Publishing Your Online Course, Part 2: How To Make Your eCourses Attractive And Sound

Publishing Your Online Course: Getting It Right

In the first part of this article, we explored some aspects of creating and publishing your online course. In this one, we’ll take a look at your course’s visual appearance and how to add credibility to it.

Visual Presentation (Images, Clips, Videos, etc.)

To entice potential customers and make them want to find out more in terms of what you are offering, you will have to supplement your landing and sales pages with interactive images, clips, or videos.

Use Of Images

In order to make your online school more attractive, you can include images from your courses such as screenshots or photos from your course-workbook and your sales page. Your images should also be in high resolution so that they look professional and more visually appealing. Furthermore, they should be simple since ‘less is more’ and direct in terms of the message you want to convey to customers. Another excellent idea is to create static visuals or animated HTML5 banner ads.

Create Videos That Sell

Google is king when it comes to searching the net. But so it is YouTube, which is the second largest search engine in the whole world and it’s owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Its success in terms of search ranking is obvious in Google results as many videos are being featured as top results. Having your own video featured on top of the page can give you an even more prominent position in the YouTube search results. Creating a promotional video for your sales page improves the quality of the customer experience and has the potential to increases your sales. A single video from YouTube or any other video hosting service can make your site more searchable in the online world and maximizes your reach. To get it right though, you will need to come up with a nice title, description, tags, and some social media exposure to begin with.

If you are considering of using video, here are 5 good reasons why to do so:

1. They can stimulate the viewer's interest.
2. They are more engaging in contrast to other types of content.
3. They assist in memorization.
4. They help viewers visualize difficult concepts better.
5. They make learning more personalized.

What Kind Of Video Would Be The best To Sell Courses?

If you are looking for ideas on how to sell your courses using videos, take a look below and choose which ones suit you best:

How-To Videos

One of the most looked out phrases online is “how to [complete your industry/niche]”. If you are going to use YouTube to allow people to find you while searching for your videos, it’s essential to create a few how-to videos. This can be especially helpful for DIY and cooking courses where you can share some small tips on a how-to video and then include a ‘call to action’ or a link to your courses.

You can also create a few how-to videos for your sales page or as a preview for specific chapters of your course to show your skills.

Emotional Appeal Sales Videos

An even more effective sales video is the one that generates emotional appeal. When these types of videos are used, they can help us connect better with our audience. So, let your potential students ‘hear’ you or ‘see’ you to feel a deeper connection with you. One step further could be to include a subtle ‘call to action’ in the video to make them buy.

It helps to speak about yourself, explain your story, your background, and expertise. Start a discussion about your course and focus on the benefits they can get from signing up with you and your subscriptions will start to increase.

News, Reviews, And Commentary

Again, having a YouTube channel with up-to-date information can be excellent for you. An easy way to produce short, relevant and current videos is to provide your opinion on industry news. Don’t be afraid to comment, explain, or review news to increase the chances of being on top of searches for current events.

Testimonial Videos

Handpick a few of the students that already provided you with good reviews and ask them for a testimonial video. If you are also carrying out workshops on the course you are teaching or have business relationships with people you trained or worked with in relevant projects, ask them for a video testimonial.

Those who will speak for you in the video will help to create a bigger impact as opposed to using a written testimonial - which can easily be faked and encourage a strong emotional response in your customers.

Behind The Scenes Videos

When including a video, you will notice that by the end of the editing process you are going to have a lot of unused material from your shootings. What you can do with it is adding some nice parts to create a few behind-the-scenes videos. This should give a lighter mood and more personal feel to your sales page or YouTube channel and social media posts, making it friendlier to the page visitors.

Working with video is better to take the professional route if you have the budget for that. A self-created video could also work, but take care of the quality of the image and the sound and if needed take a few tries on it. If you are a perfectionist, it might be a good idea to set a deadline instead of trying to get the perfect video shot. When you are ready, add your video zone to your sales page and then you are ready to start selling courses.

Adding Credibility

With Author Bios

Author bios are a powerful marketing tool and have a proven record of success in the market. Just think about the kind of impact they make on LinkedIn, the top networking professional platform job candidates use to get found for a job. As an entrepreneur, you can follow the job’s seeker example and come up with a strong summary of ‘who you are’ and ‘what you have to offer’. This can help you enforce your personal brand and build your credibility in the online world.

With Student Testimonials And Quotes

Students are more likely to trust other students since their opinion is more valuable than yours. What you should be aiming at is creating a professional image about yourself through the words and experience of those who are already your customers. Student testimonials, feedback reviews, and quotes can draw in as many people as a promotional video can do. Positioning yourself as a true entrepreneur is a key here, as well as showing that you are offering something unique in contrast to others who are offering the same service.

If you want to learn more about publishing your online course successfully, download the eBook The Ultimate Guide To Selling Online Courses.