How to sell online courses (Steps, Tips and Exemples)

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 by clicking here!

If you spend enough time looking into making online courses it's likely that you'll be inspired to design your own online course.

A quick search on sales strategies can leave you in a tizzy state and the common imposter syndrome creeping up.

It can seem like there are a million terms and ideas you have to get familiar with. Everyone and their aunt knows more about online course sales than you do.

How to market online courses could be broken down in six simple steps. A no-business degree or sales background needed.

In this tutorial, we've simplified the basics about selling online courses to help you increase your reach as well as increase your earnings.

Learn more about the process of how to offer online courses, or click the hyperlinks below to go through.

  6-Step Guide on how to sell online courses

2.      Be aware of who you're selling to
3.      Price Your Course
4.      Consider Pre-selling
5.      Start 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 the sale of online courses

A Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Online Courses

The process of selling online courses may seem like an endless maze of confusing infographics and jargon It doesn't need to be overwhelming.

The process of selling online courses can be reduced to just six easy steps.

Each step has provided the basics of the information you require and additional reading suggestions to help you learn more.

Here's our ultimate guide to selling online courses.

You should know whom you're selling your product to

If you're considering selling online courses, the first thing you need to know is the person you're selling your course to.

Many first-time course creators fall on their first obstacle in creating an online course that they imagine people will want rather than figuring out what they actually 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.

In order to sell online courses you need to know:

• Who your ideal customer is
• What challenges they are facing
• What do they require from you?

It is crucial to assist you create something of value for your target audience, and to build the community of faithful and motivated customers.

These are the steps you can take to help you find your target audience:

Research your Audience

If you are looking to identify your target audience, you need to do your research.

If you already have customers, start there. Or if you haven't started selling a product or service yet, look at whom you would sell your courses to in a perfect world.

Thanks to the internet the internet, conducting research on your audience is simple. Search on Google and other social networks to find your ideal audience and learn more about them.

As part of your audience research, try to do these 3 things:

Find out what solution you're offering

In order to identify your ideal target audience begin by looking at the solution you are offering to your students.

Take a look at the outcome of your online class and the people who stand to gain most from the course you're offering.

Imagine your course as a solution to someone's struggle - which problem(s) do you have to fix? What challenges can your course aid people to overcome?

If you can identify your solution, you can 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 offering, you can become more specific. Define the core demographics of your audience, including:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Family status
• Hobbies

You can also get even deeper into the details, including their current employment status, their educational level, their income and more.

Your aim is to be as precise as you possibly can in order to comprehend the demographics of your target audience by their common traits.

Look up your competition

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

If you are aware of the people you're competing with You can begin to determine the audience whose requirements aren't being met or who your competitors aren't currently targeting with their product and marketing.

Pay attention to the ideal clients

When you've done your base study, it's recommended to reach out to the people you want to talk with them.

Internet research is important but in order to know exactly the ideal clients for your business they are, you must hear from them directly.

These are three strategies:

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

Listen to your ideal audience and find out what they want from you, and what you can meet their needs with your online course.

Try to connect with at least 50 potential customers in your survey to provide you with a clear picture of your target audience and also how you can sell your online courses to that audience.

Narrow down your audience

Based on the findings of your research on the audience and interviews with customers, you can then narrow down your audience further.

It's very helpful to make the user profile or avatar. This is a detailed account of your ideal customer which focuses on one individual specifically.

It imagines your target group as a single person which includes:

• The demographics of their core
• Their goals and values
• The challenges they face and the pain points
• Their role in the purchase process and potential objections
• They can be found in their sources for data e.g. books, magazines, news sites

When you're selling online course, you're aiming to talk to the person directly. A clear customer avatar helps you target your marketing strategies on copywriting and marketing content as well as paid advertisements and the social media strategies.

Pricing the course

The task of pricing your courses can be overwhelming, especially if this is your first time.

There's good news, there are a few simple methods to price your course and beware of the most common pitfalls to selling online courses: selling at a low price.

Pricing your course on the value of the content

The key to selling online courses is to think about your online course as the solution to the challenge. This principle applies for pricing your courses too.

You shouldn't charge your course by the length or degree of difficulty, rate it according to the value of your content.

There's more to it than selling information but you're also selling an end result. What is the transformation your program offer? What are your students equipped to accomplish following their completion of your course?

It doesn't matter how long it takes for students to complete the class, what is important is that you can deliver the outcomes as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Don't undersell your course

The most common mistake that course creators make is to price their courses online too cheaply.

There's an assumption that the cheaper the price that you charge, the more courses you'll sell. However, pricing your course too low can actually damage your company's long-term success.

Additionally, it means you make less money from every sale, there are also more drackbacks to consider:

• Lower prices draw less committed customers
• This reduces the perceived worth of the course.
• Invaluing your knowledge can harm your reputation
• It is the same cost to market a cheap course than a course that is more costly
• You have less money to invest in solving more of your students problems

While it's tempting to set the price of your courses lower to sell more but you may be doing more harm than beneficial. If you're looking to understand how to market online, make sure you be confident in putting the price of your course higher.

We suggest selling online courses starting at $50. You should also consider offering your course for $199 or higher.

Think about pricing tiers

If you're not yet ready to sell your course for the best product in your market, consider offering pricing tiers instead.

Price tiers meet your customers require them to think about and evaluate different options without having to take a look at your competitors' courses.

In this case, for instance, you might offer 3 pricing levels with the most basic package at the lowest price point. Medium packages are your core course and most customers will choose. Premium packages may have exclusive benefits, such as private or group coaching as well as live teaching elements.

Through pricing tiers it is possible to make your program easier to access for a greater variety of clients without degrading the perceived value of your knowledge.

Whichever pricing strategy you use be sure to modify it at any time in the future. As you get more customers as your course expands, increase the price accordingly. You can charge higher when you improve the marketing strategy and add an additional value to the course.

Examine your pricing and find out the best way to serve your intended audience.

Take into consideration the possibility of pre-selling

While it might seem like an untruth, it lets you validate customer demand before you put time and resources into creating your course.

When you have your course pre-sold, you can get instant feedback on what your target people are searching for.

If the course you're offering doesn't work, then your idea needs refinement.

Selling your online course prior to launch allows you to build a customer list and to begin creating an online community of students that is then used after you've completed the course and made it available to students.

Here are some tips to get you started with pre-selling:

Create a minimum viable course (MVC)

Sometimes referred to as a pilot course an acceptable course will be the first edition of your course that is available for sale.

This is your course in the most fundamental sense it is based on the idea that you'll be able to add more information and enhance it with time.

A MVC can let 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.

It is the idea to utilize your MVC to get feedback and testimonials from customers, which will be used to improve and market the course you are planning to launch, helping you sell online courses with greater numbers later on.

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

To avoid customers feeling disappointed at your course content - or even leaving bad reviews make sure you price your course pilot less than the price you plan to charge for the class in the future.

It is possible to promote the pilot course to offer a unique opportunity to clients to take part during the test phase to have a peek into the content of your course.

When your first group of students has completed your program and received the positive reviews you need to get, you're able to increase the cost for any future students.

Set up a drip schedule

It is also possible to utilize a drip calendar structure to develop course material as your students complete each module or lesson.

has an Drip Schedule feature which lets you decide when students get access to your content, based on the launch date you have chosen or the schedule you choose.

You could, for instance, offer students access to a brand new instructional video each week during a 2 month period. This allows you to create your course content in the course of time, while also gathering student feedback and developing your material.

Pre-selling functions as a cheat sheet to course creators. You get the benefits of feeling about your intended audience, and gathering feedback before you start the creation of your course as well as putting efforts and time into your product.

Launch and refine

The process of 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 upload it to the internet, you're not completed.

The most effective course creators who also sell the most courses - follow a cyclical procedure of creating and continuously updating their online course.

Sometimes referred to as a feedback loop, the process of (re)launching and refining your course is about taking feedback from your customers and using it to refine your content for your course.

It's as simple as this:

• Listen:Ask your customers for feedback to understand what they expect from your program.
• Sell:Refine your offer using customer feedback and use it to create something that's captivating to your target audience.
• Create:Tailor your course content in response to feedback from customers to create a professional, beneficial learning experience for customers
• launch:Launch your course and use real students to deliver on your promise to sell, and 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 selling your course online, but this continues long after the launch of your course - this means you keep adding to and refining your offer and your course content according to customer feedback, letting you create your best course possible on the market.

These are some positive effects of creating feedback loops

• Learn what your clients actually are thinking about
• Encourage customers to engage to make them feel valued and listened to
• Increase customer retention
• Refine your product for your target audience
• Your message should be tailored to meet the people you want to reach.

Pay attention to the feedback of your customers in order to learn how to sell online classes to your intended audience - they are the best advisors you have!

For best effects, create chances for feedback at final session of each course. Incorporate a questionnaire that allows students express their views, ideas and any complaints. Also, you can schedule one-on-one calls with a select number of students for more in-depth comments.

If you're running an online group of learners, use this area to gather information from your students. Post survey questions that are open to all types of questions as well as polls so that you can gather all the information you can about how you can enhance your teaching.

Develop sales strategies

Making online courses sell isn't a dark art - it's something anyone can learn to do. In order to master your selling skills It's best to create a sales funnel for your online course, Here's how:

How can you design a marketing funnel for selling online courses

A sales funnel is the journey your customers take towards making a purchase. It defines every point at which potential customers will interact with your brand.

The process begins at the beginning of your sales funnel as they first learn about the brand, and they go through the process of buying a product and eventually becoming brand ambassadors.

Visualize your funnel for sales being an actual funnel - it's larger at the top, and it's narrower towards the bottom.

The top is your general audience and by the time they are at the lower levels, you'll have select people who will make a purchase and become repeat customers.

This process is expected - the course you choose to take isn't designed just for everybody!

The sales funnel can help you focus your efforts and attention when you're selling online courses. This can help:

• Target your messages
• Find the key points of contact for prospective buyers
• Profit from more chances to sell
• Remove sales friction
• Track and measure your sales success

When you map out your customers' journey, you will be able to see better how you can direct your customers to a goal such as purchasing your online course.

Here is a one of the most popular theories: Awareness -> consideration -> conversion -> Loyalty > Advocacy

• Awareness -At the start of the funnel is the Awareness phase , in which your prospects become aware of your existence. You first come on their radar and they decide whether or not they want to find out more about your company. It is the first impression that someone has of your company.
• Consideration -The second phase of consideration where your customers begin researching what options are open to them in terms of solutions to their problem and whether your business could be one of them they'd like to explore.
• Conversion -The Conversion stage is the critical step in selling online courses. customers have gathered the information they're looking for and are ready to make a purchase. This phase is where you convince your customers that you are that they'd like to purchase from.
• LoyaltyThe Loyalty phase looks at how to sell online classes for a long time - once clients have purchased that they return to you as you keep to offer them something valuable, engage with them and keep them engaged.
• Advocacy -The Advocacy stage is the time the point at which satisfied customers continue to help bring others towards the top of your sales funnel by spreading your course's message to other people on their social networks. They also act as brand ambassadors, helping to grow your reach and the potential to market online classes to more students.

Using your sales funnel

Once you've mapped out your sales funnel and customer journey, you can begin to develop content that will satisfy your clients' requirements and guide them through the next step on your funnel.

Here are some examples about the kind of content you can develop for each phase of the funnel.

At each step of the funnel is to pull individuals further into the funnel. For example, if you conduct the webinar (mofu) Try to provide information from the bottom of the funnel, such as a case study or a promotional offer (bofu).

You don't have to be concerned about creating all kinds of content that can entice your clients. Concentrate on one or two methods for each step of your funnel, to get you started.

Your sales funnel is really helpful to guide your marketing plan and determine where you should devote your resources and time for selling online courses. take a look at the next stage!

Make use of to market strategies

If you want to know how to promote online classes, you have to learn some basic marketing strategies to help you reach your audience, and persuade them to make a purchase.

There's a huge number of methods to market your online course - but there are several simple strategies that you can employ to market online courses in a matter of minutes regardless of your field or niche.

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

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

Marketing content

Content marketing is the mainstay of any course's marketing strategy.

Content marketing refers to all kinds of content that you produce for your business, including blog posts videos, blog material, emails and much more.

To sell online courses, content marketing helps educate your audience and raise brand awareness. If you are able to create valuable content for your audience They will continue to engage with your brand , and they are likely to turn into customers down the line.

Content marketing is also helpful in:

• Increase the reputation of your company
• More the number of referrals
• Boost your search engine visibility
• Establish a deeper connection with your customers

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

Discover where your targeted audience likes to spend their time on the internet and then use this knowledge to develop your strategy for marketing through content.

Email marketing

If you're looking to increase sales for clients who have already purchased from you, or to nurture leads that aren't ready to purchase yet, sending emails is a handy marketing strategy to have in your arsenal.

Email marketing lets you reach your target audience through a series of emails created to welcome customers to your business, give them useful resources, and guide them along your sales funnel.

If you are able to build an list of email addresses, you will can direct your prospective customers who can interact with them frequently and establish an ongoing relationship with them over the course of time.

By using the use of email marketing, you could also:

• Give a more personalized experience to your customers
• Provide product suggestions
• Get feedback from your customers through surveys
• Drive traffic to your website
• Add value for your audience

In order to begin creating your list of email addresses start by designing leads that can encourage your audience to share their email address with you.

The best ideas for the top-converting lead magnets are:

• Free mini courses
• Guides to download
• Webinars and events

After you've created an email database The trick is to maintain those subscribers. This means creating email messages that offer real value for your subscribers including a variety of helpful tips as well as useful sources.

Social media marketing

Today, if you wish learn to make money selling online classes, you have to learn how to use social media marketing to your advantage.

Social media can be an extremely effective tool for selling online courses thanks to its ability to put your company's name in front of the right people extra fast.

When you implement the correct marketing strategy on social media, your brand awareness can increase dramatically in a matter of hours.

The success of your social media campaign depends on your approach which includes:

• What you post will determine whether your post is valuable or appealing to your targeted public
• The way you display your company's image - which includes your brand voice, imagery and content style
• How you engage with other accounts, such as with followers, customers and influencers as well as other brands
• What can you do to create a sense of fan base for your business - by making people feel seen and heard

Like all your marketing efforts, your social media should strive to present your company with the highest quality possible and display your brand's personality. Consider the image you're presenting to your audience to determine if the image will attract your ideal customers and assist in selling online courses.

Marketing with influencers

Beginning with influencer marketing is easy - check out the profiles of the influencers within your niche who fit with the values of your company. Then simply drop the influencers a private message to introduce yourself.

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

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

Through partnering with influential people in your area, you'll be able to boost customer trust in your brand and bring your business to a larger audience.

  Three simple tips for greater brand promotion  

Look at The Big Picture

Instead of running multiple promotions via email, social media and on your site, try to ensure that all your marketing channels function together to complement each other.

The content you post on one platform should be echoed across every channel This not only assists to build a cohesive image of your brand for clients but also helps you to repurpose and recycle content.

For a return to the sourdough bread example - it is possible to launch a campaign on making sourdough starters with wheat flour (white), wholewheat, and rye. The possibilities are endless. You can create a sequence of tutorial videos on YouTube, make Reels in on Instagram and send out weekly newsletters with a focus on the different types of starters and downloadable tutorials.

Your customers can access your website's content through the channels they use the most and have a clear idea of exactly what your brand provides and how you could assist them.

It's the same information and information that you can use in different ways - and it will all contribute to the establishment of your status as an sourdough expert for your audience.

Write compelling copy

Any marketing content you create is required to grab the readers' attention and help increase sales for your items.

It is essential to learn how to write captivating, convincing text that motivates your reader to act like signing up for your newsletter, sharing your content with someone else, or purchasing your online course!

Make use of social evidence

Be aware that buyers are human, so it's perfectly normal for them to be unsure of whether to purchase with a company they don't recognize.

Social proof can be defined as:

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

When you showcase your past happy customers, you can convince buyers to make a purchase from you.

Social proof can also be leveraged to help alleviate the fear of missing out or FOMO effect. If your customers are all purchasing and loving your goods and services, the people who aren't will want to get involved as well!

Utilize social proof for the landing page, your Facebook and Twitter pages, your email marketing and much more.

  Looking for more ideas to sell and market online classes? Check out our comprehensive guide on everything you need to know to market online classes.

Three Examples of How to Market Online Courses from Course Creators

In order to show how simple it is to market online courses, we've picked 3 case studies from course creators who started off exactly like you.

Here's how they learnt to sell online training courses to the public 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 back in 2012. Using YouTube to share and create videos of tutorials Mimi quickly grew her following to more than a million people.

The next step was to make the Sew It! Academy, which would allow her to earn money through her blog, and build a thriving business - which has seen huge growth of online course sales.

Mimi attributes her success with a'sell without sale idea. YouTube tutorials on her channel provide useful information to her viewers which introduces them to her brand and her skills. Users can join a subscription-based service to receive more exclusive help and resources.

Mimi also uses Instagram for a way to promote online courses through highlighting customer successes and sharing her own personal posts and stories. Being the spokesperson for the company she believes authenticity and a personal approach is the key to forming a loyal community.

Important takeaways

• Use social media for growing your following naturally
• Create free resources like video tutorials
• Be genuine and authentic when selling

    Mike Nelson - 9to5Dropouts    

After quitting his corporate job to launch his own company, Mike Nelson knew he needed to master the art of make online courses sell quickly. He was most concerned the fact that people would not take him seriously and wouldn't be willing to invest in his course - but he tried anyway.

Utilizing free webinars to raise awareness about his expertise and pre-sell the online course Mike was able to start the first class in the 9to5Dropouts academy. Mike was then able to grow the business of his online courses by utilizing a mix of influencer marketing, 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, they're welcomed to the Facebook community, which turns them to brand ambassadors.

Through these techniques to sell online courses, Mike has helped grow his business and built an academy which earns seven figures annually.

The most important takeaways

• Find niche influencers for marketing
• Develop a community for courses for selling additional courses
• Consider paid ads to reach your target audience

    Mina Irfan - Universe Guru    

In the beginning of Universe Guru, Mina Irfan experimented with a range of different strategies to sell online-based courses. She invested a huge amount of time and money into new technology and creating an impressive sales page - however, it wasn't able to deliver the outcomes she had hoped for.

In the end, Mina found that the best way to market online courses was to keep it simple. Mina utilizes YouTube to bring natural leads to her course page. She also hosts live coaching sessions using Zoom.

To increase sales during slow periods, Mina also uses discounts and incentives to entice new customers. This includes 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 named one of the top 10 creators of 2021 thanks to her simple strategies for how to sell online classes. She uses just a few methods to create leads and increase conversion rates - and it actually works!

The most important takeaways

• Use those channels of marketing already in operation to your advantage.
• Utilize incentives and discounts to drive sales
• Hosting webinars and coaching sessions in order to increase the number of leads.

3 Tips to Successfully Selling Online Courses

Here are 3 top tips to keep in mind to help you create online courses that will help you build your online business no matter where you're starting from.

    Create a Community    

One of the most effective ways to promote online courses is to build the community of your courses. As the examples above demonstrate that community is essential to engage your customers to build brand loyalty, and gain more sales for your course now and in the future.

    Change as you go    

If you are able to listen to student reviews and learn through feedback You can design the kind of course your intended students want - not just the course you think they'd like.

Related:

    Make it Easy    

The trick to sell online courses is not to get too involved.

First time course creators often suffer from imposter syndrome and the sense of having to be more well-prepared before they start - but evidence from instructors in our community shows it's best to start and work it out as you go.

In the case of selling courses, keep it basic. Focus on one core product, an offering, and one key message. It is a good idea to test pre-selling before beginning to create a premium product.

  Sell Online Courses with  

The process of how to market online courses is easier than you thought. This step-by-step guide is designed to assist you in selling additional courses, increase the number of people who take part in your courses and improve your revenue.

Keep the basics in mind and don't get caught up in it!