Going on a holiday abroad can be so stressful!

You get into a car, taxi or train for a long trip to the airport and if you are going with kids…they almost instantly start moaning that they are hungry, bored or need the toilet.

You queue to check in, only to find out your bag is overweight, which means you need to pay a fee.

Next, you queue to get through security where you get reprimanded for having too many liquids.

You scrabble to get your worldly belongings onto a plastic tray while a grumpy man behind you huffs and puffs that you’re taking too long.

Then you’re told to take your shoes off before you pass through the scanner, revealing the non-matching socks you hurriedly put on in the dark.

If you’re lucky, you can all sit in an overpriced private lounge.

Or more likely you’ll be in a crowded lounge with uncomfortable seats, repeatedly telling the kids ‘no’ when they ask for giant Toblerones or 2kg bags of M&Ms.

Then it’s another queue at the boarding gate…

And ANOTHER queue to get on the plane… where you sit with 300 people in a confined space, most of whom are coughing and spluttering.

Even if you are paying (at great expense) to be in business or first class… the reality is you are still in a giant tin with no control over the people you are sharing a confined space with.

Once in business class I was in the seat next to a ‘double’ seat and the couple proceeded to make very loud and inappropriate noises throughout the flight!

Even with the screen pulled up it was a little bit off putting while I was trying to eat my meal.

You sit on the runway for a bit (or maybe more than a bit) before you take off in a giant tube of explosive fuel, that hurtles through the skies, rattling with turbulence.

There you stay for 3, 4 or maybe even 24 hours, trying to keep the kids entertained.

Then it’s a slow shuffle off the plane… into a passport queue where you smile politely as someone squints to see if you look anything like the photo which was taken 8 years ago.

There’s one more final queue to wait to see if your luggage has followed you, terrified that it has flown to another country entirely.

Finally, it’s onto a bus or taxi to get you to the ‘fun’ part, if your sanity is still intact.

For the pleasure of this experience, you pay around £5000… or perhaps you might pay £8,000, £10,000, maybe even £30,000!

On the face of it, it doesn’t really sound tempting, does it?

And yet, according to Post Office Travel Money, over half of Britons will travel abroad this year. For a family of four taking a two-week break, the average cost of this will be £4792.

In a cost-of-living crisis, that’s a lot of money.

But people willingly shell out.

This is because – for many of us – a holiday is an incredible part of our year, where we get a chance to unwind and relax, away from the stresses of the everyday.

We get to try interesting foods, visit unusual places and try activities we might never try at home.

And we make lasting memories that we can cherish for the rest of our lives.

THAT is what we think about when we book a trip.

If we focussed purely on the ‘getting there’, I’d wager that most of us would change our minds.

This is important to think about when you are marketing a course (or any information service for that matter).

Focus on the Big, Beneficial Outcome

When I help people to set up a course, I come up against the same issue time and time again…

They become fixated on the idea that making big promises about the life-changing outcomes of their training is somehow dishonest or tacky.

Instead, they lay out details of the long path the customer will need to take… including the nuts-and-bolts of what’s in the course, and how it will be taught.

They reason that it’s unethical to sell any other way.

REALLY?!

If your course could help someone transform their lives in some way, wouldn’t it be unethical to put them off by listing the dry facts of how they will get there?

After all, a dentist doesn’t sell a teeth-whitening service by first listing the arduous, uncomfortable procedures.

No!

Instead, they will hand you a brochure on which the cover photo is someone with a beautiful, brilliant smile.

Same goes for a good quality holiday brochure.

It will have photos of pristine golden beaches, delicious food, luxurious rooms and smiling, good-looking staff.

It might show you a beaming family with bronzed skin hugging in a glorious sunset, or laughing as they zoom down waterslides.

They DON’T fill it with pictures of taxis, queues, security guards and the insides of planes.

Sure, it would be more ‘honest’, but it’s not what the customers are looking for.

They want a vision of what the result will look like.

They want to know what their money will deliver them in terms of happiness, experiences, and treasured memories.

So please remember this when it comes to promoting your course.

Yes, at some point you will tell them what the course is going to deliver and how it will be delivered.

And naturally, you should never lie or deceive people.

But up-front, you need to show them the big life transformation that’s possible – and by that I really mean ‘show’, rather than tell.

Paint a picture in words of what the outcome might look like for someone who has completed your course.

Give them a sense of what it is they are really paying for – not the journey but the destination.