How to Launch Your Online Course Fast and Easy with Maximum Results
You have this awesome online course to sell and now it’s time to find students.
You’ve tried posting about it on social media and doing a few Facebook or Instagram lives to promote it, but it’s not getting the traction and exposure you’d hope.
You’re ready to get serious about selling and finding your perfect students, but not sure where you should focus first or what kind of launch would work best for you and your audience.
The good news is there are several options to launch your online course. Here are my favorite ways to find students even when you’re just starting out or have a small or nonexistent email list.
3 Proven Ways to Launch Your Online Course
Webinar
You can call it a masterclass, workshop, webinar, or simply a training, but the intent is the same. Provide your audience with insane value and actionable takeaways and then pitch your course at the end.
Webinars are not dead; in fact, recent studies have found that webinars are still one of the best ways to generate quality leads.
Even if you decide to launch with a 5-Day Challenge or a Virtual Summit, I highly recommend that that you wrap up your live challenge or summit with a webinar.
This gives you an opportunity to recap what they’ve learned, celebrate their wins during the challenge or summit and pitch your online course.
5-Day Challenge
If you’re comfortable on live video and love being in the spotlight, a 5-Day Challenge may be the perfect fit for your next launch.
Successful challenges are usually delivered via email and through a Facebook group. For each day of your challenge, you’ll prompt your participants to complete an action item which is aligned with the promised outcome of your challenge.
Challenges give people a taste of what it’s like working and learning with you.
In the past, I’ve also launched a paid challenges where I send out daily emails for 5 or 7 days and give them access to an online course for resources to complete their daily action items.
After they’ve completed the paid challenge, they’re offered other opportunities to learn and work with me so they can continue to grow their online course business.
Virtual Summit
Once per year, I launch with a virtual summit, called The Funnel Cure. This summit is for online course business owners and the sole focus of the summit is to help them sell their online course.
I’ve found that a virtual summit can be more time consuming than a webinar or 5-day challenge launch; however, when you engage your speakers to help you promote, there’s a huge upside opportunity for list building, selling your paid all access pass and other online course offerings.
With summits, you need to start planning at least three months in advance of your launch if not more. It’s takes time to find and pitch the appropriate speakers, get their commitment and contract signed, collect speaker presentations, and prepare the affiliate promotional material.
Now, let’s talk about the tools you’ll need for your online course launch.
Tools You’ll Need for your Launch
Webinar Platform
For your live launch, I recommend that you invest in a webinar platform during your launch. Two options that I’ve tried in the past that have worked for me and my clients are Zoom and Demio.
The reason why I prefer a webinar platform even if you’re delivering content through a Facebook group for your challenge or summit is the interactivity of your webinar platform.
You can do polls, answer questions live that have been posted in the chat and engage with your audience using the webinar platform.
It’s also easy to record the webinar which you can use in an evergreen sales funnel to help sell your online course throughout the year.
You can post your recorded webinar in your Facebook group and allow others to view and ask questions as you close out your summit or challenge.
Facebook Group
If you’re running a 5-Day Challenge or a Virtual Summit, I highly recommend setting up a Facebook group for your launch.
If you already have a free Facebook group set up for your online business, use it for your launch – no need to set up an entirely new group!
I’ve even unarchived a Facebook group and used it for a launch.
Email Service Provider
When someone registers for your webinar, challenge, or virtual summit, you’ll immediately add them to your email list.
Once they’re on your email list, the first email you’ll send them is their confirmation email basically stating that their seat is saved for the webinar, challenge or summit and what to do next like joining your Facebook group where all the fun will take place!
During your launch, you’ll send out a lot of emails. Here’s a list of the email series you’ll schedule during your launch.
Webinar/Challenge/Summit Registration Invite Sequence (invite your email subscribers to your webinar, summit, or challenge)
Webinar/Challenge/Summit Confirmation Email Sequence (send out after someone signs up for your webinar or challenge)
Webinar/Challenge/Summit Reminder Email Sequence (send prior to your webinar, challenge, or summit e as a friendly reminder)
Webinar/Challenge/Summit Retargeting Email Sequence (send after your webinar with replay information and to encourage purchase)
If purchase….Member On Boarding Email Sequence (send after someone purchases your online course)
Webinar/Challenge/Summit Email Sequence (sequence to send to your email subscribers who don't opt in for your webinar or challenge)
Canva
I use Canva for creating a lot of different marketing assets for my launches.
I even use Canva to create my webinar presentations. I’ve found that Canva creates visually appealing presentations and you can even include speaker notes on your slides.
Canva is so easy to use and they have a free version with a ton of free templates.
Landing Page Builder
For your online course launch, you’ll need a landing page builder like LeadPages or Kajabi. Personally, I use the landing page builder in Kajabi for all my registration pages for webinars, challenges or summits.
I also use their landing page builder to create the sales page for all my online courses.
Planning for Your Launch
Now it’s time to plan for your online course launch.
The date of your first webinar or the first day of your challenge or summit drives all of the dates in your live launch plan.
You also need to decide on your cart close date. Your cart opens the day of your first webinar or when you pitch your online course in your challenge or summit.
Your cart will close approximately 7-14 days after it opens. It’s important to schedule your cart open and close dates as these will drive your email sequences and your cart closing ads in Facebook.
List Building
Even if you email list is larger, I recommend starting your list building ads for your launch approximately three month prior to your cart open for your first webinar so you have an engaged audience to launch to. If you can't do three months...list build as soon as you can.
Here's what I want you to do next to prepare for your list building ad campaign:
1. Make sure your Facebook pixel is installed on your website and any sales funnel landing pages.
2. Make sure you have a lead magnet that's worthy of a Facebook ad so you can get attract action takers and not freebie seekers. In addition, it’s important to make sure you have a strong welcome sequence set up to nurture your new email subscribers prior to your launch.
3. If you're setting up a tripwire to help fund the cost of your Facebook and Instagram ads, go here for an example.
Webinar or Challenge Topic
About one month prior to your webinar or challenge, it’s time to decide on the topic of your webinar or challenge and create a rough outline of what you’ll cover.
This is an important step because the topic of your webinar or challenge will drive the content for your challenge, webinar, registration pages and a few of your email sequences.
Here are some examples from my business:
Get Leads for your Online Course (that pay for themselves)
Find Students for your Online Course (without breaking the bank)
Course in a Box 7-Day Challenge (create your mini course in as little as a week!)
The Funnel Fill-Up Formula: The Fastest Way to Find and Convert your Perfect Students (even if you’re just starting out)
The Funnel Cure: A 3-day virtual event to help entrepreneurs sell their online course
Any questions about launching your online course? DM me on Instagram @destinicopp.
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