Over the years, I’ve worked with hundreds of course creators. Some were solopreneurs. Others had small teams. Some were just getting started, others had been in the game for years, but regardless of where they were in their business, one thing kept coming up again and again when we first sat down to talk strategy.

They had audiences, email lists. They had demand, at least on paper, and yet, when it came to revenue, almost everything depended on two moments a year.

A launch and Black Friday.

Outside of those two periods, there was very little selling happening.

This wasn’t because they didn’t care about money, or because they didn’t believe in their product. Quite the opposite. Most of them were deeply invested in what they were teaching and very mindful of not wanting to “overdo it” with sales.

I saw this pattern as a freelance conversion copywriter, and I saw it even earlier when I was working in-house at an agency. Different niches, different audiences, same belief.

It’s ok to be afraid of selling, however…

Most course creators don’t want to sell only twice a year, they’re just afraid of what selling more often might turn into and if the only selling models you’ve ever seen are launches and discounts, then yes, selling more often sounds exhausting, pushy, and potentially damaging to your relationship with your audience.

This makes sense, but it’s rooted in a very narrow definition of what selling can look like.

And that’s where problem-based promotions come in (more about this later).

What selling starts to mean when it only happens during launches and discounts

When you zoom out and look at the typical promotional calendar of a course creator, most of the selling energy is concentrated in very specific formats.

Launches are built around novelty.

Launches are built around novelty. They rely on anticipation, exclusivity, and momentum. Something is opening, something is happening. There’s a story arc, a buildup, and often a sense that if you don’t pay attention now, you’ll miss the moment. From a psychological perspective, launches activate curiosity, social proof, and identity-based motivation: people like me are joining, this is the next step, this is what growth looks like right now.

Black Friday, on the other hand, is about price.

Black Friday uses a different set of levers. Instead of novelty, it leans on price anchoring, urgency, and loss aversion. The core message isn’t “this will change your life,” but “this is the cheapest it will ever be.” The decision is framed less as an investment and more as a deal, a moment where not acting feels financially irrational.

Both approaches work — but they also come with baggage.

Both approaches are effective because they reduce friction, they shortcut the decision-making process. You’re not asking people to sit with the question “do I need this?” for very long. You’re giving them a reason to act now.

However, when these are the only moments you ask people to buy, you’re implicitly teaching them something about how and when your product matters.

You’re teaching them that your course is something to consider only when there’s an event attached to it. Either something new has to happen, or the price has to drop significantly, in order for the offer to be worth attention.

From a semiotic perspective, this matters more than most people realize.

Meaning isn’t just created by what you say, but by when you say it and under what conditions. When a brand only appears in your inbox with “doors are open” or “last chance to save,” it starts to encode itself as transactional. Not necessarily aggressive, but conditional. The value of the product feels situational, tied to timing rather than inherent usefulness.

Instead of feeling like a thoughtful decision — “this solves something I’m dealing with” — buying starts to feel reactive. Either you’re jumping in because everyone else is, or you’re grabbing the deal before it disappears.

The question quietly changes from “is this right for me?” to “is this the right moment?”

And once that shift happens, people stop evaluating your course based on its role in their life and they start evaluating it based on your promotional calendar.

They stop asking, “Do I need this?” and start asking, “When is the next launch?” or “When will it be discounted again?”

Most courses are undersold, not overpriced

In my experience, most course creators actually undersell their work: they explain what the course teaches, but not why that matters in the context of someone’s life.

Take something like a Lightroom course for photographers.

On the surface, the value proposition is simple: you’ll learn how to edit photos better, but editing photos isn’t the real problem.

The real problem is time.

For wedding photographers especially, time is the most limited resource they have. During wedding season, they’re shooting constantly, juggling multiple clients, managing expectations, and trying to keep up with post-production.

Editing becomes a bottleneck. That’s why so many photographers outsource it but this introduces new problems: lower margins, less control, dependency on someone else’s schedule.

Suddenly, the course isn’t about Lightroom anymore, instead it’s about:

– delivering photos faster

– maintaining a consistent style

– protecting profit margins

– standing out in a competitive market

– reducing stress during peak season

That’s a completely different conversation.

When I talk about problem-based promotions, I’m not talking about flash sales.

I’m not talking about constant urgency and I’m definitely not talking about manufacturing problems just to sell something.

I’m talking about grounding your marketing in what entrepreneurship is supposed to be about in the first place: solving a real problem for a real audience, in a real context.

A problem-based promotion doesn’t start with your product, instead it starts with your audience’s reality.

It asks: what are they struggling with right now? What feels heavy? What keeps coming up? What are they compensating for? What are they tolerating that they shouldn’t have to?

Only after you understand that do you introduce your course — not as a “thing you sell,” but as a tool that exists for a reason.

Once you understand the real problem, the next question becomes timing.

When does this problem show up most clearly?

Going back to the wedding photographer example, there are predictable moments in the year when there are specific pains that are more visible.

Before the season starts, they’re planning. They’re looking at their calendar, realizing how packed it is, and mentally preparing for what’s coming. This is when they’re open to systems, workflows, and improvements.

During the season, the pain becomes immediate: they’re behind on edits, tired, under pressure from clients and trying to keep everything moving.

The same course is relevant in both moments, but for slightly different reasons.

And that’s what problem-based promotion allows you to do, so you’re not just selling your course “again.”, you’re meeting your audience in a different context.

Your brand shifts from “someone who sells” to “someone who understands.”

When you use problem-based promotions throughout the year, something important happens in your relationship with your audience.

They stop seeing your emails as interruptions and start seeing them as relevant, and as a result buying becomes less about reacting to urgency and more about responding to need.

And over time, that changes how people engage with your work.

They don’t wait for Black Friday, for the next big thing and instead they buy when the problem feels real.

This approach isn’t about squeezing more promotions into your calendar

When you anchor your promotions in real problems, real contexts, and real research, selling stops feeling like a performance and instead it becomes part of the conversation you’re already having with your audience.

And that’s the kind of selling that scales — not just in revenue, but in trust. I’ve been using this approach with hundreds of creators, from all over the world and all kinds of industries. It works because at the core it does this thing:

Makes people feel good about buying something that has a clear value and potential ROI in their life.

Want to learn more?

This is what I call the customer-centric framework and you can learn more about how it works below:

• The 3 Pillars of Customer-Centric Email Copywriting: How to Build Trust and Drive Conversions
• Rethink Your Sales Emails: Customer-Centric vs Flash Sale and the 80/20 Approach
• Drive 7 Figures Through Customer-Centric Copywriting and Master Email Marketing Basics
• Read more on my blog or listen to Master The Inbox, the podcast where I share all my conversion secrets.

Interested in increasing your sales as a course creator?

If you’re a course creator reading this and recognizing pieces of your own business in it — the long gaps between promotions, the hesitation around selling, the feeling that there has to be a better way — you don’t have to figure it out alone.

My work goes far beyond writing conversion copy. I’m a strategist and business coach, and I help course creators rethink how they sell, how they position their offers, and how they build systems that generate revenue without relying on two high-pressure moments a year.

If you’re interested in increasing your sales in a way that feels aligned and sustainable, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach out directly, or take a look at what other course creators have experienced working with me here.