There are many ways to promote your online course. One way is through affiliate marketing which involves promoting other people’s products or services. Another way is to create your own ads on social media platforms. Yet another method is to offer a free trial. There is no doubt that these strategies can help you boost your sales. But one method beats them all – a low priced course.
Why? Because it provides potential customers with a low-risk way to get familiar with your teaching style. This method involves offering a low-priced course and developing a relationship with your new buyer. With the right email sequence, low-priced course offering, and nurture process, this “Get to Know You” funnel enhances the overall customer experience and it just might be what you need to make more sales of your online course.
How do you set this up? There are 3 simple steps: begin with the end in mind, repurpose content, and increase sales with a nurture process.
Jump into:
- Step 1: Begin Your Sales Strategy with the End in Mind
- Step 2: Drive Revenue with Repurposed Content
- Step 3: Increase Sales (and Customer Loyalty) with a Nurture Proces
Step 1: Begin Your Sales Strategy with the End in Mind
The ultimate goal is not to sell 1 million copies of your low-priced course offering. Ultimately, the goal should be to sell your higher-priced program, not just because it brings in more revenue, but also because you probably provide more support for students. With that in mind, the low-priced course offering should fit into the big picture of your funnel.
With that in mind, if you’re not sure what to create for this tier, ask these two questions: “What problem is most pressing?” and “What small win can I offer?”
With the answer to this two-question test, you can create content on a narrow topic. For example, if your larger course is all about your start-to-finish process of video production, maybe your low-priced option includes a deep dive into camera selection and setup.
One of the very first questions I had before creating my YouTube channel was, “What camera should I use?” I spent hours searching for the answer, digging into the YouTube video descriptions of my favorite vloggers, asking photographer friends, and generally procrastinating.
With a low-priced course designed to help answer that singular question, I would have saved myself months of research as I tried to optimize this one decision.
You likely already have this micro-content in your larger course and you can just pull that content out for the low-priced course.
This leads me to the next step: repurposing content.
Learn more about how to price your courses:
Step 2: Drive Revenue with Repurposed Content
Repurposing content is a great way to save time and money. And it’s also a proven strategy for increasing sales. A lot of course creators think that they don’t have the time to create a brand new low priced offering, but they forget that they probably already have the content!
To choose the right content for repurposing, look at your larger course and pull out a piece that passes the two-question test. Then create a short introduction to that content. Explain that it is a small piece of your larger course and take a moment to explain why you have created this micro-course.
With the right introduction frame and engaging content, the buyer of the low-priced course will understand that this is a way to get to know you and get familiar with your teaching style. They will appreciate the content rather than see it as just a way to make more sales. Then, record a short outro that invites them to the next step of your nurture process.
While you can choose to make a hard sell, according to the 2022 Online Learning Trends report, that is no longer the norm. Instead, you’ll want to bring them through the rest of your nurture process.
Step 3: Increase Sales (and Customer Loyalty) with a Nurture Process
In order to increase sales of your larger course, this low-priced course should have its own nurture sequence. You can create a companion email sequence. With the right email marketing strategy, these companion emails will ensure that your ideal customers consume the content.
The last thing you want is for this low-priced course to collect digital dust. Your prospective customers will appreciate this and they will transition from prospects into customers, provide feedback, and hopefully become loyal customers in the process.
You can add additional marketing channels to your nurture process when you create a free community. This is a great way to connect new customers with your wider customer base. You can use this group to encourage customer testimonials, and customer feedback, and generally provide excellent customer service.
And finally, your sales effort should include a sales presentation. As a part of your marketing materials, it should feel like the next logical step after completion of this low-priced course. Your sales presentation, or webinar, should be a piece of high-quality content designed to educate the viewer on the next logical step. I like to create what I call an Anti-Webinar–because let’s face it, most webinars are boring. Then I include common pitfalls and even break beliefs that prevent them from success.
As a bonus, I wanted to provide an optional strategy: reach out by phone or text. This works well if you are in a competitive market where advertising messages are often ignored. After the purchase, have your sales team reach out with a text or call to make sure the buyer was able to get access to the program.
This simple strategy can lead to higher profit margins. With a simple phone call, you or your sales team can get a better understanding of what this new customer truly needs. Satisfied customers not only buy, they often tell their friends!
And there you have it! With the right content and the right nurture process, you can reach a larger market of potential buyers. These buyers have been hesitant to purchase for one reason or another, and now you have a chance to not only educate them on their next logical step, but they also have a chance to get to know you. This leads to a stronger connection with your students, a bump in customer loyalty, and even an increase in sales!
This post was originally published in July 2022. It was updated in August of 2023 with more information.
