How To Market Your Online Course: A Guide for Course Creators

If you're an online course creator, you've spent many hours researching, scripting, recording, and editing into building your lessons. And if there's one thing you are certain of after releasing your online course — it's that it ensures your students learn as best as possible. However, creating a great course is only half the work done in the competitive world of online courses.

Unfortunately, the digital world has changed a lot in the past couple years. And this is even more true with AI tools and assistants that help ideate and generate satisfactory content. Simply having excellent content isn't enough any more. Nor is it enough that you have published your course on a leading e-learning platform. It is also important to know how to promote your Udemy course on the right platforms. And market your Coursera course to the right set of audience.

In this guide, we'll walk you through strategies to promote and sell your course. At the end of it you should have a basic understanding of digital marketing and how to get started. Because, from understanding your target audience to leveraging the latest in social media and content marketing, we'll cover everything you need to know to get your course in front of the right eyes and turn interested window-shoppers into enrolled students.

Build some credibility in your field through content marketing. Try to become one of the first people others think of when they need a teacher in your subject. Also, read up the different ways to share content like videos, blog posts, or social media. Most importantly, handpick the ones that best fit your need and your audience. Don't try to do everything all at once.

• If you start a blog related to your course topic:
  
  • Develop a content strategy that addresses common questions and challenges in your field. And link this blog post to your course.
  • Have infographics, listicles, and tables that again include content from your online course to serve as a sneak peek.
  • Use SEO in your blog posts to drive better and relevant traffic.
  • Conclude with calls-to-action (CTAs) that lead readers to your course landing page or a free resource.
• If you choose to write guest posts for relevant websites and blogs:
  
  • Identify high-traffic websites in your niche and pitch unique, valuable content. Most of them will almost always have a guest post section. And so do we!
  • Include a brief author bio with a link to your course or website.
  • Give out coupon codes or discounts to visitors from the blog post to encourage course sign-ups.

Connect with fellow online educators, industry influencers, and subject matter experts to build yourself a solid network. You can find them just by looking at the authors of suggested and related courses under your own course on platforms like Udemy, Coursera, Alison, EdX, etc.

Request a review on Coursera or any other platform and make a collection of them. In exchange, offer similar support for their educational content. This mutual exchange helps build trust and strengthens the credibility of both of your courses.

• Collaborate with influencers in your niche for course promotions:
  
  • Identify niche-influencers with engaged audiences relevant to your course topic. It does not matter if they have slightly lesser followers. What matters here is reaching the right audience.
  • Offer affiliate commissions or revenue sharing for successful course sign-ups. This incentivizes them to help and promote you.
  • And one of the easiest things to do would be to create collab content to build on each other's audiences. A barter system of sorts to grow audiences and student networks together.
• Partner with course creators in similar areas for bundle deals:
  
  • Identify courses that complement yours without direct competition. (For eg. if you have a course on "Creative Writing Made Easy", you could look at partnering with someone offering a course on "Writing Cold Emails That Convert")
  • Create limited-time bundle offers that provide added value to students for lower costs.
  • Cross-promote each other's courses to your respective email lists and social media followers.
• Reach out to relevant online communities and offer exclusive discounts:
  
  • Participate actively in forums, Facebook groups, or subreddits related to your course topic.
  • Provide value and build relationships before promoting your course. On platforms like Reddit it is very important to first build up some karma points before you start promoting. This helps avoid being banned.
  • Offer exclusive discounts or bonuses to encourage enrolments.

Remember, the customer always comes first. At the end of the day, it is the customer, your student, that brings in the revenue from your online course. You have to keep them satisfied, listen to their demands, and address their concerns. And in certain cases doing this might even help you collect feedback from them without even asking for it.

• Respond promptly to comments and questions:
  
  • Set up notifications to stay on top of incoming comments and messages from your students.
  • Provide personalized responses that add value rather than having generic responses to queries. Connecting with your customers is always time well spent.
  • Use common questions as inspiration for creating new content or course updates.
  • You can even use all the common questions and queries you have been getting to put together an FAQ section on your online course landing page.
• Create groups or online communities for course participants:
  
  • This can be on platforms like Discord, Slack, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter/X etc.
  • Post regularly to ensure everyone stays active in the groups.
  • Encourage peer-to-peer support and collaboration among students.
  • Share exclusive content or insights with your community.
• Collect and highlight student success stories:
  
  • Create a system for tracking and collecting student achievements.
  • Feature success stories in your marketing materials, social media, and course platform. You can even show it off by embedding it on your website if you have one.

Imagine using an outdated, sluggish, and unattractive platform for your course. Frustrating, right? Your students will feel the same if they purchase your course only to find outdated or irrelevant content. Keep your material fresh and topical to ensure this does not happen.

• Regularly update your course content to reflect industry changes:
  
  • Set a schedule for reviewing and updating your course material (e.g., quarterly or bi-annually).
  • Stay informed about industry trends and new developments in your field.
  • Communicate updates to current and past students to encourage re-engagement.
• Gather and implement student feedback:
  
  • Learn to use surveys, one-on-one interviews, or focus groups to collect detailed feedback.

    

  • Analyze course completion rates and identify areas where students may be struggling.
  • Implement changes based on feedback and communicate improvements to your audience.

And that's it! By implementing these strategies, you'll be able to market your online course more effectively. Remember, promoting an online course is an ongoing process that requires constant effort and adaptation. Unless you grow very famous or have many students you can't just leave it be to grow on it's own. There is a certain amount of initial effort that is required. Especially when it comes to building a network with other course creators on platforms like Udemy, EdX, or Coursera. Because a building a community will ensure you have the credibility and actual students to back up your course. Good luck on your journey to becoming a top online course creator!