Developing a course marketing strategy for your online courses can be daunting. What content should you share with potential students? How often should you publish new content? How do social media posts fit into the equation? If you’re looking to create online courses that offer something unique and meaningful, then this blog post is for you! We’ll explore five tactics that will help generate more interest in your course and get more people enrolled.
What is a course marketing strategy and why do you need one
A marketing strategy is a plan of action that is designed to increase the demand for your product or service. A marketing strategy can encompass many different components and there are countless books and articles that will advise you on how to develop a good one; but, it can all be summed up into one sentence: “create content that is relevant to your niche and share it with the people who would like to read it.”
If you’re thinking of selling an online course and want to generate more interest in your product, then it’s important that you develop a marketing strategy. You’ll need to come up with content that is relevant to your niche, share this content with the people who might be interested in reading it and track metrics for measuring ROI (successful sales per dollar put into advertising).
Defining your target audience
We would recommend starting by defining your target audience. The majority of courses are offered on specific topics – for example creating art or cooking healthy meals – so find out what keywords potential students use when looking for information about the topic. Once you’ve identified these words, create targeted blog posts around each one and publish them regularly. It can also be worth capitalizing on current events which are related to your course. For example, if you’re selling a cooking class and November is National Baking Month then be sure to publish an article on the topic of baking and share it with people who might like to enroll in your online course!
Developing your personal brand
As well as promoting your courses through social media channels, you should also develop your personal brand. Consider developing a website or blog that offers information about topics related to the course and be sure to link back to all of the social media accounts where potential students can find more information. If you want people reading your content, then they need to know who is writing it!
As an educator in the online learning space, you already have a ‘personal brand.’ Your students are interested in taking courses from people who they know will be able to deliver quality content that is relevant to them; so why not share some of your personality? Take pictures while traveling or eating at new restaurants. Share photos of your dogs or cats (or other pets). The more interesting you are, the better!
Using social media to promote your course
Social media is a great way to get people interested in what you have to offer. Social channels like Facebook and Twitter allow for very targeted marketing because users can be segmented based on demographics such as age, location and interests.
You can share videos, images and blog posts on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Google+. Some people are visual learners so it’s important that you include some attractive visuals in all of your social media content! It may also be useful to create an Instagram account where students can follow the journey of your online course.
Engaging with students on social media can also help you to get a better understanding of what type of student they are and why they might be interested in enrolling in your course. For example, if someone likes or shares one of your posts about cooking healthy meals, they may be interested in taking a course about healthy cooking. Simple interactions like these can help you to create better content and develop stronger relationships with your students.
Social media posts don’t have to be overly promotional; in fact, most people expect social updates to be more about the person behind the brand than what is happening with their products or services. A good rule of thumb: if your post sounds like it could come from a friend who just graduated from college, or from a colleague who you work within the same industry as yourself – then it is probably okay to post.
Promoting benefits of enrolling in your class
Make sure potential students know what they’re getting into by sharing blog posts that clearly lay out all the benefits of signing up for your course. What types of assignments will students have to complete? Are there any prerequisites or background knowledge that is necessary for success in the course? What types of experiences do successful graduates share after they’ve completed your course?
One way to promote the benefits of enrolling in your online course is to share blog posts that clearly lay out all the benefits. For example, you could share what types of assignments students will have to complete in the course, whether there are any prerequisites or background knowledge that is necessary for success in the course, and what types of experiences successful graduates share after they’ve completed it. All of these things can give potential students a better idea about whether or not it’s worth their time and money to sign up.
Using email marketing to increase enrollment in a class
Email has been shown over and over again to be one of the most effective ways to get people interested in signing up for your online class. Email marketing is easy to set up and the ROI (return on investment) can be huge when done right! You can use A/B testing in order to determine what types of messages are most effective at getting people interested in learning more about enrolling with you.
To use email marketing to increase enrollment in an online course, you first need to determine what types of emails are most effective at getting people interested in learning more about enrolling with your company. For example, you could run A/B tests that compare two different types of messages: one that is super promotional and another that focuses more on the student’s impact after completing the course. When you find a message that is more effective than the others, keep sending out those types of email updates because they should be generating higher conversion rates.
Evaluating success metrics
Once you’ve created a marketing strategy for your course, it’s important that you measure the impact of each tactic so that you know what works well and how much money should be spent on advertising or promoting each piece of content.
There is no point in doing something if you’re not going to measure how effective it was! Whether that be the number of signups, the conversion rate from visits to your site or list building activity. You need a benchmark so you know what success looks like and can compare these numbers over time.
Being able to measure how your tactics are impacting your course performance will help you to better understand which marketing techniques should be repeated and which should be discontinued. It’s a good idea to keep track of the traffic that is coming from social media channels because this can lead you down new avenues for promoting courses in the future!
How do I start?
Leverage your social media channels to get people interested in what you’re teaching. If you’re just getting started, then it’s particularly important that your content is high quality and engaging. When it comes time to promote course enrollments, email is the best marketing channel for increasing interest and conversions! Of course, there’s no better way of knowing if something works than by testing different types of messages with targeted audiences over a period of time (A/B testing).
If you’re looking to create an online classroom that offers something unique and meaningful, then these five tactics will help generate more interest in your course and get more people enrolled. Whether you’ve been teaching a long time or are new to the world of education, these tips can be applied with success. It’s never too late to start building a stellar marketing strategy for your course!
