Q: 1. In writing copy for Continuing Professional Education courses, do the same guidelines apply as for community, general interest courses? I am using two articles from the LERN Club site as a guide – How to Write Copy that Sells and Top Tips for Writing Course Descriptions. I am wondering, though, if customers looking for professional education will want more information about the course and a more professional tone to the copy.
2. What is the breakdown of costs when pricing for Continuing Professional Education courses offered with partners? For instance, we offer courses with one partner on a 70-30% split. In our 30%, what are the ratios for production (mostly covered by the partner)and promotion (direct costs) and for administration and net revenue (operating margin)?
A: 1. The basic principles of copywriting are the same for open enrollment courses, whether they are for enrichment or professional development. The intro should focus on benefits of participation—this is the key selling proposition in your course description. For professional development courses, you may want to include additional information.
Who Should Attend
Specific Learning Outcomes
Any information about how the course will address their workplace goals
It is still important to present the information in a reader-friendly format. Chunk the information so that you have content that is 120 words or less and white space to break up the narrative. Use bullet points and other visual aids to help guide the reader to important information without having to search.
2. Erin, this is an important but also complex issue. Here’s a too-short response. We are working on a publication that will be broader and deal with all of the issues involved. First, Promotion is generally 15% to 25% of income, so if you are doing promotion you are definitely not making any money with a 30% split. The hardest part of any Partnership is recruitment and generating the income. For example, with LERN’s online course partnership with our members, our members (you) get 50% of the income in recognition of the cost and difficulty of promotion.
Second, your Operating Margin (gross profit before your staffing is considered) should be 50% of the income you receive. So your costs should only be half of the income you receive. If this is the case, you probably have a good situation. You also asked about price, so if you can increase your revenue to 50% by increasing the price, that is something you should test. If you are also just increasing the Partner’s income and they still get 70%, then this is o.k. strategy but you are still not getting enough.
Thirdly, if there is any possibility that a customer or potential customer might take a course where you get more or even all of the income, you should track this and see if this is happening. Generally, people are taking courses they want, not just spending money with you. But this could be a possibility. With LERN for instance, we know our customers have only so much money and so splitting revenue means losing revenue. The exception for us is our Master’s program, where splitting the revenue actually increases our revenue, since our customers could not get a Master’s just from LERN and the partnership actually creates a pie or bigger pie.