what's every online course creators worst nightmare no not the one about
showing it to school in your underwear the other one yes you spent weeks or
months painstakingly building your online course excited about all the
sales you're going to make and then launch day finally comes and crickets in
this video you'll learn exactly how to promote your online course that it
actually sells and the best part you won't have to spend a penny on ads let's
get into it
hello creators I'm Ben Toalson from Podia where we empower creators like you to
make a living doing what you love in today's video I want to talk about the
best marketing channel for selling online courses what is it is it Facebook
is a YouTube is it Instagram no in 2019 it's still email marketing and here's
why email marketing can earn back an average of twenty to forty dollars for
every dollar spent with some companies reporting returns as high as seventy
dollars also you own the platform when you post the social media you're
completely at the mercy of the company who owns that platform you could be one
bad algorithm change from being invisible
in fact one recent study found that without advertising marketers are lucky
to reach even 6% of the people who actually follow them on Facebook with
email marketing you get to decide how and when your subscribers hear from you
don't have an email list yet no problem we're gonna talk about how to start
building one today the first step to growing your email list is to create an
irresistible lead magnet a lead magnet is a free gift you give people in
exchange for signing up for your email list you've probably seen these on blogs
that you follow they can be emailed courses checklists templates PDF guides
or any other kind of bonus that solves a problem for your subscriber to create an
irresistible lead magnet just remember the three C's make it compelling make it
contextual make it clear let me break that down a little further to make a
lead magnet that is compelling you need to offer an immediate solution to a
small problem you can find these by brainstorming engaging with your
audience or browsing online forums for common
questions that you might have an answer for to make your lead magnet contextual
it should be directly related to the value your subscriber is already getting
from you if you run a blog about cook but your lead magnet has to do with pet
care it's probably not going to be very effective and finally to make your lead
magnet clear just make it really easy to find it should be in an obvious spot in
your articles and other pages on your website but you can also link to it in
your social media profile email signature or guest bio if you need some
help building your lead magnet check out our free digital download generator I'll
link it below in case you want to follow along once on the digital download
generator page click the generate your digital download button this will take
you to a form in steps one through four you'll fill out the title of your
download your business name select your brand colors and can upload a logo in
the fifth step choose which type of digital download you'd like to create
and follow the prompts to provide the content of the download in step six
you'll provide a call to action this is a great place to encourage people to go
sign up for your email list in step 7 you can provide places on the web where
people can find more of your content and in step eight
tell us where to send your digital download and you're done check your
email and your digital download should be waiting for you once you've made your
lead magnet it's time to get in front of people there are lots of ways to do this
but here are the top strategies that have been proven to work over and over
again strategy number one is content marketing create valuable content either
documenting your creative process or sharing solutions related to problems
your subscribers might be facing or a combination of both you can also tease
content from your newsletter or course to compel your audience to subscribe
strategy number two is guest posting or be a guest on a podcast if the hosts
audience can benefit from the unique perspective or solutions you provide you
can create easy inroads to your email list when looking for opportunities be
sure to make a personal ask and be specific about how you can bring value
to the audience of the host you're reaching out to you
strategy number three is hosting a giveaway you can encourage people to
sign up for your email list in exchange for the chance to win some kind of gift
or even something valuable you've created make sure that what you're
giving away is relevant and related to what's inside your email newsletter the
more relevant and related it is the more likely your subscribers will stick
around now I'll be honest with you your list probably won't
overnight it can take a while to get things going but remember all those
online course superstars you see with thousands or hundreds of thousands or
millions of people on their list they all start with a single subscriber and
many of them followed strategies exactly like these to get to where they are
today now that you've got email subscribers what do you do if you're
like me you ignore them completely for the first three years and don't send
them any emails don't do that we're using email as a sales channel which
means that now it's time to build a sales machine and the best way to do
that is to create an automated email sequence that gets people excited to buy
your course to do that we're going to follow a five-step email sequence that
will automatically be sent to everyone who joins your list here's what it looks
like email number one introduce and engage use this first email as an
opportunity to introduce yourself tell a story that gets them to think about a
problem you can solve for them and ask them a specific question related to the
problem they might be experiencing email number two share key insights now that
your new subscriber has gotten to know you you get to show them why they should
trust you in this email you'll share specific knowledge or insights that
solve the problem you mentioned in your previous email establishing you as an
expert and instilling a sense of trust email number three reveal your solution
now that your new subscriber trusts you and sees you as an expert remind them
that the solutions they're looking for are inside your course and paint a clear
vision of how their life will be better after they've completed it this is also
a great opportunity to give them a chance to opt in using a soft sell email
number four overcome objections if you can put yourself in your potential
students shoes you're probably aware of some of the things that might be holding
them back from getting started with your course use this email to address those
things so that by the time you make the final sale they're out of excuses and
ready to go email number five the final pitch if they've made it this far and
you've done a good enough job answering their objections it's time to sell this
is the part that many creators have difficulty with because they feel
uncomfortable selling but let me ask you a question do you believe that your
course makes life better for the right person you probably wouldn't have made
the course if you didn't think so if your course was a
building and the right person was walking around outside looking for a way
in you'd want to make it as easy and obvious as possible for them to find the
entrance that's basically all you're doing in this email remind them about
who you are and what you're about and then put a big bright beautiful sign
over the door so it's easy for them to find their way in and that's it
once you've created your automated email sequence you now have a dedicated sales
person that's going to work for you 24/7 setting this up is easy in the podía
dashboard click the emails tab click the new email button on the right of your
screen and choose drip campaign now give your drip campaign a name and click
create and continue in the choose a trigger drop down select the proper form
page under signed up at next click the Create drip email button choose when
you'd like the email sent write the subject line and then fill in the main
content of the email according to the five step sequence we outlined earlier
be sure to click the toggle under email status so that this email will be active
in your sequence once you've completed the first one click the add email button
to the left and get started on the second step in your sequence repeat this
until you've completed your sequence and then click the turn drip campaign on
button so your sequence will start running every time someone new signs up
the next step is to bookmark this video and say okay these tips are great I'll
come back when my course is ready just kidding please don't do that here's what
you need to do instead start building your list and selling your course today
the been I haven't made my course yet how can I sell it by pre selling it with
podía you can actually allow people to buy your course before it's released all
you have to do is follow these simple instructions once your course is
uploaded click on the Settings tab in the enrollment section under start date
click the add a start date button and choose the date you'd like your course
to go live this way you can get paid while you work on your course which if
you're like me is a great way to get that extra bit of motivation you need to
finally get that thing ready to go the sooner you get started building your
list the sooner you'll get to start making sales while this definitely isn't
the only way to market your online course this is one of the most effective
ways and I can't encourage you enough to get
today what are some ideas you have for lead magnets content marketing or
giveaways for your email list share them in the comments below if you found this
video helpful and want more relevant content like this click the subscribe
button and hit the notification bell so you can be the first to know when we
post a new video thanks for watching and I'll see you next time