Your Blueprint to Launching and Selling Online Courses

Creating an online course is an exciting endeavour, but once you’ve developed your content, the next step is to focus on how to launch and deliver it effectively. Whether you’re integrating your course into an existing website or building a custom platform, getting the technical details right is key to providing an engaging experience for your students and turning a profit.

Here’s our guide on how to launch and sell your online course, covering delivery, platform integration, content types, and engaging your audience.

1. Choosing the Right Platform for Course Delivery

The first key decision when launching your online course is selecting the platform that will host and deliver your content. You can choose from a variety of options depending on your needs—whether that’s integrating into an existing site or building a fully custom solution.

Existing Platforms: If you already have a website, such as one built on WordPress or Shopify, integrating your course into your current setup can be a time-saving option. Plugins like LearnDash for WordPress allow you to seamlessly manage your course content, track student progress, and handle course sales all from within your existing site.
All-in-One Course Platforms: If you’re starting from scratch, platforms like Thinkific are user-friendly, providing all the tools you need to host and sell your course without requiring any technical expertise.
Custom Platforms: If you’re looking for a completely unique experience tailored to your brand and course goals, developing a custom solution might be the right choice. Building a fully customised course delivery platform will ensure scalability, security, and full control over user experience, from enrolment to course delivery.

Tip: Before deciding on a platform, consider what features you need—payment integration, quizzes, automated enrolments, admin and student portal capabilities, community-building tools as well as future-proofing and scalability needs.

2. Selecting Course Content Types That Drive Engagement

The content you choose to deliver plays a huge role in how well your students learn and stay engaged. It’s important to offer a variety of content types to maintain interest throughout the course. Here are a few options to consider:

Video: The most popular form of content, video helps explain complex topics, demonstrate techniques, or provide visual aids to supplement written materials.
Quizzes: Reinforce key learning points and gauge student comprehension with quizzes. They also offer a great way to track progress and offer completion certificates.
Downloadable Resources: PDFs, templates, and worksheets provide tangible takeaways, allowing students to apply what they’ve learned beyond the course environment.
Discussion Forums: Building a community within your course can greatly enhance the learning experience, as students can interact with each other and share insights.

Example: A marketing course might include video tutorials, downloadable checklists for campaigns, quizzes to test knowledge, and a community discussion board for sharing strategies.

3. Making Your Course Content Engaging

To maintain interest and boost completion rates, your course content must be engaging. Here’s how to do it:

Interactive Elements: Incorporate interactive videos, clickable elements, and drag-and-drop activities to keep students actively participating in the course.
Gamification: Add a fun and motivating layer to your course by implementing gamification strategies, such as awarding badges or points for achievements. Duolingo, for example, has mastered gamification by rewarding users with badges as they progress. This strategy has played a key role in Duolingo’s success, contributing to its massive user base of over 500 million worldwide. The badge system encourages users to return daily, making language learning feel like a game rather than a chore, which is key to maintaining long-term engagement.
Storytelling: Use narrative techniques to make your course material more relatable and memorable. Share real-life case studies or anecdotes that illustrate the key lessons you’re teaching.
Live Sessions: Integrate live webinars or Q&A sessions to give students the opportunity to ask questions in real time and deepen their engagement.

Tip: Tools like H5P allow you to create interactive videos where students can answer questions during the video or click on elements within the video for additional content.

4. Integrating Payment Gateways and Selling Your Course

You’ll need a reliable payment gateway to handle course sales. Most course platforms support integrations with payment processors like Stripe, Square and PayPal, allowing students to pay securely using their preferred method.

Here’s a breakdown of 3 popular options:

Stripe: Known for its developer-friendly API, Stripe allows you to accept credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. It offers subscription billing, one-time payments, and even payment plans. Stripe is especially useful for businesses with more complex payment needs, as it allows customisation and integrations with a wide range of third-party tools.
PayPal: One of the most trusted payment processors globally, PayPal supports payments via credit card, debit card, and PayPal accounts. It’s easy to integrate and widely used by consumers, making it an excellent choice for global course sales.
Square: Often used by small businesses, Square offers payment processing for both online and in-person sales. For course creators who have offline events or workshops in addition to their online content, Square provides a unified solution for both worlds.

When selecting a payment gateway, it’s essential to consider factors such as transaction fees, ease of integration, and the ability to process multiple currencies if you plan on offering your course to an international audience.

You’ll also need to decide on whether to sell your course for a one-time payment or through a subscription model. The payment model you choose will directly impact both your revenue and your students’ experience.

One-Time Payment: This model is ideal for self-paced courses where students pay upfront for full access to the course content. One-time payments are straightforward and perfect for courses that don’t require regular updates or new content after the initial release. This model can generate a quick cash influx, especially for high-ticket courses, but it’s less sustainable long-term without ongoing marketing efforts.

- Pros: Predictable revenue, no recurring billing headaches, simple for students to understand.
- Cons: Less recurring revenue, may discourage students from enrolling if the price is high.

Example: A comprehensive course on counselling might be offered as a one-time payment, providing lifetime access to the materials and resources.

Subscription Model: This model involves charging students on a recurring basis, often monthly or annually. It’s ideal for ongoing content like webinars, new modules, or regular updates. It’s a great choice if you plan to keep your course evolving over time or want to offer continuous learning materials. A subscription model provides a more predictable income stream, making it easier to scale your course offerings and invest in further development.

- Pros: Steady, recurring revenue stream, encourages ongoing engagement, provides flexibility to deliver new content regularly.
- Cons: Students may be reluctant to commit long-term without understanding the full value of continuous content, especially in the early stages of the course.

Example: A membership-based learning platform that offers ongoing tutorials, resources, and community access might charge a monthly or yearly fee.

Payment Plans: For higher-ticket courses, offering payment plans can increase accessibility and encourage more students to enrol. With a payment plan, students can pay for the course in smaller, more manageable instalments. You can set up a 3-month or 6-month plan for students who might not have the budget for a one-time payment but still want to access the full course.

- Pros: Makes higher-priced courses more accessible, appeals to students who prefer not to pay in full upfront.
- Cons: More administrative overhead in managing payments, potential for churn if students don’t stick with the payment plan.

Example: A specialised course on graphic design software might be priced at $1,000, but students can pay in 4 monthly instalments of $250 each.

Additional Payment Consideration

Beyond traditional credit card and PayPal payments, you may want to consider using coupons, and bundles, which can increase your sales:

Coupons and Discounts: Offering promo codes and discounts is a great way to incentivise early sign-ups or attract new students. You can also offer discounts for referrals, group sign-ups, or to create seasonal sales events.
Bundles: Another option to increase your revenue is by offering bundled courses. If you have multiple courses, consider selling them together at a discounted rate to encourage students to purchase more content.

Best Practices When Handling Online Payments

Security First: Ensure that your payment gateway complies with PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). Most trusted platforms like Stripe and PayPal take care of this automatically, but you should always confirm that your platform provides secure transaction handling.
Clear Payment Terms: Be transparent with your students about payment terms. Include detailed information about refund policies, course access, and subscription renewals in your terms and conditions to avoid confusion down the line.

5. Automating Enrolment and Course Delivery

Automating enrolment, reminders, and course delivery saves you time and ensures a smooth experience for your students. With the right setup, once a student purchases your course, they’ll automatically be enrolled, receive confirmation emails, and gain immediate access to course materials.

Tip: Automation tools like Zapier can trigger actions across different platforms, such as sending a welcome email when a student enrols or automatically releasing new course modules based on a schedule.

6. Specialised Integrations for Advanced Functionality

As your course grows, you’ll likely need additional integrations to enhance functionality. Here are a few to consider:

Email Marketing: Platforms like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign allow you to send tailored messages to your students, reminding them of upcoming lessons or promoting new content.
Webinars and Live Sessions: Tools like Zoom or Google Meet can be integrated with your course platform to host live sessions, such as Q&A or guest speaker events.
CRM Systems: Integrating a CRM system can help you track student progress, follow up on leads, and manage student relationships more effectively.

7. Scaling Your Course and Continuously Improving

Once your course is up and running, it’s important to track student progress and gather feedback to make improvements. Analytics tools, whether built into your course platform or using Google Analytics, can give you insight into student engagement and content performance.

As your student base grows, consider scaling your marketing efforts or adding new modules to keep the course relevant and fresh.

Tip: By analysing which lessons are most popular, you can adjust your marketing strategy to focus on high-performing content or even expand your offerings to cover new topics.

Conclusion

Launching and selling an online course requires careful planning, the right platform, and a thoughtful approach to content delivery. Whether you’re adding a course to an existing website, opting for an all-in-one platform, or building a fully customised solution, it’s essential to focus on delivering high-quality, engaging content. With the right tools, automation, and integrations, you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful online course that provides value to your students and generates revenue for your business.