Marketing your Online Course – Tips and Tricks

Technology has been vastly developing in recent times. One such boom is the e-learning sector. In a period where attending physical classrooms were meant to be the primary means for education, online learning broke the barriers and emerged as a boon to many distance learners across the globe. 

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic spread across the globe. In such a case, with all businesses, schools, and colleges locked up for months, online education was the only way out. Teachers and students got adapted to the new lifestyle and thus the e-learning sector rose to gigantic peaks. Some individuals who had a passion to teach even tried their luck in venturing into online teaching and tasted success.

But remember, these individuals did their homework right. They not only created the right course content but promoted their course extensively. In this blog, we shall discuss some proven techniques by which you can market your online course and add strength to your teaching journey.

Step 1: Create a profitable course idea

The first and foremost step in marketing an online course is to have a unique course idea that can help you reap profits. Brainstorm for courses that can be sold easily. The best way is to be specific on the topic. ‘A Specialization on Analysis of Mechanical properties in Composites’ worked out more profitable for Arjun, a customer of Learnyst than simply being ‘A course on Composites’. It is better to be more specific on the topic to capture the maximum audience. 

Always have around 10-15 course ideas and analyze them considering your target audience and then customize them to match their requirements. Here are some quick tips to create a lucrative course idea – 

• Know your passion. Get to know about what you’re passionate to teach to your learners. Course ideas should not only focus on being profitable but also should be easy for you to teach for the course to be successful. The more enthusiastic you are about the course, the better it will sell.
• The ability to teach is as important as being passionate. Sometimes passion does not meet the ability. It is better to drop the idea and look for alternatives in such cases. List down all possible ideas where both your passion and strength go hand-in-hand.
• Take the help of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who can help you craft a tailor-made course suitable for your target audience.

Step 2: Create course content

The next step is to create highly attractive course content. Work on your content and develop a unique subject matter that feeds your audience. Content should be brief, and well structured with facts, case studies, and presentations. It is mandatory to note that your writing should be non-plagiarised. 

There are two primary types of online course content – 

1. Text Content
2. Video and Image Content

Text Content

This is a conventional method of teaching with pure text-oriented content. Text contents are a vital part of any course material. However, it should be a mix of other types as well. 

Video and Image Content

Videos and images add more flavor to the texts and can be appealing to the viewers. Visuals make understanding more clear and concise. Dominate the content with images relevant to the topic. Video classes are becoming popular in today’s culture. Teaching through animation concepts with your voice in the background helps gain a better perception of the subject. 

After coining out the mode of presentation, start writing your content. Starting with a lesser amount of content and gaining feedback and then developing it is the best practice for selling your course. Plan your content properly and then deliver it in the best possible way.

Learning by reading alone is not effective. Try to speak through presentations rather than just showing it on the screen.  Speaking more attracts a larger audience and also helps to maintain their attention. Your topic should address specific issues and also try to add your opinions and ask for their outlook to make it more interactive. 

Step 3: Create your website

Creating your website is a vital brand-building exercise for your online courses. You can use the website to post your videos and lectures and also use it to market your course. Creating a website isn’t a Herculean task and does not require any coding skills. Learnyst assists you to build your website with a few drop-downs and clicks. You fill out a few basic details about your requirements and your website is ready in no time!

Step 4: Build your audience

You are ready with your course and have created the best content and now for selling it, you need an audience. Capture the audience who has a specific interest in your work and start selling to them. Here are some pro tips to gain a good crowd to your online course – 

• Understand your target audience. Decide which group of people would be your target and start developing content for them. 
• Since you are going to be in the business of education, you might be submerged in a sea of competition. To distinguish yourself and push your way ahead of your competition, SEO is the only way out. Search Engine Optimization is something that should be your top priority while writing content. Learn SEO thoroughly before writing and eventually, you’ll be attracting heavy traffic to your website.
• Approach discussion forums and Q&A platforms to build an audience. Let’s say, you are teaching about engineering and technology, you ought to visit technology forums regularly, where people look for answers to their queries. Try to answer as many queries as possible every day, and attach your website link as a promotional activity. The more technically they are satisfied with your answer, the more traffic you get.

Step 5: Market Your Course

After creating an audience, you are one step closer to become popular in e-learning commercials. The initial idea that might pop up in anybody’s mind for marketing is social media. Social Media is a powerful tool to market your course. Talk about your course on social media. Design a small poster that gives teaser information of the course and keep posting it on all social media platforms. The poster should incite curiosity to learn amongst the viewers. Email marketing is another powerful tool to gain an audience and market your course. 

Using a poster maker tool can be incredibly helpful when creating an eye-catching and attention-grabbing promotional poster for your e-learning course. With customizable templates and an intuitive interface, you can easily create a poster that will incite curiosity and interest in potential learners. Whether you’re sharing the poster on social media or using it in email marketing campaigns, a well-designed poster can make all the difference in capturing the attention of your target audience and driving them to enroll in your course.

Learnyst offers personalized marketing tools such as email marketing, SMS, and push messaging services with analytics. You can also communicate better with your learners and analyze your marketing strategies through Learnyst. We also offer learner and course insights, which is a report of how your learners and courses are performing. 

Step 6: Drive traffic to your academy

Most of the above-mentioned tips will automatically drive traffic to your site. But if you want to take your game even higher, then you can advertise your course online through Facebook and Google Ads. Affiliate marketing is another technique to drive more traffic. Writing blogs about your topic on Linkedin Pulse has a high engagement rate. Try guest blogging as well. Look for blogging arenas that require free help and write for them. This has pure synergy written all over it; they get free content for their site and you get free promotion to your class. 

So, what are the next steps? 

At Learnyst, we help you with the entire process of course creation to marketing, creating your own branded online academy.

If you already have course contents ready, signup with us and get your online academy for free 14 days.

You can create your own branded online academy, upload, sell, and get 100% course sales credited to your bank account during this 14 day trial period.

So, go ahead. Create and Sell Courses online and make 10X revenue within months.