Tips to Market an Online Course

[ChristianX]

Hi, I'm Christian. I'm doing an online course for drummers. It's a relatively cheap $30 monthly fee course. - Basically a membership site. I do have somewhat of a following on social media. Instagram being the highest with about 2100 followers. I launched the course officially yesterday with a promo video. I already have 3 students so far meaning - $90 a month. I got a lot of reshares from friends on Instagram. Facebook engagement was a lot less than it usually is for me. Some people said they were going to sign up in September when their situation was better. I also did a cold email marketing campaign to band directors - which had high open rates and good responses from the band directors. Most of them said they will let their students know when school starts and get back to me - they were very thankful for my email. I sent 93 emails - a lot of opens like 53 or so and maybe 4-5 positive responses - no students signed up though.

I am very happy with the way things are going. I officially launched and I have 3 students - $90. A positive response from the promo video I put out which is like 2 minutes and 30 seconds long.
I think Andy wrote - If you can sell to people who know, like, and trust you then you “just” have to figure out how to get people who don’t know you to know, like, and trust you. Then present the course to them. - I think I'm on the second part.
I have a lot of credibility in the music field, and I am confident in my course content and my ability to teach things well. So as I am updating the course with lessons and I create more content - I will get better at teaching too.

So my next thing is marketing strategy. There's so many channels I don't know if I should be trying as many as possible all at once or hone in on one thing. I'm usually for honing in.
Do you guys have any favorite books or tips on marketing strategies? Hopefully some that cover marketing online courses? I would rather not pay for a $2000 course on how to market an online course. I don't have that kinda money lool. I'm looking for some guidance. I'm very new to this online course thing.

I do like sitting around or going to sleep and waking up with a sale/student. The business can run without me being super active - I'm just updating the course, answering questions, etc. Very low time consuming tasks. I just need to get the sales part automated if I can.

Strategies I'm thinking of:
1.Sending Emails/Texts/DM's 2. Blogging or Getting on Blog 3. Social Media Ads 4. Being Active on forums Forums 4.Getting on Podcasts 5. Content Marketing on Youtube, Instagram, etc.

I was going to probably meet more students as I was gigging and touring but since corona happened gigs are rare.

Curious if @Andy Black and @Lex DeVille have any thoughts or tips?

The INSIDERS progress thread is here: EXECUTION - Helping the Music Community

Thankful for this forum! I'm learning so much and am constantly being inspired.

 

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[Andy Black]

Hi, I'm Christian. I'm doing an online course for drummers. It's a relatively cheap $30 monthly fee course. - Basically a membership site. I do have somewhat of a following on social media. Instagram being the highest with about 2100 followers. I launched the course officially yesterday with a promo video. I already have 3 students so far meaning - $90 a month. I got a lot of reshares from friends on Instagram. Facebook engagement was a lot less than it usually is for me. Some people said they were going to sign up in September when their situation was better. I also did a cold email marketing campaign to band directors - which had high open rates and good responses from the band directors. Most of them said they will let their students know when school starts and get back to me - they were very thankful for my email. I sent 93 emails - a lot of opens like 53 or so and maybe 4-5 positive responses - no students signed up though.

I am very happy with the way things are going. I officially launched and I have 3 students - $90. A positive response from the promo video I put out which is like 2 minutes and 30 seconds long.
I think Andy wrote - If you can sell to people who know, like, and trust you then you “just” have to figure out how to get people who don’t know you to know, like, and trust you. Then present the course to them. - I think I'm on the second part.
I have a lot of credibility in the music field, and I am confident in my course content and my ability to teach things well. So as I am updating the course with lessons and I create more content - I will get better at teaching too.

So my next thing is marketing strategy. There's so many channels I don't know if I should be trying as many as possible all at once or hone in on one thing. I'm usually for honing in.
Do you guys have any favorite books or tips on marketing strategies? Hopefully some that cover marketing online courses? I would rather not pay for a $2000 course on how to market an online course. I don't have that kinda money lool. I'm looking for some guidance. I'm very new to this online course thing.

I do like sitting around or going to sleep and waking up with a sale/student. The business can run without me being super active - I'm just updating the course, answering questions, etc. Very low time consuming tasks. I just need to get the sales part automated if I can.

Strategies I'm thinking of:
1.Sending Emails/Texts/DM's 2. Blogging or Getting on Blog 3. Social Media Ads 4. Being Active on forums Forums 4.Getting on Podcasts 5. Content Marketing on Youtube, Instagram, etc.

I was going to probably meet more students as I was gigging and touring but since corona happened gigs are rare.

Curious if @Andy Black and @Lex DeVille have any thoughts or tips?

The INSIDERS progress thread is here: EXECUTION - Helping the Music Community

Thankful for this forum! I'm learning so much and am constantly being inspired.

Calling @Fox too.

Who else has membership sites and/or courses in here?

Also check out Graham Cochran’s two YouTube channels. One bearing his name, and one massive one for audio techs called Recording Revolution. He did the Recording Revolution first so you know he walks the walk.


Take what I say with a pinch of salt:

I’m working on this at the moment. My current *thinking* is to build an email list of people looking for XYZ tips and then send them to videos on a YouTube channel of XYZ tips. So the free email list subscribers get value and I get views, and maybe likes, comments, and shares.

I’ll focus on getting a few video tips out first and then offer people the option to subscribe to a paid email newsletter where they get additional goodies (including links to unlisted videos on the same YouTube channel?).

I wrote about this in more detail in a free issue of the newsletter in my signature. The one titled “Why I’m not focused on building a personal brand”.

This is a work in progress and I’m documenting it in various progress threads in the forum.


EDIT: Here’s the link to that newsletter issue. I’m not posting the content into the forum. I hope it helps.

• Why I’m NOT focused on building a personal brand

 

[Fox]

I’m on a phone so excuses the short style:

- do 1 on 1 lessons first or very hands on coaching. You will want to see what your audience wants before making the course further. Focus on “data” before profit for now.

- for an audience get on YouTube. You will want to learn some basic editing skills and also YT seo. You need to start ranking for all the topics beginner drummers are looking for:

> how to learn the drums
> can I learn drumming
> how fast can you learn drumming
> what do I need to buy to learn Drumming
> start drumming lesson

and so on.

Have some extra bonus to grab emails and maybe start a free weekly call or email newsletter for now.

After you know what people want and what is going to make the best course, and you got an audience, then try focus on the best high price value offer you can put together. It’s just way easier to do a better job when your prices are higher than $10-50 courses. In fact don’t even think “courses” think “community”.

 

[Andy Black]

I’m on a phone so excuses the short style:

- do 1 on 1 lessons first or very hands on coaching. You will want to see what your audience wants before making the course further. Focus on “data” before profit for now.

- for an audience get on YouTube. You will want to learn some basic editing skills and also YT seo. You need to start ranking for all the topics beginner drummers are looking for:

> how to learn the drums
> can I learn drumming
> how fast can you learn drumming
> what do I need to buy to learn Drumming
> start drumming lesson

and so on.

Have some extra bonus to grab emails and maybe start a free weekly call or email newsletter for now.

After you know what people want and what is going to make the best course, and you got an audience, then try focus on the best high price value offer you can put together. It’s just way easier to do a better job when your prices are higher than $10-50 courses. In fact don’t even think “courses” think “community”.

I love YouTube. If I had to pick one place to put content then it would be YouTube. A good YouTube video can also rank on Google, so that can bring in people from the Google Search Engine too. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc can all go hang as far as I’m concerned. I may get to them later, but only as an advertiser.

Agreed to go hand-to-hand with your first students. “Do things that don’t scale.” (Paul Graham)

I’m erring towards cheaper courses and *not* having community. That’s the beauty of business though - no one size fits all and we get to choose what we do, why, and how.

 

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[Andy Black]

@lowtek ?

@Rabby ?

 

[ChristianX]

Calling @Fox too.

Who else has membership sites and/or courses in here?

Also check out Graham Cochran’s two YouTube channels. One bearing his name, and one massive one for audio techs called Recording Revolution. He did the Recording Revolution first so you know he walks the walk.


Take what I say with a pinch of salt:

I’m working on this at the moment. My current *thinking* is to build an email list of people looking for XYZ tips and then send them to videos on a YouTube channel of XYZ tips. So the free email list subscribers get value and I get views, and maybe likes, comments, and shares.

I’ll focus on getting a few video tips out first and then offer people the option to subscribe to a paid email newsletter where they get additional goodies (including links to unlisted videos on the same YouTube channel?).

I wrote about this in more detail in a free issue of the newsletter in my signature. The one titled “Why I’m not focused on building a personal brand”.

This is a work in progress and I’m documenting it in various progress threads in the forum.


EDIT: Here’s the link to that newsletter issue. I’m not posting the content into the forum. I hope it helps.

• Why I’m NOT focused on building a personal brand

I’m on a phone so excuses the short style:

- do 1 on 1 lessons first or very hands on coaching. You will want to see what your audience wants before making the course further. Focus on “data” before profit for now.

- for an audience get on YouTube. You will want to learn some basic editing skills and also YT seo. You need to start ranking for all the topics beginner drummers are looking for:

> how to learn the drums
> can I learn drumming
> how fast can you learn drumming
> what do I need to buy to learn Drumming
> start drumming lesson

and so on.

Have some extra bonus to grab emails and maybe start a free weekly call or email newsletter for now.

After you know what people want and what is going to make the best course, and you got an audience, then try focus on the best high price value offer you can put together. It’s just way easier to do a better job when your prices are higher than $10-50 courses. In fact don’t even think “courses” think “community”.

Thank you guys for your perspective! You definitely have given me some new ideas in how to approach this business. Your time to give me some feedback is much appreciated!!

 

[Rabby]

My product development philosophy is "if I can get 3 people to use it, I can get 100 people to use it."

Get those first few customers from your following, pay close personal attention to them, and when they are ecstatic with the service ask them for reviews, endorsements, and referrals.

When other people see that your existing students are amazed, happy, etc., those other people will sign up.

You don't even necessarily need advertising or mass marketing if you can get that word of mouth going.

If you do get that word of mouth going, and then choose to pay for advertising or spend time on other marketing, then each person you get into your course with an ad will send 5 more people, so your ads will be more efficient too.

First things first, make the customer happy and grateful.

 

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[Rabby]

Also, if you don't mind sending me a PM, my daughter is taking up percussion for her school band next year. She's taking private lessons one day a week, but I'm interested in anything that might help her supplement her practice at home.

 

[lowtek]

Congratulations on your success. It may not seem like much, but as @Rabby said... if you can get 3, you can get 100. You're on to something here, particularly if you can keep customer retention high.

I don't sell a membership site, but I do sell courses on Udemy. By far my biggest channel for student acquisition is my YouTube channel.

I also used to play percussion in middle/high school, and still harbor a desire to return to it one day, so I am aware of this channel that also has a membership site:

Adam Tuminaro

Basically, he creates simple tutorial stuff for YouTube, like how to play this particular groove, and then uses it as a marketing channel for his paid content.

This is a tried and true methodology and has high potential for scale. YouTube videos live forever (as long as you don't get deplatformed for wrong think), so they'll generate traffic in perpetuity.

Getting on podcasts would be a good idea as well, but I would use that in conjunction with my own YT channel, not in lieu of.

 

[ChristianX]

Also, if you don't mind sending me a PM, my daughter is taking up percussion for her school band next year. She's taking private lessons one day a week, but I'm interested in anything that might help her supplement her practice at home.

Congratulations on your success. It may not seem like much, but as @Rabby said... if you can get 3, you can get 100. You're on to something here, particularly if you can keep customer retention high.

I don't sell a membership site, but I do sell courses on Udemy. By far my biggest channel for student acquisition is my YouTube channel.

I also used to play percussion in middle/high school, and still harbor a desire to return to it one day, so I am aware of this channel that also has a membership site:

Adam Tuminaro

Basically, he creates simple tutorial stuff for YouTube, like how to play this particular groove, and then uses it as a marketing channel for his paid content.

This is a tried and true methodology and has high potential for scale. YouTube videos live forever (as long as you don't get deplatformed for wrong think), so they'll generate traffic in perpetuity.

Getting on podcasts would be a good idea as well, but I would use that in conjunction with my own YT channel, not in lieu of.

Thank you!!

 

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