21 Best Ways To Market Online Course & Increase Sales
You’ve create your online course or service. Now what?
Your online course can be the best in the worlds and created by the top instructor in your industry with the most amazing online and offline recourses. But no one will come and join your course if you don’t market it.
The best product means nothing if no one knows about it’s existence.
Antony C.
When offering online education, regardless if it is an online course or coaching session, knowing how to market it properly can help you in getting success.
And if you are wondering which platforms offers the easiest way for you to create and market your online course, LearnWorlds is a great choice, and Podia isn’t bad either. Anyway, we’ve create a list of the best online platform for you to choose from, you can check them out if you are still undecided:
If you’ve never done any marketing before, here, we are going to show you 21 ways to market your online course to your audience effectively, so you may get more paying students faster and easier.
How To Market Online Courses
Marketing your online course include using social media and public calendars along with creating email campaigns, physical flyers, podcasts and so much more. The more ground you can cover, the better the chances will be that you’ll attract students.
Before you follow every way listed below, make sure you evaluate which ones will be most beneficial to your online teaching purposes. With the right marketing, you can get more students passively make selling online course a passive way to generate an income.
“The right marketing help you 10X your result and help you get successful faster.”
1. Social Media
One of the best ways to market your online course is through social media. This helps build up your brand, make it more recognizable and gives you the ability to reach out to millions, if not billions, of people. Utilize these services to the fullest by creating videos, groups and engaging posts.
Establish video channels on places like YouTube, Odyssey and Bitchute. Make private groups on Twitter, Facebook, Gab and LinkedIn. Ensure you update your feeds with interesting content on Instagram and Pinterest.
2. Email Campaigns
When you first started devising a strategy for your online course, you should have collected a few emails from people interested in the subject matter. Use this email list to create campaigns to notify when classes are about to begin and for other pertinent announcements.
When just starting out, you may not have the ability to do an email campaign yet. So, this means you need to build up an email list and this may take some time. However, you can offer discounts and perks for people who provide their email address.
3. Tell Friends And Family
If you are starting your online course off cold, without any audience or student base whatsoever, tell all your friends and family about it. You could even put out a discount for potential students in your email campaigns for getting their friends and family to signup. Remember, word of mouth is the best way to get new business in any industry. Driving traffic to your classes is no different.
4. Public Calendars
Many public calendars are available online and in your local area that you should use to your advantage. Places like Eventful, Loxi and Eventbrite are just a few online. Sometimes, nearby schools, colleges and other learning institutions will allow local professionals to post their events.
However, you could go to local newspapers and broadcast stations as well. They usually have a community section that features a calendar to which anyone can post. What’s more, you can usually find a central site that promotes “things to do in ____” (name of your town/city), where you can post your courses.
5. Physical Flyers
Creating a small handheld flyer is ideal for a variety of uses. You can put these up at your nearest coffee shop, grocery store, laundromat, bars, pubs or music store. Tack it up anywhere you see a corkboard featuring local businesses, services and professionals.
Also, it’s good for handing out to people you meet in social circles, parties or even on the street. It provides a flashy and quick way to illustrate your courses, should they take an interest.
6. Attend Events And Conventions
Hunt down conventions and events in the industry or field related to your online course. This will not only allow you an opportunity to find likeminded pros but you might also nab a few new students. Plus, you may learn some new information or data that you can incorporate into your coursework.
If inclined, you could create a meet up group, organize an event or setup a convention for networking purposes.
7. Partner With A Company
If there’s an organization or company that will benefit from marketing your online courses, approach them. Many places are willing to work with professionals and experts to develop a symbiotic relationship. Not only will they help you get your brand out but they will also get their brand well known.
8. Get a Blog or Website
One of the most important marketing tools you can have is to get a blog or website. Whether you choose to offer your courses from this platform or not, it’s a great way to promote classes, announce discounts and create an online following.
Plus, it makes your brand searchable on engines like Bing, Google and Brave. This means you should use SEO to your advantage as well. Known as Search Engine Optimization, it allows you to add certain keywords and phrases that, when people use a search, put your site at the top of results.
9. Podcasts and/or Webinars
Another great way to market and promote your online course is to create ancillary services like podcasts and webinars. Producing these on a regular basis gives potential students a well-rounded idea of what you’re about, your expertise and what you teach.
You can also appear with other professionals on their webinars and podcasts. This is ideal if you aren’t computer savvy enough to create one on your own.
10. Create a Free Sample
Everyone loves a good free sample. So, create a free class as a means of introduction to your course. You can create a video, text outline or other reading material. Make sure it will hook them in and want to sign up for the whole course, otherwise you’ll just be giving stuff away for free.
You want to make the material compelling enough to provide real information but leave out just enough to create a desire for more. For instance, if you’re teaching a course on personal finance, create an article or video displaying the importance of investing in precious metals like gold or silver.
11. Write a Book
Writing a book on the subject matter of your course will be a great way to market your brand. Not only can you use this as an official textbook for the course, you can also provide valuable information to the public. You don’t necessarily need to find a publisher either. You can put it up on your website or self-publish through places like Amazon or Barnes ; Noble Press.
12. Create Discounts, Perks and Packages
Along with free samples, everyone adores great deals and discounts to save money. You can also create membership tiers that present special packages and offer elite perks. This keeps existing students coming back and attracts new ones.
To get you brainstorming, you could create a monthly discount sale or offer a coupon. For students who sign onto your entire course, not just by each class, you can offer a certificate of completion. Another consideration could be giving brand new students $5 off when they sign up.
13. Make Yourself Accessible
The easier it is for people to get in touch with you, the more likely it is they will sign up for your online course. This means putting up a chat feature on your website, signing onto live chat social media sites like Discord, putting yourself up on places like Quora and plastering contact information everywhere.
Having a physical mailing address and actual phone number will lend you a bit of credibility too. This opens you up to a wider range of contacts and prospective students.
14. Network with Other Professionals
Networking is an invaluable way to promote and market your online course. This means getting out there and meeting people in your field and others indirectly related to your industry. As mentioned above, this means going to events and conventions. But, you could also attend galas, gallery openings or even public performances.
When you do this, you not only build business relationships but you can also find others for collaboration projects. You can create a course together and go to speaking engagements as partners all the while marketing each other’s brand.
15. Pay for Advertising
Places like Facebook Ads and Google AdWords are excellent ways to pay for advertising. However, these do tend to be a little expensive. So, you want to ensure there’s enough demand for your course and topic matter to justify paying for advertising. Otherwise, wait until you have a culture built up around your brand before doing this.
16. Write a Press Release
To attract media attention and to make your online course timelier, write a press release. There are many templates online to help you with this. However, the idea is to attract attention and magnetize new students. If your subject matter relates to something newsworthy, such as inflation, it will make a perfect candidate for a press release.
You can send these to newspapers, broadcast outlets, magazines and trade publications. You can also publish it online through press release sites like NewsWire.
17. Create Memes And Infographics
A great way to get people to read your social media posts and email campaigns is by devising memes and infographics. Anything people find entertaining, truthful, impactful or compelling has the potential to become wildly viral. It’s likely people will share it with others who may not see your other promotional efforts in any other situation.
18. Foreign Language
If your class is desirable to many cultures all over the world, it may be a good idea to translate your entire course into several foreign languages. At the very least, you can create promotional and marketing materials in other tongues to attract more students.
For instance, this will be especially useful if you know most people interested in website design hacks come from Asia or the Middle East.
19. Devise An Affiliate Program
Word of mouth is always the best form of advertising and creating an affiliate program can further that prospect. You’ll set things up in such a way so as to allow others to promote your course for you through their blogs, websites and social media pages. In return, you can offer a percentage of your sales.
However, you have to be proactive in finding affiliates because you won’t produce any if you just wait for them to come. Get in touch with others who have large audiences and followings who are likely to purchase the course you offer. You can also make your students a part of such a program, which will give them discounts on your classes on websites such as Thinkific.
20. Gather Feedback, Reviews And Testimonials
Allowing prospective students to see what others have to say about you, your brand and your course can be a beautiful marketing tool. It displays what people think about their experience and provides more thorough data so new students can make an informed decision.
However, it’s essential you acquire these honestly and organically. Not only will this lend more credibility to what you teach but it will also show a measure of trustworthiness. Even though you could create a discount promotion based on people’s review of your classes, it’s not genuine.
This means also allowing negative feedback to be as visible as glowing testimonials and favorable reviews. Besides, it will give you a meter in which to improve if several people say the same things.
21. Engage Potential Audience
The only way to keep current and future students coming back is by creating engaging content outside of your course material. This means posting quizzes on your social media sites and website. Ones that focus on testing a student’s knowledge or seeing where they place in your course are some suggestions.
However, you could also organize a challenge where students will get free classes if they complete it successfully. They have to post an email, fill out a form or write a small essay, for instance. Additionally, consider making a raffle or other event where students can win prizes.
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