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

Selling online classes can be simplified into six easy steps. There is no business or experience in sales is required. Start here!

If you're spending enough time looking into making online courses You'll likely feel the desire to create your own course online.

A quick search on sales strategies can leave your mind spinning, and you may also experience that common imposter syndrome creeping up.

It can seem like there are a million terms and ideas you must get familiar with. Everyone is aware of more about selling online courses than you do.

The procedure of how to market online courses could be broken down in 6 simple steps. There is no business or experience in sales is required.

In this tutorial, we've simplified all you have to know about how to sell online classes to increase your reach and increase the amount of money you earn.

Learn more about the process of how to sell online courses or click the links below to skip through.

  Six Steps to Selling Online Courses

2.      Know who you're Selling to
3.      Price Your Course
4.      Consider Pre-selling
5.      Launch and Refine
6.      Develop Sales Strategies
7.      Utilize Marketing Strategies
8.      Three Examples of How to Market Online Courses From Course Creators
9.      Three Top Tips for the sale of online courses

Six Steps on How to Sell Online Courses

Although the selling process for online courses can seem like a never-ending maze filled with information graphics that are difficult to understand, it doesn't have to become overwhelming.

Learning how to sell online classes can be reduced to just six easy steps.

At every step, we've included the essentials for what you need to know and additional reading suggestions to further educate yourself.

This is our definitive guide on selling online courses.

You should know the people you're selling to

If you're planning to offer online classes, the very first thing you need to know is to whom you're selling the course.

Most course creators who are first timers stumble on their first obstacle in creating an online course which they believe people would like - instead of figuring out what they actually want.

It's really important to validate the concept of your course before you begin creating and selling online courses to avoid wasting your time and energy.

To sell online courses, you need to know:

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

It is crucial to assist you develop something that is valuable to your target audience, and to build a community of loyal and motivated customers.

Here are 3 steps to help you locate the right audience for your business:

Research your Audience

If you're looking to discover your audience, then it is essential to conduct your study.

If you already have existing clients, you can start by establishing them. If you're not selling a product or service but, think about who you'd sell your courses in the ideal scenario.

With the advent of technology, audience research is easy. You can use Google as well as social media sites for your target audience and learn 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, start by thinking about what you can offer your students.

Consider the results from your online training and who could benefit most from what you're selling.

Imagine your course as the solution to the struggle of someone else - what problem(s) could you solve? What hurdles can you assist people in overcoming?

If you are able to identify the product you're selling then you'll be able to think more clearly about who your target customers are.

Define your audience demographics

When you've identified who will be most benefiting from the products you're selling, start to be more precise. Determine the primary demographics of your audience, including:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Family status
• Hobbies

It is also possible to get deeper into the details, including their current employment status, their education level, income and more.

Your aim is to be as specific as you possibly can in order to comprehend the demographics of your target audience based on their shared characteristics.

Look up your competition

As part of your audience research it is also possible to look into the competition in your field.

When you know the audience that your competition is targeting then you'll be able to identify the people whose requirements aren't being met or that your competitors aren't currently in touch with with their products or marketing.

Listen to your ideal customers

When you've done your base level research, it's also an excellent idea to connect with your ideal customers and talk to them.

Internet research is essential, but to really find out who your ideal customers are it is essential to get feedback directly from them.

Here are 3 tactics:

• Distribute customer survey
• Conduct face-to-face interviews
• Post questions on your social media

Listen to your ideal audience to find out exactly what they are looking for from you, and what you can meet their needs through your online training.

Aim to reach at least 50 customers through your research to give you an accurate picture of the audience you want to reach and also how you can sell your online classes to this audience.

You can narrow your target audience

Utilizing the information from your survey of the public and customer interviews, you can then reduce your target audience.

It's really helpful to create the user profile or avatar. This is an extensive profile of your ideal customer who focuses on a single person in particular.

Imagine your group as a single person that includes:

• Their demographics are their primary focus
• They have their own goals and beliefs.
• Their challenges and issues
• They play a role in the buying procedure and the possibility of objections
• They can be found in their sources for data e.g. books, magazines, news sites

When you're selling online courses, you're aiming to talk directly with the customer. An accurate customer profile lets you focus your marketing efforts on content marketing and copywriting, paid ads and social media marketing strategies.

Price your course

The task of pricing the course may be a challenge for those who are the first time you've done it.

There's good news, there are some simple strategies to price your course and beware of the most frequent problems with selling online courses - selling the course at too low a price.

The cost of your course is based on the worth of the information

The key to selling online courses is to view your course as the answer to a particular issue. This principle applies for pricing your course too.

Do not price your courses based on the length or difficulty of your course. rate it according to the worth of your material.

You're not simply selling information You're selling a result. What kind of transformation will your program offer? What will your students be able to do following their completion of the course?

No matter how long students take to finish 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

One of the biggest mistakes course designers make is pricing their online courses at a price that is too high.

It's a common belief that the less expensive the course of your course, the higher number that you'll offer. But pricing your course too high can harm your company's long-term success.

Additionally, it means you make less money from every sale, there are more Drackbacks you should consider:

• Prices that are lower draw less loyal customers.
• It reduces the perceived importance of your course
• Undervaluing your expertise can damage your credibility
• The same amount of money is required for marketing a low-cost course than a course that is more costly
• There is less money available to reinvest into solving more of your students problems

Although it's tempting to price your course lower in order to make it more popular however, it could do more harm than beneficial. If you're interested in learning how to sell online courses, try to feel confident about pricing your course higher.

We suggest offering online courses for sale for a minimum price of $50 and ideally offering your course for $199 or higher.

Consider pricing tiers

If you're not ready to sell your course for a premium product, then think about offering pricing levels rather.

Prices tiers are a way to satisfy buyers have the need to contemplate and evaluate different options without the need to look at competitors' course.

In this case, for instance, you might be able to offer three pricing tiers, starting that include the simplest package with the lowest cost. Medium packages are the core program and is most customers will choose. Premium packages may include exclusive features such as one-to-one or group coaching or Live teaching components.

By implementing pricing tiers, it is possible to make your program more accessible to a wider audience without diminishing the value you can get from your knowledge.

Whatever pricing method you choose to use make sure you always adjust it as you go. If you are able to attract more customers and your course develops then increase the cost accordingly. It allows you to charge more while you work on your advertising and bring an additional value to the course.

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

Take into consideration pre-selling

While it might seem like an untruth, it allows you to test the demand of your customers prior to investing time and resources into creating your course.

When you have your course pre-sold, you can get instant information on what your customers are looking for.

If the course you're offering doesn't work you, your concept needs refining.

The process of pre-selling your course online allows you to build a customer list and begin to build a course community that you can then utilize when you've completed the course and made it available for students.

Here are some suggestions to help you start in pre-selling

Develop a minimum viable course (MVC)

Sometimes referred to as a"pilot course," the minimum viable course is the first edition of your course you're willing to sell.

The course is in the most fundamental sense it is based on the idea that you'll build on it and improve it over time.

An MVC lets you test the waters with the audience you want to reach, prior to committing too many resources in order to build a complete premium course.

The idea is to use your MVC to get reviews and comments from your customers that will be used to enhance and promote your future course, helping you to market your courses online with greater numbers later on.

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

In order to avoid having customers feel disappointed with your content or even leaving bad reviews Price your initial course lower than what you intend to charge for the course in the near future.

The idea is to market your course's pilot as an exclusive opportunity for participants to participate during the test phase to get a sneak peek at your course content.

After your initial cohort of students has completed your program and received all the favorable reviews you're looking for then you're free to raise your price to attract new customers.

Establish a drip program

It is also possible to use a drip schedule template to build course content as your students complete every lesson or course.

includes the Drip Schedule feature which allows you to control how students access your course content, depending on the launch date you have chosen or the schedule you choose.

You could, for instance, offer students access to an updated training video each week during the course of two months. This allows you to create your course content at a rapid pace, and taking in feedback from your students as well as developing your material.

Pre-selling is like an instruction manual for course designers - you benefit from feeling out your target audience and gathering their feedback before you start the creation of your course and investing your time and energy into the course.

Create and refine HTML0

The process of how to sell online courses isn't a straight line. It's actually an arc.

If you make an online course, and then upload it online, the job's not finished.

The most popular course creators - that also offer the best courses - follow a cyclical process of launching and continually improving their online courses.

Sometimes referred to as a feedback loop, the process is (re)launching and refining is all about listening to customer feedback and using it to refine the content of your courses.

It's as simple as this:

• Pay attention:Ask your customers for their feedback so that you can understand the things they would like in your training
• Sale:Refine your offer using customer feedback and use it to design something appealing to the people you want to attract.
• Make:Tailor your course content by incorporating feedback from your customers. This will help you make your course a successful, valuable educational experience for your customers
• launch:Launch your course and use real learners to meet the promise you made in your pre-sell, and then restart the loop to refine your offering and your course.

The process of collecting feedback as well as refining the offering as well as content allows you to enhance the content of your courses over time and transform it into an perfect product to meet the needs of your target audience.

The process begins with pre-selling your online course but the process continues after the course is launched This means that you continue expanding and improving the course and its contents based on feedback from customers making sure you have the most effective course you can available.

Below are a few of the advantages of having feedback loops

• Learn what your clients actually believe about you.
• Get customers involved to make them feel valued and listened to
• Improve customer retention
• Refine your product for your target audience
• Your message should be tailored to meet your audience

Take note of the opinions of your clients and learn to promote online courses to your target audience - they are the most knowledgeable advisors that you can will ever have!

In order to maximize the impact of your teaching, provide chances for feedback at final session of each course. Incorporate a questionnaire that allows students express their views or ideas, as well as any concerns. It is also possible to schedule one-on-one phone calls with a selected number of students for deeper feedback.

If you have an online group of learners, you can use this forum to collect more feedback from students - post open-ended surveys, questions and polls in order to gather as much data as possible about how you can make your class better.

Develop sales strategies

Selling online courses is not a dark art - it's something anyone can learn to accomplish. In order to master your selling skills is a smart idea to design a funnel for sales to promote your online course. here's how to do it:

How can you design a marketing funnel for selling online classes

A sales funnel describes the journey your customers take to make a purchase. It describes every step at which potential buyers will come into contact with your brand.

The process begins at the beginning of your sales funnel when they first learn about the brand, and they go through the process of making a purchase and turning into brand advocates.

Visualize your funnel for sales 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 bottom you have the few chosen people who are likely to make purchases and turn into regular customers.

It's normal to go through this process - Your course wasn't created for everyone!

The sales funnel can help you focus your efforts and attention in selling online classes. This can help:

• Send your messages to the right people
• Identify key touchpoints for potential customers
• Make the most of possibilities to sell
• Remove sales friction
• Monitor and evaluate the success of your sales

When you map out your customers' journey, you can see more clearly how to move clients towards the desired goal for example, purchasing your online course.

Here's a model that is among the most well-known theories: Awareness -> Consideration -> Conversion -> Loyalty > Advocacy

• Awareness -At the beginning of the funnel is the Awareness stage, where your clients learn that you exist. Your name is first onto their radar, and then they determine whether or not they want to find out more about your company. This is the initial impression that people get from your name.
• Consideration -The following phase is considered - your potential customers start researching what options are that they can choose from as solutions to their problem and also whether your company is one of the options they'd like to explore.
• Conversion -The Conversion stage is an essential step in order for selling online course - Customers have already gathered all the information they're looking for and are ready to make a purchase. The Conversion phase is when you ensure your customers that your business is that they'd like to purchase from.
• LoyaltyThe loyalty phase focuses on the process of selling online classes for a long time - once the customer has made a purchase, they keep coming back to you as you keep to offer them something they value, communicate with them and retain them interested.
• Advocacy -The Advocacy phase occurs where satisfied clients go on to introduce more people to your sales funnel , by sharing your course with others in their network and acting as brand advocates, helping to grow your reach and the potential to market online courses to more customers.

Using your sales funnel

After you've created the sales funnel as well as your customer's journey, you're able to begin creating content to meet your customers' needs and lead them towards the next step on your funnel.

Below are some suggestions of the types of content that you can create for each phase of the funnel.

At each step of your funnel will be to pull people down further in the funnel. If, for instance, you conduct the webinar (mofu), try to share things from the bottom of the funnel, like an example or promotion (bofu).

You don't have to worry about creating every type of material that will entice potential customers. Choose one or two techniques for each phase of your funnel to start.

Your sales funnel is really beneficial to aid in planning your marketing plan and determine which areas to allocate your time and resources for selling online courses. see the next step!

Utilize to market strategies

In order to be able to market online classes, you have be familiar with the basic techniques to reach the people you want to reach and convince them to make a purchase.

There are a myriad of ways you can market your online course - but there are several simple strategies that can be used to promote online courses immediately regardless of your field or field of study.

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

•    Marketing of content
•    Email marketing
•    Social media marketing
•    Marketing with Influencers

Marketing content

Marketing content is often the primary focus of any course's marketing plan.

Content marketing can refer to any kind of content you create to market your company. It could whether it's blog posts videos, blog contents, email content, and much more.

In order to promote online courses, content marketing is a way to inform your audience and raise brand awareness. If you can produce valuable information for your target audience and they continue to engage with your brand and are likely to turn into potential customers later on.

Content marketing is also helpful in:

• Increase the reputation of your company
• More referral traffic
• Boost your search engine visibility
• Establish a deeper relationship with customers

The key to making use of content marketing to promote your business is to target your audience through the channels and platforms they use the most.

Discover where your targeted customers spend the most of their time on the internet and then use this information to create your own content marketing strategy.

Email marketing

If you want to upsell previous customers or cultivate prospects who aren't ready for purchase , then email marketing can be a effective marketing tactic to keep up your sleeve.

The power of email marketing allows you to reach your audience via emails that are created to welcome customers to your business, give them useful resources, and guide them into your sales funnel.

If you are able to build an list of email addresses, you will can direct your prospective customers who can interact regularly with them and develop a closer connection over time.

By using the help of email marketing, you can also:

• Provide a more personalized service for customers
• Provide product suggestions
• Surveys to collect feedback from customers
• Increase traffic to your website
• Add value for your audience

In order to begin creating your list of email addresses, work on creating leads that can inspire your readers to share their email address with you.

Some ideas for top converting lead magnets are:

• Free mini courses
• Guides that can be downloaded for download
• Webinars, events and webinars

After you've created an email list, the trick is to maintain those subscribers. That means producing email messages that offer real value for your subscribers including a variety of helpful tips as well as useful tools.

Social media marketing

Today, if you wish to know how to market online online courses, it is essential to understand how you can use social media marketing to your advantage.

Social media can be an extremely efficient method of selling online courses due to its power to get your brand in front of those who are interested in your course.

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

The success of your social media campaign depends heavily on the strategy you employ which includes:

• The content you share will determine whether your post is valuable or relevant to your intended audience
• The way you display your company's image - which includes the brand's voice, your imagery and style of content
• How you engage with other accounts, including followers, customers and influencers as well as other brands
• How do you build a fan base for your business - through making your customers feel heard and valued

Like all your marketing efforts, your social media should aim to represent your brand with the highest quality possible and display your brand's persona. Take a look at the persona you're presenting to your audience - and if it will appeal to your ideal customer as well as help sell online courses.

Marketing with influencers

The process of establishing an influencer marketing strategy is easy - check out the profiles of influencers in your area who match your values as a brand. Simply send them a private message and make yourself known.

Collaborations with influencers may be free or paid for and they can include:

• Posts that are sponsored or brand name
• Guest blogs
• Social media takeovers
• Brand shout-outs or re-sharing

By partnering with influencers in your area, you'll be able to increase trust among customers in the brand you represent and introduce your company's message to a wider public.

  Three simple tips for greater brand promotion  

Look at The Big Picture

Instead of running multiple campaigns via mail, social media, and on your website, you should try to ensure that all your channels of marketing work and compliment one another.

The content you post across a single platform must be echoed across every channel It not only aids to build a cohesive branding image for your customers and makes it easier for you to repurpose and recycle content.

To go back to the bread sourdough example you could decide to create an initiative to make Sourdough starters made from white flour, wholewheat, and rye. The possibilities are endless. You can create a sequence of tutorial videos on YouTube or create Reels through Instagram and send out weekly email newsletters focussing on each type of starter with downloadable guides.

The customers will find your information on the platform that they most use. They will have a clear idea of the services your company offers and how you can help your customers.

It's the same information and the same knowledge that is used in various ways - and it will all contribute to the establishment of your credibility as a Sourdough expert to your customers.

Write compelling copy

Any marketing content you create must grab your target readers' attention and help sell your products.

This means that you must learn how to write captivating, convincing content that entices your readers to do something - such as sign-up for your newsletter, sharing it with a friend or buying your online course!

Make use of social proof

Remember that your buyers are only human - so it's perfectly normal for them to be unsure on whether to make a purchase for a brand they do not have any experience with.

Social proof can be defined as:

• Reviews and Testimonials
• Customer interviews
• Case studies
• Statistics e.g. the number of people that you've helped
• Logos, accreditations and brand names

If you can show off the previous clients who were happy, you could persuade buyers to purchase from your.

Social proof is also a way to leverage the fear of not being noticed and the FOMO effect. If your customers are all buying and loving your products and services, the rest of your audience will be eager to participate as well!

Utilize social proof for your website's landing pages online marketing via email, social media and much more.

  Looking for more ideas for marketing and selling online courses? Get our complete guide to everything you require to know about how you can make money selling online courses.

Three Examples of How to Market Online Courses by Course Creators

In order to show how simple it is to market online courses In order to show how easy it is to sell online courses, we've chosen 3 case studies from creators of courses who began the same way as you.

This is how they learned to sell online courses to their audience and develop six-figure businesses during the procedure.

    Mimi Goodwin - Sew It! Academy

course creator Mimi Goodwin first started her online sewing business as a blog way back in 2012. Making use of YouTube to make and distribute videos of tutorials Mimi quickly increased her followers to more than a million people.

The next step was create the Sew It! Academy, which would allow her to earn money through her blog and create an extremely successful business. It has seen huge growth of course purchases online.

Mimi says her success is due to a 'sell without selling idea. YouTube tutorials on her channel provide helpful information for the viewers which introduces them to her brand and her expertise. Customers can then join a subscription-based membership platform to get more exclusive help and resources.

Mimi utilizes Instagram for a way to sell online courses by telling stories of customer success and sharing her own posts and personal stories. Since she is the person who represents the company, she believes that authenticity and a personal approach is key to building the trust of a community.

The most important takeaways

• Use social media for growing your audience organically
• Create free resources like video tutorials
• Be genuine and authentic when you sell.

    Mike Nelson - 9to5Dropouts    

When he quit his job at a corporate company to start his own business, Mike Nelson knew he needed to master the art of make online courses sell quickly. His biggest concern was the possibility that people wouldn't consider his course seriously, and would not be willing to invest in his courses - however, Mike Nelson tried his best.

By utilizing free webinar training to promote his skills and to promote the online course Mike was able to start the first class in his 9to5Dropouts academy. Mike began to expand the online course company making use of influencer marketing, paid YouTube advertisements and his own community of Facebook courses.

Paid advertising lets Mark connect with a specific audience and help to create more brand awareness. Once they make a purchase, they're welcomed to his Facebook community which turns them into brand loyal advocates.

Utilizing these methods to sell online courses, Mike has grown his company and established an academy that earns more than seven figures a year.

Key takeaways:

• Find niche influencers for marketing
• Build a course community for selling additional courses
• You might want to consider paying for ads in order to reach the people you want to reach

    Mina Irfan - Universe Guru    

In the beginning of Universe Guru, Mina Irfan experimented with various methods to try and sell online-based courses. She invested a huge amount of time and money into the latest technology, and created an attractive sales page but it didn't have the outcomes she had hoped for.

In the end, Mina found that the most efficient method to promote online courses was to keep it simple. Mina makes use of YouTube to generate organic traffic to her website. She also hosts live coaching sessions on Zoom.

In order to increase sales in slower times, Mina also uses discounts as well as incentives to attract new clients, such as flash sales and course bundles. These are a way to get new customers acquainted with Mina's academy, and gets them hooked.

Mina was named one of the most popular creators 2021 due to her easy strategies for how to sell online online courses. She only uses a couple of methods to create leads and increase conversion rates - and it really works!

Key takeaways:

• Make use of the channels for marketing that are already working to your advantage.
• Make use of incentives and discounts to increase sales
• Conduct webinars or coaching sessions in order to increase the number of leads.

3 Tips to Successfully Making Online Courses Sellable

These are the top three tips to remember to help you create online courses that will help you build your company, regardless of the place you're beginning from.

    Make an Community    

One of the most effective methods to market online classes is to establish an online community for your course. Like the above examples show, community is key in bringing your customers into the fold to build brand loyalty, and gain more sales for your course now and in the future.

    Modify as you need to    

If you have the ability to read student reviews and learn from feedback responses You can design the course that your target students want - not just what you believe they want.

Related:

    Make it Easy    

The trick to market online online courses isn't to think too much about it.

First time course creators often have imposter syndrome, and the feeling of needing to be more prepared before they even begin. However, the evidence of instructors in our community shows it's best to begin and work out later.

When it comes to selling courses, keep the course easy. Make sure you focus on one primary product, one offer and one key message. It is a good idea to test pre-selling before beginning to create an exceptional product.

  Sell Online Courses using  

The procedure of learning how to market online courses is much simpler than you imagine. This step-by step guide was created to aid you in selling additional courses, increase the number of people who take part in your courses and improve your revenue.

Be sure to keep the basics in mind and don't get caught up in it!