Selling Online Courses (Steps tips, Steps, and Examples)

The process of selling online classes can be simplified into six easy steps. You don't need a business degree or experience in sales is required. Start here!

If you're spending enough time researching online course creation, you'll probably start to get the urge to build your own course online.

A simple search for selling techniques can send your head spinning and that all too familiar Imposter Syndrome is slowly creeping in.

There are a million terms and ideas you have to get familiar with, and everybody or their mother knows more about online course sales than you do.

The procedure of how to market online courses could be broken down in six simple steps. A no-business degree or sales experience is needed.

In this article we've streamlined everything you need to know about selling online online courses that will help you increase your reach - and grow your revenue.

Read on to learn the procedure for how you can sell online courses or click the links below to skip through.

  6 Step Guide on how to sell 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 Sell Online Courses from Course Creators
9.      Three top tips for selling online courses

6 Step Guide on how to sell online courses

Although the selling process for online courses can seem like an endless maze of jargon and unintelligible infographics, it doesn't have to become overwhelming.

The process of selling online classes can be broken down into just 6 basic steps.

At every step, we've included the essentials for things you should know as well as additional reading options to further educate yourself.

Here's our ultimate guide to how to sell online courses.

Be aware of the people you're selling to

If you're looking to sell online courses, the first important thing to consider is who you're selling to.

A lot of first-time course creators fail in this initial rut when they create an online course that they imagine people will want instead of figuring out exactly what they want.

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

To sell online courses, you must know:

• Who is your ideal potential customer
• What challenges they are facing
• What are they looking for from you?

It is crucial to assist you understand how to create something of value for your audience and build an audience of committed, motivated customers.

Below are three 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 customers, start there. Or if you haven't started selling a product or service in the past, consider whom you would sell your courses to in an ideal world.

Because of the internet, audience research is easy. Search on Google and other social networks for your target market and to learn more about them.

As part of your research on the audience, you should try to complete these three tasks:

Find out what solution you're offering

In order to identify your ideal target audience, start by thinking about your solution and the benefits you offer your students.

Take a look at the outcome of your online class and consider who would benefit the most from the course you're offering.

Imagine your program as the answer to someone's struggle - which problem(s) can you fix? What hurdles can you assist people in overcoming?

If you know the solution you're offering, you can think more clear about the target customers are.

Define your audience demographics

When you've identified who will profit the most from what you're offering, you can become more specific. The key demographics for your target audience. This includes:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Family status
• Hobbies

You can also get even more specific, considering the status of their job, educational level, their income and much more.

The goal is to be as specific as possible to understand exactly the demographics of your target audience based on their shared characteristics.

Take a look at your rivals

When conducting your research on the audience, it is also possible to look into the competition in your field.

When you know the audience that your competition is targeting You can begin to determine the audience whose needs aren't already catered to or whom your competitors aren't currently in touch with with their products or marketing.

Listen to your ideal customers

If you've finished your foundation of research, it's recommended to connect with your most desirable customers and speak to them.

Internet research is crucial, however for you to truly know the ideal clients for your business it is essential to get feedback directly from them.

Three strategies are available:

• Surveys for customers to send out
• Interviews conducted face-to-face
• Post questions on your social media

Listen to your ideal audience to learn what they want from you and how you could best meet their needs by offering an online course.

Make sure you reach at minimum 50 people in your customer study to get an accurate picture of the audience you want to reach and the best way to market online online courses to the segment of the market.

Narrow down your audience

Using the results of your research on the audience and customer interviews, you can then reduce your target audience.

It's extremely helpful to develop the user profile or avatar - this is an extensive description of your ideal client who focuses on a single person specifically.

The idea is to imagine your intended group as a single person that includes:

• The demographics of their core
• They have their own goals and beliefs.
• Their challenges and pain points
• Their role in the purchase procedure and the possibility of objections
• They can be found in their sources for information e.g. books, magazines, news sites

When you're selling online courses it is your intention to talk directly with the customer. A detailed customer avatar lets you concentrate your marketing efforts in terms of copywriting and marketing content advertising, as well as your social media strategy.

Cost your course

Pricing your course can be daunting particularly if it is the first time you've done it.

There's good news, there are a few simple methods you can use for pricing your online course to stay clear of one of the most common mistakes when selling online courses - selling too cheap.

Price your course based on the quality of the information

The secret to selling online courses is to view your program as a solution to the challenge. This is the same for pricing your courses too.

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

It's not just about selling data, you're selling an outcome. What kind of transformation will your program offer? What will your students be capable of doing after they complete your course?

It doesn't matter how long it takes students to complete the course, what matters is the results you deliver fast and as efficiently as feasible.

Don't undersell your course

One of the biggest mistakes course designers make is pricing their courses online too cheaply.

It's a common belief that the lower the cost that you charge, the more courses you'll be able to sell. If you price your course to low can actually damage the long-term viability of your business.

As well as meaning you make less money from every sale, there are also more Drackbacks you should consider:

• Lower prices draw less committed customers.
• It reduces the perceived value of your course
• Invaluing your knowledge can harm your reputation
• It is the same cost to promote a course that is cheap than a course that is more costly
• There is less money available to reinvest into solving some of the students' problems

While it's tempting to set the price of your course at a lower price in order to increase sales however, it could do more harm than doing good. If you're interested in learning how to market online, make sure you have the confidence to price your course more expensively.

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

Think about pricing tiers

If you're not ready to price your course as a premium product, then you might want to consider offering pricing tiers rather.

Price tiers meet your customers' need to consider the various options available, without the need to look at the courses of your competition.

For example, you could offer 3 pricing levels that include the simplest package starting at the lowest price. The middle package is your primary course, and it is also the one the majority of 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 affordable to a larger range of customers without reducing the value you can get from your expertise.

Whichever pricing strategy you use make sure you always adjust it as you go. As you get more customers as your course expands, increase the price accordingly. This lets you charge more while you work on the marketing strategy and add value to the course.

Check your pricing to see what works for you and your intended audience.

Consider the possibility of pre-selling

Though it could seem something that isn't true, the practice of pre-selling lets you validate customer demand prior to investing the time and money to create the course.

If you prepare your course in advance You can receive instant feedback on what your target audience is looking for.

If your course doesn't sell you, your concept needs refinement.

The process of pre-selling your course online gives you the chance to build a customer list and to begin creating an online community of students that will be useful after you've finished the course and made it available for students.

Here are some suggestions to help you get started by pre-selling your products:

Develop a minimum viable course (MVC)

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

This is your course starting from the simplest level It's a basic understanding that you'll build on it and enhance it with time.

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

The concept is to make use of your MVC to get feedback and testimonials from your customers that you can then use to improve and market your future course, helping you sell online courses more frequently later on.

Pricing for your pilot course will be less than the future courses

In order to avoid having customers feel disappointed with your content or even leaving bad reviews make sure you price your course pilot less than the price you plan to charge your students for your course in the near future.

You could even market your pilot course as an exclusive opportunity for clients to take part during the test phase to get a sneak peek at the course's content.

Once your first cohort of students have completed your program and received all the favorable reviews you're looking for to get, you're able to increase the price for future customers.

Set up a drip schedule

Additionally, you can make use of a drip-schedule template to build course content after your students have completed every lesson or course.

includes the Drip Schedule feature that lets you control when students get access to the course material, based the date of your course's launch or your chosen timeframe.

You could, for instance, provide students with access to a new training video every week over two months. It gives you the time to design your course material as you go, while collecting feedback from students and improving your course content.

Pre-selling can be described as cheat sheets to course creators. You benefit from feeling about your intended audience, and collecting feedback prior to when you launch into the creation of your course and putting your time and effort into the product.

Start and refine

How to promote online online courses doesn't follow a straight line, it's more of a circle.

If you make an online course, and then upload it, your job isn't done.

The most popular course creators - who also sell the most courses - go through a cycle course launch and improving their online courses.

Also known as feedback loops the process that involves (re)launching and refining is all about taking feedback from your customers and using that feedback to enhance the content of your courses.

The process goes like this:

• Pay attention:Ask your customers for their feedback so that you can understand what they want from your program.
• Sell:Refine your offer using customer feedback and use it to create something that's appealing to the people you want to attract.
• Make:Tailor your course content in response to feedback from customers to create a professional, beneficial learning experience for customers
• launch:Launch your course and run it with real students in order to fulfill your promise to sell, and restart the loop to refine your program and offering.

This circle of gathering feedback as well as refining the offering as well as content allows you to enhance your course content over time making it the ideal product for your audience.

The process begins with the initial selling of your online course, and the process continues after the launch of your course This means that you continue adding to and refining your offering and course information based on customer feedback and feedback, which allows you to create the best possible course on the market.

These are some positive effects of creating feedback loops:

• Learn what your clients really believe about you.
• Encourage customers to engage to make customers feel appreciated and heard 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 for tips on how to market online courses to your targeted customers - they're the greatest advisors you could are able to have!

For best effects, create an opportunity for students to give feedback at the conclusion of each module. Include a survey that lets students express their views or ideas, as well as any concerns. You can also schedule one-to-one meetings with a certain group of students to get deeper comments.

If you're running an online learning community, make use of this space to gather more information from your students. Post open-ended questions, surveys and polls so that you can gather the most data you can regarding how you can improve your course.

Develop sales strategies

Selling online courses is not something that's difficult. It's something anyone can learn to master. In order to master your selling skills It's best to create a sales funnel for your online course, here's how to do it:

How to create a sales funnel to sell online classes

A sales funnel is the process your clients follow to make a purchase. It outlines every checkpoint where potential customers will interact with your brand.

They start at the top of your sales funnel as they first hear about your brand and then they go through the process of purchasing a product or becoming loyal brand advocates.

Imagine your sales funnel in the form of an actual funnel. It's more expansive at the top, but smaller at the bottom.

The top is your broad audience. By the time they get to lower levels, you'll have selected people who make a purchase and become repeat customers.

It's normal to go through this process - your course isn't made to be accessible to everyone!

The sales funnel can help you focus your efforts and attention in selling online courses. It can also help you:

• Send your messages to the right people
• Find the key points of contact for prospective customers
• Make the most of opportunities for selling
• Remove sales friction
• Measure and track your sales performance

When you map out your customers' path, you'll be able to understand better how you can direct customers towards a desired outcome for example, buying your course online.

Here's a model that is among the most loved models: Awareness -> Consideration -> Conversion -> Loyalty and finally Advocacy

• AwarenessAt the very beginning of your funnel is the Awareness stage, where your clients learn that you exist. You first come on their radar and they determine whether or not they want to learn more about you. The initial impression that people get of your company.
• ConsiderationThe following phase is considered - your potential customers start researching what options are available to them as solutions to their problem and whether your brand could be one of them they'd like to explore.
• ConversionThe Conversion phase is the critical step in selling online courses. Customers have already gathered all the information they require and are prepared to make a purchase. The Conversion phase is when you convince your customers that your company is the only one they would want to buy from.
• LoyaltyThe Loyalty phase looks at how to sell online courses long-term - after clients have purchased, they keep coming back to you as you keep to give them something of value, interact with them and maintain their interest.
• Advocacy -The Advocacy phase occurs the point at which satisfied customers continue to introduce more people to your sales funnel by sharing your course with others on their social networks. They also act as brand advocates, helping to grow your reach and the potential for selling online courses to more customers.

Using your sales funnel

Once you've laid out your sales funnel and your customer journey, you can begin creating content to meet your customers' needs and direct them to the next step on your funnel.

Below are some suggestions about the kind of content you can develop to each step of the funnel.

The goal at each stage of the funnel is to draw users further down the funnel. For example, if you do an online webinar (mofu) Try to provide information that are at the bottom of the funnel, such as an example or promo offer (bofu).

You don't have to fret about making every kind of material that will entice potential customers. Choose one or two methods for each step of your funnel to get you started.

Your sales funnel is really useful to help guide your marketing strategy and identify which areas to allocate the time and money to market online courses. see the next section!

Make use of to market strategies

If you want to know how to promote online online courses, you'll need be familiar with the basic techniques to reach your audience, and persuade people to buy.

There are a myriad of ways you can market your online course , but there are a few simple methods you can use to sell online courses in a matter of minutes regardless of your field or field of study.

Here are some of the top marketing strategies for selling online classes:

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

Content marketing

Content marketing is the primary focus of a course creator's marketing plan.

Content marketing refers to all kinds of content that you produce for your business, whether it's blog posts or video contents, email content, and many more.

To sell online classes, content marketing is a way to inform the audience as well as increase the visibility of your brand. If you can produce valuable content for your audience and they keep engaging with your company and will be likely to turn into customers down the line.

Content marketing is also helpful in:

• Enhance your brand's reputation
• More Referral traffic
• Increase the visibility of your search engine
• Establish a deeper relation with the customers

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

Discover where your targeted customers spend the most of their time online , and utilize this knowledge to develop your strategy for marketing through content.

Email marketing

If you'd like to sell more to previous customers or cultivate customers who haven't made the decision to buy yet, email marketing can be a useful marketing technique to keep up your sleeve.

Email marketing lets you reach your audience via an array of messages designed to introduce customers to your brand, offer them useful resources, and guide them through your sales funnel.

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

With the use of email marketing, you could also:

• Give a more personalized experience for customers
• Offer product recommendations
• Surveys to collect feedback from customers
• Bring traffic to your site
• Add value for your audience

In order to begin creating your list of email addresses begin by creating lead magnets that inspire your readers to share their email addresses with you.

A few ideas to convert top lead magnets comprise:

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

When you've got an email database, the trick is to retain those subscribers. That means producing emails that provide real value for your subscribers with plenty of tips and valuable resources.

Marketing via social media

Today, if you wish to know how to market online courses, you need be able to master the art of social marketing on the internet to your advantage.

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

When you implement the correct social media campaign Your brand's awareness could increase dramatically in a matter of hours.

Your social media success depends heavily on the strategy you employ, including:

• Your content will determine whether your post is valuable or interesting to your target viewers
• The way you display your brand , including the voice of your brand, images and style of content
• How you engage with other accounts - including with customers, influencers and other brands
• What can you do to create a sense of crowd around your brand by making people feel seen and heard

Like all your marketing efforts and efforts, social media must be designed to portray your brand with the highest quality possible and showcase your brand's personality. Think about the face that you're showing to your followers and see if it can attract your ideal customers as well as help sell online training courses.

Influencer marketing

Getting started with influencer marketing is straightforward - simply look through the profiles of influential people in your area who match your values as a brand. Simply send them a private message and present yourself.

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

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

By partnering with influencers in your field, you will improve the trust of your customers towards your company and expose your brand to a wider audience.

  Three simple tips for greater brand promotion  

Take a look at The Big Picture

Instead of running different campaigns via emails, social media or on your site, try to have all of your marketing channels work together and compliment one another.

Your messages that you publish through one channel should be repeated across all channels It not only aids to create a cohesive brand image for customers and makes it easier for users to reuse and recycle material.

In the same vein as the bread sourdough example it is possible to launch an event on how to make sourdough starters with wheat flour (white), wholewheat, and rye. The possibilities are endless. You can create a sequence of videos tutorials on YouTube, run Reels in on Instagram and send out regular email newsletters that focus on the different types of starters and downloadable tutorials.

Customers can find your information on the platform they use the most and have a clear idea of exactly what your brand provides and how you could aid customers.

This is the same content and information that you can use in different ways , and is all about establishing your authority as a Sourdough specialist for your target audience.

Write compelling copy

Every marketing piece you write is required to grab the viewers' attention in order to sell your products.

That means you need to be able to craft captivating, convincing copy that drives your audience to do something - such as joining an email newsletter, sharing your content with friends, or even purchasing your online course!

Utilize social proof

Keep in mind that your customers are just human beings - therefore it's normal if they're unsure of whether to buy with a company they don't know.

Social proof can be defined as:

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

When you showcase your past satisfied customers, you will influence buyers to purchase from you.

Social proof can also be leveraged to help alleviate the fear of being left out which is known as FOMO. If your customers are all enjoying and buying your product, then the majority of your customers will be eager to participate too!

Utilize social proof for the landing page, online marketing via email, social media and much more.

  Looking for more ideas for marketing and selling online classes? Download our full guide for everything you require to know to sell online courses.

3 examples of how to Market Online Courses by Course Creators

In order to show how simple it can be to master the art of to make online courses more profitable In order to show how easy it is to sell online courses, we've chosen 3 case studies from creators of courses who began just like you.

This is how they learned the art of selling online classes to their customers and build six-figure business ventures in the procedure.

    Mimi Goodwin - Sew It! Academy

course creator Mimi Goodwin first started her online sewing business as a blog back in 2012. Using YouTube to share and create videos of tutorials Mimi rapidly grew her audience to over a million viewers.

The next step was start an online course called Sew It! Academy to monetize her blog, and build an incredibly successful business that has generated huge amounts of course purchases online.

Mimi says her success is due with a'sell without sale' ideology. Her YouTube tutorials provide genuinely helpful information for the viewers who are introduced to her brand and expertise. Customers can then join a subscription-based membership platform to get more specific assistance and information.

Mimi utilizes Instagram as a method to market online courses, by telling stories of customer success and sharing her personal photos as well as stories. Being the spokesperson for the company, she believes that authenticity and personal touch is key to building the trust of a community.

Important takeaways

• Use social media for growing your following naturally
• Create free resources like video tutorials
• You must be authentic and honest 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. The biggest worry was that people wouldn't take his course seriously, and would not have the confidence to invest in his courses - however, he tried anyway.

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

Paid advertising lets Mark get in touch with a very targeted audience, and create an increase in brand recognition. Once they make a purchase and are accepted into the Facebook community, which turns them into brand loyal advocates.

Through these techniques for selling online classes, Mike has grown his company and established an academy that earns more than seven figures a year.

Important takeaways

• Find niche influencers for marketing
• Create a community of course owners for selling more courses
• Think about paying ads for the people you want to reach

    Mina Irfan - Universe Guru    

When she started Universe Guru, Mina Irfan tried various methods in order to market online courses. The company sunk a significant amount of time and money into new technology and creating an impressive sales page - but it didn't have the outcomes she had hoped to see.

In the end, Mina found that the best way to market online course was to make it easy. Mina utilizes YouTube to drive organic traffic to her course page. Mina also conducts live coaching sessions via Zoom.

In order to increase sales in slower times, Mina also uses discounts and incentive programs to attract new customers, including flash sales as well as course bundles. These are a way to get new customers acquainted with the academy and makes them hooked.

Mina was officially one of the 10 top creators in 2021 thanks to her simple ways of selling online courses. She uses just a few methods to create leads, and converts which is a fact!

Key takeaways:

• Make use of the marketing channels already working for you.
• Make use of incentives and discounts to increase sales
• Host webinars and coaching sessions to generate more leads

Three Top Tips for selling online courses

Here are 3 top tips to remember to help you sell online courses and build your company, regardless of what stage you're in.

    Create an Community    

One of the top methods to market online courses is to build an online community for your course. The examples below show the importance of community to engage your customers to build brand loyalty, and increase sales of your courses today and into the future.

    Adjust as you go    

If you can listen to students' reviews and gain insight by the feedback you receive You can design the kind of course your intended audience wants - not what you believe they'd like.

Related:

    Keep it Simple    

The key to successfully make online courses more profitable is not to overthink it.

Course creators who are first time suffer from imposter syndrome and the feeling of needing to be extra well-prepared before they start - but evidence from the course creators we have in our community shows it's best to get started and figure it out as you go.

If you are selling courses, keep it basic. Concentrate on one main 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 process of how to promote online courses much simpler than you imagine. This step-by-step guide is designed to help you sell more courses, grow your reach and boost your revenue.

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