Monetisation Models: Monetise Your Intellectual Property with an LMS

strutoCX

Do you ever think about the amount of intellectual property that you provide your prospects and customers free of charge? While it is empowering (and kind) to share your knowledge with others, it is also beneficial to build a valuable asset which in turn creates an income stream. It is possible to monetise your intellectual property (IP) with the right strategy and system in place. After all, you have spent the most valuable asset of all while gathering that IP, which is your time.

In this article, we unpack what your IP is, how to protect it and what monetisation models work best to package and sell it. We look at building a learning management system (LMS) which is an excellent channel to monetise your intellectual property.

Your IP and Choosing a Platform to Package and Sell It

Intellectual property, or IP, refers to intangible creations of the human mind. This broad category encompasses things like literary works, scientific discoveries, artistic designs, and even things like your logo and brand name.

As we discuss content creation and how to package your knowledge into courses, it is also important to know how to protect your IP. It is everything from your blog posts or course videos to your website design and logo, nearly every original element you create for your course falls under intellectual property.

There are many ways to monetise your IP. The important rules are to choose the most suitable monetisation model, implement a well-planned strategy and build a solid foundation to package and sell your content.

Here we’ll delve into building a learning management system (LMS) to monetise your IP. Firstly, you should carefully consider whether an LMS is a suitable platform for your content. Consider whether your IP is well-suited to an online course format where it can be broken down into modules with clear learning objectives. Also, consider who you are trying to reach. Understanding your target audience’s needs and their preferred learning styles will influence your platform choice and course design.

There are many LMS options available on the market when choosing the right platform, both open-source and paid.

Factors to Consider:

Features

Does it have the tools you need for content creation, enrolment management, and progress tracking?
Branding/ white labelled

Are you able to reskin the LMS with your brand identity? Is it crystal clear to your students who the content belongs to?
Ease of use

Can you handle uploads, quizzes, and discussions and manage them in-house? Does the solution require a technical background?
Scalability

Will the system handle your projected number of users and courses and be able to scale with your requirements?

Monetisation Models via LMS

Choose a monetisation model that is the most suitable way to package your knowledge and sell your intellectual property to your target audience. There are a few options available, or you could offer a mixture of options to create choices and offer discounts to your loyal customers.

1. Course Sales:

A straightforward model is to sell individual courses or create bundles as one-off sales. This monetisation model generally yields a higher return on investment and your prices can flex according to the course complexity or you can target a specific premium market.

The drawback however is that a one-off sale demands stronger marketing strategies to reach potential students and convince them of the value proposition. Scalability is also limited due to revenue growth being directly tied to the number of courses sold.

2. Subscriptions:

You could choose to offer tiered memberships with access to a library of courses and ongoing content. The main benefit of subscriptions is the recurring revenue which creates a predictable income stream as learners pay an ongoing fixed fee for access to a library of courses. This encourages users to stay engaged and explore a wider range of your content. Tiered subscription plans offer flexibility to your learners with varying access levels (e.g. basic vs. premium) to cater to different needs.

The downside is that the subscription model may take longer to see significant profits compared to individual course sales. You may also encounter content volume pressure to consistently produce new content to keep subscribers engaged and justify their subscription fee. Furthermore, you run the risk of subscribers cancelling at any time, which impacts your income stream.

3. Freemium Model:

Providing some content for free, with paid options for more in-depth courses acts as a teaser to attract a wider audience and showcase your expertise. Freemium users can convert into paying customers for premium content or advanced features. This lead generation model has a low barrier to entry as it encourages potential learners to try your platform and get a feel for your teaching style before committing financially.

The disadvantage of free content is that it cannibalises potential sales from paid options. Although you still want the free content to offer value, you need to be careful not to replace the value proposition of paid options. You are also faced with a marketing challenge to clearly communicate the additional benefits of paid features to convert free users.

4. A Combination of Models:

If you have a limited set of high-value courses, individual sales might be ideal. However, if you plan on creating a large library of content, subscriptions could be more sustainable. Considering your target audience and what they are willing to pay is critical when choosing the right monetisation model for your LMS.

Creating high-quality content consistently might be easier for a subscription model. Bear in mind that individual course sales require less content upkeep but might require a higher upfront investment.

Remember, you can even choose to combine these models. Perhaps you offer some introductory courses as freemium, with in-depth modules or certifications available for purchase. The key is to find a model that generates revenue while providing value to your learners.

Choose the Power of HubSpot Content Hub + strutoCX LMS

strutoCX LMS is a powerful learning management system built for purpose on HubSpot that allows you to package your intellectual property and market it to your desired target audience. To ensure the user experience is a delightful one, the Struto team hold customer experience at the forefront of everything we develop. Being empowered with the right tools that allow you to control the learning experience is key to success.

Create Delightful Learning Experiences - Content Creation is Key

Here's where your expertise comes in! You could have the most amazing LMS, with ideas and strategy in place to package and sell your IP. But without original and engaging content that offers true value, your plans will most probably not come to fruition.

It takes a lot of time and hard work to create delightful content for your customers. However, if you have expert knowledge and a solid strategy with the right LMS in place, you could use tools such as HubSpot’s Content Hub for a helping hand with your content creation. The AI-powered Content Hub allows you to create and manage content with a single source of truth.

When planning your course content, remember to structure your courses with clear modules and learning objectives. Use a variety of content formats like text, slides, infographics, video, audio, and quizzes to keep learners engaged. Furthermore, you could have interactive elements like discussions and assignments to promote deeper learning.

“There are so many tools to create content, it is now all about creating the right content that offers value to your customers. Tailoring delightful learning experiences and keeping your customers consistently engaged is key to success.”

- Ryan Waters, Solutions Architect at Struto

Additional Tips

Some additional tips for success include:

Marketing and advertising to your ideal students via the correct channels.
Choose the right social media and build your community to grow your following (and sales pipelines).
Retain a strong brand identity with your knowledgeable, authoritative voice.
Always aim to stick to your strategy, track and measure what is working (or not), optimise your efforts and endeavour to create high-quality content with purpose.

Your Intellectual Property and How to Protect It

Even big brands that pay millions for their trademarks and copyrights continue to be copied, so the risks are out there, but knowing how to protect your IP is key. It can be easy for someone to steal your IP if they wanted to, however, intellectual property laws do protect us and if you can prove that the original content is in fact yours, then you have legal grounds to challenge it.

There are measures you can put into place to protect your IP (and to help prove that someone has stolen it).

Here are several tips on how to protect your IP:

Use watermarks & stamping

It is difficult to remove these from your content and will reduce the quality of the image or video should someone try to claim your IP as their own. This will discourage and identify content pirates who try to capture your content.
Show your face

Own the content by showing your face in your videos. It will also make it extremely difficult to edit you out of the content without viewers being aware!
Create a unique and delightful learning experience for your customer

There is so much noise out there. If you want to succeed, you need to create a unique brand with an authoritative voice that will stand out from the crowd. This identity will become synonymous with your content and make it difficult for others to claim it as their own. Customers pay for delightful experiences where they can interact with the subject matter expert, and not just for a downloadable PDF.
Date your content

Create a time stamp on every single piece of content that you publish.
Protect your content

Restrict download access on your videos and PDFs to further protect your content.
Copyright your work

Although it is not a cheap option, you have the right to copyright your work to protect it even more. You could create your own copyright policy for your website or go down the legal route where you engage with a solicitor to trademark and/ or copyright your content.

Next Steps

Building a learning management system takes time and effort, but it can be a rewarding way to share your knowledge and generate income. By choosing the right tools for the job, considering these steps, and consistently delighting your customers, you can turn your intellectual property into a valuable online learning experience.

If you would like to discuss the power of uniting HubSpot Content Hub with strutoCX LMS, please feel free to reach out to our advisors for a chat.