If you are an expert in a field, providing training in the form of online courses can quickly give you a convenient source of income.
Creating a series of online courses requires little upfront investment (besides the time it probably takes to format them) and once the training is complete, you have a product that can be used for an unlimited number of passive forms. can be sold from (ie without the need to intervene). No products to ship, no “physical” storage costs, no damage to damaged or perishable products, etc.
The knowledge economy, where information is power, is on the rise and with it, the demand for online courses has exploded! It is undoubtedly a rapidly growing market and in recent years platforms have flourished for businesses in various industries to offer online sales training.
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Let’s take a look together at how to get started in sales training.
Why sell online courses?
The success of online training is driven by the many desires to retrain at any age in life, and the fact that the global pandemic that affects us is prompting people to favor the comfort and flexibility of their own home rather than the costly trips of “physical” encourages taking. “Classes.
Anyone can offer online training, even if it is not their primary occupation. It can also help a professional in his main activity …
Strengthen your brand and online presence
By educating his audience, a professional can establish himself as an opinion leader, a source of new knowledge.
This can be done in many ways: by using YouTube channel, blog, author site…
retain existing customers
With marketing efforts, along with promoting online courses, increases the opportunity to create brand awareness and attract more customers.
Train customers in the use of the products or services sold
Helping customers (or audiences) get what they want will also help build loyalty and brand awareness. The key is a low unsubscribe rate, a high recommendation rate…
If you want to sell online courses that you already have, are “ready to use” and formatted for learning management systems, you can skip the following portions devoted to course creation and formatting (although this There are also useful tips on the topic), to jump straight to the Marketing and Sales section. Otherwise, you can continue reading.
1. Find an interesting training topic
It goes without saying, and yet I would write it anyway. Your training will only sell if it is with original content and real added value, if possible without too much competition or with elements that will set your training apart from others. how? ‘ or ‘ what?
Identify your audience
Get as detailed a picture as possible of who your target is. What does she want to learn? Why ? Is it to get certified to advance their career, learn a skill that will improve their future prospects, or meet industry standards? This is the kind of course material that people are willing to pay for. It has value to them as it helps them to achieve their goals.
To make sure you know your goal, start frequenting the forums where your future trainees are. Know their tastes, their needs and their grievances. Learn about the challenges they face.
This will help you design a curriculum that directly addresses their motivations.
Present your training and curriculum appropriately
What is the level of education of your future trainees? What knowledge are they likely to already have in the field?
Knowing this, you will be able to design customized courses, neither too difficult nor too easy, to be delivered in a format that is most likely to win the support of the greatest number of students.
2. Differentiate Your Offer
Focus on a niche and try to build a brand within it. Unless you have a big budget and plan to build a real university, you should have one characteristic: do one thing, but do it well.
You may be able to branch out later when you have recruited a good number of trainees.
Try to Offer a Special Perspective
What makes your course different from others? Is the training aimed at a particular demographic group? Consider the attitude that attracts him.
Be creative: Shape your proposal to appeal to your target and (at least) encourage them to read the course description.
propose a learning path
It is essential to plan a series of courses, the progression of which is clear and logical, and really gives a sense of progress.
The skills acquired for each course should be explained. Thus, your apprentices will want more and, even if they can only choose one course, they will be tempted by the whole range.
In addition, several short courses crowned with modest objectives will be more digestible and inspiring.
3. Write Compelling Content
You know what you’re going to talk about, who you’re going to talk to and how. It’s time to move on to the material itself.
- Explain why they need to learn it, listing goals and outcomes.
- Make the curriculum as interactive as possible, for example by asking you to complete tasks, exercises…
- Divide the material into easily absorbable courses of approximately equal length, stimulating more than one meaning (video, sound and pictures, and of course, text).
- Make sure key learning points are repeated frequently.
format text
If you have a big budget, you can hire a professional to design the course for you. Of course creating the courses yourself is more economical.
Unless you’re using a specialized authoring platform in the industry, an easier way is to use PDF or Powerpoint. It is possible to create quality courses using only these common tools.
With PDF, you can offer read-to-write files, with areas that learners can edit, giving your curriculum a basic level of interactivity (taking notes or answering quiz questions).
Powerpoint can also work well (if you keep the layout consistent and accessible). PowerPoint now has a free plugin called Office Mix that allows direct export to the SCORM format recognized by most learning management systems.
Which brings us to SCORM: Short for “Shareable Content Object Reference Model”, it is a set of standards designed to work across all learning management systems, so you can help publish your training on a learning platform. will be able whatever you want.
5. Offer your courses on exclusive platforms
With SCORM-compliant courses, you will be spoiled for choice on which platform to offer your courses.
One of the most commonly used is Moodle, a free and open source e-learning platform with a large community of users, and a set of learning tools that you can tap into as you create new ones. classes.
If you want to add more functionality to your courses, you may want to consider Totara, another free e-learning platform that is geared more towards corporate learning environments but has features that Moodle doesn’t have. .
To end with this inevitably expansive short list, there is Joule, a paid learning management system (with a 15-day free trial) that offers a host of features as well as full support.
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6. Boost Your Training
It all sucks if your offer is submerged under thousands of others. Now he has to meet his audience.
Here is an essential shortlist for the success of your online training:
a dedicated website
Even if your catalog and shopping cart are on one platform, you should have a place where your students can find information about you and your courses, as well as where to buy them.
This gives you a very important SEO leverage to attract buyers to your courses, as the platforms won’t do it for you: Blog about topics related to your field, naturally making sure to use relevant keywords.
Again, we recommend that you Assign the creation of your training site to a freelance developer for a professional result, A functional site with a serious presence will help you gain some credibility with your goal.
dedicated social network
Create a Facebook page dedicated to your training, as well as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, to regularly post, but not just advertise, your products. Share content that interests you, add your opinion or expertise on the chosen field.
Encourage people to comment and interact with you: In short, do everything possible to pique their interest (and keep it).
Think about it
Keep in touch with your students after their training
Encourage them to write reviews of your courses – this not only allows you to get feedback, but also refines your course offering. A negative review will motivate you to do better!
Keep a mailing list of your students to inform them of potential new courses…
Need help creating or promoting your online course? There are many freelancers available on Codeur.com to help you get started. Post your project to get free quotes from experts.