How To Build A Minimum Viable Program

We hear this all the time.

What offer can you get off the ground and flying with the shortest financial runway and soonest departure?

The answer is the Minimum Viable Program (or minimum viable product if you sell hard goods).

This is something I know a fair amount about since I created my first online program on what felt like a VERY rushed dare. Nothing like time pressure to get you hustling to prepare an offer, right? But when the Universe gives you an opportunity to invite people onboard your mission in life, you’d be a fool not to have an offer ready.

That’s what happened to me! To make a long story short, back in 2014 I had just finished the Avatar And Empathy Map Interview Process for 4-time New York Times Bestselling author, JJ Virgin.

Using the learnings from the in-depth interviews I perform, I wrote a new nurture sequence that took the brand from a 16.9% open rate to 47.17% and the Click Thru Rate jumped from 4.7% to 20.2%. (Schedule a call with me if you’d like this process done for your brand.)

This happened just as the speaker lineup was being formed for JJ’s collaborative networking event, Mindshare, and yours truly was invited to be a speaker.

That YAY feeling of being honored for my efforts was immediately followed by a resounding YIKES!

JJ Virgin And Associates is a big brand with the budget to handle the time and labor intensive Foundational Marketing Package that includes the data harvest and assimilation from twenty one-on-one, in-depth interviews with their clientele. (Learn to perform a D.I.Y version of his process for your brand in this post or talk with me to let us do the work for you.)

The attendees at Mindshare would require an offer at a lower price point. That meant I needed a new offer and fast because the event was in TWO WEEKS!

Since it would not have been cost effective to offer that audience a lesser version of that service, I committed to teaching the entire process and how to use each portion of the collected data to create the copy for everything from the content promotions to the fulfillment emails. There would be a lot to learn, but I knew that would make the program a huge value for the $2,450 investment.

Because the timeline was so tight, I enlisted Travis’ help and we got laser focused on creating a Minimum Viable Program.

List out everything the user will need to learn and in what order. This will not only be the scaffolding for building the course, it will also be the timeline for the sales page.

I found mine on GraphicRiver and it formed the design basis for EVERYTHING from the opt-in page to the course documents and presentations. This made the content buildout fast, easy and inexpensive with no waiting on a designer or developer. Make a duplicate copy of the presentation so that you have a clean copy of all the original slides.

Here is the template I used in Keynote and also in Powerpoint.

Remember, you want to teach some key elements of what your offer is all about and include the BENEFITS of all the features in your offer rather than rattle off everything they get.

Be sure to show cost juxtaposition (in my case this was an opportunity to learn how to do a $25K process for under $2K) and include scarcity based on the rapidly approaching start date for the LIVE program.

Record a video of the presentation. A quick, easy cheat is to use ScreenFlow for Mac or Camtasia for PC to record yourself speaking over the slides.

1. Create a simple LURE PAGE that collects prospect’s email addresses in order to access the free training video.
2. Create a THANK YOU PAGE that congratulates them and tells them the link to the free training is in their inbox.
3. Create a CONTENT DELIVERY PAGE that will double as a Sales Page.
4. Create the ORDER FORM so they can check out.

The page building software we use for our marketing funnels is Kartra.

The mini-nurture email series supports your potential members in using the free training and invites them to get on a call with you. Use a scheduling app like Calendly to simplify the process.

Calls may seem like a pain, but remember that this first group will not only provide the testimonials for the evergreen version of the course, they’ll also make it clear what, if any, changes need to made to the program or product.

I think of it like this – the first live group gets WAY more hands-on attention and you get paid to build a program that will become a profitable asset for your brand.

You won’t need the whole course built out! But, I feel strongly that the introductory module should be ready and waiting for your buyers.

When they purchase the program and receive the login details, great content ought to be there for waiting for them to prevent buyer’s remorse.

My favorite all-in-one platform for building the course membership site is Kartra. For standalone software consider Kajabi or Thinkific.

Now that your Introduction Module is waiting for buyers. You simply create each new module prior to the live meetings with your customers. Get people into the program from social media, from your email list, from networking from friends and family…. just get them in.

You'll be performing the program live week over week.

In my case, that meant a week-over-week buildout for six weeks. Was it a hustle? Yes, it was. Did I love every minute of it?

No. Blood, sweat and tears went into making each and every deck, handout and form. But that’s what separates stellar content that people refer to and rave about from the crap that prompts refunds and mudslinging! Quality counts.

After the course is complete, schedule exit interviews incentivized by something. In my case, I gave a free copy coaching session on any page or piece of content members chose. I had a neutral third-party perform the interviews so people would feel as comfortable complaining as they were singing my praises. Use an outside person so that you get quality intel on what to improve or cut from the program.

Turn the live version of the course into the evergreen version by cloning your initial campaign. On the all-in-one platform I suggested, Kartra, that can be done with the simple click of a button.

You might be wondering why you wouldn’t simply use the existing live version. That’s because you can use the original version repeatedly with live groups for a higher price.

The self-study, evergreen version won’t have certain things. Just one example would be the live call pages which house the meeting links prior to the live sessions and store the recordings after the sessions have been completed.

Keep the original version and consider doing the program LIVE at a frequency that makes sense. For the same reason, you’ll want to duplicate the funnel. This is where Kartra wins over Kajabi or Thinkific for ease of use because you can duplicate the entire funnel, all the emails, help desk, optin forms and all video with a single click.

“It took me less time to build, launch and sell my course from a speaking gig than the countless time I wasted WANTING a course.”

Joy Houston

You might want to shoot me right now for rattling off all of this and making it sound like a piece of cake. I get it; it’s work!

But here’s the deal. It took me less time to build, launch and sell my course from a speaking gig than the countless time I wasted WANTING a course that taught brands to massively elevate their impact, influence and income by putting the lessons into play.

You can rock a Minimum Viable Program on your own! We know you can because you’re smart enough to be here keeping up with concepts that help you elevate your marketing.

We also acknowledge that it can be intimidating to take on a project like this. Some sound strategic guidance, a little loving pressure to hold you accountable for production deadlines, a bit of technical help to get all the platforms working together seamlessly, not to mention some direction on copy that compels action, might be of assistance to you.

If you need us, we offer a special coaching package just for creating a Minimum Viable Program. The price of this coaching offer is less than most people waste on ads in their first month without knowing what they’re doing wrong. Hop on a call with us to see if we’re a good fit to help you create your program in record time.