by
Phil Beene, Co-founder / Nudge
In this post, we walk through the 3 essential group coaching models to help you decide which option is the best fit for your next program launch.
As more businesses diversified their offerings to “shutdown-proof” their businesses in recent years, we've seen significant growth in the launch of new group coaching programs on Nudge and other online coaching platforms.
For this post, we’re defining group coaching programs as any program in which multiple clients enroll and are guided through the same program experience together.
If you only work one on one, jump over to our post on how to set up personal coaching programs for your one on one coaching clients.
With our focus at Nudge on taking programs online, you can think of a group coaching program kind of like an online course in terms of content, but with added focus on personal guidance, group coaching sessions and/or peer-to-peer support built into the journey.
(Here’s an article from evercoach if you want more about group coaching in general)
This post offers three group coaching models to choose from as you look to better align your programs with your ideal business model, and improve your profitability.
Each model can be used in any coaching niche - life coaching, health and wellness, business coaching, and more - so if you want to launch a group coaching program online, this is essential reading.
Group coaching is one of the best ways to scale an online program, but there are a few important options to consider when choosing your own group coaching model.
How many clients does my initial target group include?
What kinds of content do I already have created for my program (and how will I share it)?
How many and what kinds of touchpoints will be involved?
What kind of coaching sessions (if any) will these clients be expecting?
And finally, the most common, and sticky question of all…
How much should we charge for this group coaching program to be profitable?
Your answers to these questions may mean you should rethink how you structure your coaching program before you launch. So stick with us and we’ll walk you through 3 ways to help you figure out how to do group coaching right.
By the end, you should feel confident choosing which direction is the best fit for you and why.
How to Create a Group Coaching Program
3 Fundamental Group Coaching Models
Before you decide what’s right for you, let’s start with a quick description of the three possible paths that lay in front of you.
Option 1. A Cohort-Based Coaching Model
A Cohort-Based Coaching Model is a group program that all participants sign up for in advance, and start on the same date together. Thus, the whole group is experiencing every step of the program at the same time, from a fixed start date to a fixed end-date. Because all participants are experiencing each step of the program at the same time, Community and peer-to-peer support can be a major driver of engagement.
You may have also come across this increasingly popular model outside of the coaching space referred to as Cohort-Based Courses (CBCs) or Cohort-Based Learning. The rise of Cohort-Based Courses has had a huge impact on the online learning and online course space, and arguably shifted all of online learning more in the direction of what we would call “coaching”.
Option 2. A Standard Program Model
A Standard Program Model is a group program with a defined length (often 8 or 12 weeks) but no set kickoff date. Instead, clients can sign up and start the program at any time during an open enrollment window,and go through the program on a predefined schedule in relation to their own start date. Unlike the Cohort-Based Coaching Model, each client is not always experiencing the same content on the same day.
Option 3. A Membership Model
A Membership Model is an evergreen group program that is structured to always run on the same recurring schedule, and that allows clients to get started at any time. Like a Cohort-Based Coaching Model, everyone is typically experiencing the same content at the same time, but like a Standard Program Model, clients can typically sign up at any time.
Now, let’s dive into the details and find out which model is right for you.
The Cohort-Based Coaching Model
Technical setup.
Ongoing management.
Scalability.
Who’s it for?
Even if you’re just getting started, if you can sell a group of clients on your program by a set launch date, then you can run a cohort-based program.
If you’re looking for a more hands-on way to pilot a program with real clients before building it into a more scalable, automated program, a cohort is a great option.
The Cohort-Based Coaching Model is a great way to test-launch a group coaching structure before you invest in building out all the systems required for more advanced group program models that require more sophisticated systems and automation.
If you have your ideal program mapped out, and you’re comfortable hosting live group coaching sessions, this is a place to start.
You don’t need a ton of clients to pull this off, but you do need a plan to deliver a ton of value and some personalized attention along the way. This should be a high-ticket offering, so the value really needs to shine through.
Keys to Success
First, make sure you have your group coaching curriculum mapped out in detail, in advance. WIthout it, you’ll have a very hard time getting clients to sign up.
People need to see you as an expert who can help them make sure they reach their goals. And for them to trust that you’re “their guy,” you’ll need to show them you have a specific game plan for them to follow.
Now secondly, and possibly the most important part - plan WAY ahead, and start promoting your program well in advance of your start date.
If you need to have 10 clients for a successful cohort, figure out how long it will take you to sell at least 10 seats and give yourself that much promotional time (at least) before your launch date.
One of the great things about Cohort-Based Models is that you don’t necessarily need a big audience in order to pull it off. But if you don’t have an audience, be ready to hustle your butt off in order to get those initial clients signed on.
You’ll likely need to do a lot of outreach to potential partners to line up promotional opportunities in advance, from writing guest blog posts, to being a guest on a podcast, to co-hosting a webinar so you can tap into other audiences and find your initial batch of cohort participants.
Third, decide how many participants would be ideal for your cohort in advance, and make that limit clear throughout the promotional process. Scarcity will help the sales process. Being able to say “only 10 more seats available” will get you more opportunities.
You’ll find that being able to promote a limited enrollment window gives you more leverage in your marketing and sales process. Scarcity and a sense of urgency to make a decision will push more people on the fence to sign up.
As marketing expert and course creator Corey Haines recently put it in a tweet after changing his online course enrollment from an evergreen model to an open/close enrollment period…
Corey let us know a few days after this tweet that he had actually surpassed $15,000 before closing his enrollment window on September 6th.
It’s probably no coincidence that he had also just announced he would be leaving his role at Baremetrics to focus on his own business full-time.
If you’re wondering if he will continue this strategy, Corey tells us he doesn’t plan to reopen his Refactoring Growth and Mental Models for Marketing courses again until November 30th, and when he does, you’ll only have 7 days to sign up.
This marketability perk can be leveraged in a Standard Program Model as well - but in a Cohort-Based Coaching Model it comes with significantly less technical complexity for coaches with less tech-savvy but stronger administrative skills.
How Much to Charge
For profitable cohort-based courses or coaching programs to be a part of your business, you need to cover the time and expense that goes into the promotional period as well as the time when clients are actually participating.
Remember, you set your ideal number of participants in advance so now it’s down to pretty simple math.
As a quick example, let’s say you’re running an 8-Week Cohort-Based Program (approx 2 months) with a goal of 15 clients.
You expect it will take you 4 weeks of promotion (approx 1 month) to fill your 15 seats. To keep it really simple, we’ll assume you’re not spending any money on paid promotion. Only partnerships, cross-promotion, and direct outreach.
Now there’s only one question left that you have to answer: how much do you want to earn every 3 months?
For example, if your answer is $20,000, then… $20,000 divided by 15 clients, and the amount you need to charge for your Cohort is $1,334.
Simply mapping scenarios like this is where all good launch planning starts. Real life almost never looks like your plans, but the exercise of planning will prepare you for some of the challenges that inevitably arise.
Researching highly successful Cohort-Based Courses as you plan out your own group coaching packages can also be beneficial. A few of my favorite examples are Seth Godin’s AltMBA, David Perell’s Write of Passage, and Tiago Forte’s Building a Second Brain.
The Standard Program Model
Technical setup.
Ongoing management.
Scalability.
Who’s it for?
If you’re a more technically savvy coach, or a business with technical resources, a proven program and the time to build out the automations necessary to deliver program content workflows.
If you have the core pieces of content for your program already created, the delivery of each already mapped out, and the know-how to automate the delivery of it all for each participant based on their start date, then you can pull off the Standard Program Model for group coaching.
The Program Model makes the most sense when you’ve proven out a specific program model and you are ready to scale.
This typically means you have a large captive audience that’s the right fit, and you feel confident in your ability to move prospects systematically through your marketing funnel to consistently sign a number of new clients up each month.
Keys to Success
Running a profitable Standard Program Model typically requires a higher volume of clients than the Cohort-Based Model because the price-point tends to be a bit lower for these types of programs with less facetime, and little one-on-one coaching time.
With that said, a Standard Program Model done right can be a highly profitable way to structure a group coaching package.
Any direct coaching that takes place should be done in more scalable ways, using dedicated tools like a dedicated coaching platform that makes it easy to both schedule one-to-many communications, and quickly personalize one-to-one coaching messages asynchronously.
Your strategy for sessions in Program Models will be more limited to recorded group webinars and videos delivered via automation because of the fact that all users start and end the program at different times. The rolling signup makes aligning live session topics with specific program stages very difficult, but it is possible for those who are technically savvy.
Live sessions are, however, a much more achievable, and therefore critical cog in the Membership Model (which is basically an evergreen or annual recurring version of a Standard Program Model). More on this in the next section.
How Much to Charge.
The math on the Standard Program Model tends to be a little more nuanced and complex than on the less scalable Cohort-Based Model.
First, take a look at all similar types of group coaching packages you can find and use them to get a benchmark, then start having conversations with potential clients as soon as possible.
Take multiple approaches to gathering pricing feedback from early prospects. For some, pitch the outcome and all the value packed into the program and simply ask, what would you be willing to pay?
For others, present all the value along with your current best guess for what the price should be. Both approaches will lead to useful responses that will guide you to tweak how you’re presenting the offer, and the price you ultimately land on.
This isn’t an exact science. The most important thing is to start somewhere and learn quickly.
Examples of successful Standard Program Models are all over the internet. They’ve been around the longest and have been used much like online courses by many of the leading coaches on the internet, from fitness industry celebs like Jillian Michaels and Kayla Itsines, to life coaching legends like Tony Robbins.
For more relatable examples, a couple of amazing women-led coaching businesses running these programs on their own White Label Nudge apps include Lindsay Tobias’ Keep Your Plans On (KYPO) and Anna McMillan’s Little Winks Sleep.
The Membership Model
Technical setup.
Ongoing management.
Scalability.
Who’s it for?
If you have a primary offering that works for clients, but you’re ready to increase the lifetime value of your clients to become more profitable.
If you can execute a plan to put together an evergreen program that runs year-round, it’s time you consider a Membership Model.
If you have a successful coaching business, but you have your eyes set on building a more scalable, profitable online coaching enterprise.
Membership Model programs are typically lower cost, more scalable programs that complement other offerings.
One of the most common (and profitable) examples is when you offer a continuity or maintenance program to clients who have completed your primary coaching program.
Because it’s several orders of magnitude cheaper to sell an existing client on sticking with you than it is to acquire a new customer from scratch, this type of program can very quickly enhance key business performance metrics, like the average lifetime value of your clients.
Keys to Success
Success with a membership model for online group coaching comes down to having the right processes and tools in place to automate key pieces of your program schedule, so you have time to do little things to make members feel like they are getting special access to a community and perks that are just for them.
People may join membership programs to reach a personal goal, but they often stick around for the feeling they get from being a part of an exclusive club. This feeling is something you can create by the little bits of value you sprinkle in along the way on top of the core program like:
first access to new offerings
and surprising members with new perks from time-to-time
Try to map out a year of your member experience in advance with monthly topics for supporting content like articles and videos, and scheduled live events or webinars. Then, create, automate and schedule as much as you can in advance so you can spend time on bonuses that go above and beyond the core experience.
How Much to Charge
The math on Membership Models is pretty favorable for your business, especially if your program is set up as a continuity offer that comes after your primary program.
When that’s the case, the extra costs that you have to factor into fees are minimal on the sales and marketing side, and you can focus on value-based pricing for the core program and special benefits you are providing to members.
Something like $80 per month ($800 yearly up-front payment discount) is more than reasonable for a package that offers your members things like:
access to your coaching app with regular supporting content delivered through group posting
access to a monthly webinar
and personal monthly in-app coaching messages to help you stay on track
Let’s say your primary coaching offer is a 12-week personal coaching program for $1,000. If you convert only half of those clients to the continuity offer outlined above after they finish the 8-weeks, you’ve just increased the revenue you get from each new client from $1,000, to $1,400 per client on average.
An extra $400 per client makes a huge difference when you think about off-setting how much it costs to acquire new customers.
Which Group Coaching Model is Right for You?
The truth is, any of these group coaching models can produce incredibly successful and profitable programs. But I have a hunch you’re now leaning towards one as the best fit for your next program launch.
All you need is a plan, a great promotional strategy, and perhaps most important of all for online group coaching programs, the right tools to execute on all of it.
Whether you’re using Facebook Groups, Google Sheets, and Mailchimp workflows, or building your Programs, Communities and tracking protocols in the Nudge platform, as long as you have a great plan and plenty of hustle, you can make it happen.
If you’re thinking about launching something new in Nudge and want a hand setting things up, just book a guided setup call with us here.
Which group coaching model are you using? Which group coaching framework will you try next? Let us know in the comments below.
