So, you have launched or are planning to launch your online courses. Wonderful. While speaking about our online courses, we usually tend to focus on only the digital promotion of it. What we forget about is the fact that your learners are sitting on the offline world. It does exist. Beyond digital marketing strategies, take steps to reach out to more people and sell courses.

Here are the best ways to market your online courses:

• Speak About Your Courses:

Seek opportunities where you will get to speak about your courses to your friends, family, and business contacts. Your extended social circle or people whom you network with might be interested in the training program you are offering. Let them know what exactly you are doing, your objective & how/why someone can buy from you. Your target market would become your best promoters! We like to socialise & talk about things associated to us. You must not overlook the power of a friend who can introduce your course to their friend.

• Join Events and Network:

Whether you like being on stage or not, attend local events and share your printed business cards. Keep an interesting call to action & join events which are usually attended by people in your industry. Network, get to know new people & build connections. Introduce yourself & offer to collaborate which would benefit both the parties. This is a great way to market your online courses. When you introduce yourself & join such events you open yourself to new opportunities. At industry related events you can find the most interested and engaged people of your industry, and collect business cards for calling out potential customers.

• Phone Outreach:

Are you catering to B2B? In that case, you should pick up the phone & connect to potential customers. Ideally, you should already be having with you some industry contacts that you can reach out to and introduce your course to them. In case you are out of warm contacts, get into cold emailing and calls. Find a business listing of companies who are your potential customers. Find the right person & keep updating the contact information spreadsheet. Begin by sending them an introductory email. Gradually, pitch what you can do for them.  Be professional, stay precise & show how your courses would help them grow. Don’t forget to follow up the next day. Or, add them into your email list. When you send them emails, let them know. You will be amazed by the results. However, get prepared for both negative and positive responses!

• Schedule Meetings:

If you are selling premium mentorship programs, schedule a meeting or a presentation. Let them take a demo class or clarify all of their doubts. It’s not feasible doing it for low-priced courses. In case your courses are high ticket, this would work well. Most high-paying customers might expect a more personal approach, in that case you can book a live seminar and invite people over. Towards the end, pitch your high ticket sales.

• Accept Offline Payments:

A large section of the society is still more comfortable paying offline. In terms of your course, not many would prefer that. But, giving an additional option doesn’t hurt.

Allow both Cash Payments as well as online transfers, Cash payment would work if your work is focused on the local community & you have a physical setup too.

Traditionally marketing is indeed dead. But, local advertisement is still a thing as people are hyperactive about things they get benefit from.

HAPPY STUDENTS ARE THE BEST REFERRALS

Being an online educator, you are not only selling your coaching program but also a promise. You are responsible for the success of your students. If you deliver what you promise, people return your love and dedication by speaking about you in informal settings.

That’s word of mouth for you! Being the strongest form of marketing, it can come only naturally when you deliver what you promise. Word of mouth means when your customers speak highly of your coaching program. Recommends your services to their friends, family, and colleagues who are in need of it.

A happy customer will not blink twice before suggesting you as the go-to expert. Keep your students happy while going to the extra step where it is needed. In no time you will have a loyal & engaged community of students vouching for you.

How can word of mouth serve you?

• Communication:

Delivering education can take many forms, but it is a form of human communication. Be open to communication with your students, welcome their questions and encourage social interactions between your students.

If you are selling courses through Spayee, you can encourage your learners to use the discussion forum.

Everytime you find a student stuck, or who hasn’t finished a course, reach out to them. Personally email them or send them a follow up notification.

This personal touch will get you an edge over other educators.

• Student Engagement

Learning isn’t passive activity. It is an active process. Hence, engagement in class plays a huge role in making learning successful for your learners. Give your batch different tasks, conduct live tests, give weekly assignments & conduct doubt clearing sessions.

An online course has to be more than a pre-recorded lecture. Create quizzes & take exams to reinforce knowledge. Track their progress through their dashboard.  Create a unique Interactive Video where you can take your teaching to the next level by adding fun elements like quizzes, notes, audio and ebooks, Q&A. You should know How to record videos for your online course at home through YouTube.

• Goals & Certificates:

You must be having your courses’ learning goals and objectives in your course landing page already. You must show them clearly what results they can expect out of your course. 

Push the students towards the path, motivate them to take actionable steps. Every step has to be well-planned out before. Whether you are teaching a new language or teaching them to write better, you need to make sure that progress can be tracked. 

Break down the whole module into smaller sections which act as short-term goals. Eventually, offer a higher level of achievement by giving them a course completion certificate. This one certificate would push your student as well as create your brand.