How To Sell Your Courses And Generate Extra Income
Sometimes established organizations have a harder time making their mark on the market. It’s not that their product isn’t good; it’s that they’re unwilling to make a shift or simply unaware of the valuable assets they already have in-house. If your longstanding business is in need of some extra funds, consider selling the online courses you’re using internally. It’s a great way to build your brand and expand your reach, even if you aren’t cash-strapped. After all, some more wiggle room in the company budget is always welcome. But where do you begin? Here are some insider secrets for how to sell training courses online to generate extra revenue.
Follow These Top Tips To Sell Training Courses
1. Take Inventory Of Existing Courses
Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to do an office audit. It’s helpful to know exactly what assets and resources you have and what state they’re in. You may have training kits you built for internal use. If you’re a commercial course developer, you may have lost track of exactly what’s on file. Review all your courses, checking their content and sales records. Assess metrics to see what’s moving, what isn’t, and why. Update any material that needs refreshing and tweak course content to make it relevant. This is also a good time to look at your LMS metrics to see which content outperforms the rest. Courses with high engagement rates may be good candidates for online sales, as they’ve already proven themselves.
2. Create Targeted Content Marketing Articles
Nobody fully knows how search engines rank websites, but we’re aware algorithms are constantly shifting. We’re also aware that usefulness is a big deciding factor and that relevance is defined using a mix of profiling, paid ads, keywords, and backlinks. Design a content marketing strategy that covers all these bases. Your IT team can use metatags and embedded code to boost SEO. Your articles should offer helpful, high-quality information to entice buyers. The key is to use content marketing articles not just for selling courses online but establishing yourself as an industry expert. Don’t forget to include a call to action that directs readers to your course landing page. Speaking of which, you should consider starting a site or blog strictly for selling courses online. Include a catalog with a brief course description and a "sign up" button. Visitors can quickly peruse your offerings and find the best solution for them.
3. Talk To Partners And Peers Within Your Industry
In cases where you customize your LMS in-house, its features are you-specific. But because it was self-built (even if it wasn’t intended for sale), it is easy to tweak. The tools that appealed to you in the first place can make it customizable for other organizations. Also, the features that work best for you could be equally valuable to businesses with similar interests, products, and client bases. Talk to organizations in the same niche as you. Find out what software they’re using and what they do or don’t like about it. Adjust your online course to meet those needs, then give them a chance to test it.
4. Generate Use-case Studies For Potential Buyers
Related to the point above, you can dig even deeper. You can come up with specific instances where the course worked for you or present hypothetical problems it can fix. These theoretical challenges should be drawn from research. Say you’re targeting a seasonal business, like a farm or a tourist resort. Your research shows you they have to hire helping hands during peak season. Your use case can show how your course trains 500 new hires in five days right on their mobile phones. Demonstrate how the course helped you trim your training bill from $50,000 to $500. Mention the specific benefits learners/companies can expect instead of generalities.
5. Don’t Undervalue Your Product
Most people push a sagging product by lowering prices. It seems like the logical thing to do. But markets are rarely logical, and there are hundreds of examples where raising the price actually increased sales. A top tip for selling courses online is to repackage content, shifting context and making it more relevant for the times. This doesn’t have to be expensive or complex. You might make your avatars younger or diversify the cultural background of your chatbots. You could change the voice talent on audio clips or re-shoot video demos using contemporary wardrobes and settings. Bring your old course into today’s age then relaunch at a higher price point. Also, research the market to see how much similar courses are selling for to find the perfect price range.
Conclusion
Whether your primary business is course development or not, you can still use courses to make money. It might be in-house solutions you built for your team or content that’s been sitting on the shelves for a while. How can you refresh your sales approach and raise your course-based income? Assess the courses you currently have to see which ones are marketable. Create a blog-based marketing strategy to push the product. Approach organizations within your industry – they may have shared software interests. Target prospects directly by building a customized sales pack, showing exactly what your software can do for them. These simple steps for how to sell training courses online could raise your course revenues by thousands.
