I started my own business with Madita’s Content in 2017 because I wanted to work location-independently. Also, I wanted to be free to decide with whom I cooperate and with whom I don’t. If you think that you can write the texts for your business just like that, you are definitely wrong with me.
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What it really takes if you want to sell courses online (and why you still don’t have enough customers despite marketing)
You make yourself a fresh coffee. You breathe in the roasted aromas, enjoy the warmth of the cup on your hands, and sneak off to your desk.
You actually want to work, but instead you type "maintain houseplants properly" into Google. You just click on one of the search results and land on a blog article that tells you how to properly care for houseplants.
You click on the home page and see that there is an online course being sold here as well. In 8 weeks, you’ll learn everything you need to know about houseplants to improve your indoor environment.
The course costs 497 Euro. You click "buy", type in your PayPal login and you’re a happy new owner of an online course.
Has this ever happened to you?
Not for me in any case.
Nevertheless, many hope that it will go like this or something similar. However, hoping for a scenario like this is a recipe for too few customers and frustration.
Online courses are usually not impulse buys
Let’s take a look at why this scenario is so unlikely to happen.
First.
. most of them are with their content and their Search engine optimization not yet ready, That they appear on the first page of Google for the search terms their potential customers would use to find them.
It takes time.
If you are already active Content Marketing and want to see how your Google ranking is doing, enter your domain in ubersuggest.
There you get a quick overview of how many people are ranking organically (i.e. without you paying for it) via Google to your website Come and see what keywords you are currently ranking for.
Second.
Even if you get found on Google Content work so well that the visitor keeps clicking – for example to your home page or your offer page.
If you are already so far: YES! HIGH FIVE!
Thirdly.
Even if you regularly get the right visitors to your site via Google and your content is so good that they want more from you, people won’t directly buy a higher priced online course from you.
(At least not as a rule)
I had exactly one time a customer who found my writing coaching on Google and directly bought the whole package for 997 Euro. Once. In 3+ years.
I am not a fan of blanket statements.
But: If you don’t have a big reach yet and you are just starting with online business and online marketing, you can sell an online course in any case. And also in a way that really makes a difference.
But it takes a few basics. These basics have proven themselves time and time again. For good reason.
Today, let’s take a look at what you actually need to sell your course online.
And no, for that you do indeed need no complicated funnel, deadline tools and Co.
These are the 4 steps I also implemented in my own business when I sold my first online course, my landing page bootcamp. They worked wonderfully for me.
I am quite sure they will work for you too.
In the beginning it is really necessary, focus only on the things that are really important.
Everything else comes with time.
If we want to do everything right away, we either don’t start at all or waste our time and energy on something that doesn’t really get us anywhere in the end.
Listen to my Podcast Interview with Tanja Lenke (Episode 035). I talked to her about the launch of my online course and also share my numbers, learnings and more.
4 things that are absolutely necessary if you want to sell courses online
Okay, now you know how not to do it.
Sure sounds "passive income" great.
You’ve probably seen a lot of Facebook Ads that want to show you how you can make five-figure monthly sales in just a PAIR OF DAYS with THIS ONE TRICK and lie on the beach all day long.
This is such bullshit.
Yes, sure you can make five-figure monthly sales.
Sure, there are many tricks and tips.
Yes, you can build a business that is just right for you.
But certainly not in a few days.
But I’m drifting.
Now let’s see how it goes, shall we??
1. You need an online course that is really needed
I know, this sounds like an absolute no brainer now. But it is surprisingly often ignored.
However, this point is becoming more and more important because there are more and more online courses available.
Be really sure you’ve chosen the right topic and that you’re offering a transformation that people will actually want to do.
Unfortunately, there are many providers out there who are naturally curious and want to build a second lucrative leg with an online course, but don’t really look at what is needed.
Before you create an entire online course, be sure you’re hitting the mark with it.
I can tell you how I did it.
I knew I wanted to start with landing pages because it’s a nicely covered topic and I knew landing pages are extremely important to my clients’ success.
So I started looking in Facebook groups to see what people were asking about landing pages. That was then, for example:
What should I write on the landing page?
How long should the landing page be?
How do I write a landing page that converts?
No one signs up to my landing page…
How to write persuasively?
I also knew that "Write landing page" is something that likes to be done on the side. Somehow, no one really gets the idea that this page is so elementary to the success of a launch or funnel.
So I knew: I don’t need to start and create a huge online course that takes a week to complete. It has to be implementable quickly. Like a bootcamp.
And so I had my name right away: Landingpage Bootcamp.
Next, I found myself 8 female test clients and did my landing page bootcamp live with them. So I realized directly, Where they have particular difficulty, where they can completely wrong ideas have and where they can’t quite follow me yet.
After that, I still didn’t record a course.
I adapted this workshop, improved it and launched it properly for the first time – via a challenge. Performed live again and get feedback again.
This time the feedback was so good that I knew: Now it’s worth to make an online course out of it.
Note.
I knew that the topic was relevant the way I phrased it.
I knew the content would work and get people where they wanted to go.
And I knew that the product would actually be bought.
That doesn’t mean you have to go through the same process. It’s just called:
Create a course that is really in demand and not a course that you would like to do.
2. You need a clear sales strategy (preferably with tangible numbers)
Offering an online course on your website is not a sales strategy.
Unless your name is Amy Porterfield or Laura Seiler and people are just waiting for you to come out with something new.
Unless you have thousands of fans who regularly go to your website, interact with your content, are already asking you when and how they can work with you again.
If that’s not the case, then let’s check off "just put the course on the website" for now.
So you need a strategy on how to sell your online course.
For the beginning a webinar or a challenge is excellent.
Read also: How does a webinar work? (And which topic sells my offer in the end?)
I have come up with Challenge starting because I knew it was the most effective way to build, in a short period of time, a lot of trust.
When I first launched, my business coach Tanja asked me a few very clear questions.
These questions are super important because they show you, What you need to do to reach your goal.
What is your revenue goal?
How many customers do you need to get for this during your launch?
What is the cost of your online course?
How high do you think your conversion rate is? (So what percentage of the people who signed up for your challenge or webinar actually buy??)
An example.
Let’s say you want to launch (i.e. sell) your online course with a webinar.
Your online course costs 327 Euro and you would like to have a turnover of 10.reach 000 Euros.
Because it’s your first launch, expect a conversion rate of 2 percent. So 2 percent of the people who sign up for your webinar go on to buy.
(2 percent is quite low, but realistic. In the future, of course, the goal is to Increase conversion rate)
Here’s what that means for you:
→ You need 31 sales
→ You need at least 1697 webinar signups (based on the 2 percent conversion rate)
Because: not everyone will be there live. Here I calculated a show-up rate of 45 percent – which would already be pretty high.
This then automatically gives rise to plenty of to-dos and questions:
→ How do you get 1697 people to sign up for your webinar?
Remember that this is just an example. Don’t let the numbers scare you.
We can make a second example
Let’s say you want to launch a test workshop to see if you make an online course out of it afterwards and of course to see if your topic sells.
What you want to do with a challenge.
Your workshop costs 200 euros and you have a sales target of 800 euros. Since it is a challenge over which you accompany people over several days and build a lot of trust, you calculate a conversion rate of 5 percent.
What this means to you:
→ You need 4 participants
→ To reach your goals, you need 88 Challenge participants
3. You need a way to generate leads – people who sign up for your webinar or challenge
Where do the signups for your challenge or webinar come from? There are of course very different possibilities.
Here are some ideas for inspiration:
- About Facebook Ads
- About social media posts
- About a guest article you wrote for another magazine or blog
- About your own blog
- Through your own email list
Here we are: Your email list.
If you have a Email list If you have people who like to hear from you, then over time you won’t have a hard time getting enough signups for your conversion event (e.g., a webinar).B webinar or challenge) to get them.
People already know you. They know you deliver really good content and want more from you.
At my first launch, half of my signups (100 total) came from my list, which was still very small at the time. The other half came via Facebook Ads.
Hint: You don’t need a huge list to get started.
For my online course launch, I had 400 challenge participants – there was a little more than half from my list, the rest from Facebook Ads and social media. But I had also built up subscribers strategically with a suitable freebie beforehand.
The huge benefit of having an email list is that people will Already know you and already trust you. We’ll get to that next.
Also, it costs you nothing except your time to send emails to invite people. These are your contacts that you may contact.
And there is no algorithm that decides how many people see your mail.
If somehow your freebie isn’t performing that way or you have no idea how to build strategic freebie, hop on the waiting list for my freebie workshop here.
This is a Live workshop where you work with me to design a freebie that will actually bring you customers and fills your email list with people who are a perfect fit for what you offer – whether that’s coaching, an online course, a program or a service.
How do I build an email list of potential clients??
This is clearly one of the most important questions in online business.
The best way to do this is with strategic freebie. In other words, a lead magnet that will attract the very people who will then buy your online course in the second step.
See how closely freebies, webinars, challenges and the online course are connected?
That’s why it’s so important that you don’t offer just any freebie.
Choose a freebie that strategically appeals to the people who will be perfect for your online course.
4. You need the trust of your potential customers
Why do we do all this with the Freebies, webinars, challenges, blog articles, Instagram posts?
So that we attract the attention of the right people. The people who really benefit from our offerings. Those for whom we really solve a problem.
And so that these people get to know us, see that we can actually help them and then buy from us with a good feeling.
Always keep in mind:
You do not sell an online course. You sell people a better version of themselves.
I totally like this example with the hole and the drill bit. People don’t buy the drill, they buy the hole in the wall.
The more you know what the problem is, how it feels, what their goal is, and what the desire is behind that goal, the more trust you will build.
So, those were the 4 things you need in any case, if you want to sell your course online – and do it successfully.