How to Create the Perfect Masterclass
If you have knowledge you want that you would like to share, then a masterclass is an ideal method to connect with your public and make them talk about it.
The most appealing aspect? Masterclasses are as brief or long as you'd like, so you can impart your knowledge and make maximum impact in a less time than a regular training.
At , we have a lot of knowledge about masterclasses and we've helped numerous creators create, present and even sell their own masterclasses online.
This is our step-by-step guide to how to create an excellent masterclass - plus insider tips and examples from the true masters of the masterclass.
Skip ahead:
- What does it mean by a masterclass?
- How to make your own masterclass using seven easy steps
- Choose a topic
- Plan your masterclass
- Design your masterclass
- Find an hosting platform
- Marketing and promoting the masterclass you have created
- Revise and modify Your masterclass
- Increase your company's reach
- Top masterclass examples from Creator Educators
What is the format for a masterclass?
Masterclasses aren't governed by an exact format. A masterclass may range from a single event to an entire video course.
However, typically masterclasses contain three key parts:
- An explicit learning goal(s) Each masterclass must have a goal or learning goal that your attendees will learn or complete by the end of the course.
- An experienced instructor The masterclasses usually are given by a professional - someone with experience in education or experience in the subject of the masterclass or the industry.
- A test or activity: Many masterclasses contain activities, or some method of evaluation to assist learners test and apply their skills. Successful learners might also receive a certification after they've successfully completed the masterclass.
Are masterclasses just videos?
Yes but not. Masterclasses are educational content in which specific abilities are taught by an expert within the subject. They are usually video-based, however they may also be webcasts that are live, blog posts, podcasts and much more. Some of the most effective masterclasses include other resources as well as activities for learning, such as quizzes tasks, questions and answers, in addition to certificates and accreditations.
How do you create your own masterclass using seven steps
If you're planning to hold your own masterclass, here are seven steps to follow to make sure the product you're offering is organized as well as marketable. It should also be beneficial to the audience you want to reach.
Here's how to make an online masterclass (click to skip ahead to further details):
- Pick a topic: Find your field of expertise, and select a topic for your masterclass which is appropriate and appealing to your target audience.
- Create your masterclass: Carefully design your masterclass's format, content, and style - including writing an outline and a rough script.
- Design your masterclass: Record and edit your masterclass so that you produce a professional-looking product people will be eager to buy.
- Choose a platform for hosting Select a platform hosting your masterclass on which you can promote, publish as well as manage and market your merchandise all from the same place.
- Market and promote the masterclass: Get the public aware of the masterclass by using a variety of marketing channels, including emails, social media and targeted landing pages.
- Review and edit the masterclass: Collect student feedback and revisit your masterclass materials to constantly edit and improve your product.
- Expand your business: Keep developing digital goods to increase your masterclass company, increase your reputation, and expand many revenue streams.
Ready to dive in? Here's what you need to learn about creating an effective masterclass. It includes tips as well as examples and links for additional resources that will guide you through each step of the process.
How to create an online masterclass
Select a subject
If you want to create an educational program, first you have to decide what your topic or niche will be. This process will look different dependent on whether you already have an established company or are starting the business from scratch.
If you're starting your business starting from scratch, you should begin with a checklist of all the things you're skilled at, enthusiastic about, and qualified to be able to do. Make sure that the subject is one you feel comfortable teaching to other people. It helps you focus on your unique offering and what kind of experience that you can share with all of the world.
If you're running already established a firm, you already have an understanding of your area of expertise or area of expertise is based. However, this can be beneficial to allow you possibility of generating innovative ideas and new opportunities should you'd like.
The next step is to confirm your concept. Here's how:
Research on the audience
It's not enough just to have an idea for a topic and then start making a masterclass immediately. First, you need to conduct research about the target audience and make sure that there's a demand for your masterclass and certain people who would be willing to attend and pay for it.
- The research of the public could comprise:Customer surveys
- Interviews
- The focus groups
Conducting research on competitor
In addition to addressing your ideal audience In addition, you could find your market by doing competitive study. The process of conducting competitor research is to look at the services your competitors and offering their clients in order to see how you can do different - and even better - to gain over potential customers.
Here are some easy actions to assist you in the research of competitors:
- Do an Google Search: simplest way to start with competitor research is to search for your masterclass idea through a search engine, such as Google. See which brands pop up first and what they're offering How similar are they to your idea? What is their strategy different? What is it that they aren't doing?
- Visit their site After you've made your list of top competitors, dive deeper into your research and look at their sites and masterclass landing pages. What subjects are they speaking about? What are their target audiences? What are their main messages?
- Examine social media channels: In addition to looking at their online presence, check for their social media accounts and the types of content they're posting and engaging with. Look through the profiles of your competitors' followers, comments, and take a look at other brands they're working with.
- Check out customer reviews: Customer reviews and testimonials are also an excellent source of insights into your current rivals and their offerings. Review the main comments, complaints, and the kinds of goods they are purchasing.
Evaluate your competitors by analyzing these important elements:
- Product: What are the masterclasses they offer? What materials are they offering? Which are features that are either good or undesirable?
- Pricing: What is the price the cost of their masterclasses? Do their prices vary for different customers? Are they able to offer bundles or discounts?
- Promotion: What marketing tactics are they using today to reach out to their customers? What channels on social media do they use? What kind of content do they post?
- Location: Where is the company based? Where are their customers based?
- Positioning: What is their unique advantage? What is their strategy for positioning themselves? What are their main messages? What is their intended audience?
- Reputation: What is the public commenting on their goods and services? What are the issues that customers face?
When you conduct your competitor research You'll want to be able to answer these queries:
- Who are my top competitors?
- What are their strengths and weaknesses?
- What is the potential opportunities and risks in the market?
- What is the features of my ideal clients versus my competition's ideal customers?
Keep track of all the research you have done using a spreadsheet that will help you analyse the information from the research results and utilize the information to create an original plan for your masterclass.
Ask yourself: "What do I excel at when compared to my competition and what am I looking to be focusing in?"
Plan your masterclass
After you've completed your homework, you'll have a clear idea of your topic for masterclasses and the specialization - which includes who your target audience is and how you will differentiate your product from existing items on the market.
Next up, it's time to plan the master class.
The choice of your style
Depending on your masterclass topic and your target audience, it is necessary to pick an appropriate format for your masterclass. For example, the masterclass you choose to give could include:
- Video tutorials
- Audio
- Webinars recorded or live
- Ebooks or blog posts
- Slideshows
Choose the style (or combination) that you believe is the most effective way of giving your message for your target audience. Ensure that you keep your masterclass engaging and interesting for customers. Who is the audience you want to reach most likely to enjoy?
Creating an outline
Make sure you write an elaborate outline based around your key educational objectives and goals. Your outline should include:
- What are the topics you'll be covering
- How long your masterclass will be
- What types of things you'll include
- Additional tools and resources do you plan to provide?
- What tests or certificates learners must pass?
By breaking your masterclass session down into specific topics, activities and exams, you will be able to create your material with a planned approach to ensure that you have everything you want and deliver what you promised to your learners.
A script to write or plan
When you're got your outline, you can start making a thorough program or script for the masterclass. In order to ensure that your presentation is natural and flow well make sure you avoid writing a script word for word rather, you should write down the things you're planning to talk about as well as the main points you'll cover so that you won't forget anything.
Design your masterclass
It's now time to create the content for your masterclass based on your outline and plan.
The specific steps on the creation of an online masterclass are contingent upon the type of masterclass you'd like to create - including your chosen format and design.
Masterclasses tend to be recorded tutorials. They typically consist of videos in the form of talking heads with instructors or experts speaking to the camera, assisted by diagrams, images, prompts, and animations to aid in explaining key concepts.
For creating this kind of masterclass, you'll require some basic equipment, including:
- A camera or video recording equipment
- Lighting equipment
- Equipment for audio recording
- Software for editing
This kind of masterclass is based on the passion of the teacher or instructor and their engagement, including how entertaining they can be, how clear they can explain the subject matter, as well as how they convey their personality in front of the camera. Don't forget to smile!
It's recommended to have multiple takes of your masterclass in order to assist you edit and cut the material to produce the highest source for your viewers.
To get more information on the process of creating masterclasses in various formats, check out these tutorials:
It is also important to develop any extra resources and assessments in this phase. These are some sources to assist you in creating masterclass material that will add extra value to the audience you are teaching:
and when you are editing your masterclass, make sure to check out these tutorials to find the best software and top tips to ace your editing:
Find a web hosting service
If you've developed an excellent masterclass that you're very proud of and ready to sell, you'll need to find a hosting platform to help you deliver the knowledge directly to the people you want to reach.
Three tips to help you choose the best hosting platform for you:
Know your payment structure
Knowing the type of payment system you're likely to use before time can help to ensure that your payment platform supports and accepts your chosen payment type.
This may comprise:
- Memberships and subscriptions
- One-time payments that provide limited access to content
- One-time payments that provide access for life to all content
- Access for free as a lead magnet
If you intend to make a series of masterclasses around specific topics, using an escalating subscription or membership arrangement will enable you to make recurring profits from your products. Customers pay either a monthly or annual fee for access to your material.
If you just want to develop only one or two masterclasses the moment, it's usually more suitable to charge the customers one time to use your materials. You can either grant customers only a limited amount of access to the masterclass or charge more and provide lifetime access so they can return to your content and expertise whenever they want to.
Certain platforms don't allow for subscription-style payments, for example, so be sure your chosen platform offers the ability to charge customers using the payment method you prefer.
Consider your marketing strategy
As well as considering your business's model It's equally important to consider your marketing strategy when choosing a hosting platform. Why? because various hosting platforms offer features designed to help you to promote and market your masterclass and other digital offerings.
If you've got an exact marketing plan you are thinking of implementing - like live webinars, email marketing and events, or dedicated landing pages - make sure your hosting platform supports your plans and offers other features to aid you in implementing.
Review customer comments
When it comes to choosing a platform to host your business, current clients usually are the most knowledgeable.
Marketing and promoting your masterclass
After you've signed up with a host platform and uploaded your masterclass material, it's time to start advertising and marketing your content in order to start getting the first sale rolling into.
Here are some efficient ways to promote your masterclass
Social media
If you're planning to promote masterclasses for 2023, you need to establish a presence on social media.
Pick the top social media channels for marketing the masterclass based on your intended audience. In the case of offering a B2B class think about promoting your course on LinkedIn. If the masterclass you're offering is something that is a lifestyle subject, Instagram and Pinterest are more likely to work to reach your target audience.
If you're only beginning, opt for 2-3 social media sites to begin promoting your masterclass.
Make content specifically targeted to your intended audience This includes:
- How-to posts
- Tips and techniques
- Behind-the-scenes
- Interviews with experts from other fields
Email marketing
As well as building your social media presence to help promote your class or master class. You may also use email marketing for additional marketing.
If you're not already doing so started building your email list to enable you to directly reach your target audience and build more connections with prospective customers.
Email marketing can include:
- Weekly newsletter
- Product launches and updates
- Round-ups and suggestions
- News from the industry
- Mini how-to guidelines
The most important guideline for marketing emails is to make sure that each piece of information you produce is beneficial to the people who read it Nobody likes junk email, so ensure that your email content has value each time it lands in your email subscribers' inbox.
Landing pages
Of course, you also need a way to guide your customers to a place to learn more about the masterclass. This is where dedicated landing pages can help.
Pages for landing - also known as sales pages - tell your audience precisely the information they require in order to turn them from readers into paying customers.
The top landing pages include:
- An attention-grabbing headline
- A captivating overview of the masterclass you are taking
- An overview of your teacher
- Highlights or important topics
- Customer reviews
- Call-To-Action (CTA) e.g. an option to sign up
Revise and modify your masterclass
Now that you've designed, launched the product, and even started to sell your masterclass. Congrats! Now what happens next?
The work doesn't end when you've finished your first launch. Most successful companies continue improving and enhancing their offerings to meet the needs of their intended audience and develop the most impressive products.
In order to help you achieve that, start collecting customer feedback after your masterclass, which includes:
- Post-attendance surveys
- 1:1 customer interviews
- Emails to follow-up
The more feedback you can get from previous learners The more information you have, the easier it is to improve your masterclass and tailor it to your target group to improve customer satisfaction and more repeat sales.
Customer feedback can also help you decide what future digital offerings to develop in addition to revealing opportunities to reconvert your existing customers to HTML0 in the near future.
Grow your business
For many Creator Educators, making a masterclass is only the start. Masterclasses can be a great digital product to help you make your name known as an authority within your field and build your reputation, all while creating revenue for your company.
It's important to expand upon your successes through the creation of different revenue streams. For example, it could be possible to create a full-length online course that is a part of the masterclass, or create an online community of members to your current clients.
Once you're ready to move on in expanding your company, check out these guides to help you get started:
Top masterclass examples from Creator Educators
Take a look at these examples of the best masterclasses taught by highly successful Creator educators that can inspire you and come up with concepts for your own masterclass.
George Pitts: the Masterclass in Money Management Masterclass
George Pitts was motivated to start his own personal finance company after he was able to get himself free of debt. In 2017, he was living from paycheck to paycheck, and was unsure of how he could improve his financial circumstances. So the week he was off of work in order to figure out the steps he required to take to fix his credit as well as his financial situation.
A self-taught financial advisor, George became determined to help other people like him get financial security. Since launching his company and teaching over 10,000 people through a variety of masterclasses, online courses and courses, generating a 7-figure annual revenue through the process.
Barclay XayLi: the Camera Confidence Masterclass
Expert in the field of content creation and coaching XayLi Barclay is a specialist in helping entrepreneurs be the best version of themselves online. This class teaches creators how to distinguish themselves from others and make an impact through compelling visual content and videos.
Since starting her business, XayLi has created multiple masterclasses to help deliver her experience to students - including her Camera Confidence Masterclass to give creators the chance to be more comfortable before the camera.
Learn more details about the way she began on this page.
Make your own masterclass
Making the initial step to make your own masterclass be scary - but when you take it in a single step you'll be able plan, prepare and present a masterclass which you are proud of. You owe it to your audience to create that masterclass that's hiding within your mind. Don't let imposter syndrome keep you down!
Are you ready to plunge into the water? Try for free and create your own class today.