1. The only three type of marketing
I've been able to analyze data from a lot of course creators who use teachable to see what works and what does it when it comes to creating and marketing online courses ultimately I can generalize all types of marketing into three main buckets the first bucket is paid that is where you paid for placement online and it's not the focus of today's video although it is a great strategy .so do let me know in the comments if that's something you'd like to see covered in the future for today.
2. Organic marketing pros and cons
We're going to focus on the second and third buckets the second bucket and a great way to sell your own online courses is through organic marketing whether that means content creation or social media marketing organic includes anything that you create and put online that does not require you to pay so when you create let's say a tick tock account you don't have to pay to have that account you have the freedom to post whatever you'd like to promote your business your course your passion anything that suits you organic strategies are great because they don't require an upfront payment and they allow you to build an audience and then sell something to them online the potential cons of organic marketing strategies are the fact that it can take a longer time to build an audience depending on which platform you're using your topic and the state of marketing overall things are always evolving and the channel that works today probably won't be the channel that works in five years.
I think organic marketing is a great place to get started because it does allow you to test the waters and see what people respond to to offer some specific tips I typically recommend that new business owners focus on just one social media platform for and one content strategy so for example you could use tick tock plus YouTube That's the combination I'm currently using here at wit and wire and I chose that for a few reasons first I believe today that Tick Tock is one of the fastest growing marketing channels and is a great fit for online business owners in many Industries and on top of that video breeds trust with Buyers so when they can see your face they really enjoy getting to know you and your personality you can show off your expertise and so for me it made sense to use this combo of tick tock plus YouTube previously I've tried blogging podcasting Instagram there are so many other networks and all of them can work really well.
So I want to be clear that I don't believe marketing is one size fits-all for any business it's about deciding what your personal preferences are when it comes to content creation where your audience is and where they expect to hear from you so if your audience more heavily uses LinkedIn rather than Instagram then I would recommend that you choose LinkedIn so just because you see other business owners doing a certain strategy doesn't necessarily mean you have to follow it or then thread for you but I always think it's great to try things out the other thing about organic marketing is the fact that it can take time to build .
For example SEO or search engine optimization is a major part of my own marketing strategy but when it comes to writing keyword Rich blog posts or even YouTube videos I know that it's not a short-term gain and it can often take anywhere from 12 to 24 months for those blog posts to really start to get traction and bring people to my site via Google in my eyes that's one of the reasons why a good content strategy pairs well with a social media strategy because social media is very ephemeral you post something people see it instantly but it doesn't tend to last while content you post initially and then perhaps it takes a little bit of time for more and more people to start singing it so I think one plus one makes the great marketing strategy and again it totally is up to you to choose which suit your business and your preferences.
3. Partnerships pros and cons
You might add more later on but I'm all about staying focused to recap so far we talked about paid channels and organic channels and that leads us to the third category which is Partnerships when we talk about organic marketing you are building up your own audience and selling them your product but the beauty of Partnerships is that you can tap into existing related audiences and with permission and consent from that audience Builder you can get your product in front of that audience a few examples include going on podcasts collaborating on social media running what's called a joint venture webinar or partnership .
Which means you would run a webinar to someone else's audience there are clearly so many options and it even extends online and offline into things like live speaking events what's great about Partnerships is that the audience has already been built and for many business owners audience building is actually one of the biggest challenges especially when you're brand new and just getting started because you don't yet have somebody to sell to so with Partnerships I think the key is finding somebody who has the same audience but a different area of expertise for example I talk about poor creation and online business strategies so a natural partner for me could be a copyright writer or a website designer or anybody who speaks directly to an audience of online business owners but not specifically about course creation .
So my best tip for you is as you're looking for partnership opportunities consider who can I talk to who has a similar or the same audience as I do but the products that we offer are unique and different because that's really where I think The Sweet Spot can be found the other nice thing about Partnerships is that you don't need a huge existing audience to get started you can start being a podcast guest and when I was just getting started that was a major component of my own real strategy I would blonde podcasts smaller ones kind of similar size to me at the start and then as I got more clout I was able to book bigger and bigger shows I also had a good resume having worked for teachable and remit CT so I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I was able to book guest spots on other podcasts and share real value with that audience and in turn bring new people back to whiten wire and eventually sell them my own products the other specific strategy.
I would recommend for course creators are JD webinars joint venture webinars that's where you would run a webinar to a partner's audience and what's in it for them is commission so unlike organic which is always free because you are putting content in front of your own audience Partnerships is kind of a middle ground where there are some free opportunities like being a podcast guest doesn't typically cost money but if you want to present your product in a more direct way a more direct pitch then it is an industry standard to pay that partner for the opportunity to promote your product to Their audience what's nice though is that unlike paid ads where you might spend money and be a little unsure about the return on your investment .
When you do a joint venture partnership to a partner's audience both of you will only get paid if somebody makes a sale so for example maybe that partner would earn 20 to 30 percent commission so for every 100 course sold they might earn twenty to thirty dollars this is such a win-win because then they're highly incentivized to promote your webinar let's say to their audience but then you will only have to paint a partner in the event that you make a sale I think it's a great strategy and one that a lot more course creators can be utilizing probably earlier on in their course growth than they might think I will say I think the strategy works best after you've already enrolled students into your course even a small founding cohort because that validates demand for the course idea so that way when you approach the partner with a potential pitch you can say .
4. Which strategy should you choose
I do have enrolled students this has proven to sell and that's going to make the partner much more likely to say yes at this point you may be wondering well which strategy should I choose or where should I start should I start with paid organic or Partnerships typically I recommend starting with Organic not just because it's free but also because I think there's a huge value in just putting your offer in front of audiences to see what resonates I see it almost as a form of research if you can build an audience on let's say tick tock or a social media account or here on YouTube then that is a good green flag to show you that there could be demand if you were to sell a paid product to that audience then once you build up a little bit of traction perhaps you would release a Founders round of your online course then once you have paid students it might be time to expand either in Partnerships or the paid Direction depending on your preferences but I don't think it's about choosing only one or the other nor is it about feeling like you need to do all of them at once .
The other side of this coin is that I would strongly caution new course creators against using paid or Partnerships until you have proven that you can get sales again because you want to validate demand for the offer itself before you kind of Muddy the waters with marketing efforts because imagine if you run paid ads to a brand new course that has never sold if you don't make any sales from the paid ads how will you know if the issue was your ads or the offer itself the course to me it's just not worth the risk and that's one of many reasons why I recommend creating the course and selling it first before you expand your marketing efforts if you are interested in learning more about creating and selling online courses.
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Course Tips