So, you created an amazing course about a topic you’re passionate about, but you have barely any students.
What are you doing wrong?
No matter how high-quality, well-researched, and well-executed your course is, without successful marketing, your course won’t be successful.
Your tutorial business depends on getting the word out there and students choosing to purchase it. It’s totally possible to market your course like a pro. You just need some fresh ideas.
Keep reading to find out the best ways to market your online tutorial business.
1. Define Your Ideal Student
Depending on your target customer, your marketing techniques will differ. So you need to research who your ideal students for your course are.
Consider their age, gender, career, income level, interests, and hobbies. Are they a college student, or an established adult looking to learn something new in your niche?
The more details you can learn about your ideal student, the easier it’ll be to market to them and to their specific needs.
2. Design Your Sales Funnel
As you continue learning these marketing techniques, consider where they’d go in your business’s sales funnel.
Your sales funnel is the process of selecting your ideal customers from a pool of strangers, intriguing them, turning them into leads, and eventually customers. It’s the process of nurturing your target audience into wanting to become a customer.
Sales funnels start with creating awareness of your course and intriguing people who may have an interest in the topic. Then, you nurture them into trusting your brand and wanting to learn more.
Eventually, through a successful funnel, they become paying customers.
3. Website Advertising
If you’ve created a course, you should have a website for your business by now.
On your website, make sure it’s easy for customers to find more information on your course. The top bar is a good place to have a course button.
The course page should go over all the benefits of taking this course, what they can learn, positive testimonials, etc. Perhaps consider hiring a copywriter to make this page do the selling.
Focus on inbound marketing to draw in the customers you’re targeting. You should also include a blog section on your website where you can write about topics in your niche and advertise your course in.
4. Keyword Research
When choosing the name of your course, ensure it includes a keyword or two related to your specific niche and ideal student.
You can use Google Keyword Planner to research keywords, but you should also think about what your ideal students are googling when they want to know more about your topic. Use words that they would use the search engine.
Keyword research is a crucial part of your SEO, and so is mobile-optimization. Ensure your website and your course look amazing and run perfectly on mobile phones as well as computers.
5. Start a YouTube Channel
YouTube is an awesome place to market your online course because millions of people use the platform for how-to videos and to learn more about various topics.
Your channel could include teasers to your course, videos on other topics in your niche, Q&As that establish you as an expert on the topic, and a promotional video.
In the description below your videos, always have a link that takes the viewer to the course page on your website.
Your videos can compel people to learn more about your course, thus nurturing them further through your sales funnel.
6. Utilize All Social Media Platforms
So, your business has its own YouTube channel and website. The next step is to get active on social media.
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google+ are great places to socialize with your ideal students and build relationships.
Make a point to find users that are interested in your niche and may be interested in your course.
Follow their accounts and don’t be afraid to comment on their posts or respond to their comments on yours. People would rather buy from a business they trust, and building relationships through online interaction creates it.
7. Create a Facebook Group
Separate from your Facebook profile and business page is a Facebook Group. You can invite and allow any followers that want to discuss and learn more about your industry to your group.
Facebook Groups are often made up of people who have already taken a course or are currently taking it, so they can discuss it with other students. It creates an exclusive community for people who share the same interest.
Once you’ve built this group up it becomes the perfect place to market future courses and products.
You could run the group yourself of hire an employee to be the page’s administrator.
Hiring staff and managing employees is a task in and of itself. For more information on managing organizational change, read more now.
8. Encourage Reviews
Every student who completes your course should be encouraged to give feedback and leave a review.
You can use the positive reviews as testimonials in your marketing campaigns, and the negative feedback can bring your attention to things that you need to change.
Plus, potential customers are more likely to buy your course if they can read lots of reviews from other users who’ve already taken it.
If you have the budget, consider paying influencers and bloggers in your niche to review your course on their platforms. You could even give them an affiliate link to give to their followers; anytime someone purchases your course through that link, that influencer gets a cut.
Consider partnering with an aligned business in your niche and reviewing each other’s products on your pages. Choosing a competitor may not be a good idea but choosing someone in your niche with a completely separate product or service than yours is.
Ready to Market Your Tutorial Business?
Now that you know some creative ways to market your tutorial business online, it’s time to get to work. Remember that consistency in your marketing will bring results.
There are many other ways to market your business and increase your digital pretense to improve the success of your business.
Check out our business blog for more ideas and things to consider.