It’s 2021, and almost every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to sell online courses! Not that there’s anything wrong, but you should probably note the boom in the market!
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It’s only during the mid of 2020 the online learning industry started to soar. The industry itself shows high growth in the future (an estimated 14.6% growth from $144 billion to $374.3 billion by 2026)!
And here is something that’d pique your interest. Udemy as of now has 150,000+ courses and 70,000+ tutors which means that there are 70,000 individuals trying to sell online courses on one single platform alone!
Pretty big competition, right?
This brings you to the question of how you should sell online courses to stand apart from the crowd, attract potential audience and drive revenue?
We’ve got you covered on this! This article explains the most effective and reliable ways to sell your online courses, so you can get great results.
Think of this approach as a chain reaction where you complete each step in sequence. This method makes it much easier to promote your online course because instead of beginning from zero at every stage, you keep building on what you have already created.
And here’s the best part because it will not cost you anything at all. So let’s get started!
Sell online courses with YouTube
While working out on the strategy, YouTube seemed like the ideal platform to start with! Assuming you’ve already created your online course, here’s what you need to do.
Instead of uploading your entire course to YouTube, share only a few parts, maybe four or five lessons. Try to post them on a consistent schedule. When your videos are high-quality and truly helpful, viewers will get interested and start waiting for your next upload.
Here’s where things take a turn. Every time you post a video, make sure you add links that redirect to your online course. Also, create a comment that includes a link to your online course (and pin this as well).
Even if only 10% of those 20,000 viewers sign up for your online course, that’s still significant revenue!
P.S. Make sure you add SRT files to your videos while uploading them. This helps improve the quality of your videos! Here’s a little YouTube SEO we thought you might find useful!
Create compelling blog posts
It’s common nowadays coming across the phrase “Content is the King”! Well, we couldn’t agree more with this (and so should you).
A well-researched and written blog post (following all on-page SEO guidelines) can drive extensive organic traffic!
Remember the SRT file you used for your YouTube video? With that as reference, come up with a blog post. Make it interactive, witty and at some point (in most cases, the end of the read), include a link that redirects the audience to your online course.
Also, to make your blog more interactive, create infographics as downloadable content (don’t forget to include a link address to your online course). If your user doesn’t have the time to read your blog post, they can always download the infographic and take a look at it later.
P.S. Choosing the right platform for your online course is equally important as marketing It. Make sure you choose a platform that gives you complete ownership in terms of revenue, marketing and management.
Harness your email marketing list
Email marketing is by far the most affordable way to market your online course. With an ROI of 4400%, you can pretty much market anything using emails.
Create a newsletter to send the blog copy you just came up with to your email subscribers. Make sure you include links to your online course as well! If you’ve managed to catch the attention of your reader, you don’t have to worry about the conversion rates and revenue!
Here’s an example where Neil Patel has sent an email about his new free course.
Since Neil has a huge marketing list, he directly encouraged his users to try his free course. He mentioned that he would share the final three lessons the following week, which suggests he has something planned. This detail is not really important here, but the main idea is what you should focus on and learn from.
P.S. If you don’t have a sizeable email marketing list, it’s highly recommended that you build one. Here, this read can help you know how to grow your email list.
Use social platforms as your marketing medium
You’re done with YouTube, blogs, and email marketing. Now it’s time to focus on your social media channels because one of your posts could suddenly create amazing buzz and bring great results.
Create excerpts from your blog post and redirect them to your blogs. You can also post short videos about your online course and redirect them to your course page!
Here’s how Julia McCoy, a famous content strategist and entrepreneur, has done this.
This post gets redirected to the blog on Expresswriters. And at the endpoint, there’s a free guide to download. The purpose here is to grow their email list.
But in your case, you can redirect the audience to your blog and make them signup for the course.
Make use of social post scheduling tools like Buffer to automate posts on popular platforms at set times.
Submit images on sites like Pinterest
The fast-moving lifestyle has left people with very little spare time. And browsing information on image search engines like Pinterest is becoming more popular.
Whenever you create images and excerpts for your blog, make it a practice that you submit on visual sites like Pinterest, Mix, Juxtapost and more (with a link back to your blog). You can also submit the infographics that you created for your blog post.
What happens here is, you get increased visibility. When someone does an image search relevant to your online course, you eventually get visitors to your blog post which in turn takes them to your online course. Sounds pretty easy stuff, right?
So, yes! The above-mentioned are the 5 best ways to sell online courses these days!
Webinars to create and sell online courses
Just when we thought we had covered all the most promising options, we suddenly realized that we had overlooked one true gem in the crown, which is webinars!
Webinars are an excellent way to sell your online courses as well! What makes webinars super cool is that you get directly in touch with your audience and let them know what your course is about. You can even go ahead and give a taste of your online course to your audience and make them want more. Since it’s you who is conducting webinars, the trust factor increases, making webinars an ideal way to sell online courses. When it comes to webinars, this platform helps you create and host them easily. It is simple to use and helps you get started quickly.
We have explained the most effective marketing channels that require no spending, and all you need to do is use some creativity while following the best practices on every platform.
So, which marketing method should you follow?
It’s not the question of which. It’s the question of how efficiently you use it! All the above-mentioned marketing techniques follow a sequence and are most effective when you follow it as mentioned.
You don’t need to invent something new every time you move to another platform. What you create at the start can later be expanded into various marketing materials, which is great for you and your online course too!
And here’s a little bonus!
While you create and sell online courses, it’s highly important that you choose the right platform to go ahead with! Enrolling yourself as a tutor in platforms like Udemy (that works on a commission model) restricts you from growing above a certain point.
Creating your own eLearning platform gives you complete ownership and also helps you grow in many different ways. You become a self-paced tutor, a marketer, and so much more.
Feeling inspired? Begin today and create your own course to share your knowledge and grow your business with sell online courses.
Cheers!
FAQ
You can publish a few lessons (four or five) for free on YouTube, post them regularly, include links to your paid course in video descriptions and pinned comments, and gradually convert viewers to paying students.
Because a well-written blog post helps drive organic traffic via SEO, and you can embed links from the blog to your course and offer downloadable infographics to engage readers.
Yes, email marketing can bring a very high return on investment. For instance, many marketers report an ROI of about 4400 percent when they send useful content and include links to their courses. This approach helps turn interested leads into paying customers.
You should create short posts or video snippets that link to your blog or course page, reuse content across platforms, and use scheduling tools to post consistently.
Webinars let you interact directly with your audience, showcase course content live, build trust, answer questions in real time, and lead participants to enroll after seeing the value.
I’m working as leading experts on building and implementing learning strategies. I have led learning & performance improvement projects for the last few years.
