Selling on Instagram: 5 strategies for online course creators

Selling on Instagram is the path that many beginning entrepreneurs are taking to grow their business with little investment.

Without a doubt, the access data and facilities that the platform offers justify this decision, and many professionals use it as their only digital sales channel.

If you also want to learn how to use this social media to gain an audience and sell online courses, keep reading to see strategies that are proven to work.

Why selling on Instagram is a great idea

Instagram is one of the most popular social networks in the world, currently having around 2 billion monthly active users. 

500 million people access the platform daily to view and share content, especially through short videos posted on Stories. 

The social network maintains impressive engagement, with users spending approximately 30 minutes a day browsing between posts, Reels and interactions in Direct. 

India leads the way when it comes to Instagram. The country has 362.9 million Instagram users. The United States comes next with 169.65 million users.

When we talk about business, the platform’s data is also impressive. With more than 200 million active business profiles around the world, around 90% of users follow at least one company on the network.

According to research, 72% of users have already purchased a product or hired a service that they discovered on the platform.

Additionally, approximately 150 million people send messages to business accounts every month, reinforcing engagement between brands and consumers.

The “Store” tab and features like Instagram Shopping and Checkout allow businesses to sell products directly on the platform, making it a great sales channel for businesses of all sizes.

– Marketing Channels for an Effective Digital Strategy

Selling ​​on Instagram without having a website

Many beginning entrepreneurs choose to start selling on Instagram precisely because they don’t yet have their own website, which would require more time and investment.

For those who sell physical products, Instagram Shopping is a valuable resource, as it transforms the social network into a true digital showcase, allowing companies to brand products directly in posts, Stories and Reels.

With this functionality, users can tap an image to see item details, such as price and description, and be redirected to purchase on the brand’s website or complete the purchase directly via Instagram Checkout.

Another amazing feature for traders, the “Store” tab allows users to explore product collections from different brands. 

This tool is of great assistance for e-commerce, helping companies to drive sales and improve customer experience, as they do not need to leave the app to complete the purchase.

– 8 techniques to improve the customer experience

Selling on Instagram: Strategies for Online Courses

Selling on Instagram can be extremely effective when using a combination of well-planned strategies.

Despite online course not being a physical product to be sold through Instagram Shopping, the platform can be used to attract, engage and convert followers in students. 

Many of the instructors at Coursify.me have been using social media for this purpose, and here are some of the strategies that give great results:

1. Strategic Content to Attract and Engage

The first step to selling courses is to build authority and interest through relevant content.

Below are some examples of content you can create to build trust and show that your course has value:

• Quick Tips: Teach basic concepts of your course in carousel posts or short Reels. Example: If you sell a Spanish course, publish a carousel with “5 expressions that natives use in everyday life”.

• Before and after: Show the transformation that your course provides. Example: Testimonials from students who completed your course and how they apply the knowledge gained.

• Interactive Lives: Answer questions live and explain topics from your course. Example: “Live: How to learn programming from scratch in 3 months?”.

• Behind the scenes and social proof: Share stories showing your routine as a teacher, student feedback or showing how the platform where the course is hosted works.

These types of content are simple to record using just a smartphone and microphone and don’t require much production, as the goal is to prove your authority while showing that you are real, which helps build a relationship with your audience.

The more you show the “real you”, the more people will be able to connect and believe in the value of what you are saying and selling on Instagram.

– 10 ideas for creating content for social media

2. Lead Capture

Selling on Instagram is the same as on any other digital channel, you need to convert followers into qualified leads (people with real purchasing intention).

To see who is really interested in buying your course, use the following strategies:

• E-books: Create an ebook on a topic related to the course and make it available in exchange for subscribing to your email list. It may be a short and practical ebook, but make sure you are delivering something of value, remember that the first impression is what counts.

• Free online mini-course: If you are familiar with cameras and find it easy to record video classes, an online mini-course is an excellent option for attracting qualified leads. The content can also be a tutorial or handout, it all depends on the subject you intend to cover. Remember that for the student, this will be a preview of what they can expect on your course, so do your best. Make the material available for free and ask followers to leave their email address to download.

– Step by step to create an online mini-course

• Lives: Schedule a day to teach a live class using the lives resource from Instagram. Publicize well in advance. During the live, ask anyone interested in receiving extra material to send their email via direct. You can send your ebook, online mini-course or other content you have prepared, such as a presentation.

• Stories with question box: Open a question box to increase engagement and find out more about what your audience wants, what their main doubts and difficulties are. Answer whatever comes up and at the end ask: “Do you want to learn more about [topic]? Leave your email to receive exclusive tips!”

Note that the main goal of this step is to build a list of leads for future sales campaigns.

– Best Practices for Building an Email List

3. Launch with Scarcity

You’ve probably already seen countless course creators using this strategy. This happens because it works.

Without a doubt, one of the best ways of selling on Instagram is to use the launch method, offering something at an unmissable price for just X people for X time, creating urgency and scarcity.

Check out an effective launch model:

Pre-launch (1-2 weeks before):

• Warm up your audience with free content, student testimonials and success stories.
• Create expectations: “Something incredible is coming…”, “You can’t miss this unique opportunity…”.
• Use countdowns in Feed and Stories.

Launch (5-7 days):

• Open registrations for a limited time (example: 2 days).
• Offer exclusive benefits to those who sign up quickly.
• Use paid ads to reach more people.

Registration closing:

• Remind followers of the deadline.
• Highlight the unmissable conditions for those who sign up first, highlighting the advantages they will have, such as discounts, bonuses and live classes to answer questions.
• Post student feedback and reinforce the transformation that the course offers.

This is the most important part of sales, this is where you have the chance to capture the largest number of students in a short period, so be incisive.

– Launching online courses: advantages of organizing a pre-sale

4. Paid Ads 

Even with the many free resources that the platform offers, selling on Instagram is like any other channel, the more people know that you exist, the better. For this, paid advertisements are good allies. 

Paid ads on Instagram work through Meta Ads Manager. 

They are segmented according to the target audience defined by the advertiser and can have different formats and objectives.

Feed Ads

This type of ad appears among organic posts in users’ feeds. 

It can be done in the form of a single image, carousel or video. 

The carousel is a very interesting format to sell on Instagram, as it allows you to show up to ten images or videos in a single ad, each with its own link. 

As the platform itself suggests, you can highlight different products or show specific details of an item, service or promotion. Plus, you can tell a story about your brand that unfolds on each carousel card.

Ads in Stories

Ads in Stories are displayed among content published by users. They can be still images or videos up to 35 seconds. 

This format is very efficient in encouraging quick actions, such as clicks to a website, signups, or purchases, as it has interactive buttons such as “Learn more” and “Buy now”.

Remember to always record the video vertically and use subtitles, as many people watch with the audio turned off.

Also we recommend that you use original audio, where you appear talking about yourself or your course, for example. Stories have a more intimate appeal and are great for building relationships with your audience.

Ads on Reels

Ads on Reels appear among the organic videos in that section and are formatted as videos up to 15 minutes (although we don’t recommend going beyond 2 minutes) and people can comment, like, view, save and share. 

This type of ad is ideal for telling your brand’s story, educating potential leads with tutorials and short classes, or providing information about products and services.

As in the case of Stories, record the video vertically and use subtitles.

Be careful not to use unlicensed audio, as your content may end up mute.

Ads on Explore

Ads on Explore are shown to users who are browsing new content. 

It’s an area of ​​discovery where Instagram identifies content across the platform to display based on each person’s interests. It appears on the same page as the search function and shows posts from accounts that the user does not yet follow.

These advertisements may be in the format of images or videos and are a great option for reaching new audiences.

TIP: Hashtags influence how the Instagram algorithm treats your content when deciding whether to show your posts in user feeds or on the Explore page. So, in all types of publications, it’s a good idea to use them!

5. Funnel for Continuous Sales

In addition to launches, you can use Instagram to help you sell the course on an ongoing basis using an automatic funnel.

If you’re not very familiar with technology, it might be a good idea to ask for help to adjust some stages of this funnel, but if you’re already an expert in digital marketing tools, here’s a basic step-by-step guide to setting up an automatic sales funnel:

• Have a always-on sales page. If you don’t want to create your own website, you can use your page within the teaching platform where your course is hosted, such as Coursify.me.
• Use Instagram Ads to generate constant traffic.
• Offer a recorded webinar or free class to convince interested parties.
• Send automated emails for those who registered, reinforcing the purchase.

The great thing about online courses is that you only need to create the content once, and you can continue selling indefinitely through an automatic funnel.

By making updates when necessary, it is possible to generate sales every day without depending on launches.

– How to use email automation to sell more 

Use Instagram to promote and sell your online courses

With the right combination of strategies, Instagram can become a powerful tool for selling online courses. 

Creating valuable content, capturing qualified leads, using strategic launches, investing in ads and structuring a continuous sales funnel are the main ways to transform followers into students.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the data that the social network offers to see how your latest posts are performing and find out what’s driving the best results.  

In this way, selling on Instagram can become the most effective way to promote your course and get more and more students.

By hosting an online course on Coursify.me you personalize the course page with your identity and create links to your social networks, facilitating its dissemination.

Complete and optimized eLearning platform, Coursify.me is the ideal solution for those who want to create, sell  and promote courses on the internet.

– What is an eLearning platform?

To learn more, visit our website, test the platform and understand why we are the best option for your online course.