As a project manager who is also a thought leader and wants to enlighten the minds of other project managers through online courses, you need to learn how to drive more signups for your next course.

One of the major challenges you may have right now besides creating content for your project management courses is figuring out how to promote your online courses. In order for your words to be effective and open your audience’s mind, you should know how to create your first online course. But prior to that, you need to find the right audience who is actually willing to sign up for your online courses.

The process of building a sustainable learner base begins by encouraging more individuals to sign up for your online courses. Of course, you will eventually want to increase your online course conversion rates to obtain more learners. One effective way to achieve this is by creating an engaging and user-friendly website that showcases your course offerings. Partnering with a reputable web design company can ensure that your website is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and optimized for conversions.

So, we will discuss the best ways to drive more signups for your next course in this post and guide you through the process.

How to drive more signups for your next course?

No one likes to write courses that have zero audiences, right? Especially if it is designed professionally and with the aim of bringing more project management insights to learners.

Here are the ways you can drive more signups for your next course:

1. Use social media

There are 4.7 billion social media users worldwide. It is, therefore, very much likely that you can find people who are interested in your project management courses on social media. Many people are looking for thriving ways to elevate their project management skills, find the best free project management software, and bring more agility to their modern enterprise PMO.

Since we all spend some time on social media every day, it is possible that your audience is also doing the same. As a result, it is quite smart to start with social media and create awareness over social media platforms that are most suitable for your online courses.

Take LinkedIn for instance. LinkedIn is by default a platform for professional book writers to find a job, connect with the thought leaders in their industry, and update themselves with the latest trends in the industry in which they are active. If you grow your connections on LinkedIn, constantly create relevant, useful, or thought-provoking content, and share the links of your online courses, you can drive more signups to your next course.

2. Get on Podcasts to promote your course

If you are running online courses for project management, it means that you are already a good public speaker. Then, why not use your voice and public speaking skills on podcasts? Having great communication skills is a prerequisite to being a project manager. So, you either already have good connections with some good project managers or you can easily maintain that without finding it challenging.

Together with your connections, you can get on relevant already-existing podcasts and promote your online courses, or build up your own podcasts from scratch and get a lot of listeners from those connections you invite to your podcasts. Either case, you can talk about your project management thoughts, introduce the best free project management software that actually works, and influence listeners who will most probably be interested in taking part in your online courses.

3. Create free e-books and gate them

Creating free e-books is another way you can drive more signups for your next course. Honestly speaking, we all love to get things for free. What you can do is briefly write your own e-book on the project management subjects that you are going to teach. Remember, the tricky thing here is not to give away all that you know so that your courses become useless to take part in, but still provide useful information that encourages your readers to sign up for your next course. For example, you could include your own customizable project management template that readers can use for themselves, and best projects management software that you used, but leave some explanation for the course.

4. Use email marketing

E-books can not only be the gate to more signups, but they also can be a great way to collect email addresses that you can later use in email marketing. According to Statista, there are 4 billion daily email users. This number is expected to climb to 4.6 billion by 2025. So, while you may think it is traditional to use emails to promote your online courses, it is undoubtedly true that emails are quite popular, just as social media platforms.

Sending out periodic newsletters regularly can bring more signups for your online courses. The newsletters can be sent out whenever you release a new course so that everyone is notified to sign up. Related to sending out regular newsletters, you can also conduct cold email outreach, which is another effective way to get new sign ups

5. Conduct webinars

Webinars and online meetings are also effective especially these days because they have become so popular in every industry. The advantage of organizing webinars on project management subjects is that everyone from any location can take part and catch a glimpse of what it feels like to be a learner in your online courses.

6. Offer an early bird discount

The early bird discount is a limited-time offer that encourages audiences to signup as soon as possible in order to get a discount. Once again, as we naturally love to get things for free or get them with discounts, this promoting way can also work effectively when it comes to driving more signups to your online courses.

Inform your audience about your early bird discount on social media and newsletters as they reach the audience in no time and they can use the discount before it expires.

7. Use referral bonus schemes and techniques

Every connection matters. By using referral bonus schemes and techniques, you can make each and every connection a gateway to your online course sign-ups. It is up to you to decide what you want to consider as a bonus with regard to your situation. However, you should make the bonus worthwhile so that your connections see it as an opportunity, not a waste of time and credit. 

Promoting your online courses with referral bonus schemes is probably the most effortless way to drive more signups. The reason is that you do not need to grow your own followers base on social media, or create content for a podcast, e-book, newsletter, webinar, etc. All you need to do is to offer referral bonuses to your connections whom you think have a large audience. But in the end, you should know that the more you work on your brand awareness the better it is.

Conclusion

Driving more signups for your next project management course can be challenging at first. With the marketing strategies we recommended in this post, you can choose which one(s) works best for you and start promoting your courses now.

While it may seem time-consuming and need your effort to be fruitful, it pays off after a while and you can sell your online courses to a wider audience. As they say, there is no easy way to get something that is worth having. Well, as a project manager, you already know that, don’t you? So, allocate some time and energy at the beginning of the process and wait for the results. Wish you the best of luck!