How do you sell your online training?

Five marketing channels, from email to advertising, to bring your online course to the attention of buyers.

How do you sell your online training?

You have developed a fantastic online training course that you are very proud of. You know that the course provides a lot of value and that it can enrich the lives of your students in one way or another. But how do you ensure that your ideal client or student knows your course exists and actually buys it?

In this blog, we will 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? You may already have a large group of followers on platforms like 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, or 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 perfect for building a real connection with your followers, which ultimately increases the chance that they will trust you (know, like, trust) and be willing to buy a product or service from you.

Of course, you want to avoid your followers unfollowing you because you are constantly "shoving your course down their throats," but you can certainly mention your course and everything surrounding it once or twice a week.‍

2. Email marketing

Do you already have a free product that you give away to potential clients? Think of a free e-book, a webinar, a masterclass, or a mini-training.

You could consider asking for an email address in exchange for this freebie. You can then collect these email addresses in an email marketing program like ActiveCampaign or Campaign Monitor.

This way, you can build a great list of email addresses from potential clients.

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

This way, they end up on your email list and you can, for example, send them a series of emails in which you share value and make them an offer (a funnel), or you can send them an email when you are about to launch your course.

3. Webinars

Hosting a live webinar is also an excellent way to bring your course to people's attention. In the webinar, you can share knowledge that demonstrates that you are the expert in your field.

Offer a lot of value and ensure that the participants in your webinar actually learn something new. At the end of the webinar, you can, for example, make a special offer that only applies to the webinar participants and is valid for a limited time (e.g., 24 hours).

4. Advertising

Another option for drawing attention to your online course is advertising. You can advertise on social media such as Facebook and/or Instagram, for example, or through Google.

Of course, you will need a budget for this. When you create an ad, choose your target audience very deliberately: that way, Facebook or Google knows better who to show the ad to.

Also make sure you keep clear track of how your ads convert (in other words: how many people click and how many people buy?). You can use tools like Google Analytics for this. After all, you want to earn back the money you invest in ads many times over!

5. Salespage

And in the end, of course, it all has to happen on your sales page. This is where the potential customer/student ends up after downloading your freebie, clicking through your emails, or clicking on your ad.

So make sure this page is well put together!

Emphasize the pain points of your ideal client (what are they running into?), clearly show what results and solutions your course offers, and use testimonials for persuasiveness (or collect them first if you don't have any yet, for example by letting a number of potential students take part in your course for free or at a low price).

It's important that your sales page is convincing and also user-friendly; nothing is as annoying for a customer as wrestling with a payment system when they are finally ready to buy something (such as your online course)!

We hope this blog has given you some inspiration for how you can now really sell your online course in large numbers. Would you like more tips or a chance to brainstorm? At Pluvo, we're happy to be there for you and think along with you!