How to Market an Online Course From your own Website

Are you a course creator looking for ways to get more traffic to your website so you can sell more courses? There are different ways you can market your online courses from your own website (or other places), and it’s up to you to decide which method or methods you want to use in your business. If you want to learn how to market an online course from your own website using organic marketing, SEO, email, and blogging, keep reading. You can market your online courses for free. 

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When will you market your online course?

Are you going to go with an evergreen model where your course is always available, or do you prefer the launch model where you do live launches a few times a year? Either option works. It’s your choice which model fits better in your business and your life. Some people love the energy and rush of live launching, while others hate it. Some courses feel like they need that cohort approach that a live launch gives you, while others are better on evergreen where students can enroll at any time.

The model you choose will affect how you market your online course, so think that through before putting together your marketing plan.

The benefits of the live launch model for your online course business

When you do live launches a few times a year, you interact with your audience in your training classes or webinars. You also get live, real-time feedback from your students so you can see if there’s anything that confuses them or anything you should adjust in your content.

You also get a large cash injection in your business each time you do a live launch, depending on how many students enroll.

We also generally see better conversions in a live launch than in an evergreen model. 

The benefits of evergreen course launches

The evergreen model allows you more freedom and flexibility in your business and life since students can watch your pre-recorded training or webinar at a time that’s convenient to them, not just when you’re ready to do a live launch.

While conversions tend to be lower on evergreen launches than on live launches, steady income throughout the year can be very nice. 

It’s up to you which model you choose. You can also take a hybrid approach, where your course is available on evergreen most of the year, and you periodically launch it live. 

Choose your launch model and then start creating your marketing plan for your online course business.

How to sell online courses from your own website

The first step is to make sure your online course is available for sale on your website. If potential students can’t find your course, they’re less likely to enroll. You’ll want a page for your online course on your website. If you teach live, then you may want to have a waitlist for the next session rather than an enrollment option on the website most of the year, but that’s up to you. 

If you offer your course on evergreen, you’ll want a sales page so that students can enroll right away. Most students will go through your evergreen funnel and watch your webinar or free training; however, not everyone will. Some students may go directly to your sales page and enroll in your course without going through your free training. 

SEO is the key to selling online courses from your own website

Once you’ve created your course sales page, you want to do SEO on it so that it can be found in Google and get traffic. You need to choose an SEO keyword for this page and then use that keyword in the places Google will look for clues as to what your content is about. 

You’ll use your SEO keyword in your title tag, meta description, header tags, copy, URL, and image file names. Use the same keyword in each of those elements to help Google understand the content on your page. Get the free Beginner's Guide to SEO here if you aren't sure what to do. It walks you through this step-by-step.

If you want to use organic marketing to sell your courses, there are other things you can do to help drive more traffic to your website for free.

Create a blog strategy  plan that helps your potential students find you passively

Blogging can be one of the best ways to drive traffic to a website. When you create helpful content for your potential students and do SEO on it, your content has a better chance of being found in Google and getting free, organic traffic.

You want to focus on creating content that’s helpful for your ideal customer or student. Don’t create content simply for the sake of creating. Take the time to research ideas that people are searching for by using SEO keyword research tools; Google suggested search, Pinterest search, or other similar tools. 

Then do SEO keyword research and choose a keyword your website has a good chance of ranking for on Google and create content that uses that keyword. Don’t worry about SEO; it’s much easier than you think. It’s the connection point between the content you’re creating and your potential student. That’s all. If you want potential students to learn about your business in a passive way, then SEO is your best tool. 

How much content do you need to create to sell online courses from your own website?

You are likely going to need more than one blog post and your course page to sell many courses from your website. I recommend that my students choose four topic areas to write about on their blogs. Each of those topic areas should tie back to your course topic (or topics if you have more than one course) so that the traffic you drive to your website is relevant to your business and has a better chance of converting. 

Most course creators know that we should create one new content piece a week. You don’t need to do more than that. Write one blog post that helps your potential student each week and optimize it for SEO so that they can find it on Google. Doing this will help you bring people who are interested in your subject area to your website. If you're not sure what to do for SEO, get the free Beginner's Guide to SEO here, and it will walk you through how to do SEO on your blog post. 

Other ways you can market your online courses

You can run ads to either your webinar, training or even your freebie or opt-in and have Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc., help build your audience for your online course. This can be great because you can reach a large audience quickly (if you have a big enough budget) but it’s also costly since you have to pay for each click that you get from your ads.

You can market your online courses through social media if you’d like. You’ll need to create content and focus on building an audience on social media so you can try to get them to visit your website or enroll in your course, too.

You can market your online courses through email marketing, too. No matter what traffic method you use, you'll want to be sure you have email marketing set up so you can nurture your leads and hopefully turn them into students in time. 

How do you create a marketing plan for your online courses?

Start by choosing how you’ll sell your courses. Will you offer them on evergreen or do live launches? If you’re doing live launches, choose your launch dates and mark them on your calendar. 

Create your webinar or free training program for your online course. You need to offer value to those who watch. Not everyone will buy your course, and that’s OK. Focus on providing value so that people feel that they’ve learned something about your subject.

Create a website page for your webinar or free training so people can sign up for the training class. You can choose an SEO keyword for this page if you want it to show up in Google’s search results when people are searching for information related to your course. 

Next, you’ll want to create a page for your course on your website. If you are live launching, this page might have a waitlist sign-up when you’re not open for enrollment. If your course is on evergreen, you’ll want to have the course for sale on this page.

Choose an SEO keyword for your course page and use that keyword in the places that Google looks for clues as to what your page is about. If you’re not sure what those are or how to write them, get my Beginner’s SEO Guide here, and I’ll show you what to do.

Create content that helps your ideal student by answering their questions and providing value for them. Add blog posts to your website that will help drive traffic and then link from those blog posts to your course page. Be sure to choose SEO keywords you can rank for and use them on your blog posts so your content can be found on Google.

What you’re creating here is an organic marketing funnel for your course sales. The way it works is simple

• Create blog content your ideal student is searching for
• Optimize that content using SEO so it gets found by them on Google (SEO is your connection point between your content and your audience)
• Add an opt-in to your content piece so you can get that potential student on your email list (your opt-in can be your freebie, your webinar, or your free training)
• Email your potential student with more helpful content that addresses their questions and helps them prepare to enroll in your course once a week 

If you want to add to your funnel and use social media or ads to help drive additional traffic, you can, but it’s not necessary. As long as your content is helpful and optimized so Google can connect it to the right audience you can sell courses using your organic marketing funnel.

If you’re ready to simplify your life and set up an organic marketing funnel using your blog as your foundation, join me in Simple SEO Content today. I’ll show you how to do this step-by-step. It’s time for you to create a passive income stream for your business, and this is the best way possible to do it.