- 6 MIN READ -
When it comes to educating your learners, online courses can be the ideal place to teach them something new.
If you take a look around you’ll come across numerous online courses on various subjects. Some of them are very successful, while others are still trying to acquire more learners.
The first thing for a successful online course is, undoubtedly, useful and engaging content that will benefit your users.
However, is your amazing content enough to acquire more loyal learners?
Well, if you want to promote your course, you need to find the best practices to market it the right way.
1. Promote Your Online Course Through Emails
With an ROI of $55 for every $1 you spent on it, email marketing is not only easy to master but it’s also the most cost-effective channel to promote your course.
To start promoting them through emails, you simply need an email marketing platform to distribute your online course campaign to your subscribers. If you haven’t already chosen one, consider using one of the available free email marketing services to save time and learn the ropes without spending money.
When it comes to creating the perfect online course campaign, you don’t need fancy visuals and animations. What you need is to show your learners the real value they’ll be getting out of your course.
For that, you need a killer subject line that will increase the open rate of your email and a straightforward copy that will convince your subscriber to click on your CTA.
Here’s an example from Smart Blogger:
2. Offer a Free Course
While your pay-to-learn courses are an amazing way to boost your sales, sometimes giving out free content will help you achieve more.
A free course is more likely to attract new learners who will grab the opportunity to learn something free of charge.
Consequently, you can familiarize them with your teaching process and, if it suits their needs, give them more reasons to buy your more advanced courses.
You can let your audience know about your available free course through an email campaign. Keep in mind, though, that to promote it successfully your email copy and CTAs shouldn’t be misleading.
3. Increase Course Visibility with Website Popups
Your website is another powerful marketing channel you need to leverage to promote your online courses.
To do so, you need to take advantage of popups to make your visitors aware of your online course.
The power of pop-ups is unmatchable as they will help you capture your visitors’ attention with an irresistible offer without visiting your online course page.
To create effective popups for your online course, you need to consider some of the basic rules of high-converting popup forms.
With that in mind, your CTA should always stand out and be as clear as possible to show your visitors what they need to do.
Also, your copy needs to highlight why your learners need your online course and how they can benefit from it in the long-term.
Here’s an example of an effective popup form from Marketing 112:
According to this case study, popups were so successful that the company managed to boost the visibility of its training course, achieving a 62% rise in its conversions.
4. Share Your Online Course on Social Media
Users will spend a considerable amount of time on social media communicating with friends, searching for brands and products and sharing content.
According to statistics, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram are some of the most popular social media platforms that people engage with.
Source: Most popular social networks worldwide as of April 2020, ranked by number of active users
Consumers’ engagement with social media can help you promote your online course and increase your reach through word-of-mouth and social shares.
However, to get there you need to find the perfect way to show your course to your social media audience. For that, you can either create an amazing post and share it with your followers, or leverage the power of social ads.
For instance, Instagram and Facebook ads will give you the opportunity to create targeted content and reach a larger audience.
To promote your course effectively, you also need the right curated content and copy to incentivize social media users to click on your ads.
Keep in mind that social media users come across numerous paid campaigns daily. So, if you want them to perform, try to make them as unique as possible.
Here’s a great example from She Takes on the World:
5. Create a Dedicated Landing Page for Your Online Course
Your social ads might be great, but without a dedicated landing page, they won’t give you the results you desire.
If you want to ensure that your visitors will turn into learners, you need to lead them to a separate page, where they’ll find all the necessary information about your amazing online course.
Landing pages can be an effective lead generation tool to promote your business. So, if you want to use them the right way, you need to pay extra attention to their elements.
Compelling landing page copy and irresistible headlines will show your visitor the value of joining your course and make them click. At the same time, the use of social proof like testimonies and ratings from satisfied learners will help you increase the credibility of your course.
Finally, adding an attractive call-to-action that stands out will help you turn your visitors into supporters of your course.
Here’s an example from Passport to Serendipity:
6. Publish an Online Course Promotion Video
Videos can be one of the most engaging types of marketing collateral out there. If you look at statistics, you’ll see that 85% of internet users engage with video content on a monthly basis, while 87% of marketers have already started using it as a marketing tool.
The power of video content can be successfully used to promote your online course and increase your signups.
To achieve it, you need to create a course promotion video that will be equally interesting and informative for your potential learners.
Furthermore, your videos need to be short to pique your viewers’ interest and offer enough information to convince them to act.
Adding a great title and a keyword-focused description will help your video rank well in search engine results, something that will help you beat your competitors’ video promotions.
To maximize the reach of your video, consider publishing it on platforms with large audiences like Youtube or other popular Youtube alternatives like Vimeo and Dailymotion.
Takeaway
Promoting your online course isn’t rocket science. However, in order to do it successfully, you need to get yourself familiar with some of the best practices.
Taking advantage of already successful methods like email marketing, popups, social media, and video marketing will help you increase your online course visibility and get more learners aboard.
For more advice, best-practices, and how-to guides for creating, boosting, and improving your digital marketing and eCommerce, check out these additional resources:
- Article: Integrated Marketing Communications: What It Means & How To Do It Right
- eBook: What is an eLearning Business? Examining the $200-billion eLearning Industry
- Tool: Content Ecosystem Project Tracking Cheatsheet
- Tool: Digital Outreach Template
- Tool: Search Engine Optimization Planner
- Article: Sell Online Courses from your Own Website with Moodle LMS
- Article: 14 Must-Have eCommerce Marketing Features To Sell Online Courses
- Article: 4 Easy Marketing Tactics Your Business Needs To Boost Online Growth
- Article: Everything You Need To Know About MailChimp Email Marketing To Sell Online Courses
- Webinar: 3 Brilliant Ways Proven To Get Your Online Courses To The Top Of Google
- Webinar: Marketing Your eLearning: Keys to Success
- Webinar: Enhancing Your eCommerce For Your eLearning Business
Disclaimer: This article was contributed by guest blogger Marilia Dimitriou. The views and opinions expressed belong to the guest blogger alone, and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or opinions of Lambda Solutions.
Marilia Dimitriou is a Creative Writer working for email marketing software Moosend. Her passion for writing has made her find new ways to combine the art of Creative Writing with SEO Copywriting. When she’s not writing articles, you’ll find her enthusing over marketing tech and automation.
