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How can you promote your new courses to your existing learners

Sep 6, 2024

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The most renowned WordPress expert Syed Balkhi shares tools and useful tips to increase course revenue by upselling to current students.

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You've poured your heart and soul into creating amazing online courses for your current students. Your audience has expressed that they are thrilled with your content and now it's time to take your offerings to the next level with new, exciting material.

The problem is finding your current learners to take part in your most recent lesson. If you're required to hunt an entirely new market every time you create a course, you'll spend a lot of extra time and energy marketing.

However, customers who've purchased a course from you recognize you and trust your site, and are more likely to buy from your site and again.

The most important factor in making this happen is upselling. This effective strategy will aid in increasing revenue, and provide even the most value for your students.

It's true, it's simpler than you think to apply this method and still not come across as aggressive or salesy.

Today, we'll show you a few successful techniques and tricks that you can use to promote your classes to existing students.

By the end of this article, you'll know the information you require for you to revisit your website and make meaningful changes to your strategy.

Let's get started!

Learn More About Your Target Public

Before you can start upselling it is essential to understand who you're communicating with.

Figure out what courses they are taking, which areas seem to evoke most interest, and what they want to see in the future.

Screenshot of Monster Insights WordPress Google Analytics Plugin

We also suggest asking your learners directly about what they want to learn more about in the future.

Utilize survey questions for your courses, feedback forms via email, as well as customer support chats as ways to learn more about your audience and the expectations they have for the content you provide.

It is important to ask targeted questions that lead to actionable responses.

This information will help you make informed decisions as you narrow down a list of possibilities or decide which audience would benefit most from your new course.

Structure Marketing for Learners who are already in the classroom

When you have a clear understanding of your target audience It's now time to design marketing strategies that are based on their preferences, goals, and a few pain points.

The following strategies will help you showcase your new courses and generate excitement by demonstrating how they will resonate with existing learners.

Leverage Email Marketing

You'll want to segment before when you begin sending messages. The term "segmenting" basically means splitting the people you are reaching out to into groups based on particular aspects specific to your company.

If you are in this situation, you should consider segmenting your lists based on the courses that you have taken, the rate of completion, and engagement levels.

This allows you to develop targeted marketing campaigns that appeal directly to each group's needs This means that they're more likely to be successful in converting.

It is also an chance to customize the messages you're delivering to customers.

Crafting compelling subject lines and specific content that demonstrates the ways your course will build on what they've already learned is sure to increase participation and more sales.

For context, using personalized subject lines can increase your rate of open by 22 percent.

RELATED Why You Should Segment Your Email Lists >>

Provide Exclusive Previews of the HTML0 or Beta Access

Everyone likes feeling special. Offering your existing audience an insider's view of your new program before going live could entice them and result in them taking actions.

We've found that giving a small group of users exclusive access helped to create anticipation, and resulted in more day one sales.

It is possible to use this to convert existing students into paying customers. You might consider offering only a few beta slots at a reduced rate on a first-come, one-time basis.

For the sake of giving students at a reduced cost, request for more detailed feedback so that you can enhance your training before launching it.

This approach not only assists in enhancing your courses but it also helps create an ethos of belonging among the first few people to adopt your course.

Implement a Loyalty Program

You could offer points to customers who have completed their courses or previous purchase, and these points can then be exchanged for discount on future purchases. The kind of sale loop will encourage people to continue buying from your site.

In the case of three lessons, the student may move from bronze level to silver. This means more savings on the next course plans.

Giving exclusive benefits to customers of higher tiers, like 1:1 training sessions and access to bonus courses, can be a guaranteed method to draw people's attention when you present an opportunity to upsell.

Harness the Power of Social Proof

Nothing is more persuasive than successful testimonials. Showcasing testimonials from students who've enjoyed your courses in the past will help you sell to people who are new However, it's also an effective way to get the attention of other clients who are already clients.

This concept is called "social proof". It is basically when customers are more likely be able to trust your company and its products if they see that other people and organizations also are able to trust you.

If someone truly enjoyed the baking class but aren't convinced to enroll in the professional-level cooking class included in the upsell handful of good reviews can easily sway the course.

It's easy to see how others who were not so experienced, or perhaps novices, also found valuable lessons and assume that they will also.

Smart Pricing and Packaging

In the case of upselling, the way in which you price and package your digital course could have a significant influence on the success of your course. Below are some strategies you should keep at hand if you wish to be successful in this area of your strategy to upsell students who are already taking classes:

  • Design a Cross-Sell Plan - After the completion of the course, you can suggest a new lesson as the perfect method to keep learning. It should be clear that the new course builds on what they've just learned so current users can appreciate the benefits.

Optimize Your Upsell Flow

Now, let's look at some practical ways to improve your upsell process to convert more students into customers.

The timing is crucial when it comes down to selling. If you are able to contact users at precisely the right time, such as, after they complete a course, you have greater chance of securing an increase in sales.

If the student was able to find an advantage in the initial class and would like to study more, they'll take up your offer instantaneously.

You can present this deal through email or on the last page of the class.

It is recommended to make sure that your email is automated and triggered by them completing the class in order to avoid a big gap between them wrapping up the last lesson and receiving your message.

It's been our experience that seasonal events can be a great time to offer new products particularly if they're packaged together with other items and are heavily reduced.

If you're in the position where you need reviews for your new course, this method will be extremely helpful. The majority of people will give you favorable feedback when the course is worth their time and is priced lower than what it would cost.

It is also possible to ask participants to add your course into their carts whenever they are in the middle of purchasing something that's been available for a long time.

Simply put, Order Bumps let you inquire about whether your customers would like to add a specific item in their cart before they checkout - and it can be a huge help for course designers as well as membership websites.

Make Your Value Proposition Stand Out

Also, create a compelling picture that shows the direct positives that customers could experience if you offer a new program.

Could it assist them to get an appointment? Start a successful side hustle? Develop something new? Enhance your social skills? Concentrate on the tangible advantages so that your group of people has an incentive to take action.

What sounds better: a robotic list of modules, ETA and costs or a thorough and informative post explaining how you, the learner, are going to see positive outcomes from every module? Virtually every person would pick the latter.

We also suggest addressing common objections head-on. If, for instance, time is a problem, you should emphasize how the class fits into the busy schedules of.

If the issue is money-related be sure to highlight the value of your investments or value that can be found in the skills you're teaching. It is your job to demonstrate that these benefits are greater than diverse concerns.

Don't forget that your current learners already trust you.

You can make the most of this relationship by being honest and describing why you created this new program and the way it meets their needs and will help them reach a desired goal or over come a roadblock.

Enhance and measure

You can't improve what you don't know about. In the case of upselling monitoring the appropriate parameters is crucial to understand what is working and what's not.

Start with checking your conversion rates, specifically the percentage of students that have already purchased the new class. This can help you figure out whether people are actually accepting your offers to upsell.

We also suggest keeping the eye on your average purchase value (AOV). If customers that are returning to purchase more courses, your strategy is likely paying off.

The aim is to boost how much people are spending just a bit, and still offer them worth to justify the cost.

It's also important to monitor the average lifetime value of your customer (CLV) that is the value of time spent by a client on your site over the course of time.

Successful upselling should increase how much a student spends with you over time. If you're seeing your CLV go upwards, then you're on the right path!

Conduct A/B Testing

Apart from analyzing the results It is also important to consider ways to improve with A/B testing. A/B testing involves testing two variations of an offer, campaign, or another piece of marketing materials to determine which version gets the best outcomes.

As an example, you can modify the headline for your landing page with an upsell with half of your customers and see if your new version is better than the original.

Similarly, you can offer upselling to your customers at two different times at the same time, one after they have completed a course and the other set will receive an email next early morning.

The aim is to create a plan that resonates with your learners and encourages users to continue engaging on your website.

Remember that improving can be a continual process. The goal is to continue with A/B tests even once you've found some thing that performs well.

If you're not experimenting, you could be missing out on chances to connect with your target audience. In this regard, ensure that you regularly check your metrics, analyze your results from tests and prepare to implement changes based upon your findings.

Final thoughts

The process of selling to learners already on your site is about building rapport increasing revenue and making sure people will always find something valuable and new every time they visit your website.

The strategies and best practices shared here today have helped us upsell over the years We are certain that these strategies will aid your business, too.

It requires time, patience and perseverance to master upselling, but we are confident that you now have the knowledge you need to get started or to take your current strategy to the next level.

Have you got any suggestions for selling your course online to current clients? Share them with the community in the comments section below.

Don't forget to sign up to our newsletter for additional tips to increase your revenue for your online class or membership site.

Syed Balkhi       Syed Balkhi is the founder of WPBeginner which is the biggest free WordPress website for resources. With more than 10 years of experience, he's the leading WordPress specialist in the field. Find out more about Syed and his portfolio of companies by being a part of his social media channels.