3 Myths You’ve Been Told About Marketing Your Online Course

I hear from online business owners all the time that their online course is not selling, but they don’t know WHY.

There are a lot of misconceptions about why your online course is not selling. Maybe you’ve talked with business besties, family, and friends and everyone has an opinion on what’s going wrong.

You hear things like, “it’s the price of your course.” or “It’s your webinar.”

The reality is, it may be none of these things or it may be a combination of a bunch of little things.

Here, I want to squash 3 myths you’ve been told about marketing your online course, so you don’t have to be in the dark anymore.

1. It’s easier to sell a lower priced course than it is a higher priced one

Everyone has an opinion on your pricing. You’ll hear things like, you need to start with a low-cost starter course. It’ll be easier to sell.  In fact, this can’t be further from the truth.

A lot of business owners think if I lower the price of my online program, then I will get more revenue. In fact, the opposite can be true. Without getting too complicated, I wanted to take you back to basic economics and the concept of price elasticity. Most online courses (ones that deliver huge value to their students) are fairly price inelastic; meaning that a large change in price is followed by a small change in quantity demanded.

Another mistake is that they don’t consider their end revenue goals or cost per acquisition. Let’s assume that your goal for a launch is $25,000. Your price point drives how many prospects you need in your sales funnel.

In looking at the spreadsheet below, let’s assume that your price point is $297. Assuming a 4% conversion rate in your sales funnel (which may be more for a warm audience), to meet your revenue goal, you would need around 2,104 prospects coming through your funnel. This number drops to 1,258 when you increase the price to $497.

Would you be surprised if I told you that the easiest courses to sell in an evergreen sales funnel are ones that are priced between $999 and $2K?

 Prices like these would definitely help you reach your revenue goals and allow you to build a sustainable online course business!

2. Webinars will be the key to your success

Don’t get me wrong. Using a webinar to market your online course is definitely a great way to grow your list and sell your online course. but the webinar is only a small piece of the puzzle.

There is so much more that goes into selling your online course that goes way beyond the webinar.

In your funnel, you will have your main lead magnet for your course. This is a checklist, roadmap or something similar. This lead magnet should be related to your online course to attract the right prospects.

You should put your lead magnet EVERYWHERE. It should be your call to action on social media, on the front page of your website, and as an opt-in on your blog posts or podcast.

The goal is to get people to sign up for your email list. The saying that “the money is in the list”…..is especially true for entrepreneurs selling online courses.

After people sign up for your lead magnet, you will send them a welcome series. The purpose of this email sequence is to highlight pain points and stir desire. It’s not to tell them about your life history. They don’t care.

For your Facebook and Instagram ads, you should test out variations. One may include sending people to a blog post that has your lead magnet as an opt-in. Another may be sending them to your webinar registration page for your free training. You can also test out an ad that sends them to your lead magnet.

About a week before your webinar and cart open date you will start inviting people to register for your webinar. You will send out an email invite to your email subscribers.

You can invite people to your free training on social media. You can also launch a Facebook and/or Instagram ad inviting them to register for your free training.

See the picture below on what a live webinar sales funnel looks like.

About a week before your webinar and cart open date you will start inviting people to register for your webinar. You will send out an email invite to your email subscribers. You can invite people to your free training on social media. You can also launch a Facebook and/or Instagram ad inviting them to register for your free training.

Once they register, you will send them to a thank you page and send out a confirmation email from your webinar platform provider. In addition to the reminder emails they get from your webinar platform provider, you will send emails to get your participants excited for your event.

 Your goal is to get them to show up live.

 At the end of your webinar, you will tell them about your online course and then direct them to your sales page.

 You will retarget non-purchasers until your cart closes (5-7 days after your webinar). The retarget emails will have your replay link and then direct prospects to your sales page.

Got all that?

Now, can you see that the webinar is only a small piece of the puzzle?

3. You need to constantly launch to get the perfect evergreen sales funnel

When your online course sales are less than stellar, how do you know what’s working and what’s not?

You definitely don’t want to ditch the entire funnel that you worked weeks and weeks building.

You just need a plan for turning your launch into a full-fledged online course business that grows steadily month after month.

#1 Mistake that many business owners make

They think that they have to do a few more live launches before they're ready to automate with an evergreen sales funnel.

But I have good news for you...

If you just launched (or are about to launch your online course), and are wondering "what's next?"...you need to set up your evergreen sales funnel ASAP!

Not 6-months from now. Not "when you're ready". Now.

You are more ready than you think.

You do not have to wait until you've launched live 2 or 3 times to set up your evergreen funnel system and start selling your course every day.

Am I really ready for an evergreen sales funnel?

Answer these questions:

• Do you have an online course?

• Have you sold it to your ideal customer? (e.g. validated demand and messaging)

• Do you want to enroll new students on autopilot?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are more than ready, my friend.

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