You’ve spent nights working on your online course, worked out the design down to the finest detail, spent countless hours tweaking the wording, re-shot videos umpteen times – and instead of the rush you’d hoped for, your online course hasn’t sold?
If your online course isn’t selling, you should check whether you’ve made one of these five mistakes:
- No community built up
- Not started selling beforehand
- No upsell opportunity offered
- No e-mail marketing organized
- Not thought about scaling
In the following, I’ll explain why these points can be reasons why your online course isn’t selling and how you can best fix them!
Your online course isn’t selling – here’s how to change that
No community built up
Often we are so excited about our idea or vision that we turn into an online course that we don’t even think about the fact that not everyone shares our enthusiasm! A large proportion of your potential buyers may not even know that you or your products exist. How could they? Without a community that knows you and trusts you and your expertise even before you start selling, it’s very difficult to sell online today. There is hardly a topic today that doesn’t already have 1-2 similar courses – so people aren’t constantly looking to stumble upon your course by accident!
Choose the social media channel where you may already have a profile with followers. This can be different depending on your preferences or your product. The important thing is that it not only suits you, but that your target group can also be found there! If you offer DIY courses for teenagers, LinkedIn is probably not the right channel for you. If you mainly create courses for accountants, then TikTok should not be your first choice. Now consistently build your community! This can be tedious at first, but it is still possible today if you pay attention to the following points:
What you can do
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Post content relevant to your target group! For the DIY course for teenagers, it could be short handicraft instructions and videos where you show how to create something, for accountants it could be news from the financial sector that you explain.
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Talk about your courses! If you don’t, how will your potential buyers even know that a course exists? This is often one of the main reasons why your online course doesn’t sell – nobody knows about it!
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Talk about yourself – but please don’t keep telling people what you’re eating! Unless you’re creating cookbooks or teaching cooking classes 😉 Especially if you’re a coach, trainer or healer, your customers need to build trust in you as a person first. Tell them how you came up with your topic, what you are passionate about and what fascinates you about it!
Offer sneak peaks! Show how you are currently working on creating your course, how you are preparing for seminars or similar!
All of this gives your community the opportunity to get to know you and your product. They want to convince themselves of your expert status and gain trust in you. Only then will your online course sell.
Not started selling beforehand
Many course providers wait until their course is completely finished before they start selling it. This means you lose a lot of time, have to live off your own resources for a long time and can no longer take feedback into account.
THEREFORE: Ask for a beta version before the course is ready: Under certain conditions, you sell the course at a discounted price before it is completed. For example, you ask for regular feedback, testimonials and possibly social media posts! In this way, you can complete the course step by step, modify points if necessary and already have the first testimonials and contributions to your course! On the one hand, this will increase awareness of your course and on the other hand, it will bring you your first sales! This will save you resources.
No upsell opportunity offered
You’ve created a course – then it’s not over yet! Just imagine: Your customers have bought the course and worked through it. They’re really into the topic and motivated because they’ve learned so much in such a short time – and then? Nothing! You haven’t given them the opportunity to purchase another course or book a personal coaching session with you, etc. – nothing that would have satisfied their thirst for knowledge in any way. What do they do now? Wait patiently for weeks or months until you have created the next course? It is more likely that they will find what they are looking for at the competition and then become loyal customers there. So please be sure to offer an upsale! Even if your next course isn’t ready yet – either give them the opportunity to sign up for a waiting list, offer a discounted pre-sale and always keep your customers up to date!
No e-mail marketing organized
This brings us to the next reason why your online course isn’t selling: You haven’t built up an email list that allows you to reach your customers easily and directly whenever you want to announce a new update to a course or other important news! Even though people keep trying to declare email marketing dead, it’s a sure-fire way to really get your content across to your target audience. So if you don’t have an email list yet, you should urgently start building one. However, it is important to observe the legal framework of the GDPR so that you do not write to anyone who has not expressly given their consent.
Not thought about scaling
Scaling your online business means that you increase your turnover without having to invest significantly more financial or material resources. If you work as a coach, trainer or healer, this means above all that you should not (primarily) offer 1:1 support as a business model. If you do, you are back in the time-for-money trap! You can only look after a very limited number of customers 1:1 yourself, after that you either have to limit the number of customers or hire additional staff! You should therefore design your courses in such a way that more participants do not take up more time/financial resources! If you request support for your courses, these should be group calls or webinars so that you can support several customers at the same time.
Conclusion: “My online course isn’t selling!” becomes a successful course
If you keep these 5 points in mind! Want to get started with your own online business now? Get the detailed Coaching Business Kickstart Workbook for free at this link!
With all the tips in even more detail and with the 50 best online business niches for coaches and therapists with which you can start your online business right away!
Good luck starting your online business!
Be a lighthouse, not a tea light!
Your JyotiMa
