How to attract students for your online course
Create strategies to attract students it is necessary for the survival and growth of your business.
To sell your online course you need to stand out among the competition and convince your audience of your product quality.
ELearning Market Trends
Long considered an inferior option to traditional classroom teaching, online learning shows its validity and continues to grow in both popularity and reputation.
Technological advances, coupled with careful planning, have led many educational institutions to offer online courses that deliver as much depth and quality of teaching as their campus counterparts.
As a result, more and more students at all levels are starting to consider online programs as an option for their needs.
– 8 Things You Need to Know About Online Education
Outside the academic world, online courses also show strength, attracting people from all classes and age groups in search of new knowledge and better professional qualifications.
The truth is that while online learning has in the past been seen as something for older and workers students, recent years have seen its popularity grow among people of all ages.
Taking the example of the US market, the Distance Education Enrollment Report 2017 showed that the number of students enrolled in distance education comes up to six million, while the latest figures from the US Department of Education indically up to 30 % of undergraduate students take at least one online course.
The recent explosion of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has played a big role in online education, with over 58 million students worldwide experiencing online learning in Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Coursify.me.
– Whats is a Learning Management System
While these courses are generally free and unaccredited, several steps have been taken recently to monetize them and implement a recognized qualification system, and even introducing full undergraduate degrees through MOOC sites.
Many companies already recognize certificates issued on completion of online courses as proof of qualification, and they themselves use online learning to empower their employees.
– Benefits of Online Business Training
If efforts to attract students seem to be waning, as online learning is becoming an increasingly popular choice among students from many different countries, instructors should be on the lookout for competition as distance learning courses tend to become increasingly popular.
In Higher and Higher, a 2017 HSBC survey of parents of international students in 15 countries, 60% of respondents said they would consider online education as an alternative to their children.
The number was even higher among parents in Indonesia, India, China and Mexico; all countries with limited household income and traditional, family-oriented cultures.
Research indicated that cost savings and a more comfortable learning environment were among the biggest drawbacks of online learning, while some parents also valued the technological skills their children would gain, as well as the potential opportunities to gain work experience while studying.
However, respondents also expressed some concerns, such as decreased opportunities for students to connect with their peers and limitations of the online delivery format.
While there are still some caveats, it is clear that online learning can present an invaluable option for students from lower-income developing countries, allowing them to access a higher standard of education without having to bear the financial burden of moving to another country, which, for the most part, is not even an option.
How to Focus Your Marketing Efforts to Attract Students
As online courses become more popular and accepted as a method of education that delivers the same classroom outcomes, schools of all kinds that offer online learning options can expect attract students from all walks of life.
This, coupled with the global offering of independent online courses that guarantee accessibility for all, means that the potential audience for your courses is virtually unlimited.
– What is the market view of online courses?
Now although this is great news for courses creators and institutions, the question is: with this world of options available, how you can better focus your marketing efforts to make your course appears amid so much competition?
While it may be tempting to cast as wide a net as possible, it can sometimes be a mistake, as it leads to unfocused promotional efforts that are unlikely to effectively reach potential prospects.
For example, if your online course addresses a broad topic, such as digital marketing, you might assume that, given the diversity of people who may be interested in your course, your programs will attract a much broader age range when, in reality, it is better to focus more on adult students.
– Know what your personas are looking for and attract leads
To ensure the best possible results, effective student personality development is perhaps even more crucial than usual, and understanding that personality is critical to knowing who and how you should communicate.
As a starting point, you should carefully consider what your course content offers. What skills do students acquire? Who might be interested in learning them online? What are the advantages that this particular course will offer over a classroom course? Answering these questions will help you significantly lower your audience.
5 tips to attract students for your online course
Attract students is win over people who are willing to purchase your service/product.
To do this most effectively the ideal is to create as many opportunities as possible for the public find your company and get in contact.
The following tips will include strategies to be continuously carried out and specific tactics.
1. Be clear about your course
Nothing is most annoying than visit a site and didn’t immediately find the information you seek.
Sites that are slow to load and that convey confusing messages are two main reasons that lead the visitor to leave the page.
To attract students, let it clear on the first page what your course is about, how it develops, what the student will learn and of course, your professional qualifications.
2. Provide infoproducts
Infoproduct is the name given to digital products that transmit information such as ebooks, checklists, webinars and more.
Method of communication that attracts attention and helps to establish authority, you can use this strategy to capture qualified leads and create a contact list.
You can also incorporate these infoproducts to your online course and thereby provide another compelling benefit to the customer.
3. Learn from your competitors
No one here is talking to copy the competition, but not be aware of what they do is also a mistake.
By observing how our competitors act, often we gain valuable ideas and realize what can be good or bad for our business.
A competitive analysis also shows which capture strategies are being used and how they compare with yours.
4. Take advantage of those who are already your student
There is no better advertising than “a friend talk about you”.
Ask your students and even colleagues who have worked with you to create testimonials about your course or your professional performance.
Other option to attract students is offering a reward for who indicate and persuade another person to enroll in the course.
5. Give something of value for free
Strategy widely used and proven effective, deliver something to the customer without asking anything in return is a first step to create a relationship and gain credibility.
In the case of online courses, many professionals choose to offer a first free module.
– How to attract students with free online courses and Inbound Marketing
The possibilities are numerous, as to create webinars to talk about a subject that interests your target audience, infoproducts with content relevant to the course, extra teaching materials, among others.
When you attract students, you get to form a customer base that, by itself, also works in your favor.
Customers interact and share experiences with others, bringing a new audience to the circle. Thus, the engagement wins a continuous and consistent cycle.
Online Education with Coursify.me
The tactics listed above apply to any type of business, and are perfect for those who are starting to sell online courses and need to attract and retain students.
– 5 Steps to Creating a Loyalty Program
With a little organization and a focused strategy, you’ll soon be attracting potential leads and getting your first students.
Complete eLearning platform, Coursify.me is the ideal solution for anyone who wants to create, sell and advertise courses on the internet without having to invest to start their own business.
Serving businesses and professionals in more than 60 countries, the platform is a dynamic and customizable Learning Management System (LMS).
Coursify.me offers three plan options for you to decide which best suits your needs and the good news is that the Beginner Plan is free!
Visit our website, test the platform, enter the online course market now and secure your place in this story.
