How to sell an online course?

How to sell your online training?

You have developed a fantastic online training that you are very proud of. You know that the course contains a lot of value and can enrich the life of your student (in any way possible). But how do you ensure that your ideal customer/student knows about the existence of your course and actually buys it?

In this blog, we take you into the world of online marketing and give you five tips on how to best market and sell your online course.

1. Social media

Did you know that you can use social media very effectively for marketing purposes? Perhaps you already have a large group of followers on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Do they already know what you do? Do they know that you have developed an online course?

If not, start sharing! In your stories, in your feed, via LinkedIn or Instagram "lives".

Take your followers behind the scenes: what is your mission? Your vision? What do you want to achieve with your online course and why is it so valuable?

Social media is particularly suitable for building a real connection with your follower, which ultimately increases the chance that he/she will also trust you (know, like, trust) and is willing to buy a product or service from you.

Of course, you want to avoid your followers not wanting to be your followers anymore because you constantly "push" your course on them, but you can certainly bring up your course and everything surrounding it weekly or twice a week.

2. Email marketing

Do you already have a free product that you give away to potential customers? Think, for example, of a free e-book, a webinar, a masterclass, or a mini-training. You can consider asking for an email address "in exchange for" this freebie.

You can collect these email addresses in an email marketing program such as Active Campaign or Campaign Monitor.

In this way, you can collect a beautiful list of email addresses of potential customers.

You can also use social media to grow this email list. For example, mention your "giveaway" in your stories or in your posts, and add a "call to action", so that people are triggered and feel that they really want to have this giveaway!

In this way, they end up on your email list and you can send them a series of emails in which you share value and offer them a product (funnel) or you can send them an email when you are going to launch your course.

3. Webinars

Giving a live webinar is also an excellent way to bring your course to the attention. In the webinar, you can share knowledge that shows that you are the expert in your field.

Offer a lot of value and make sure that the participants in your webinar really learn something new. At the end of the webinar, you can, for example, make a special offer that only applies to the participants of the webinar and is only valid for a certain period (for example, 24 hours).

4. Advertising

Another option to bring your online course to the attention is advertising. For example, you can advertise on social media such as Facebook and/or Instagram, or via Google.

Of course, you need a budget for this. When creating an advertisement, choose your target group very consciously: this way, Facebook or Google knows better who they should show the advertisement to.

Also, make sure that you keep track of how your advertisements convert (in other words, how many people click and how many people buy?). You can use tools such as Google Analytics for this. Of course, you want to earn back the money you invest in advertising double and triple!

5. Salespage

And ultimately, everything has to happen on your sales page. This is where the potential customer/student ends up after downloading your giveaway, clicking through your emails, or clicking

Make sure this page is well-constructed!

Highlight the pain points of your ideal customer (what are they struggling with?), clearly show what results and solutions your course provides, and use testimonials for persuasive power (or gather them first if you don't have any, by letting a few potential students participate in your course for free or at a low cost).

It's important that your sales page is convincing and user-friendly; nothing is more frustrating for a customer than struggling with a payment system when they're finally ready to buy (like your online course)!

We hope we've given you some inspiration in this blog for how you can really start selling your online course in large numbers. Do you want more tips or just want to chat? At Pluvo, we're here for you and happy to brainstorm with you!