Designing and building a great online course involves a lot of time and effort from all parties involved, whether you are an education provider or a learning designer. However, the hardest part actually comes after the build, when you have to market and sell your course.
No matter how much time you spend on building your course, if you don’t know how to properly package it and present it to your target audience, you won’t get the results you want.
The best way of presenting and promoting an online course is by building an attractive and effective landing page.
An online course is like any other product out in the market. It serves to be part of the solution to a problem, whereby you are solving the problem through teaching. Consider asking yourself: What is the value proposition of your course? This will showcase how you will be able to solve learner's problem.
What exactly are ‘landing pages’?
- Landing pages work really well to promote various products across all industries, and online courses are no exception.
- A landing page is a term used by specialists in the field of online marketing to define a particular type of page that has the purpose to convert visitors into customers.
- Landing pages are called this because when people use search engines such as ‘Google’ and click on a link that is supposed to sell something, they ‘land’ on a page that was specifically designed for this purpose.
- Landing pages are marketing tools created to attract the attention of possible buyers and move them further along the sales funnel.
What are the key elements involved in building successful course landing pages?
There are some important elements worth noting when creating a great course landing page. These 7 elements will provide potential buyers a better idea about your course, increase motivation to learn more, and persuade them to purchase it.
Let’s take a look at some of the key elements that should be on the landing page of your online course.
1. Awesome headline
The headline is the first element on the page that a visitor sees. Consider the below tips when choosing an eye-catchy and straightforward headline:
- Know your audience, understand their needs, and consider your solution
- Make it clear for the target audience that they are in the right place and make them want to find more information
- Choose the appropriate words that will persuade your prospects to take action
- Language is important which means headlines that are complicated or difficult to understand for the average person will not convert
- Consider using supporting headlines that aim to reinforce what the main headline does and secure the path to checkout
2. Course description
This is the section where you convince potential learners why they should buy your course. The key to crafting a good description is to structure it well and focus on the benefits of the course.
Consider the following questions when putting together your course descriptions:
- What is the purpose of the course?
- How will this course add value to and be of benefit for the learner?
- What people will learn from the course?
- Why is the course is relevant and worthwhile for learners to invest their time and money?
- Why is the course the best for this topic?
Another tip would be to focus on career outcomes and the professional development goals of the target audience.
3. Course picture
Visual communication is so effective because it can be processed much faster. Both cognitively and emotionally. In fact, we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. This is also one of the first aspects that visitors notice about your course. For these reasons, it is extremely important to have a relevant image that is of high quality, high resolution and portrays the topic of your course well. You can either create your own image via Photoshop or Canva, or hire someone to create one for you. You can also find images via iStock or Freepik.
4. Module outline
Providing a content outline of your online course can give potential learners a good idea of what the course is about and if it's a good fit for them. Include a list of the titles of your learning modules, add a short description for each one, and highlight what people will learn from it.
5. Facilitator and Instructor bio
The facilitator and instructor bio is key factor that influences the purchasing decision of an online course. It is therefore advisable to include the name, photo, and a short description. It is worth mentioning what makes them an expert on this topic and why you are so passionate about the topic that you are teaching and facilitating.
6. Reviews and student testimonials
Reviews and student testimonials increase the social capital of your course and are an important element of social proof. It reveals your student's experiences with your course and encourages prospective students to purchase the course. People seek out the opinions of others before making buying decisions. For this reason, it is important to gather reviews from the moment you launch the course. If you're at the beginning, this can be a challenge. Consider working with a pilot group to gather testimonials.
The below principles of social mechanics explain how reviews can influence buying decisions:
- Uncertainty - When faced with an unfamiliar situation, an unsure person would feel the need to refer to other people for their thoughts and guidance.
- Similarity - Again, in an unfamiliar experience, people tend to follow what their peers do.
- Expertise - People also rely on experts to guide them and will turn to people with expertise on the subject. Experts with credentials or popular influencers go a long way when they promote your subject to their audience because of this.
- Number – The more people, the stronger the effect.
➡️ Read more about how to collect testimonials from your learners.
7. Course details
This is the section where you mention small but important details of your course such as price, the duration, if the course awards a certificate, and more. Even if the course is self-paced, you can still add an estimation of how long it usually takes to complete it.
💡 Tip: As a Call-To-Action, it is best practice to direct your potential audience to a form or page where you are able to collect their email addresses, should they express interest. To begin, free tools like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey can be a good starting point to capture your leads.
Conclusion
These are the most important elements that you should consider including on any course landing page. If you want to generate more student enrolments, you should take the time, in the beginning, to put together a great landing page. Make sure your landing page has an intuitive, logical, and clear design with a strong call to action.
Get more tips, insights, and resources about running a successful online learning project from our most recent webinar:
