You finally decided to create that online course after considering it for a long time, and the time has come to offer it for sale. Do you know where to start? Do you already know your target market? Read on if you want to be prepared to face the challenges of selling an online course.
You have an idea with a lot of commercial potential, or a skill that is in high demand and you decide to monetize your knowledge with an online learning offer. You fill yourself with courage, dedicate hours of time and effort, create an online course filled with valuable content and launch it to the market with the certainty that your sale will be successful.
Days and weeks go by and that wonderful course you spent time, money and a lot of effort on is not selling. But why? Isn't online learning booming all over the world? Why isn't your course part of this growing trend?
There can be hundreds of reasons why your course is not selling as you expected, and in this article we are going to cover the most common ones that creators face. Remember that there is no right or wrong way to do something, it's all going to depend on your course and your target market. But there are industry trends and practices that can help you monetize your digital product.
Enough of introduction, these are the main reasons why your online course is not selling (Note: They are not written in order of importance)
- No one or not enough people know about your course - You’re not Marketing enough
- It’s not clear how your course will help people - You have confusing Learning outcomes
- It’s too cheap or expensive - Price-value metric is not right
- Your content is not broken down properly - Poor online content delivery
Here’s a guide on how to fix those problems and make that course a best-selling digital product. Let’s start.
1. Your marketing strategy is not working
You can have several problems with this one: Not enough people know about your course, the wrong people know about it, or simply no one knows about it. It can also be related to your launch strategy or even your sales page. Let’s explore the most common ones
- You have a marketing strategy but it is not the right one. You may not be marketing your course enough to convert prospects into buyers (insufficient reach). On the other hand, you may be marketing to the wrong people (wrong audience). The last possibility, and I hope this is not the case, is that you are not promoting your course at all. Analyze your reach and target audience, and make the necessary changes.
- Your launch strategy doesn't align with your course. Choose a fixed launch date if your course includes weekly "Mastermind" meetings, support or coaching sessions, or if you simply want to guarantee the quality of your course. This format allows you to work through the content with a smaller, more exclusive group. On the other hand, if your course is designed for students to go at their own pace, and all the content is already available, a simple launch will suffice.
- You can also consider a pre-launch with a smaller group or beta version of your course. This will give you a good idea of who needs the course and why. The information you will gain from this exercise will allow you to refine your marketing strategy, adjust your target audience and increase your chances of a successful official launch.
2. The Learning Outcomes are unclear or confusing
Writing learning outcomes is not an easy task, and if you haven’t done it before it can actually be daunting. One rule of thumb is to keep them learner centric and as simple as possible.
- Do not confuse learning outcomes with objectives. Learning outcomes indicate what learners will achieve at the end of the course and why the content is relevant to learners. They are specific, measurable and actionable.
- Learning outcomes are specific and contextualized. Answer the following questions when writing them: WHAT they will learn, HOW they will learn, and WHEN it will happen. Use the answers to inform learners about what they can expect from your course.
- You don't need to teach your students EVERYTHING about a topic. Start with the learning outcomes and reverse engineer the idea or skill you are teaching. The important thing in this step is to include only and exclusively the knowledge and practice your learners need to achieve the learning objectives. Everything else can be left out for now.
Example: at the end of the course, learners will be able to analyze a case study, compare it to the relevant applicable rules and recommend a course of action for the client.
3. Your content isn’t eLearning friendly
I’ve lost count of how many courses I bought that were just an endless list of 1-hour videos and “worksheets”, I lost all that money! No one should waste time and energy watching 1-hour long videos that only have one or two nuggets of relevant knowledge per video.
- Break your learning objectives into modules: Each module should include a main idea or step that will help the learner achieve the learning objectives. That way, your course is organized so that each stage or step of what you are teaching is stored in separate modules.
- Follow the micro-learning trend - Why? Because it allows you to break down the content of your modules into "bites" of digestible information that will keep your learners engaged and motivated. After all, it's been proven that people would rather watch 5 10-minute videos than 1 50-minute video.
- Video is currently the most common way to consume content, but it's important to know the right format depending on the type of information and activity. Audio is ideal for stories, debates and anecdotes. Text is ideal for guides, comparisons, reference sheets and workbooks. And remember to keep it accessible with transcripts of all audio.
4. It’s too cheap… or too expensive
If this is your first or even your second course, this could be a problem you are having. Finding the "perfect" price for your course is a difficult task if you don't have any reference points.
- First decide what you want to achieve with the course. Do you want to reach as wide a market as possible without focusing on profit? Set a price that is accessible to everyone. Do you want to generate a good profit margin in the medium term? Find a competitive price where people don't have to think too much before buying ($30). And if you are focused purely on revenue, you can experiment with higher prices and adjust them depending on the demand for the course.
- Find other courses that have a similar structure, theme, or value-add, and use them as a benchmark for pricing your course. And while you're doing that research work, analyze what your course has that others don't, what differentiates you from other offerings, and use this data to justify your price.
- Be flexible with pricing, but always aim higher rather than lower. You can experiment with price reductions or "markdowns" to see how people react and if there is an increase in demand. Another strategy is to offer a first version of the course at an affordable price and if you see a high demand, you can offer a second, improved and more detailed version.
- Take a look at the subscription model and see if it is the right fit for your course. Do you want to include a learning community as part of your course? Or do you want to offer a curated learning space to your learners? A subscription model might be right for you.
Final Remarks
On e-learning nothing is definitive! There are several factors that can influence your online courses sales process, and oftentimes it can be a combination of issues. Whichever is the case, do not stop! The key is to keep close to your objective audience, compare your course with benchmarks and continuously test your product to improve. Only that way you will have a winning proposal.
If you are ready to bring your e-learning product offer to the next level, start with Yeira now. You will be able to sell your online courses with your own brand and create highly interactive and innovative learning content that will let you stand out from the competition.
