5x5 Tips To Market Online Courses You Should Never Miss Out

The E-learning industry continues to grow and evolve. Therefore there is a need to develop more efficient strategies for promotion. In this competitive market, it is crucial to be well aware of the new methods of marketing and advertising in order to succeed.  
 

In this article, we will take a look at the main aspects of digital marketing and provide you with tips & tricks for each.  
 

So, if you are ready, let’s start!  

Pre-launch Marketing

So, the first method is Pre-launch marketing. Basically, pre-launch marketing is a marketing strategy that you implement before the final product is even available for purchase. It is quite efficient in terms of increasing awareness and building interest around the product.  
 

What are the benefits of pre-launch marketing?

• Helps you to establish a sales-ready website that is already SEO-optimized
• Creates a buzz around an upcoming product 
• Generates leads in advance - leads are basically your prospects (opportunities) that you can later turn into real-time clients.  
   

How can you start pre-launch marketing? I will recommend you to start with a website’s landing page for the product or social media. And now, let’s take a look at some tips that will help you to have a successful pre-launch of your online course.  

#1 Define the outline

The course outline is otherwise more known as a syllabus, and it is extremely important both for coaches/instructors and for students. Course outline usually covers the learning objectives, outcomes, expectations, grading/absence policies, in-class activities, and rules.  
 

It is crucial to define a course outline for pre-launch marketing. When you are well aware of each aspect of your course, you will be able to clearly identify its strengths and position its USP in a way that catches customers’ attention. Basically, knowing your product well gives you an advantage in convincing potential clients that they need it. 

How to create a Course Outline?

• Write a course description. The description briefly summarizes the topics covered in the course, outlining the unique selling point and main benefits students will gain.
• Do not forget to mention course goals in a separate section, better with bullet points and explanations of each.
• Mention student Learning objectives and course outcomes, e.g., what skills they will gain and how they can practically imply those. 
• Schedule activities, mention the deadlines for assignments, tests, quizzes, final exams, etc. (if those are part of the course)
• Additional materials. It would be amazing if you provided additional learning materials for your students to enhance the overall experience.   

Benefits of Course Outline?

• Works as a guide for students, enhancing their learning experience 
• It helps you better identify the strong suits of your course to position and use those in the marketing strategy 
• Clarifies each aspect 

So, you can move on to the next tip whenever you are done with writing the course outline.  
 

Check 8 Tips To Create a Complete Course Outline.

#2 Describe your unique selling point

Assume your outline or its draft gives you an overall idea (the big picture) of what the course is about. Now, using the outline, identify a few unique selling points, and then choose the best one out of those.  
 

A unique selling point, otherwise called a unique selling proposition, is a feature-benefit of your product or service that differentiates you from the competitors. 

Benefits of Unique Selling Point 

• It helps you to stand out from the rest.
• It is a potent persuasion tool to convince demanding clients why they should choose you.
• It gives your brand an association and awareness, creating an emotion.   

How to Write a Good USP?

• First, keep in mind that a good USP is customer-centric, meaning it must show the customer how it fulfills their needs. For example, highlight the key points in your course for the hospitality sector, narrowing it down to a course for restaurant management, or training for hoteliers, etc. 
• Define your target market. Afterward, break it down into segments (niches). Assume you will have different courses, so you will need different target groups and various landing pages with good CTAs and USPs for each of them. In order to identify USP, know your market first, to offer something they need in order to be more appealing. 
• Outline your course’s main features and brainstorm the one that sets you apart; maybe it’s your teaching technique, voice, or engagement activities that your course offers?
• Do competitor research, and try to understand what is their unique selling proposition.  
   

And finally, just TEST. Test out multiple features, and do A/B testing of ads to figure out what works best for your course. Today it is possible to sell everything if you know-how and the only way to know that is to test it out! 

Read How To Define The Best Unique Selling Point of Your Online Courses.

#3 Include your audience in the course creation process

There are multiple ways to engage your audience, but what would be better than involving them in the course creation process? First of all, it will benefit you, as you will get direct feedback from them on how to improve multiple aspects of the course. Secondly, new minds will help you to brainstorm various ideas concerning USP, effective course marketing, and better visuals.  
 

So, by engaging students in the course laceration process, you will create a final product that they are interested in, plus your target market would be definitely interested in. 

#4 Create an engaging title

Another tip to help you do successful pre-launch marketing for your course is creating an engaging title. The title is the first thing any user notices because, first of all, it is visually bigger and more appealing; secondly, it is short. Therefore, within a matter of seconds, you have to catch users’ attention in a way that they would be interested to read the further text. Below are a few tips on how to write attractive titles and headlines. 

Tips for writing a Mind-Blowing Title or a Headline

First of all, keep in mind that your goal here is to get the audience hooked and promise them a value that you will later on deliver. And to get them hooked, use these suggestions: 
 

• Keep it short and to the point - do not write long explanations in a place where you have just a few words to convince users that they need to read further, and it won’t be a waste of time.
• Include the Main Benefit, or answer the user’s query. The headline/title should be clear on whether or not users can get what they want. By the way, to be able to use this tip, you need to know your target audience very well. 
• Appeal to the reader’s hunger for knowledge. First, as an online course creator, you must do this. E.g., Let’s say you have a landing page for your course and a title with a  brief course description. Make sure to use the phrase “How to” as it will indicate that the skills learned in your course can be implemented practically. 

#5 Pre-sell your course

Pre-selling is also a working strategy that is a vital part of pre-launch marketing. Start the pre-selling of your course before your product is even fully ready. Why would you want to do that? Well, first of all, pre-selling has lots of benefits, such as:  
 

• Increasing product/service awareness simultaneously creates a buzz around the upcoming product. 
• It will help you extend your cash runway and use part of the profits later on for more high-quality course creation. 
• Email list bundling and lead generation. 
• It will contribute to the overall understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the product and what can be improved, including things concerning marketing. 
• Funding opportunities. You can pre-sell your course on certain crowdfunding platforms.  
   

Also, by pre-selling the course, you won’t waste lots of money & time, and even in the case of failure, you will better understand the big picture and what you can do differently next time. However, in order to succeed, remember three main things:

• Know your Market - check out the demand & supply rates, needs & wants of the customers, and overall trends and make some predictions based on the data collected towards future demand and trends. Understanding your B2B customer experience takes another level of designing demanding courses.
• Create high-quality products - since we emphasize at times that you don't technically "need" a GOOD camera to film a course as smartphone cameras nowadays are enough, let's ensure you are investing in high-quality production
• Invest smartly, and in case of opportunity costs, give yourself time to elaborate on which one will bring the best return on investment. 

How to pre-sell a course?

• Build an email list. In order to pre-sell your course, you need an email list, as an email campaign is one of the most efficient digital marketing strategies nowadays. 
• Create a landing page. Also, if you want to improve visibility and gain visibility? traffic from engines, create a highly SEO-optimized landing page with persuasive marketing copies and a modern, eye-catching design. You can apply B2B mobile marketing strategy if you aim to sell the course to another business for their personnel training and knowledge advancement.
• Publish the news about upcoming courses on social media, and encourage your trusted followers to share or spread the word. 

Tips for course pre-selling

• Create a feeling of missing out. E.g., if you have a course idea that you plan to pre-sell, then you can do a campaign on “first 100 students can get the course with 50% discount, next 50 with 25%, and others for full price”. Of course, formulate all of this nicely in the campaign; I was just dropping an overall outline of the campaign idea you can use to create a fear of missing out.
• Create a course outline. When you are clear on what the course is about and what it will give to your students, you will be able to position it in the advertising campaigns better. 
• Come up with a USP. USP is a unique selling point that differentiates you from your competitors and gives customers a reason to choose your product over others.  

Check how to pre-sell an online course.

Social media marketing

Another form of marketing that increasingly gained popularity in recent years and continues to stay on top is social media marketing. The whole purpose of social media marketing is to use various social media platforms (depending on the product) to promote the product/service.  
 

Before we take a look at the tips you can implement to use social media for your marketing successfully, let’s look at the main benefits of SMM.  
 

• It increases Brand Awareness. Social media marketing is a cost-effective way to improve your brand’s visibility. 
• It contributes to website traffic. Besides on-site SEO, which will bring more organic traffic to your website, off-site SEO is also important. Social media marketing is one way to optimize off-site and increase traffic rates on your website. 
• High conversion rates. When you increase the visibility, the conversion rates automatically will increase as more people will be aware of your brand. However, keep in mind that quality also plays an exceptional role in this. 
• Communication. Social media, especially if you show yourself, will contribute to better communication between you and the audience. Which will, later on, lead to the improved trust factor as you will seem more real. 
• Brand loyalty levels improve. Social media marketing also contributes to the improvement of brand loyalty rates, as more customers can directly communicate with the business. Plus, they see various types of content, including educational and not just promotional campaigns. 

#6 Use Instagram reels to build an audience

Instagram reels were one of the major and most successful updates of Instagram recently. Now, in Instagram reels, you can easily create Instagram content similar to TikTok. Plus, as someone who uses REELS to boost my account, I can proudly say there is a VERY high chance to boost your account. 

Instagram reels with photos are a type of content that is highly liked and encouraged by Instagram users. You can enhance the visibility of your reel with Buy Instagram followers which is extremely important for you if you want to fuel your performance and visibility.

How to use Instagram reels for business?

• Create authentic content, make sure the videos are high-quality 
• Use a simple, bright-colored background that catches users’ attention when they scroll through the feed 
• Create content that is connected to your business
• Use the right hashtags 
• Post regularly because Instagram algorithms love the consistency  
   

Know How to Use Instagram Reels in Your Teaching Business.

#7 Increase course awareness using Facebook pages & groups

Another way you can implement social media for your marketing is through Facebook. You can create various types of content on Facebook connected to your brand. Besides, you can turn on paid advertising and do A/B testing. 

Also, you can use Facebook groups to promote the product. E.g., join various educational and e-learning groups and share about your website, business, or a particular course. However, make sure to follow the set of rules admins set for the safety of everyone. 

#8 Get more sales through TikTok marketing

TikTok is one of the most potent tools nowadays for social media marketing. This platform is extremely user-friendly and still remains the only one that gives you an opportunity to blow up overnight. 

Benefits of TikTok marketing

• Time-saving. You have no idea how easy it is to create high-quality content on Tik Tok. 
• Inspiring. You can watch videos in your feed and other similar content creators in your industry to grab some inspiration for further videos. 

If we take a look at a real-life example, Brand Lust uses TikTok to promote their pheromone perfume, and so far, the strategy is working fine. In their videos, you can see various types of content that make a connection with the product, and simply include the link to the course in your BIO section. 
 

Also, various course creators successfully used TikTok as part of their promotional strategy. The thing is that TikTok’s “Education Seekers” audience is increasingly growing; it is the best platform to use and briefly present to users the benefits of educational material to attract them as customers. So, if you have a course, you can make various videos related to it, e.g., a problem-solution video or a video where you talk about the benefits of online education and also mention the courses you offer.  
 

All you need to do is create content related to your product or service and publish it regularly. Also, in the bio, make sure to put enough information about who you are, what the brand is about, and the link to your e-learning website. 

Tips for TikTok marketing

• Create a TikTok Pro account
• Identify your target audience 
• Come up with a  hashtag strategy
• Use trending sounds
• Participate in challenges, create new challenges with your hashtags
• Use paid & influencer advertising  
   

Learn How To Do TikTok Marketing For Your Online Course Business.

#9 Host podcast on YouTube

Podcasts are amazing for long-term promotional strategies. YouTube is the largest video search engine platform out there. Therefore, it provides you with an incredible opportunity to reach the right audience at the right time, especially if you put some effort towards SEO optimization of the description, title and include relevant tags. 

Benefits of having a podcast on YouTube

• You will reach wider audiences in a cost-effective manner
• YouTube is a powerful marketing tool
• You can easily encourage social sharing, increasing brand awareness. 

Main Steps 

• Value. Understand who you are, what is your podcast about, and what you can give to the audience. 
• Have a content plan and a few ready-to-publish videos ahead of schedule.
• SEO optimization. Also, keep in mind that you have to SEO optimize your overall channel, starting with the video descriptions, tags, and thumbnails ending with the bio. 
• Be consistent. Of course, any social media algorithm values consistency, but in YouTube, it is literally one of the key factors of success. If you want to grow your channel, and get many views for the podcasts you host, then make sure to do everything regularly.  
   

Check our article “Podcast on YouTube: How To Start and Grow Your Business”.

#10 Share course-related images & infographics on Pinterest

Pinterest is one of the most popular visual and aesthetic search engines nowadays. And luckily for all of us, it is free and easy to use. When creating your social media promotional strategy, also make sure to create a Pinterest account. 

Steps for using Pinterest for selling your online courses

• Set up your account. All you need to do here is to register, set up a profile picture, publish a few posts and write a bio. In short, make a profile that communicates the message of your business and makes it clear for the potential customers (clear in terms of what the profile and business are about). 
• Create and optimize Pinterest boards. 
• Share unique ideas, and use creativity to get more views. 
• Build a community of supporters. 
• Analyze the overall performance, test, and continue to grow.  

Read our article “Pinterest for Teachers: How to use for selling courses”.

Website marketing

Most of your traffic is going to come from website marketing; it can be either paid traffic or an organic one. Often you need both kinds of traffic. However, it is quite a huge sum of investments. Therefore, the focus should be more towards organic traffic, which can be achieved through SEO optimization. 

#11 Optimize your website for SEO

So, as I mentioned a bit earlier, the main traffic source is top-notch SEO. SEO is the process of optimizing the website in a way that it appears and ranks higher in SERPs. There is an on-site and off-site SEO. 

On-site SEO is basically the optimization of the website content. Meanwhile, off-site SEO aims to optimize other platforms such as social media to drive traffic to the main website.  
 

Main Elements of SEO

• Keywords. Those are words you aim to rank for; if you choose extremely competitive, that would not be wise; at the same time, if you choose low popularity ones, it is also bad. You should find the right balance, choose 5 to 8 focus keyphrases based on their ranking factors (competitive, middle, niche-specific), and stuff them organically throughout the content. 
• Meta Descriptions. Meta descriptions appear right after the SEO title. By the way, make sure to include your focus keyphrase in the SEO title and meta description. Also, your description should be short but attention-catching. It should briefly explain to users what the further article is going to be about in a way that they find an answer to their query and keep reading. 
• Backlinks are a crucial part of SEO. Because part of the process of how search engines find and rank your website is crawling, ad crawling happens through links. So if you have many websites (especially alternative ones in a similar industry) linking to yours, your website will have better chances of ranking higher. 
• Internal links. Keep in mind to have an internal linking strategy, and link the blog posts you created earlier to the new ones.   

Check our Ultimate SEO Guide For Online Course Creators WIth 5 Steps.

#12 Create copy and teaser that sells

If you want to sell the product or service, first of all, you have to be a persuasive speaker or a writer. Make sure to write a copy that sells, for example, position features in the form of the benefits. No one is interested in the technicalities, but everyone is interested in what they will gain from them. 

#13 Use paid ads to get more leads

Paid advertising will help you to rank on search engines, especially if you do the right targeting.  
 

The best part of paid advertising is that it doesn’t show up randomly. It is targeted to a specific audience, whether they are searching with keywords in Google or are just scrolling through their Instagram feed. This means that you can reach your target audience and create a campaign that will bring the desired results.  
 

Also, most of the paid advertisement platforms, like the dominating Google Ads, are based on a pay-per-click system. So, you pay your fees according to how well your advertising works, which is quite fair. Apart from Google Ads, consider using social media advertising, especially when you have social media for your business. Facebook Ads and Twitter Ads will be of particular use to you. To successfully collect leads on Facebook, make sure to set up a targeted ad campaign with compelling visuals and engaging copy that drives users to a dedicated landing page or lead generation form. To get inspiration for your ad content and targeting strategy, you can also check out the Facebook Ads Library.

#14 Offer free courses on your website

Free things help your customers test the water to see whether they find your products worthy of spending time and money on. Because sometimes, your courses can seem quite pricey. And if the customer doesn’t know whether the quality of it responds to the price or not, they would probably not purchase the product.  
 

Therefore, you must provide your customers with free products, like PDFs, infographics, and free courses.  
 

Free courses are, of course, not as rich in content as the paid ones are and definitely not so interactive. However, they still require lots of time and effort to create. It is easier to offer the content for free courses in the form of a written text, like a blog. You can also give free access to the first few lessons of your paid courses in order to provide some sort of introduction. 

#15 Offer encouraging discounts and coupons

In order to turn your website visitors into real-time customers, you have to make the products appealing. One thing that helps a lot with persuading your possible customers to buy things is FOMO (fear of missing out). The idea is to make them think that your products or services are not accessible permanently. 
 

For example, you have a course that costs $80, but you inform your customers that there is a discount, and now it costs $40. This would be more effective if you limit the discount to the end of the month, and even more effective if you limit it to 3 days. By creating the fear of missing out, you push your website visitors to make more impulsive purchases, so to speak.  
 

You can offer discounts for different occasions. For example, there can be a discount on one course if you buy two courses at once, like bundle purchases, or a discount on the first purchase. This encourages your customer to buy because your product becomes cheaper and more accessible. And don’t forget to show the old price, too, because this will further enhance the FOMO effect.

Coupons work similar to discounts, but they hold a strong promotional potential. You can make your customers aware that you can put coupon codes in your YouTube videos but not specify when or which one — making them subscribe to your channel.

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is a strategic approach that B2C and B2B services value and create useful, meaningful content for the users that aligns with their interests and needs. It’s no secret that if customers choose you in a market full of competitors, you will most likely offer the best solution. However, an important factor here is the maintenance of quality in the long-term and building customer relationships. 

#16 Host, record, and share free webinars

One tip to successful inbound marketing for your online course business is hosting and sharing free webinars. This way, you will increase brand awareness and trust towards you and acquaint more people with your teaching style. This likely will drive more sales in the near future.  
 

Check Tips and Tricks about Free Webinars.

#17 Publish mini-courses on YouTube

Mini-courses on YouTube will contribute to your success as well. As webinars, will acquaint new prospects and opportunities with your teaching style. And if you use the right body language and intonation and provide them with valuable content, then you most likely generate high-quality leads who, later on, you can turn into real-time customers.  
 

Read 7 Steps To Use YouTube Promoting Your Online Courses.

#18 Create fun and fascinating quizzes

Quizzes and tests encourage students to become more active learners and listeners. So, if you want to keep them engaged, you have to offer these activities However, even if they are not yet your students, fun educational quizzes can increase your rankings and visibility as people generally love to take quizzes and tests when they are bored. Make sure to have a nice visual and a title, and it will grab some attention. Thus, it will also increase the chance of a quiz taker to visit and skim through your website after the quiz (if it is interesting enough). 

#19 Sell books on Amazon

Many methods grew old. Nevertheless, books are always in demand. People love reading, especially those who are interested in personal growth and education. Use this knowledge and create e-books that you can easily upload and sell on amazon. This will help you to increase brand awareness and have a side hustle at the same time. 

#20 Create and share slides 

Presentations and slides are potent visual communication elements that you can use in inbound marketing. When you have created informative graphics for a certain course or lecture concerning a specific topic, you can share them for free so that users can also see the course’s visual elements and the content’s informative component. Plus, above all, we are visual learners. Therefore, this post and content can be quite educational and pleasing for many.  
 

Learn How to Add Voice Over on Google Slides and PowerPoint.

Outbound marketing

Outbound marketing is a form of marketing that aims to sell, whether it is billboards or social media paid advertisements. It is usually one-way communication, unlike inbound marketing which also focuses on CRM. 

#21 Build an email list

The first advice we can provide you with in order to be able to create a successful outbound marketing campaign is to build an email list. Because you will need a list of prospects, you can reach out to. 

You can build an email list by collecting emails of various website visitors through social media, pop-ups, quizzes, free sign-ups to get a discount, landing pages, etc. 

#22 Start cold calling email campaigns

FOMO is also useful for creating email campaigns. It will allow you to send emails occasionally and inform your customers about discounts, coupons, and gift certificates so that they will be aware of your course and aware of offers that they cannot simply deny.  
 

To create a campaign, you need to collect emails first, and you can’t do that without your user’s consent. Pop-ups and chatbots work best for collecting emails; you just need to put a field for email. Also, you can promote free resources on your social media but make them available via email. And when someone emails your customer service, it’s good to snatch that email and add it to your email list.  
 

The two most important things about email marketing you should keep in mind: consistency and not spamming. You need to send your emails regularly. If you send emails irregularly, customers will easily forget about you. However, if you send emails every single day, multiple times a day, it will just annoy them and make them not take your emails seriously. They can even unsubscribe. 

#23 Begin guest blogging

Guest blogging is an excellent way to promote your website or your business in general, but there are a few things you can do wrong. For example, you can write using too much “selling” language, which will just annoy the reader, and maybe even break the policies of the guest website, and they will delete the post. Or, you may be posting it on the wrong website that is not related to your niche, which won’t bring you the desired results. So, make sure to choose the right platform for guest posting. 

So, in order to write a good article, you should:

• Pick the right topic. The topic must be relevant to your company, and it also must be something you know well. An article published on a popular website is a good place to show off your expertise, so don’t hesitate to do that.
• Write as an individual. This sounds counterintuitive, but you should write about the topic as an independent writer, not as a brand. It is better to avoid your company’s name in your article. Although you use this blog post to promote your brand, the reader should not feel that while reading because it will feel artificial and imposing. No one likes that. Consequently, you should not hype your company, because that won’t be considered trustworthy. 
• Be unique. Google, undoubtedly the most popular search engine, uses the BERT model of search. In short, it promotes more unique articles.  
   

So, if you get offered to write a featured article or a blogpost on somebody else’s website, remember these key rules and don’t write things that you wouldn’t like to read yourself. 

#24 Get interviewed on podcasts & journals

Interviews are similar to guest blogging. Those are a great way to show your knowledge and expertise. But, in this case, it’s a perfect place to share information about your brand. Make sure to negotiate with the interviewer about the questions they will ask. This is especially important with live interviews. You would want to prepare the answers beforehand and have some time to think. It is also helpful to talk to the interviewer after the interview takes place in order to come to an agreement on what questions they will publish or save in the podcast.

Apart from that, there are a few things you should remember:  
 

• Make it personal. One of the most discussed things about Steve Jobs is his past and how he actually built Apple. It makes people compassionate and empathetic. So, share the story of your brand and your personal story. That will make you more humane, relatable, and trustworthy. 
• Talk about things you know. It is very easy to make a mistake when you are talking about something you don’t know. A listener/reader with experience can notice that all the trust you were working so hard to build up would be gone, and you will lose a potential customer, especially if they make a public statement. 
• Tell about why they should you. Here is the place where you hype up your company. But not in a straightforward advertising way. You should talk about why the reader or listener should choose you, not somebody else. List the actual benefits and unique things about your brand that make you a better choice. 

#25 Let influencers speak about your course

One more tip that will help you to push the boundaries and reach audiences faster is to use influencer marketing. Nowadays, people trust influencers more, as they are real people who just have an audience and can maintain interest. It is most likely that a person will choose a product the favorite influencer recommended rather than someone else.  
 

So, reach out to influencers, set collaboration terms, and ensure their audience will be interested in your topic before purchasing ads.  
 

Read 5 Ways To Use Social Proof To Sell More Online Courses.

Get the best results from your marketing

If you follow all the steps mentioned in each section, then you definitely will succeed. However, remember that the key elements of success are consistency, risk-taking, and belief in yourself. 

Also, if you want your strategies to work, you will have to learn efficient time management. We suggest, first of all, choosing a platform that allows you to manage various aspects of your business from one place.  
 

For course creators, such a platform can be Uteach. With Uteach, you will be able to create a multifunctional website with as many pages and menus as you want in less than 2 minutes. Also, you have multiple flexible pricing options that are extremely affordable.  
 

Uteach ensures the ease of use and gives enough functionality to host live lessons, sell digital and physical products, and manage a blog, payments, and marketing all from one place. 

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