People have transformed how they consume information, research products and services, make purchasing decisions and share their views and experiences. The customer is more in control than ever and he or she often tunes out traditional sales and marketing messages. Yet businesses still rely on the same sales and marketing playbook the people have used for more than a decade.
Firstly you must set up an online website or profile on which you can sell your courses. To sell your online course you need to stand out among the competition and convince your audience of your product quality.
It is annoying if you search for content on a website and it doesn’t immediately pop up with the answers. Sites that are slow to load and that show up with too much disturbing stuff are two main reasons that lead the visitor to leave the page.
To attract students, make your first page the most impressive as the first impression is the last impression, it should tell the user what the course is all about, what the student will learn, and of course, your professional qualifications.
An info-product is the name given to digital products that transmit information such as ebooks, checklists, webinars, and more.
Method of communication that attracts attention and helps to establish authority, you can use this strategy to capture qualified leads and create a contact list.
You can also incorporate these info-products into your online course and thereby provide another compelling benefit to the customer.
No one here is talking to copy the competition, but not being aware of what they do is also a mistake.
By observing how our competitors act, often we gain valuable ideas and realize what can be good or bad for our business which is the most crucial thing for developing a business.
A competitive analysis also shows which capture strategies are being used and how they compare with yours. It gives a brief idea about your current standing and you may get to know about other essentials which you might not be using until now.
There is no better advertising than “a friend talk about you”.
Ask your students and even colleagues who have worked with you to create testimonials about your course or your professional performance.
Another option to attract students is offering a reward for those who indicate and persuade another person to enroll in the course. That’s the most powerful way nowadays to develop a new business as rewards fascinate everyone.
Strategy widely used and proven effective, delivering something to the customer without asking anything in return is a first step to create a relationship and gain credibility. In the case of online courses, many professionals choose to offer a first free module.
The possibilities are numerous, like creating webinars to talk about a subject that interests your target audience, info products with content relevant to the course, extra teaching materials, among others.
When you attract students, you get to form a customer base that, by itself, also works in your favor, which is the sole aim of any business.
Customers interact and share experiences with others, bringing a new audience to the circle. Thus, the engagement wins a continuous and consistent cycle.
Professionals with a lot of funding use online platforms like Google Adsense, FB Ads to advertise or spread knowledge about their courses.
If you are also the one with a lot of investment in your hand you can also go for this option. It is the most widespread option available out there to advertise any product with people around the world, and also you don’t even have to interact with the people directly.
The first thing you need to do when launching a new online project is to build buzz around it. If you want to play the long game, content marketing can help drive a steady stream of traffic to your course. However, if you want faster results, you'll need more aggressive tactics.
Besides search engines, social media platforms will likely bring in the majority of your students. That means you need to get out there and:
Set up accounts on the social media platforms you want to target.
Publish content that students might be interested in.
Engage in conversations with your followers.
Stay active, even if you don't see results right away.
If you have personal profiles on social media (which of course you do!), you know it can be hard for new accounts to gain traction. However, once you get a decent base of followers, growing that number becomes much easier, because some of them will always engage with your content.
Of course, growing a social media presence for a business is an entirely different ballgame. However, it's key to get this done first because social media will enable you to pursue some of the other marketing tactics we'll cover next.
The hard part is over – your online course is ready. Now for the tougher part – figuring out how to attract students to your course. But since there's an unlimited number of seats, you can market your course aggressively, using every online channel you can find.
If you don't know where to start marketing your online course, here are five methods to get you your first signups:
Be active on social media.
Offer discounts to your first students.
Pay students for referrals.
Use social media advertisements.
Feature guest instructors with a strong social media presence.