What is a good entry offer before a $3,000 coaching program?
The best entry offer is the smallest piece of your actual judgement someone can buy, priced so that paying it signals intent. For most coaches that is one personal answer or one audit at $50 to $200, not a $47 course competing with everything else online.
1. Rule out what does not qualify anyone
A template pack, a $47 mini-course and a cheap workshop all sell to people who like buying information. None of them tell you who is ready for a $3,000 commitment, because the buying decision is nothing like the one you need them to make next.
2. Pick something only you can deliver
If a chatbot produces a decent version of your entry offer in thirty seconds, it is the wrong entry offer. Your judgement applied to one person's specific situation is the thing that cannot be copied, and it is also the thing the programme is made of.
3. Price it to filter, not to maximise volume
At $9 you get shoppers. At $50 to $200 you get people choosing to spend real money on your opinion, which is a small version of the decision they will make about the programme. The conversion you want is not the entry sale, it is the signal.
4. Deliver it in a way that shows the work
The entry offer has one job beyond qualification: letting someone feel what being coached by you is like. A considered written answer or a voice note does that. A PDF does not.
5. Make the next step obvious and small
End with one line about what working together properly looks like. No sequence, no webinar. They have just experienced the product, so the offer is a continuation rather than a pitch.
Where a paid question fits
A paid question is this entry offer with nothing to build: the asker describes their situation, pays, and gets a written or recorded answer, with the coach keeping 90% and nothing captured unless they reply. Coaches on Nudge usually run four tiers so the asker self-selects by how much of an answer they need. A paid audit or a single paid consultation works the same way.
Common questions
How much should an entry offer cost before a $3,000 program?
High enough that buying it means something, usually $50 to $200 for personal work. Below about $50 you mostly attract people who buy information rather than outcomes, and the signal you were buying disappears.
Should the entry offer be automated or personal?
Personal, if its job is qualification. Automated products scale revenue but tell you nothing about who is ready to commit, and they put you in competition with free AI output.