How to sell online courses (Steps of the Game, Tips, and Examples)

Selling online online courses is simplified into six easy steps. There is no business or experience in sales is required. Get started right now!

If you've spent enough time researching making online courses You'll likely feel the desire to create your personal online course.

A quick search on selling strategies could leave your head spinning and that all too familiar fake-sales syndrome is creeping into your life.

It could appear that there are a million terms and ideas you must get familiar with. Everyone or their mother knows more about online course sales than you .

The process of how to sell online courses can be broken into six simple steps. A no-business degree or sales experience is needed.

In this guide we've streamlined all you have to know about how to sell online classes to grow your audience - and grow your revenue.

Learn more about the procedure for how you can make money selling online courses. Click the links below to skip ahead.

  6 Step Guide on Selling Online Courses

2.      You must know who you're selling to
3.      Price your Course
4.      Consider Pre-selling
5.      Start and Refine
6.      Develop Sales Strategies
7.      Utilize Marketing Strategies
8.      Three Examples of How to Make Online Courses Sellable from Course Creators
9.      Three Top Tips for Selling Online Courses

6 Step Guide on how to sell online courses

The process of selling online courses can seem like an ever-expanding maze of confusing infographics and jargon It doesn't need to become overwhelming.

Selling online classes can be simplified into six simple steps.

At every step, we've provided the basics of things you should know and additional reading suggestions to further educate yourself.

This is our definitive guide on how to sell online courses.

You should know who you're selling to

If you're planning to offer online online courses, the primary thing you need to know is to whom you're selling the course.

A lot of first-time course creators fail in this initial rut in creating an online course that they think people want - rather than figuring out exactly what they want.

It's crucial to confirm the course's concept prior to create and sell online courses so that you don't waste time and energy.

To sell online courses, you must know:

• Who is your ideal potential customer
• What are the challenges facing them?
• What do they require from you?

It's crucial that you develop an item that will be valuable for your audience and build an audience of committed and motivated customers.

These are the steps you can take to help you identify your ideal audience

Research your Audience

If you're looking to discover the people who are your ideal customers, you need to do your research.

If you have already established customers, begin there. If you're not selling your product or service but, think about whom you would sell your courses to in an ideal world.

With the advent of technology it is now easy to conduct research about your audience. Use Google and social media to discover your perfect group of customers and find out more about them.

When conducting your audience research, try to do these 3 things:

Find out what solution you're providing

To find your ideal audience begin by looking at what you can offer to your students.

Think about the outcomes from your online training and the people who stand to gain most from what you're selling.

Imagine your course as a solution to someone's struggle - which problem(s) could you solve? What obstacles does your course help people overcome?

If you are able to identify the solution you're offering it's easier to think precisely about your intended customer is.

Define your audience demographics

Once you've determined who would profit the most from what you're offering, begin to get more specific. Define the core demographics of your customer base, which includes:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Family status
• Hobbies

It is also possible to get more detailed, looking at their current employment status, their educational level, their income and much more.

The goal is to be as precise as you can to know who your audience is by their common traits.

Take a look at your rivals

In your audience research, it is also possible to look into competitors in your chosen field.

When you know the audience your competitors are targeting You can begin to identify the people whose needs aren't already catered to or who they aren't in touch with with their products or marketing.

Listen to your ideal customers

After you've completed your basic level research, it's also recommended to connect with the people you want to talk to them.

Internet research is essential, but for you to truly know who your ideal customers are, you need to hear from them directly.

Three strategies are available:

• Send out customer surveys
• Conduct face-to-face interviews
• Post questions on your social media

Pay attention to the people you want to reach to learn the things they'd like from you, and what you can meet their needs with your online course.

Make sure you reach at minimum 50 potential customers in your survey to provide you with the most accurate idea of your target audience and the best way to market online classes to this segment of the market.

You can narrow your target audience

Using the results from your survey of the public and interviews with customers Then, you'll be able to narrow down your audience further.

It's really helpful to create the user profile or avatar. It's a detailed profile of your ideal customer that focuses on one person in particular.

It imagines your target customer as a single individual, including:

• Their core demographics
• The goals they have set and their values
• Their challenges and pain points
• The role they play in the purchasing process as well as potential issues
• Their sources of information e.g. books, magazines, news sites

When you're selling online courses, you're aiming to talk to the person directly. A clear customer avatar helps you focus your marketing efforts, including your copywriting and content marketing, paid ads and social media marketing strategies.

Cost the course

The task of pricing your course can be daunting, especially if this is the first time you've done it.

There's good news, there are a few simple methods that you can employ to set the price of your course and beware of the most common problems with selling online courses - being at a low price.

Price your course based on the worth of the content

The key to selling on the internet is to think about your online course as the solution to a challenge. This is the same for pricing your course as well.

You shouldn't charge your course by the length or complexity of the course, determine the price based on the value of your content.

It's not just about selling data You're selling a result. What is the transformation the course you're offering? What are your students equipped to accomplish when they finish your course?

No matter how long it takes students to complete the class, what is important is that you can deliver the outcomes in the shortest time and with efficiency possible.

Don't undersell your course

The most common mistake that course creators commit is pricing their courses online too cheaply.

The assumption is that the lower the cost of your course, the higher number that you'll offer. But pricing your course too high can harm your company's long-term success.

In addition to the fact that you earn less from each sale, there are also more Drackbacks you should consider:

• Prices that are lower draw less loyal customers.
• It reduces the perceived value of your course
• The wrong way to value your skills could damage your reputation
• It is the same cost to market a cheap course as a higher priced course
• You have less money to reinvest into solving more of your students problems

Although it's tempting to price your courses lower to make it more popular but you may be doing more harm than good. If you want to learn how to sell online courses, try to feel confident about pricing your course higher.

We recommend making online courses available for sale starting at $50, and then price your course at the price of $199 or more.

Think about pricing tiers

If you're not sure if you're ready to sell your course for an expensive product, think about offering pricing levels instead.

Pricing tiers satisfy your buyers have the need to contemplate and compare different options, and without looking at the courses of your competition.

As an example, you can offer 3 pricing levels including the most basic one with the lowest cost. Medium packages are your primary course, and it is also most customers will choose. A premium option could include exclusive features such as one-to-one or group coaching or live teaching elements.

With pricing tiers, it is possible to make your program easier to access for a greater range of customers without reducing the perceived value of the expertise you offer.

Whatever method of pricing you decide to employ, remember that you can always adjust it in the future. If you are able to attract more customers and your course develops then increase the cost accordingly. This lets you charge more while you work on the marketing strategy and add worth to your course.

Examine your pricing and find out which one works best for your business and the people you want to reach.

Consider the possibility of pre-selling

Though it could seem an untruth, it lets you validate customer demand before you invest your time and effort into developing the course.

When you have your course pre-sold You can receive instant information on what your audience is looking for.

If your program doesn't make a splash, then your idea needs refinement.

Selling your online course prior to launch lets you establish a client list and begin to build a course community that is then used after you've completed the course and made it available for students.

Here are some suggestions to get you started in pre-selling

Develop a minimum viable course (MVC)

Also known as a"pilot course," the minimum viable course is the very first version of the course you're willing to sell.

This is your course at its most basic It's a basic understanding that you'll be able to add more information and improve it over time.

MVC is a great way to test your course. MVC can let you experiment with the audience you want to reach, prior to making the decision in order to build a complete Premium course.

The idea is to use your MVC to collect comments and feedback from your customers that you then can use to refine and promote the course you are planning to launch, helping you to market your courses online more frequently down the line.

The cost of your pilot course is cheaper than courses to follow.

So that customers don't feel dissatisfied at your course content - and possibly leaving negative reviews make sure you price your course pilot lower than what you intend to charge for the class in the future.

The idea is to market your pilot course by offering a limited opportunity for participants to participate in the testing phase and be able to see a glimpse of your course content.

When your first group of students have been through your program and received those positive reviews that you want, you can increase the price for future customers.

Set up a drip schedule

You can also utilize a drip calendar structure to develop course material when your students finish each module or lesson.

comes with an Drip Schedule function which allows you to control when students get access to the course material, based on the launch date you have chosen or your chosen timeframe.

For example, you could offer students access to a brand new instructional video each week for the course of two months. This gives you time to develop your content in the course of time, while also gathering student feedback and refining your content.

Pre-selling functions as a cheat sheet for course creators - you gain the benefit of figuring the needs of your audience and collecting feedback prior to when you start the creation of your course as well as putting efforts and time into your product.

Create and refine HTML0

The method of how to sell online online courses doesn't follow a straight line. It's actually a circle.

If you design an online course, and then upload it to the internet, you're not done.

The most popular course creators, who also sell the most courses - follow a cyclical procedure of creating and continuously improving their online courses.

Sometimes referred to as feedback loops this method of (re)launching and refining your course is about taking feedback from your customers and using it to improve your course content.

It's as simple as this:

• Learn:Ask your customers for feedback to understand what they want from your course
• Sale:Refine your offer using comments from customers. Use it to design something captivating to your target audience.
• Make:Tailor your course content in response to feedback from customers to make your course a successful, valuable learning experience for customers
• launch:Launch your course and use real students to deliver on your promise to sell, and repeat the loop in order to fine tune your offering and your course.

This circle of gathering feedback as well as refining the offering and content lets you improve your course content over time making it the perfect product to meet the needs of your target audience.

This begins by pre-selling your online course but the process continues after your course has launched which means that you'll keep adding to and refining your offering and course contents based on feedback from customers making sure you have your best course possible available.

Below are a few of the advantages of having feedback loops

• Find out what your customers actually believe about you.
• Encourage customers to engage to make customers feel appreciated and heard to
• Increase customer retention
• Refine your product for your target audience
• Make sure your message is tailored to the people you want to reach.

Listen to your customers and learn to promote online courses to your targeted group - they're your most knowledgeable advisors that you can are able to have!

In order to maximize the impact of your teaching, provide opportunities for feedback at the end of every module. Incorporate a questionnaire that allows students share their opinions about their ideas, thoughts and complaints. You can also schedule one-to-one calls with a select group of students to get more in-depth comments.

If you've got an online group of learners, use this forum to collect more feedback from students - post survey questions that are open to all types of questions as well as polls to get as much data as possible on how to improve your course.

Develop sales strategies

Online courses aren't an art form that is difficult to master - it's something anyone can learn to do. If you want to be successful in selling your course, it's a good idea to develop a sales funnel to promote your online course. Here's how:

How can you design a marketing funnel to promote online courses

A sales funnel is the path your clients take in order to purchase. It describes every step at which prospective customers interact with your company.

They begin at the top of the sales funnel, when they are first introduced to the brand, and they move through the funnel towards purchasing a product or eventually becoming brand ambassadors.

Think of your sales funnel being an actual funnel - it's larger at the top, and smaller at the bottom.

At the top you have your broad audience. By the time they are at the lower levels, you'll have select people who will make purchases and turn into regular customers.

The process will be expected. the course you choose to take isn't designed for everyone!

The sales funnel can help you keep your focus and energy in offering online courses. This can help:

• Make sure you are able to target your messages
• Identify key touchpoints for potential customers
• Make the most of opportunities for selling
• Remove sales friction
• Measure and track your sales success

When you map out your customers' journey, you can see the best way to guide clients towards the desired goal for example, taking your online course.

This is one of the most popular examples: Awareness -> Consideration -> Conversion -> Loyalty -> Advocacy

• AwarenessAt the very beginning of your funnel, you will see the awareness stage, where your clients discover that you are there. You first come onto their radar, and then they determine on whether or not to learn more about you. It is the initial impression that people get of your company.
• ExaminationThe following phase is considered - your potential customers start looking into the possibilities open to them in terms of alternatives to the problem they are facing and whether your brand could be one of them they want to keep exploring.
• ConversionThe Conversion phase is the critical step for selling online course - Customers have already gathered all the information they're looking for and are prepared to make a purchase. This is the time to ensure your customers that your company is the one they want to buy from.
• Loyalty -The loyalty phase focuses on how to sell online courses long-term - after customers have made a purchase that they return to you as you keep to provide them with something they value, communicate with them and maintain their interest.
• AdvocacyThe Advocacy stage is the time when satisfied customers go on to bring more customers towards the top of your sales funnel , by disseminating your course to others on their social networks. They also act as brand advocates, helping to grow your audience and your potential for selling online classes to more students.

Using your sales funnel

Once you've mapped out the sales funnel as well as your customer's journey, you're able to begin to develop content that will fulfill the needs of your customers and guide them through each step in your funnel.

Here are some examples of the types of content you can develop for each phase of the funnel.

At each step of your funnel will be to draw individuals further into the funnel. If, for instance, you conduct an online webinar (mofu) Try to present things that are from the bottom of the funnel, like an example or promo offer (bofu).

Don't be concerned about creating all kinds of content to hook potential customers. Concentrate on one or two techniques for each phase of your funnel to start.

The sales funnel can be useful to help guide your marketing strategies and to determine where you should devote your resources and time to market online courses. take a look at the next stage!

Make use of Marketing Strategies

In order to be able to market online classes, you have to master some fundamental marketing techniques to reach the people you want to reach and convince customers to purchase.

There are a myriad of methods to market your online courses, however there are a few simple methods that you can employ to market online courses right away regardless of your field or niche.

Here are a few of the best marketing strategies used for selling online online courses:

•    Marketing content
•    Email marketing
•    Social media marketing
•    Influencer marketing

Content marketing

Content marketing can be described as the primary focus of a course creator's marketing strategy.

Content marketing encompasses any type of content you create to promote your company, be it blog content videos, blog material, emails and more.

In order to promote online courses, content marketing helps educate your customers and increase the visibility of your brand. If you are able to create valuable material for your customers and they continue to engage with your company and will be more likely to become potential customers later on.

Content marketing is also helpful in:

• Improve your brand reputation
• Increase referral traffic
• Enhance the search engine search visibility
• Build a closer connection with your customers

The key to using content marketing in your business is to target your customers through channels and platforms they use most.

Determine where your ideal audience likes to spend their time online and use this to shape your content marketing strategy.

Email marketing

If you're looking to increase sales for clients who have already purchased from you, or to nurture leads that aren't ready to purchase , then sending emails is a useful marketing technique to keep in your arsenal.

Marketing via email lets you connect with your audience via a series of emails designed to introduce customers to your brand, offer them important resources and help them move along your sales funnel.

If you can build your email list, you have a direct link to prospective customers who can interact with them regularly and build an ongoing relationship in the course of time.

With the help of email marketing, you can also:

• Provide a more personalized service for customers
• Give product suggestions
• Get feedback from your customers through surveys
• Increase traffic to your website
• Add value for your audience

In order to begin building your email list, work on creating leads that can make your subscribers feel more comfortable sharing their email addresses with you.

Some ideas for top converting lead magnets comprise:

• Free mini courses
• Downloadable guides
• Webinars and other events

Once you've built an email database, the trick is to retain those subscribers. This means creating email messages that offer genuine value to your audience including a variety of helpful tips as well as helpful resources.

Social media marketing

If you're looking to know how to market online online courses, it is essential to understand how you can use social media to promote your business.

Social media can be an extremely efficient method of selling online courses due because it can get your business' name out to the appropriate people more quickly.

If you have the proper social media strategy, your brand awareness can skyrocket overnight.

Your success on social media is contingent on your approach, including:

• Your content is important, and whether or not it's useful or interesting to your target audience
• What you do to present your brand , including your brand voice, imagery and your content style
• How you engage with other accounts - including with customers, influencers and other brands
• How do you build a fan base for your business - by making people feel seen and heard

Similar to all of your marketing activities, your social media should strive to present your company to the maximum extent possible and display your brand's persona. Think about the face that you're showing to your followers - and if it will appeal to your ideal customer and assist in selling online training courses.

Marketing with influencers

The process of establishing an influencer marketing strategy is easy - check out the profiles of influential people in your area who match your values as a brand. You can then send an email to them privately and introduce yourself.

Collaborations between influencers and their collaborators could be paid or unpaid and may include:

• Branded or sponsored posts
• Guest blog posts
• Social media takes over
• Re-sharing , brand shout-outs, or brand mentions

In partnering with influencers within your area, you'll be able to increase trust among customers in your company and expose your business to a larger public.

  Three easy tips to better brand marketing  

Look at The Big Picture

Instead of running different marketing campaigns through emails, social media or on your website, you should try to have all of your marketing channels function together and compliment one another.

The messages you share across a single platform must be replicated on every channel - this not only helps in creating a consistent branding image for your customers and helps users to reuse and recycle material.

To go back to the sourdough bread example - you might choose to run an event on how to make Sourdough starters made from wheat flour (white), wholewheat or Rye. It is possible to create a series of video tutorials on YouTube or run Reels on Instagram and write regular email newsletters that focus on each type of starter and downloadable tutorials.

The customers will find your website's content through the channels they use the most and have a clear idea of what exactly your company has to offer and how you can assist them.

It's the same information and information that you can use in different ways , and is all about establishing your status as an sourdough expert for your audience.

Write compelling copy

Any marketing content you create must grab your target viewers' attention in order to increase sales for your items.

That means you need to be able to craft compelling, persuasive text that motivates your reader to take action for example, signing up for your newsletter, sharing it with friends, or even purchasing your course online!

Utilize social evidence

Keep in mind that your customers are just human beings - therefore it's not unusual for them to be uncertain about whether or not to buy with a company they don't know.

Social proof includes:

• Reviews and testimonies
• Customer interviews
• Case studies
• Statistics e.g. the number of people you've helped
• Accreditations and logos of brands

If you can show off the previous satisfied customers, you will persuade buyers to purchase from you.

Social proof is also a way to leverage the fear of missing out which is known as FOMO. If everyone else is enjoying and buying your product and services, the majority of your customers will be eager to participate too!

Make use of social proof in the landing page, on your online marketing via email, social media and more.

  Need more ways to market and sell online courses? Check out our comprehensive guide on everything you need to know about how to market online classes.

3 Examples of How to Market Online Courses from Course Creators

To show just how easy it is to sell online courses We've selected three case studies of successful creators of courses who began the same way as you.

Learn how to market online-based classes to their customers and build six-figure business ventures in the procedure.

    Mimi Goodwin - Sew It! Academy

The creator of the course Mimi Goodwin first started her online sewing business as a blog back in 2012. Making use of YouTube to create and share videos of tutorials Mimi rapidly grew her audience to more than a million people.

The next stage was to make Sew It! Academy. Sew It! Academy to monetize her blog and create an incredibly successful business that has seen huge growth of course purchases online.

Mimi credits her success with a'sell without sale concept. Her YouTube videos provide valuable information for her audience which introduces them to her brand and expertise. Customers can then subscribe to a service to receive more special assistance and tools.

Mimi utilizes Instagram for a way to promote online courses through highlighting customer successes and sharing her personal photos and stories. As the face behind the brand she believes authenticity and personal touch will help build a loyal community.

The most important takeaways

• Make use of social media platforms to increase your reach naturally
• Make free tools like videos tutorials
• Be genuine and authentic when selling

    Mike Nelson - 9to5Dropouts    

After quitting his job as a manager in order to establish his own business, Mike Nelson knew he must learn to make online courses sell quickly. The biggest worry was that people wouldn't take him seriously and wouldn't want to spend money on the course, but he tried anyway.

By utilizing free webinar training to raise awareness about his skills and to promote his online course Mike was able to start his very first course at the 9to5Dropouts academy. Mike was then able to grow the business of his online courses by utilizing a mix of influencer marketing, paid YouTube advertisements and his own community of Facebook courses.

Paid advertising lets Mark reach a highly specific target audience and generate greater brand recognition. Once they make a purchase and are accepted into his Facebook group where they are converted into brand loyal advocates.

By using these strategies for selling online classes, Mike has grown his business and created an academy which earns seven figures a year.

Important takeaways

• Find niche influencers for marketing
• Build a course community to help sell more courses
• Think about paying ads for the people you want to reach

    Mina Irfan - Universe Guru    

When she started Universe Guru, Mina Irfan experimented with various methods to try and sell online courses. The company sunk a significant amount of time and money into new technology and creating an impressive sales page - however it did not yield the outcomes she had hoped to see.

In the end, Mina found that the most effective strategy to sell online courses was to keep it simple. Mina makes use of YouTube to generate natural leads to her course's page. Mina also conducts live coaching sessions on Zoom.

To increase sales during slow periods, Mina also uses discounts as well as incentives to attract new customers. This includes flash sales, course bundles and even. This introduces new customers to Mina's academy, and gets them hooked.

Mina was officially one of the 10 top creators of 2021 thanks to her simple strategies for how to sell online classes. Mina uses only a handful of channels to generate leads and increase conversion rates - and it actually works!

Important takeaways

• Use those channels of marketing already in operation for you.
• Use discounts and incentives to boost sales
• Hosting webinars and coaching sessions to generate more leads

3 Top Tips for Making Online Courses Sellable

These are the top three tips to keep in mind to help you create online courses that will help you build your business, no matter what stage you're in.

    Build a Community    

One of the best strategies to sell online courses is to build an online community for your course. As the examples above demonstrate, community is key in bringing your customers into the fold to build brand loyalty, and increase sales of your courses both now and in the near future.

    Adjust as you go    

If you can listen to student reviews and learn through feedback You can design the kind of course your intended group wants, not the one you imagine they'd like.

Related:

    Keep it Simple    

The key to successfully market online online courses isn't to overthink it.

The first-time course creators typically struggle with imposter's syndrome as well as the desire to be prepared. ready before they begin. However, the evidence of course creators in our community shows you can just get started and figure it out as you go.

In the case of selling training courses, make the course simple. Make sure you focus on one primary product, one offering and one main message. It is a good idea to test pre-selling before beginning to create a premium product.

  Sell Online Courses using  

The procedure of learning how to market online courses is easier than you thought. This step-by-step guide is designed to assist you in selling additional courses, increase the number of people who take part in your courses and improve your profits.

Remember, keep it simple and don't overthink it!