with a much more detailed daily plan that is broken down into individual steps, considers all team members and has a daily schedule (drag the red arrow across the screen to see the difference between simple and complex plans).

course creation project plan course development detailed project plan

Tip: Measuring Success: Ensure that your plan includes ways to measure success. Think about what key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll track to assess whether your course meets the needs of your learners and your business objectives. KPIs can include learner completion rates, engagement levels, feedback, and, of course, sales metrics.

Tools and Templates: To make the planning process easier, consider using project management tools. Depending on the project’s complexity or your preference, you can use a simple spreadsheet to track progress or more comprehensive project management tools like Notion, Trello, Teamwork, or Basecamp.

If you’re new to these tools, don’t worry! I’m offering free access to my Trello board designed specifically for this six-stage course creation process. It includes a detailed workflow, sample tasks, and a bonus worksheet to help you define your course topic. It will also have milestones related to all other stages in this project—I will keep it updated as I write the remaining blogs. Just leave your email address below, and I’ll send you the link!

You will receive the course planning worksheet and the Trello Project Plan when you subscribe to my newsletter!

Freebees trello template

Plan Technology:

Technology choices can significantly impact your budget (subscription or licensing fees), development process (there may be specific requirements for types of content and compatibility issues), and learner experience. You can make your final decisions later, but consider at least the following:

  • What platform will you use to host your course?
  • What authoring tools and software do you need?
  • Where will you host your videos?

Plan Marketing and Sales

In this From Idea to Launch model, I incorporate it as the core part of Marketing—Market, Sell, Launch Stage, but in practice, I treat it separately from the main (course development) project. It is almost like a subproject under the main course development project.

The ‘From Idea to Launch’ model is not linear, and stages can overlap. Marketing activities do not start after stage three is completed. Marketing and promotion happen throughout the project lifecycle, parallel to the main development project, and continue after that.

When it comes to planning your marketing strategy, at this early stage, you want to start looking to answer the following questions:

  • What is your brand voice and image? Start planning it.
  • Do you have a website? Do you need a domain and hosting? Start planning it and organise the landing page with the main info.
  • What will be your business model for this course – individual sale price, subscription model, or a membership plan?
  • How are you going to market your course?
  • Where is your audience, and how will you reach it?
  • Do you have a community? Start building it in the places your audience is in.

Remember, a strong plan (informed and rooted in proper research) sets the stage for success. Failing to plan effectively is like setting sail without a map—you may eventually reach your destination, but the journey will likely be much more complicated than it needs to be.

So that’s it for now. If you complete all the steps – do research around the topics, audience, niche, validate your ideas and put together an initial draft strategy and project plan, you are ready to move to the next stage – the design phase. Design, in this case, will still be about planning, but in a different way—you will be planning the content of your course and deciding what types of media and activities will best support learning.

Come back next week to read about the next stages of creating your online course, or subscribe to my newsletter to receive reminders about new posts and get access to the tools and templates available only to my network!

Note, that this post provides general information about Planning your Online Course.

It is important always to consider the specific context and requirements of your learning projects. If you have any questions or would like to delve deeper into the topic, please email me or book a free online consultation via my contact page.

planning - Design - developing

Make sure to check out my other posts related to planning online courses, designing and developing learning content and delivering training. I share strategies and tools that you can use and many practical tips. 

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