6 Marketing Tips To Boost Your eLearning Course Sales

6 Marketing Tips To Boost Your eLearning Course Sales
Summary: Wearing many hats is par for the course, when you are an eLearning professional. Not only should you be able to design eLearning courses that are engaging and enlightening, but you must also have the know-how to market and promote those eLearning courses to your target audience. In this article, I'll share some invaluable marketing tips to boost your eLearning course sales.

Marketing Tips To Boost Your eLearning Course Sales

There are a variety of marketing ideas that are widely used to promote services and build the buzz for new products in the business industry. However, these marketing techniques can also help eLearning professionals, in all niches, to spread the word about their eLearning courses and get them onto the screens of those who can truly benefit from them. Here are a few marketing tips to boost your eLearning course sales that you may want to keep in mind when launching your next eLearning course.

  1. Offer learners a sneak peek to get them hooked.
    Ultimately, all learners want a glimpse of what the eLearning course is going to involve. Paying money to enroll in an eLearning course that holds a variety of unknowns just isn't appealing, because your learners cannot be sure that they are going to actually benefit from the learning experience. Marketers and promoters offer “freebies” quite often, because it gives consumers the chance to try before they buy. So, why not give your learners a small taste of what's in store for them if they do sign up for your eLearning course. This is particularly useful for those who may be skeptical about eLearning to begin with, as they will be able to get a firsthand look at the experience, as a whole, and find out what it can offer them. Any questions they might have regarding the aesthetics of the eLearning course, the quality of the writing, or the nature of the subject matter can all be answered by taking a test drive with your eLearning course.
  2. Get endorsements!
    If you want to have more learners sign up for your eLearning course, why not offer them proof that it actually does what you say it does. For example, if you claim that your eLearning course is going to boost their problem solving skills, ask one of your satisfied learners to write up an endorsement or testimonial that you can put on your site. Perspective learners will be more confident about enrolling if they know that others have been satisfied with the learning experience you provided them. They don't want to be the first ones to test it out. Instead, they want to know that others have enrolled in the eLearning course in the past and have actually benefited from it on some level.
  3. Develop your brand image.
    Even if you develop an eLearning course that offers a wide range of benefits to your learners and fulfills a need that they have, you aren't likely to see your enrollment figures skyrocket unless they perceive your brand image as trustworthy and credible. This is why it's so important to cultivate your brand. You want learners to not only remember your brand, so that they are likely to become lifelong learners, but also to know immediately that it is of high quality. Take the time to build a brand and then manage your reputation and your online presence. Ask learners to give you positive reviews, and do everything in your power to ensure that your brand is synonymous with amazing eLearning experiences.
  4. Be an expert in your field.
    Being an authority in your niche gives you the opportunity to build a level of credibility that is unparalleled.  You must be the person who everyone turns to when they need information regarding your niche. Post articles online that offer tips and advice. Become active on social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter, join eLearning groups,such as the Instructional Design and E-Learning Professionals' Group, and comment regularly on social media posts or forums. Be consistent about creating blog posts. Be an expert in your field, so that learners won't hesitate to come to you when they need knowledge and/or skill set development.
  5. Offer a specific solution to their problem.
    As is the case with all marketing endeavors, you must find the learners’ “sore spot”. This is the problem that they need to solve or the challenge they need to overcome in either their personal or professional lives, or both. You have to let the learners know what they will get out of the experience specifically, rather than offering them a vague generalization of the skills or knowledge they will be gathering throughout the eLearning course. Most importantly, you must create a marketing campaign that addresses the needs of specific target groups. In other words, your promotional message or materials cannot be the same for all members of your audience. Each group must know exactly how they can expect to benefit from participating in your eLearning deliverable. You can find all of this information out by conducting surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews with key members of your target audience to learn more about their background, expectations, and learning needs.
  6. Tell them exactly what they will get out of the deal.
    Be as specific as possible when you are creating your eLearning course description, title, and syllabus. Let them know exactly what they are going to get out of the deal as concisely and clearly as possible. Give them detailed information about not only the benefits they will receive, but how they can apply the information they are going to learn in the real world.  Marketers don't just tell consumers what the product does, they stress how much the product will change their lives for the better. As such, when you're marketing your eLearning course, be sure to tell your learners how the knowledge they'll be acquire applies outside of the virtual classroom.

Use these marketing tips to promote your eLearning course and boost your eLearning course sales. While you may not have the time to become a round-the-clock marketer for your eLearning course, you can use these marketing tips to spread the word and generate interest among your audience.

Wondering about the marketing ideas and principles that you can apply in your eLearning course design to increase learner engagement and excitement? Read the article 5 Marketing Tips To Apply In eLearning to learn how to transform even the most dry and dull subject matter into something truly motivational and interactive.

Looking for advice on how to market yourself? The article 5 Tips to Market Yourself as an eLearning Professional features 5 top tips that you can use to build your online presence and market yourself as an eLearning professional.