7 Different Ways to Effectively Promote Your Online Courses
Your course content is ready to be shown to the world. The next vital step is to grow your course enrolments by adopting digital marketing strategies to reach as many learners as possible.
Here are a few ways to effectively get the word of your courses out in no time.
Start a Blog
A blog that talks about industry trends, inspires ideas, and provides helpful materials will help attract the wandering eyeballs of your site visitors who are interested in the topic. The blog content does not only revolve around your course, but covers a wide range of insight.
The richness and diversity of the (free) blog content can also help increase your brand awareness and build credibility for your online course, which is a paid subscription. Getting a glimpse through the quality of the blog can assure your site visitors and make them feel more comfortable with the decision of signing up for the paid online course.
Launch Other Channels of Social Media
Depending on the demographics of your target audience and the media channels they tend to consume, you have a myriad of options regarding social media channels to choose from.
Youtube can be a fun and engaging channel for visual learners. You can create tutorial videos, illustrative presentations, talk shows, Q&A sessions, etc. and interact with your audience through the comment section. At the end of the videos, you can use a call-to-action to ask them to subscribe and follow as well as direct them to your paid course homepage. Similar to Youtube in terms of visual appeal, but even more casual and approachable, you can also try your hands at Tiktok.
If your potential course customers tend to be more academic and/or professional, you can start showing off your expertise by answering questions on Quora, or writing posts on Linkedin and sharing them among your professional circle. This helps build your branding as an expert within the field.
Host a Webinar
Before signing up for the paid content, curious learners who are on the fence are likely to prefer to experience a trial version of your course. This can also give them face-to-face access to you, the course instructor, and give them a more personal impression of the course.
Webinars can be in the form of course excerpts, tutorials, presentations, panel discussions, or live Q&A sessions. A typical webinar can last somewhere between 30 to 60 minutes and are often launched for free. Webinars tend to be beginner-friendly and relaxed in terms of commitment, hence they are perfect for interested audiences who want to explore more about the course.
Collect an Email List
Having a large database of both current and potential students can be one of the most effective ways to keep your audience in the loop.
By using a hook, you can ask your subscribers to give you their contact details in exchange for a freebie. For instance, you can create a pop-up on your website that gives away a free ebook or make a link for webinar registration.
Once you already have their emails, you can easily keep in touch with your subscribers with updates of your course content, special discounts and offers limited to newsletter subscribers, customer testimonials or brand narratives, etc. It is important to always provide helpful information and takeaways in your emails instead of only nudging your audience to sign up for the course.
Optimize SEO on Your Website
In order to help your content attract more eyeballs on search engines, it is important to use the right keywords, tags and descriptions so your articles are more likely to be on top of the search results.
Keywords should be concise, accurate, and highly relevant to your content. This should be consistent throughout your website name and address, meta description, page titles and headers. Illustrative images and pictures should also be embedded with relevant image name, caption, and alt-text to increase the possibility of being picked up by the search engine.
Write a Press Release
Having a third-party opinion and review on your course can help persuade your audience that the promotion of your course is not all of your own talk. This method works when your course has already been around for quite some time and it has built a certain reputation to it.
You can work with local media channels by pitching your ideas to journalists, and ask to be featured in one of their online articles. An easier and more accessible channel can be collaborating with other influencers and appearing in their blog section as a guest.
Include a Section of Customer Testimonials
Potential learners love to hear success stories of people who were once in their shoes. By interviewing and gathering the feedback of past learners, you can paint a more vivid picture of the outcomes that are to be expected from your course.
A real, positive review can be very persuasive because it is relatable and personal. Word of mouth can prove to be very effective if your course repeatedly reaps success stories and proves a high level of customer satisfaction.
