How to Presell an Online Course [Top 5 Tips]

Presale (also known as a preorder) is an effective way to sell your products and services to online customers before you create them. But the biggest challenge in selling an online course is knowing how to do it effectively. It can be a game of matching supply to demand. If your course isn't popular at the beginning, do you just keep building and expanding? Or do you stop?

It's not easy to presell a course you've created because you're the one doing the work. You're the one selling it. Most people are also unfamiliar with the process.
Plus, selling courses means coming up with a unique solution. Since the average online shopper has dozens of courses to choose from, it's difficult to stand out.

We have covered the process of creating an online course in depth in other articles. Here are some related articles:

It may sound crazy to consider preselling a free course online, but it can be very successful if done properly. If you are thinking of preselling an online course, here are 5 easy steps to follow.

1. Identify your Market

I once spoke with a small business owner who runs an internet marketing agency. He is always looking for ways to generate new leads and start a conversation with potential clients. This man is willing to take risks and try anything new.
For this particular client, he found an extremely successful online course for preselling software. The online course helped the client to easily create a list of 100 new clients, who were ready to start working with his company.

Having a large number of opportunities to presell helped this business owner immensely. Not only did he attract a larger pool of potential clients, but he also benefited from the fact that his clients were already using the software.

2. Calculate ROI

The next step would be to figure out exactly how much it costs your client to subscribe to the free online course.

This is because you have to create value. It may cost your client $40 per month for the course, so it can be reasonable to expect that your online course will cost your client $40 as well.

After calculating the cost, take into account the fact that you only want to charge $10 per client. You will be able to charge more than this amount if your online course really is something special. After all, the sale is yours.

For example, let's say that you create a Facebook sales video that goes viral. At the end of the video, you have a special price deal of $5 per email. That means that after the video has gone viral, you have earned $2,500, which is twice as much as you expected.

3. Create the Custom Online Course

After you have figured out the value of your online course, the next step would be to create a custom online course and submit it to the online marketplace. The reason why you have to create the custom online course first is that it creates the demand for your online course.

You will be able to find more than 10,000 other online courses that have been successfully sold online. Using one of these titles will give you a head start over your competition.

After you have created the custom online course, you are ready to submit it to the marketplace.

4. Find out about the Pricing

Once you have completed the design of the online course, you need to contact the marketplace. This is because the marketplace has set the price for your course.
You can submit a competitor course that you have purchased from another marketplace.

Even though the online course marketplaces are the market leaders, you need to be sure that your online course can compete in terms of quality. For this reason, you will need to ask the marketplace for an estimated price, just to be sure. But do not stop there.

You should consider the quality of your online course as well. You should compare the costs of your competitors and see where you can make a competitive advantage.
You might notice that your competitor's online course costs $17.00, while yours costs only $10.00. However, if you compare the price of your course to the competition, you will see that yours is quite a steal!

5. Manage Your Sales

This is where your real work begins. When you publish your online course, you need to manage your sales. That means that you have to create offers for your course, which include additional discounts, add-on options, and support.

You need to track all of the data. That means you have to learn how to optimize your online course for email marketing and social media marketing. You can do this by looking for marketing ideas and copywriting techniques that match your business goals.

Conclusion

Creating a free online course is one of the easiest things to do online. However, it can be very expensive and require a lot of time. Therefore, it is vital that you find the right services that can make your online course a success.

Consider the benefit of a free online course and how it can help your business to grow in the long term.