You worked hard to build a course or a curriculum, or perhaps you are a teacher/professor who wants to help students out there. You have what it takes to impart knowledge.
In your case, teaching is not a problem—you know what to do and it is your zone. But how do you find clients? Today, I will share with you some techniques on how to effectively market an online teaching program.
These are:
- Freelance marketplace
- Your own website
- Learning marketplaces
- Paid advertising
I will explain how each one works, and then you can choose a few or implement all techniques for your online teaching program.
Freelance Marketplace
There are many freelance marketplaces out there—from Fiverr to Freelancer to People Per Hour, there is no shortage of websites where you can post your service.
A freelance marketplace is like amazon. The difference is that in Amazon, people sell physical goods. In a freelance marketplace, you sell services.
Here are some things you need to know about these marketplaces:
- They are highly saturated—you are competing against many people who offer services like you do
- Prices are low – many clients who come here have low budgets, so expect a lot of them to haggle; the freelance marketplace is a cut-throat competition where you have to lower your prices to be able to compete against other service providers.
- Fees – like Amazon, you have to pay fees in these marketplaces. The typical fee is 20% of the transaction.
If anything, freelance marketplaces are safe. They use escrow services where the client’s money is deposited for safekeeping. Once the service is rendered and the client is happy, the funds get transferred to your account.
To be able to succeed in this marketing strategy, you have to know your competition. Investigate and ask around—post as a client and ask your competitors what they do.
Order a course yourself, and you will know what teaching methods they use. Learn as much as you can and then make your online teaching program competitive.
Your Own Website
The second method to effectively market your service is through building your own website. This may seem daunting at first, but know that there are hundreds of online tools out there that make it easy for you to build your own website.
Here are the benefits of marketing your services on your own website:
- Your site, your rules – marketplaces have so many rules—from response time to fees to prohibited services. If you operate your own website, you are not bound by these rules. You can offer multiple services if you want to.
- You look more credible – if you have your own website, you will appear as a professional. Many people on online marketplaces are looked down upon as amateurs—especially so if they are offering teaching services. As a website owner, you have a higher degree of credibility as far as customer perception is concerned.
- You have no competition – well, you have competition, but it is unlike the kind of competition in a marketplace. With a website, you can price your services as you deem fit, and your website is going to justify it.
- Your website is flexible – you can make changes to your website as much as you want—from presentation to function to the payment processor. Your only limitation is your imagination.
As a website operator, you are creating your own brand—with the possibility to expand your services. Just note that your website is your asset. There are many things you need to do at the backend to ensure that your site is working, that it is safe, and that it is functional.
Learning Marketplaces
These marketplaces are like freelance websites, but they are dedicated to online courses. Examples of these are Coursera and Udemy.
In these learning marketplaces, you upload your online course and then earn money if people buy your offer.
Here are some benefits of marketing your services on this platform:
- Eager clients – in learning marketplaces like this, there are many students who are specifically looking for education enhancement. Most of the people who come here have disposable income—they are employed and are looking for ways to supplement their knowledge.
- Repeat business – since you are uploading a recorded video course, you can earn money from that course again and again. Once your course earns positive reviews, the system’s algorithm is going to recommend your course more often than when you just started out.
- Marketing support – these websites offer marketing support for all its users. They advertise heavily on social media and other channels. All you need to do, really, is to create courses that add value to the students’ lives. Coursera and Udemy spend large sums of money on advertising on Facebook, Google, and YouTube. As more and more people get to know the platform, you can also expect an influx of orders.
Like other freelance marketplaces, you are not the only teacher here. Whatever it is that you are offering, there surely are other educators offering something that is similar. And like other marketplaces, you may find yourself competing against their prices.
Paid Advertising
The final effective method to market your online teaching program is to advertise. Regardless of what platform you use, you need to be actively advertising your business.
As you can see, freelancers who wait for sales do not really make it big. What you have to do is to invest in your marketing campaigns so more people will know about your offer.
Here are some advertising channels you must definitely use:
- Facebook – a general channel for almost all kinds of services.
- Instagram – use this if what you are teaching has something to do with tangible things that you can take pictures of. Examples of this are art, cooking, and hobbies.
- Google – the best place to advertise, provided that you know how to use keywords. Advertise on Google slowly—there are so many people you are competing with. Experiment with a small budget and then scale up once you are producing positive results.
The average conversion rate of online sales is a mere 3%. What this means is that for every 100 people who saw your offer, it is likely that only three are going to buy.
Without active marketing, your conversion is going to be zero. You need to invest money to earn money. Before you advertise though, you need to know where your customers are, and you also need to know their demographics like their age.
The last thing you want is to put your ad in front of people who have no interest in your service. What you want is for your ad to get seen by the right people.
Summary
Teaching is a noble profession. In a world where people are inundated by a lot of useless information, you can carve out your niche in the academe and help them learn new skills, or become better at what they are doing now.
If you are a beginner, you have to choose one or two from the options I gave you. Once you see results, you can start marketing your online teaching program in other ways. The first step to choosing which method applies best is to understand who your customer is—different learners congregate in different areas of the internet.
Recent Posts
Many consumers have divided or negative feelings about marketing practices. Unsustainable marketing breeds distrust—whether it’s the false promise of greater value or convincing customers to buy...
The most significant investment to think about is web hosting to get more traffic and higher performance and run your website successfully after you build it. So it's essential to select the best...