How to Sell Online Courses? Follow These 7 Steps

Online education is a big deal. It became an even bigger deal during lockdown. After all, it allows people to learn new skills and knowledge from the comfort of their home, sitting in a café, travelling on a train, practically, everywhere.

Of course, it is not all about simply educating people, those that create online courses can actually profit from them.

In reality, online learning is among the best eCommerce business ideas in 2023.

What is more, the facts are that the e-learning market is expected to reach over $300 million by 2028! That truly sounds amazing, but how does one sell courses online, and make a profit?

Stay tuned as we provide you with the best tips on how to sell courses online.

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7 Essential Tips on How to Sell Online Courses

1. Pick a Niche
2. Choose a Platform
3. Select a Pricing Strategy
4. Create Content
5. Customize Your Website
6. Make a Funnel
7. Promote Your Courses

1. Pick a Niche

The first essential step you need to take in your online course endeavor is to pick a niche. Needless to say, you cannot be everywhere, so it is best to put your efforts into what you feel most confident in.

In case you already have an established online presence, be it on YouTube or on any other social media, or a well-developed website, you are probably aware of what niche might work best for you.

If that is not the case, though, you will need to research and figure out what your exact niche might be. Let us say that you are good at business consulting. That is the broad topic and could have a lot of different potential niches that might be perfect for you. You just need to decide which one works best for you.

If you prefer something not too specific, you can break the field down into multiple topics, like business consulting for small businesses, business consulting for entrepreneurs, business consulting for eCommerce, and so on.

You see, the idea here is to pick a niche that simultaneously gives you enough leeway to expand, and is not too broad.

Think about how your potential clients search – would they be looking for a generic term such as “online business consulting courses”, or would they be more interested in searching for something more specific like “small online business consulting courses for eCommerce”?

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2. Choose a Platform

Choosing the right platform for your online course business is important, since you do not want to end up in a situation where you need to change platforms in the middle of your progress.

That would be time-consuming, frustrating, and you could end up losing potential and existing customers.

Of course, there are a lot of online course platforms you can pick from, but as a leading WordPress agency, DevriX strongly recommends using WordPress.

Why?

Because it is easy to use, it is scalable, flexible, and you can still craft and customize your courses to your heart’s content. For example, you can set up your online courses with the help of plugins like Udemy, LearnDash, LearPress, Sensei LMS, and so forth.

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3. Select a Pricing Strategy

If you are wondering how to sell courses online, one of the main aspects you need to figure out is your pricing strategy. Businesses use various types of pricing strategies, each with its pros and cons.

Online courses can cost anywhere from $10 to $5,000. In order to find the best pricing model for your online courses, you need to consider a couple of factors like:

• Who are you targeting? It is one thing to offer courses to students who generally have less resources available and are looking for basic knowledge, and another thing to offer courses to workers that want to enhance their skills.
• What is the purpose of your course? Is it an entry-level course, or more advanced? Do you offer additional services like coaching?
• What problems are your courses solving? Know the value of your content, and whether it provides a solution to a huge issue that your customers are facing.

In general, the most popular pricing schemes for online courses are:

1. Higher-cost, single payment for lifetime access.
2. Lower-cost, renewable monthly or yearly membership fee.
3. Flexible pricing with multiple payment options.

Alternatively, based on what you provide, you can also divide your pricing options into multiple tiers. For example, you can have a basic, intermediate, and advanced package, which users can select from, depending on their level.

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4. Create Content

Next up on our list of tips on how to sell a course online is planning and creating content. That is the most indispensable part of the e-learning experience, after all. The best possible option is videos.

Videos, generally, make information much easier to assimilate, compared to plain text. We can find proof for this in the fact that 90% of people perceive and retain information better through video versus text.

Another option, in case you do not have the required skills to create your own videos, is to hire a professional video production team.

Of course, it is not a good idea to rely solely on videos. Instead, you should try to include a variety such as podcasts, PDFs, slides, e-books, infographics, interactive webinars, and so forth.

Feel free to experiment with various formats until you find what works best for your audience. Also, do not be afraid to ask them for feedback, and how they would prefer to receive information.

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5. Customize Your Website

Staying in front of the computer or other digital device for hours and hours can be tiresome, exhausting, and boring. That is why it is your responsibility, as the creator of online courses, to think of a way to prevent these negative side effects.

Probably the best way to sell online courses is to customize your website in an attractive manner. Learning should be engaging and fun, so do be creative and make sure to add branding.

A cool way to achieve this is through gamification, as people generally learn better through a fun activity, rather than a tedious learning procedure.

6. Make a Funnel

How do you keep track of how successful your courses are? Or how many people are interested, or the amount of traffic you are getting? Well, creating a funnel could be the perfect solution.

You see, funnels include various metrics like traffic sources, landing pages, etc. Their ultimate goal is to attract people to your website, and turn them into customers.

Here is how you can build an effective funnel for your online courses:

1. Identify your target market. Determine the demographic that might profit from your online course. To maximize your objectives, adjust your funnel where necessary, to consider your target market’s demographics, requirements, and preferences.
2. Make a strong lead magnet. Create a useful free resource that addresses a particular issue or offers helpful information in relation to your primary course topic, such as an e-book, checklist, or mini-course. Offer your visitors this in exchange for their contact details, most commonly their email address.
3. Build a landing page. Create a specific landing page that highlights the advantages and most important aspects of your online course. To better capture the attention of visitors, use persuading language, case studies, and images. Also, put a spectacular call-to-action (CTA) on your page, so that you can persuade people to take the action you want them to take.
4. Drive traffic. Do employ various strategies to attract visitors to your landing page. The main ways to bring that traffic to your website are through social media, advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), and email marketing. Additionally, you could start collaborations with influencers in your niche.
5. Capture leads. Set up an email marketing platform to collect and manage email addresses of leads. Then, connect your landing page to an opt-in form that automatically adds subscribers to your email list when they sign up for the lead magnet.
6. Nurture leads with follow-up email. It is an excellent idea to develop a series of automated email sequences that deliver value, establish trust, and showcase your expertise. You could also provide additional free content, share success stories, and address common pain points where you gradually introduce your main course as a solution to their challenges.
7. Offer a limited-time promotion. Create a sense of urgency by offering a time-limited discount or bonus to encourage your leads to enroll in the online course. Clearly communicate the value that they will receive and highlight any unique selling propositions.
8. Provide a seamless buying experience. Always ensure that your course sales page is user-friendly, visually appealing, and optimized for conversions. Clearly outline the course content, modules, and any additional resources or support offered. Integrate a secure and reliable payment gateway to facilitate smooth transactions.
9. Deliver high-quality content. Once students are enrolled in your course, don’t forget to deliver exceptional value and engaging content. Use multimedia elements, interactive activities, quizzes, and assessments to enhance the learning experience. Provide efficient support and maintain day-to-day communication so that students are engaged and motivated.
10. Encourage referrals and testimonials. As your users progress through the course, encourage them to share their positive experiences and results. Collect testimonials and encourage satisfied learners to refer others to your course, incentivizing them with exclusive rewards or discounts.

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7. Promote Your Courses

Last but not least on our list on how to sell courses online is the promotion. Even the best online course is destined to fall into oblivion, if it isn’t promoted somehow. So, how do you promote your courses?

As we mentioned earlier, the main channels that drive traffic and encourage promotion, are four: SEO, social media, ads, and email.

Social media marketing, in particular, can be pretty useful towards spreading the word about your online course and highlighting its value, especially if you are targeting younger people.

Search engine optimization can help you as well, while giving your advertising a quick, momentary boost.

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Summary

Hopefully our tips provide you with some useful insights on how to sell online courses. Teaching has always been a noble profession, but it is not an easy one.

Online teaching can make things both easier and harder at the same time, however, it does provide more opportunities to reach more students.

Naturally, you should be rewarded for all the hard work you have done. Tell us if you’ve used any of our tips, and what advice you would give to others who are starting out on the long, but satisfying journey of online education.