How to Plan Your Social Media (for your next online course launch)

Do you have a social media marketing plan for your next online course launch?

Social media can be a complete time waster without a cohesive strategy. A strategy that encourages your followers to take action and invest in you and your business.

Follow this step by-step process to prepare your social media strategy for your next online course launch; making it easy for you to attract and connect with your online course prospects.

Step 1: Make your key launch decisions

Before you begin on your social media marketing plan, you need to put a stake in the ground and schedule your launch date.

This is the date that you will do your first webinar, start your challenge or video series.

It's the cart open date for your sales funnel.

You will want to give yourself enough time to ramp up and create all of your webinar slides, sales page, and emails for your launch.

Action item: Write down your course launch date in your calendar.

Next, you will decide on your cart close date. Your cart will open during your first webinar or at the time you present your offer in your challenge.

It's important to have a cart open and close date as this will create urgency for your offer and it also lets potential students know that your course is not open to buy at all times.

The cart open and close time frame can last anywhere from 7-14 days.

Action item: Write down your cart close date in your calendar.

Step 2: Optimize your social media profiles for your call to action

Remember, your goal is to get them off of social media and onto your email list so you can continue to build that know, like, and trust factor. You should have a lead magnet related to your online course that is posted in your bio for you to point them to and encourage them to sign up. Don’t forget…email marketing = revenue for your online course launch!

Once they are on your email list, start your welcome email series. You need to reach out to your ideal customer immediately and build your relationship with them.

Step 3: Plan your social media strategy around the buyer’s journey

The buyer’s journey is a step-by-step process that people go through when making a purchase decision. In fact, you go through the buyer’s journey for many of the purchase decisions you make.

Each stage is divided by the buyer’s journey. You will tailor your social media posts to answer the questions for your ideal customer so you’re speaking their language in your social media posts.

Get out your calendar and use the bullet points below to map out your social media calendar.

Your cart open date/webinar launch date drives your entire social media promotional plan. This date starts your decision stage. The decision stage is your cart open and cart close date.
The consideration stage is approximately 7-10 days prior to your cart open date.
The awareness stage is the time frame prior to the start of the consideration stage.

Plan your awareness stage posts

At the beginning of your online course launch, you’re focused on the awareness stage. This is when people get to know a little bit about you and how you can help them.

You are attracting them by speaking to their pain points or helping them to clearly identify their problem and how they may solve it.

Before you begin preparing your posts for the awareness stage, take a second and answer these questions about your ideal customer:

How does your ideal customer describe their problem/migraine?
How does your ideal customer conduct research related to these problems?
What are the consequences if they don't act or do anything about their problem/migraine?
Are there any common misconceptions they have about addressing this challenge?
How does your target customer decide whether the problem/migraine should be prioritized?

Plan your consideration stage posts

In this stage, your prospect understands their problem and are actively researching solutions to fix it.

You are now promoting your free challenge/webinar/workshop//training.

This gives them the opportunity to consider your solution to solve for their problem. You may even speak to pros/cons of the various solutions they may consider.

Customer testimonials are great to use in this stage (as well as the decision stage) as it continues to build the trust factor.

Before you get started in planning your social media posts for this stage, take a second to answer these questions for the consideration stage:

What options does your ideal customer consider to fix their problem?
How does your ideal customer educate themselves on these various options?
How does your ideal customer perceive the pros and cons of each option?
How does your ideal customer decide which option is right for them?

Plan your decision stage posts

In this stage, your prospect has a long list of alternatives and is narrowing down their list to solve it.

You are answering questions about your program and helping them evaluate your offer. Highlight your key differentiators and address their concerns. Customer testimonials are great to use in this stage as it provides evidence that your future student will achieve your promised transformation.

Before you work on your social media posts for this stage, consider these buying decision questions for your ideal customer:

What criteria does your ideal customer use to evaluate the available offers? (e.g. ease of solution, price, etc)
When ideal customers investigate your offer, what do they like about it compared to alternatives? What concerns do they have with your offer?
Who needs to be involved in the decision? For each person involved, how does their perspective on the decision differ?
Does your ideal customer have expectations around service guarantees?
Outside of purchasing, does your student need to make additional preparations, prior to purchasing your solution?