30 Tips on How to Market an Online Course

Creating an online course is the first step to becoming a successful online course seller. The second step is to market your courses effectively to find the right students. Whether you are about to begin your course building journey or you are looking for tips to sell your product, here are some quick tips for you.

Create a Website

You will need a website to upload your courses and create pages for things like a blog. You can either create one from scratch or use one of many online course builders, such as Vonza and Thinkific. Be sure to try each site out before making a choice.

Create a Buyer’s Persona

Before you can sell your course, you must know your buyers. A buyer’s persona is an ideal representation of your target customers discovered through online research. You then use this to create suitable marketing strategies to attract your students.

Be a Storyteller

A good marketer does not try to sell the merits of an item; a good marketer instead tries to sell the story behind it. You will need to become a good storyteller if you want to market yourself, your brand, and your courses. 

Use Social Media

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can offer course creators alternative means of reaching their target students. It is cheaper than traditional advertising, far better reach, and quick interactions between you and your audience. Use social media to create an online presence.

Use Email Marketing

Where social media engages with prospective students in broad strokes, email marketing is more focused. It involves creating an email list of potential students, crafting an email to attract attention to your course, and then sending that email to everyone on the email list.

Share Reviews and Testimonials

Since you aren’t selling a product, you will need your students to review your courses and share their testimonials. These will help build trust and credibility for your brand and hopefully influence others to try your online lessons as well.

Talk About Your Students

In return for your students’ reviews, show your appreciation by talking about your students. Congratulate their accomplishments, highlight progress, and maybe showcase their work. By featuring your students, you might inspire their friends and family to give the course a try.

Create a Community

Building a community around your courses is a great way to gather potential students in one place. You can use sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, which give you the option to great a FB Group or LinkedIn Group, or you can use your website to create an online forum.

Set Up a Membership Site

If you prefer a different community-building option, you can create a membership site. A membership site is where your students or future students go to subscribe and pay to see exclusive content. It’s a great way to build a community and earn extra income.

Create Inspiring Content

Inspiring content does more than entertain or educate; they make your audience feel positive and compels them to do something great. To do the same for your students, you can try interspersing advice or life lessons throughout your course.

Offer Free Courses

Everyone likes free things, and so offering free courses will help bring attention to you and your brand. Do not worry if your prospects are only taking the free courses because some are sure to enroll as students for your paid courses.

Give Discounts and Bundles

Getting your students to buy more than one course can be difficult, especially if they are on a budget. Give your students the incentive to get more courses by bundling and selling them at a reduced price.

Do a Podcast

A podcast is a series of audio files containing spoken content for any kind of topic. Podcasts are great for sharing your thoughts, creating inspiring content, and directly or indirectly promote your courses. Consider sharing these audio episodes on your membership site or as free content.

Start a Blog

Most people start blogs to talk about their daily activities and important events. As a content creator, you can use a blog to talk about your courses, your students, and topics related to your field. Remember, blogs are not limited to written content: you can share videos, files, and audio.

Make Videos on YouTube

Experts say video will make up more than 80% of internet traffic by 2021. Take advantage of this fact and market your courses through video content. You will find an audience if your videos are interesting, inspiring, and educational.

Publish eBooks

You can repurpose your course content by making it into an ebook. Doing this will help you in two ways: publishing ebooks give you a new source of income, and they can serve as marketing vehicles to promote existing courses on your website.

Cross-Promote Your Courses

Once you have multiple courses available on your website, you can start cross-promoting them. For example, in a lesson that discusses basic SEO strategies, you can briefly tell your student you have a course on advanced SEO strategies.

Create Infographics

Infographics are great for presenting information and images in a compact format and are very popular on sites like Pinterest. You can use infographics to share something about your course or topic. Be sure to add a link to your website so people can find you easily.

Answer Questions on Quora

Share your insights on Quora by answering any questions that are related to your field or course topics. When promoting your course content, do not attempt to hard-sell your work. Instead, add a link to your website at the end of your answer or in your bio.

Join Forum Discussions

Forums are online communities where people that share similar interests host discussions. Find one that is related to your area of expertise and then get involved by answering questions, giving advice, and offering insights. Again, do not sell your courses here. Just share a link.

Host Webinars

Webinars are great for finding interested students and promoting your courses in one go. You can market your courses by discussing your best content and build up trust by showing off your knowledge as an expert.

Speak at Events

While similar to hosting a webinar, you will be doing your talk in front of a large crowd. The objective here is to create awareness for your product and generate interest. If you try to hard-sell, you might drive away your potential students.

Collaborate with other Course Creators

Work closely with other online instructors that have courses that are similar to or compliments yours. You can form a partnership and market your work together, either as two-in-one bundles or bonus contact. Be sure to work out the details before starting on this venture.

Guest Post

Guesting posting means writing an article or post on someone else’s blog or publication websites. Research the subject thoroughly before you start writing and make unique articles for each website you intend to publish in. You can leave a link to your course website at the end.

Get Your Courses Translated

If you would like to reach an audience outside your country, getting your courses translated is the best step. Do not hesitate to hire someone to do the translations for you, because someone who has a better grasp of the language will give you better results. 

Ask Influencers to Review Your Work

Influencers are other content creators with a very big audience, which includes bloggers and video creators. Asking an influencer to review one of your courses will help sell it as well as create awareness within a new audience.

Start an Affiliate Program

An affiliate program is an agreement you make with people who will market your work in exchange for a small percentage of the sales. If you do not know where to find people to become affiliates, you can ask your students.

Utilize SEO

Staying visible on the internet can be hard to accomplish. By using search engine optimization strategies, your website will be easy to find online. It is also a cheaper alternative to buying paid ads, which do not always guarantee a better online presence.

Offer Payment Plans

Great for students who are on a tight budget, payment plans are simply options a student can choose to pay your course. For example, if a student cannot pay the entire price in one go, one payment plan could allow them to pay the total over two months.

Use Paid Ads

From Google Ads to Facebook ads, paid ads can help market your courses quickly and effectively. The only downside is the cost of using these ads, so be sure to research your options before you commit.

We hope these tips will help you in your marketing endeavors. If you are looking for a platform to sell courses and market them, give Vonza a try.