When developing an online course, the last thing you want is for the launch to fail. In the end, reaching the people who can benefit from one’s material is a primary objective for individuals who build online courses and other information product businesses.
In any case, spreading the word about your brand-new online course isn’t something you have to do only on launch day. You may generate excitement for your online course’s launch and attract more potential students by pre-selling it on social media. Just read on to find out
Why should you pre-sell your online course?
The practise of pre-selling, or generating sales and pre-orders prior to the debut of your online course, can assist generate interest in your offering before it goes live. You may begin promoting your online course even before all of the content has been created.
Pre-selling your course allows you to get a head start on development, promotion, and sales before the official debut. One of the main advantages of selling information items is that it may help you create passive money.
Users may learn about new items through social media, making it a useful tool for pre-selling. In fact, 55% of millennials and 59% of Gen Z use social media to discover new brands.
When you pre-sell your course, you may verify that it contains useful information. If you rehearse with a mock audience, you’ll have a better idea of how to tailor your content to their needs.
The people who are watching your content also want to provide you with some feedback: Seventy-five percent of customers say they’d be more likely to buy from a company if they were asked for advice on new product ideas.
In the following paragraphs, you’ll find five methods for promoting and selling your upcoming online course before it ever goes live.
Pre-selling your online course: 5 strategies
1. Provide a sneak peek of the material covered in your lesson.
Get the word out about your upcoming online system launch early on. Give your social media followers a sneak glimpse of what they may anticipate from your next course.
When you give a taster of your course, your article shouldn’t seem like an ad. Instead, focus on providing material that is relevant and useful to the reader.
You may increase your chances of getting people to sign up for or pre-order your entire course by providing them with a valuable taster of it first.
A video of you giving a sneak peek into the content of your course is a fantastic approach to build anticipation among potential students.
2. Engage your target market in dialogue.
Finding out where your target audience hangs out on social media is a crucial first step in increasing interaction with your brand. For instance:
- LinkedIn’s B2B version
- Use of Twitter by freelancers and independent writers
- Pinterest for those concerned with food, health, and home decor
Once you’ve located your target demographic, it’s time to start a conversation with them and pay attention to what they have to say. Find out what they are having the greatest trouble with in their enterprises or everyday life, and then design a course around it.
These exchanges not only yield insightful market data, but also help you develop a loyal following. Tell them you have produced something that will assist them overcome those difficulties once pre-orders for your course have opened.
3. Visit pre-launch landing page
A captivating landing page plus a well-written social media post may do wonders for your business’s lead generating efforts. Obtaining enrollments for a web-based course is similar.
A pre-launch landing page is a sales page on your website that is meant to gather pre-orders or email list sign-ups before the official launch of your new course.
Use just the landing page for your course when sharing it on social media to streamline the customer’s journey through your marketing funnel, as seen in the following Unbounce infographic:
You should accomplish these four goals with your landing page before you launch:
- Promote your virtual class. Can you tell me the name of this thing? When do we get to start?
- Use conversational, persuading sales text to highlight the course’s advantages and explain who should enrol. Incorporate the PAS method:
- Problem: Explain the issue that your course addresses.
Provoke the reader’s ire by harping on the issue that’s been brought on by those personal peeves.
Solution: Justify the need for taking your online course by explaining how it will address this issue.
Put in a strong call to action (CTA) to get them moving. Create a call-to-action like “sign up for updates” or “be the first to know when the course begins” to encourage them to join your email list. A simple “pre-order now” call to action will do if your objective is to get pre-orders.
Extend the word about the positive feedback you’ve received from customers. For more expensive items, like comprehensive online courses, posting user testimonials on the landing page might increase sales.
When reviews were featured on the landing page for a more expensive product, sales increased by 380 percent, according to the study.
4. Give early buyers and those who pre-order a discount
Reduced prices are quite popular with consumers. Actually, it is predicted that by 2021, 145.3 million consumers in the United States would utilise digital coupons.
The fear of missing out (FOMO) is a potent motivator, therefore limited-time offers with discounts are especially appealing.
Sixty percent of consumers shop because they fear missing out, and almost half said they would buy sooner if offered an exclusive deal:
Pre-selling your online course on social media may be a great way to get people interested in your course before it ever launches.
5. Establish mutually beneficial relationships
A niche’s influencers are its thought leaders. They typically attract a dedicated following on social media, many of whom have comparable interests.
Influencer marketing, together with fear of missing out (FOMO) and social proof, may increase interest in your course before it ever launches. Mediakix reported that eighty percent of marketers agree that influencer marketing works:
If your target demographic consists primarily of young people, influencers might be very helpful. 61% of millennials and Gen Zers said that internet influencers have influenced their purchasing decisions.
You need to identify the most relevant social media influencers for your online course’s target market before you can begin collaborating with them to promote the course.
Inquire within:
- Which professionals have the highest level of credibility in my field?
- Who do members of my target audience go to for guidance and information?
- Who are their social media followers?
- If you don’t have a large influencer marketing budget, you should contact industry influencers and establish rapport with them before asking them to promote your new course.
If you don’t want to spend money promoting your existing content, influencer marketing is the most expensive option.
Many “influencers” charge a dollar per ten thousand followers, or $100 each post, at a rate of one penny per follower. However, influencers that cater to specialised niche audiences typically provide flexible price options to accommodate businesses’ limited resources.
You should also remember that working with a large number of influencers is not necessary to successfully market your course. In a typical influencer campaign, 37 percent of marketers collaborated with just one to ten influencers.