How to Sell Online Courses (Steps, Tips, and Examples)

Selling online classes can be simplified into six easy steps. No business degree or sales background needed. Begin by clicking here!

If you're spending enough time researching the possibility of creating online courses it's likely that you'll feel the desire to create your own course online.

An online search of sales strategies can leave you in a tizzy state and the all too familiar Imposter Syndrome is slowly creeping in.

There are 101 terms and concepts you must get familiar with. Everyone or their mother knows more about selling online courses than you .

How to sell online courses can be broken into six easy steps. A no-business degree or sales background needed.

In this guide, we've simplified all you have to know about selling online online courses that will help you grow your audience - and grow your revenue.

Read on to learn the process of how to make money selling online courses. Click the links below to skip 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.      Launch and Refine
6.      Develop Sales Strategies
7.      Use Marketing Strategies
8.      Three examples of how to Market Online Courses From Course Creators
9.      Three Tips to Successfully the sale of online courses

A Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Online Courses

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

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

At every step, we've provided the basics of the information you require and additional reading suggestions to further educate yourself.

We've compiled a comprehensive guide for how to sell online courses.

Know the people you're selling to

If you're planning to offer online online courses, the primary factor you should consider is the person you're selling your course to.

Most course creators who are first timers stumble 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 course's concept prior to create and sell online courses so that you don't waste your time and energy.

In order to sell online courses you must know:

• Who is your ideal potential customer
• What issues are they facing?
• What they need from you

This is essential to help you develop an item that will be valuable for your customers and create a community of loyal enthusiastic customers.

Here are 3 steps to help you locate your target audience:

Research your Audience

If you want to find your audience, then you must conduct investigation.

If you already have existing clients, you can start by establishing them. If you're not selling a product or service yet, look at who you'd sell your courses in the ideal scenario.

Because of the internet it is now easy to conduct research about your audience. You can use Google and other social networks to find your ideal market and to learn more about them.

When conducting your audience research, make sure to accomplish these three things:

Determine the solution you're proposing

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

Consider the results from your online training and who could benefit most from the course you're offering.

Imagine your program as the answer for someone's struggles - which problem(s) do you have to fix? What challenges can your course help people overcome?

If you can identify the solution you're offering, you can think more clearly about who your target customers are.

Define your audience demographics

When you've identified who will benefit most from what you're offering, begin to become more specific. The key demographics for your audience, including:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Family status
• Hobbies

It is also possible to get deeper into the details, including their current employment status, their the level of education, income, and much more.

Your aim is to be as precise as you can to know whom your intended audience is based on their shared characteristics.

Look up your competition

When conducting your research on the audience, you may also consider competitors in your chosen field.

If you are aware of the people you're competing with You can begin to find out who's needs aren't already catered to or who they aren't targeting with their product and marketing.

Listen to your ideal customers

When you've done your base of research, it's a good idea to reach out to your ideal customers and talk to them.

Internet research is crucial, however to really find out who your ideal customers are they are, you must hear directly from them.

These are three strategies:

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

Pay attention to the people you want to reach to find out exactly what they are looking for from you, and what you can best serve them by offering an online course.

Try to connect with at least 50 potential customers in your research to give you a clear picture of your audience's needs and also how you can sell your online online courses to the segment of the market.

Narrow down your audience

Based on the findings from your audience research and interviews with customers, you can then limit your focus on your market.

It's very helpful to make the user profile or avatar - this is an extensive description of your ideal client which focuses on one individual specifically.

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

• The demographics of their core
• The goals they have set and their values
• Their challenges and problems
• The role they play in the purchasing process as well as potential issues
• They can be found in their sources for data e.g. books, magazines, news sites

If you're selling online classes, you're aiming to talk directly with the customer. A clear customer avatar helps you focus your marketing efforts in terms of content marketing and copywriting as well as paid advertisements and the social media strategies.

Cost the course

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

It's good to know that there are simple techniques you can use for pricing your course and stay clear of one of the most common mistakes when selling online courses - selling the course at too low a price.

Price your course based on the value of the information

The trick to sell online courses is to view your online course as the answer to a particular challenge. This principle applies for pricing your courses too.

You shouldn't charge your course according to the length of the course or the difficulty of your course. determine the price based on the worth of your material.

It's not just about selling data You're selling a result. What is the transformation your program offer? What will your students be able to do when they finish the course?

No matter how long it takes students to complete the course, what matters is that the outcome you provide as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Don't undersell your course

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

It's a common belief that the cheaper the price of your course, the higher number you'll be able to sell. However, pricing your course too high can harm the long-term viability of your business.

Additionally, it means you will earn less for each sale, there are more than one way to look at a drackback:

• Lower prices attract less committed customers
• It reduces the perceived value of your course
• The wrong way to value your skills could damage your credibility
• It costs the same to market a cheap course as a higher priced course
• There is less money available to reinvest into solving more of your students problems

Though it's tempting, if you price your course at a lower price in order to increase sales but you may be doing more harm than good. If you're looking to understand how to sell online, make sure you have the confidence to price your courses higher.

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

Take into consideration pricing levels

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

Prices tiers are a way to satisfy buyers' need to consider the various options available, without having to take a look at the courses of your competition.

As an example, you can have 3 pricing tiers with the most basic package starting at the lowest price. The medium package will be your core course and most buyers will opt for. A premium option could have exclusive benefits, such as one-to-one or group coaching or the live element of teaching.

With pricing tiers, it is possible to make your program more accessible to a wider variety of clients without degrading the value you can get from your expertise.

Whichever pricing strategy you use be sure to always adjust it in the future. As you get more customers as your course expands then increase the cost accordingly. You can charge higher as you refine your marketing and add value to the course.

Examine your pricing and find out the best way to serve the people you want to reach.

Think about selling before you sell

Although it may seem a contrary concept, pre-selling can help you determine the need of customers prior to investing the time and money to create your course.

If you prepare your course in advance, you can get instant feedback about what your intended customers are looking for.

If your program doesn't make a splash the idea, it's time to improvement.

Selling your online course prior to launch allows you to create a list of customers and start creating the community will be useful after you've completed the course and made it available for students.

Here are some suggestions to help you get started in pre-selling

Develop a minimum viable course (MVC)

Also known as a"pilot course," a minimum viable course is the first edition of the course is available for sale.

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

A MVC can let you try out your target audience, before investing too much resources in order in order to build a complete high-end course.

It is the idea to utilize your MVC to collect feedback and testimonials from customers, which you can then use to enhance and promote your next course. This will help to sell your online course in larger quantities down the line.

The cost of your pilot course is less than the future courses

So that customers don't feel dissatisfied at your course content - or even leaving bad reviews make sure you price your course pilot at a lower cost than you'll need to charge for the course in the near future.

It is possible to promote your course's pilot as an exclusive opportunity for participants to participate during the test phase to have a peek into the course's content.

When your first group of students has completed your course and you've got all the favorable reviews you're looking for, you can increase the price for future customers.

Create a drip-schedule

It is also possible to use a drip schedule structure to develop course material after your students have completed every lesson or course.

has the Drip Schedule function which allows you to control how students access your content, based on the launch date you have chosen or the schedule you choose.

For example, you could give students access to an updated training video every week over a 2 month period. This allows you to develop your content in the course of time, while taking in feedback from your students as well as improving your course content.

Pre-selling functions as cheat sheets for course creators - you get the benefits of feeling the needs of your audience and collecting feedback prior to when you begin creating your course for real as well as putting time and effort into the product.

Launch and refine

The process of how to sell online online courses doesn't follow a straight line, it's more of a circle.

When you create an online course, and then upload it, your job isn't finished.

The most popular course creators, which also have the highest sales of courses, follow a regular course launch and updating their online course.

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

This is how it works:

• Learn:Ask your customers for feedback to understand the things they would like from your course
• 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 by incorporating feedback from your customers. This will help you provide a high-quality, effective customer experience.
• Start: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.

Feedback from your customers as well as refining the offering as well as content allows you to enhance your content as time goes by making it the ideal product for your audience.

This begins by pre-selling your online course but this continues long after the launch of your course - this means you keep expanding and improving the course and its information based on customer feedback making sure you have the best possible course that is available.

These are some advantages of having feedback loops

• Learn what your clients actually think
• 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 your target audience

Take note of the opinions of your clients to learn how to sell online classes to your intended audience - they are the best advisors you are able to have!

To get the most impact, you should create an opportunity for students to give feedback at the final session of each course. Include a survey that lets students voice their thoughts or ideas, as well as any concerns. Also, you can schedule one-on-one meetings with a certain group of students to get deeper feedback.

If you're running an online group of learners, you can use this area to gather feedback from students - post open-ended surveys, questions and polls in order to gather the most data you can on how to enhance your teaching.

Develop sales strategies

Online courses aren't an art form that is difficult to master - it's an art that everyone can accomplish. If you want to be successful in selling your course It's best to design a funnel for sales for your online course. here's how to do it:

How to create a sales funnel for selling online courses

A sales funnel describes the path your clients take towards making a purchase. It outlines every checkpoint where potential buyers will come into contact with your brand.

They begin at the top of your sales funnel when they first hear about your company and move through the funnel towards making a purchase and becoming loyal brand advocates.

Imagine your sales funnel as an actual funnel - it's more expansive at the top, but it's narrower towards the bottom.

The top is your broad audience. By the time they are at the low, you will have a few chosen people who are likely to make purchases and turn into regular customers.

This process is expected - your course isn't made to be accessible to everyone!

The sales funnel can help you keep your focus and energy when selling online classes. The funnel can also assist you in:

• Make sure you are able to target your messages
• Identify key touchpoints for potential customers
• Make the most of opportunities for selling
• Remove sales friction
• Measure and track the success of your sales

When you map out your customers' journey, you will be able to see better how you can direct your customers to a goal for example, buying your course online.

Here's a model that is among the most popular examples: Awareness -> Consideration -> Conversion -> Loyalty -> Advocacy

• AwarenessAt the beginning of the funnel is the Awareness stage, where your clients become aware of your existence. Your name is first onto their radar, and then they decide on whether or not to learn more about you. It is the first impression that someone has from your name.
• ExaminationThe second phase of consideration Your potential clients begin looking into the possibilities available to them as options to solve their issue and whether your brand is one of the options they want to keep exploring.
• ConversionThe Conversion stage is the critical step to sell online courses - customers have gathered the information they're looking for and are prepared to make a purchase. The Conversion phase is when you ensure your customers that your business is the one they want to purchase from.
• Loyalty -The loyalty phase focuses on the process of selling online online courses for the long term - following the customer has made a purchase and keep returning to you because you continue to give them something valuable, engage with them and retain them interested.
• AdvocacyThe Advocacy phase occurs when satisfied customers go on to introduce more people to the top of your sales funnel , by disseminating your course to others on their social networks. They also act as brand advocates, helping to grow your reach and the potential to market online courses to more people.

Using your sales funnel

After you've created your sales funnel and customer's journey, you're able to start to create content to meet your customers' needs and guide them through the next step on your funnel.

Here are some ideas about the kind of content you could create to each step of the funnel.

The goal at each stage in the funnel should be to pull people down further in the funnel. For example, if you host a webinar (mofu) make sure to share things from the bottom of the funnel, like an analysis of a case or promotional offer (bofu).

Do not worry about creating every type of material that will entice customers. Choose one or two strategies for each stage of your funnel, to start.

Your sales funnel is really beneficial to aid in planning your marketing strategies and to determine where you should devote your resources and time to sell online courses - look at the next step!

Make use of to market strategies

If you want to know how to promote online courses, you need to master some fundamental marketing techniques to reach the people you want to reach and convince people to buy.

There's a huge number of methods to market your online courses, however there are a few simple methods you can use to sell online courses right away regardless of your field or area of expertise.

Here are the best marketing strategies used for selling online courses:

•    Content marketing
•    Email marketing
•    Social media marketing
•    Influencer marketing

Content marketing

Content marketing can be described as the primary focus of a course creator's marketing plan.

Content marketing can refer to any kind of content you develop for your business, be it blog content or video content, email content and much more.

To sell online classes, content marketing is a way to inform your audience and raise brand awareness. If you can produce valuable information for your target audience and they keep engaging with your brand and are more likely to convert into potential customers later on.

Content marketing also helps to:

• Enhance your brand's reputation
• More the number of referrals
• Boost your search engine visibility
• Build a closer relationship with clients

The key to using content marketing for your business is targeting your audience through the platforms and channels that they use most.

Find out where your target 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'd like to sell more to clients who have already purchased from you, or to nurture prospects who aren't ready for buy yet, email marketing can be a handy marketing strategy to have up your sleeve.

Marketing via email lets you connect with your audience via emails that are created to welcome customers to your company, provide them with important resources and help them move through the sales funnel.

If you are able to build an email list, you can direct your potential customers to engage with them frequently and establish relationships with them over time.

By using email marketing, you can as well:

• Offer a more personal service to your customers
• Provide product suggestions
• Get feedback from your customers through surveys
• Increase traffic to your website
• Add value for your audience

For the first step in creating your list of email addresses, work on creating lead magnets that inspire your readers to share their email addresses with you.

Some ideas for top converting lead magnets include:

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

When you've got an email database, the trick is to maintain those subscribers. It's about creating email messages that offer genuine value to your audience that include a wealth of information and helpful tools.

Marketing via social media

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

Social media can be a very effective tool for selling online courses due because it can get your business' name out to the appropriate people more quickly.

If you have the proper marketing strategy on social media, your brand awareness can shoot up overnight.

Your success on social media is contingent on your approach, including:

• The content you share is important, and whether or not it's useful or appealing to your targeted audience
• What you do to present your brand , including the voice of your brand, images and content style
• How you engage with other accounts, including customers, influencers and other brands
• How do you build a fan base for your business - by making people feel seen and heard

As with all marketing strategies, your social media should aim to represent your brand 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 draw the attention of your target audience and assist in selling online classes.

Marketing via Influencers

The process of establishing an influencer marketing strategy is straightforward - simply look through the profiles of the influencers within your field who align with your values as a brand. Simply send an email to them privately and introduce yourself.

Collaborations with influencers may be paid or unpaid and may include:

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

Through partnering with influential people in your niche, you can boost customer trust in the brand you represent and introduce your company's message to a wider market.

  Three simple tips for more effective brand marketing  

Look at The Big Picture

Instead of running multiple promotions via email, social media and on your website, you should try to ensure that all your channels of marketing work to complement each other.

The content you post on one platform should be repeated across all channels This not only assists in creating a consistent image of your brand for clients but also helps you to repurpose and recycle material.

In the same vein as the sourdough bread example - you could decide to create an initiative to make sourdough starters with wheat flour (white), wholewheat or rye. It is possible to create a series of videos tutorials on YouTube and make Reels through Instagram and send out weekly email newsletters focussing on the different types of starters with downloadable guides.

The customers will find your content via the channel they use the most and have a clear idea of the services your company offers and how you can assist them.

It's the same information and knowledge used in different ways - and it is all about establishing your credibility as a Sourdough expert to your customers.

Write compelling copy

Every marketing piece you write is required to grab the audience's attention to help you sell your products.

That means you need to learn how to write appealing, compelling text that motivates your reader to do something like sign-up for your newsletter, sharing with someone else, or purchasing your course online!

Use social evidence

Remember that your buyers are just human beings - therefore it's normal if they're unsure of whether to purchase for a brand they do not know.

Social proof includes:

• Reviews and Testimonials
• Customer interviews
• Case studies
• Statistics e.g. how many people that you've helped
• Accreditations and logos of brands

When you showcase your past happy customers, you can persuade buyers to purchase from your.

Social proof also leverages the fear of missing out or FOMO effect. If everyone else is purchasing and loving your goods The rest of your audience will want to get involved also!

Use social proof on the landing page, on your social media, email marketing and many more.

  Need more ways to market and sell online courses? Get our complete guide to everything you need to know about how you can make money selling online courses.

3 Examples of How to Market Online Courses from Course Creators

To show just how easy it can be to master the art of to sell online courses, we've picked 3 case studies from course creators who started off the same way as you.

This is how they learned to sell online courses to their audience and create six-figure companies during the procedure.

    Mimi Goodwin - Sew It! Academy

The creator of the course Mimi Goodwin first started her online sewing business with a blog way back in 2012. Utilizing YouTube to create and share videos of tutorials Mimi quickly increased her followers to over a million viewers.

The next step was create an online course called Sew It! Academy, which would allow her to earn money through her blog and create an extremely successful business. It has seen huge growth of course purchases online.

Mimi says her success is due on the basis of a'sell and not sell' ideology. YouTube tutorials on her channel provide useful information to her viewers which introduces them to her brand as well as her knowledge. Customers can then join a subscription-based system to gain special assistance and tools.

Mimi utilizes Instagram as a method to sell online courses by highlighting customer successes and sharing her own posts and personal stories. As the face behind the brand she believes authenticity as well as a person-to-person approach will help build a loyal community.

The most important takeaways

• Use social media for growing your reach organically
• Free resources such as video tutorials
• You must be authentic and honest in your approach to selling

    Mike Nelson - 9to5Dropouts    

After quitting his corporate job to launch his own company, Mike Nelson knew he had to learn how to make online courses sell quickly. His biggest concern was the fact that people would not take him seriously and wouldn't have the confidence to invest in his courses - however, the course was a success regardless.

Utilizing free webinars to generate awareness of his skills and to promote his online course Mike was able to launch the first class in his 9to5Dropouts academy. Mike began to expand the online course company using a combination of influencer marketing, paid YouTube advertisements and his own facebook course community.

Paid advertisements help Mark connect with a specific target audience and generate more brand awareness. After they purchase and are accepted into his Facebook community and are turned into loyal brand advocates.

Through these techniques to sell online courses, Mike has grown his business and built an academy which earns seven figures per year.

Important takeaways

• Find niche influencers for marketing
• Develop a community for courses to help sell additional courses
• Think about paying ads for the people you want to reach

    Mina Irfan - Universe Guru    

In the beginning of Universe Guru, Mina Irfan played around with various methods to sell online-based courses. Mina Irfan poured a lot of money and time into new technology and creating an impressive sales page - however it did not yield the outcomes she had hoped for.

In the end, Mina found that the most efficient method to promote online courses was to simplify the process. Mina makes use of YouTube to generate organic leads to her website. In addition, she hosts coaching sessions via Zoom.

To boost sales during slower period, Mina also uses discounts and incentives to entice new customers, including flash sales and course bundles. These are a way to get new customers acquainted with the academy and makes the students hooked.

Mina was officially one of the 10 top creators in 2021 thanks to her simple methods for selling online courses. Mina uses only a handful of methods to create leads and drive conversions - and it actually works!

Key takeaways:

• Make use of the channels for marketing that are already working for you
• Use discounts and incentives to boost sales
• Conduct webinars or coaching sessions to generate more leads.

Three Top Tips for Making Online Courses Sellable

These are the top three tips that you should keep in mind when trying to make online classes more accessible and grow your company, regardless of the place you're beginning from.

    Build a Community    

One of the top methods to market online classes is to establish the community of your courses. As the examples above demonstrate the importance of community to engage your customers, build brand loyalty and increase sales of your courses both now and in the near future.

    Change as you go    

If you are able to listen to students' reviews and gain insight through feedback You can design courses that you know your students want - not just what you believe they'd like.

Related:

    Make it Easy    

The secret to how to market online online courses isn't to think too much about it.

The first-time course creators typically have imposter syndrome, and the feeling of needing to be prepared. ready before they begin. However, the evidence of course creators within our group suggests that you can just begin and work out later.

In the case of selling classes, it's best to keep it simple. Focus on one core product, one offering and one main message. It is a good idea to test pre-selling before starting to develop the best product.

  Sell Online Courses using  

How to sell online courses is easier than you thought. This step-by-step tutorial is intended to help you sell additional courses, increase the number of people who take part in your courses and improve the amount of money you earn.

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