Christmas is almost here. Stores have begun decorating with lights, colors, and window displays. Beyond that, they’ve come up with holiday sales that can make even the Grinch want to get in on the action.
Stuffed turkey, pudding, fruitcake, and eggnog aside, there are other things people want to achieve during the holiday season.
Two words...self-improvement.
Let’s get down to business…
Did you know that only 8% of people achieve their New Year’s resolutions? [1] And this isn’t just about the typical “eat healthy, lose weight” goals.
It’s more about the resolutions people make regarding their professional and personal development.
Lots of people decide to learn something new and end up quitting by mid-January. Regardless of their commitment to their resolutions, this is the time of year when people want to pursue new professional goals through online courses.
Perhaps, the fact they pay you for the course and have a commitment with the course creator might serve as motivation for them to do better.
As a course creator, that’s where you come in.
So, how do you successfully sell your courses during the holiday season?
Interested in finding out more?
Read on!
Create relevant courses
There are some courses people are more likely to gravitate towards during the holidays. As we mentioned above, personal development courses are pretty popular this time of year.
Then, there are those designed to help them look and feel better.
Diet and nutrition courses, yoga and exercise courses, cooking courses…whatever you’re an expert in. You can sell these courses to the appropriate groups by targeting their need for the advice or services included.
Come up with special holiday offers
‘Tis the season to be jolly and share with others. Offers and bundles can be a bit tricky, so you’ve got to find a balance so you don’t lose out on revenue.
But that’s the great thing about the holiday season. It’s a high shopping period, so you can rest assured of getting a great ROI from the volume alone.
On that note, discounts, coupons, freebies, gift cards, and extras work great here as added incentive.
The power of social media
A good course creator should take their business beyond a website or an e-learning platform. A learning platform that allows you to integrate with other social media accounts is invaluable in this regard.
Once this is sorted out, be on the lookout for online groups relevant to your course. Then, use social media marketing to announce the holiday offers you have and of course, sell more of your course.
Use the Christmas theme to engage your audience
A great way to engage with your potential clients and possibly convert them to actual, paying customers is to use webinars. Take this a step further and make it Christmas themed.
Ensure you choose a solid broadcast system for your webinar. The webinars offered by Gurucan work without delay and do not require any special translation software. [2]
They’re also highly customizable, which makes it easy to work the Christmas theme into your webinars.
Offer ‘holiday-only’ bonuses
These add a sense of urgency to your offers. If people think an offer will expire once the holidays are over, they are more likely to want to get in on some of the action.
Go beyond your typical deals and add limited-time deals such as private sessions, consults, or even discounted learning materials.
Use appropriately structured emails
Email marketing is a great marketing strategy for businesses. However, a business owner has to be smart about it. As it turns out, 47% of email recipients judge the email by the subject line. [3]
It’s Christmas, so make it Christmassy! Statistics show that email is responsible for 20% of online site visits during the holidays. [4]
Also, a 68% rise in retail spending via mobile devices was seen during the holidays in 2019. [5]
Use this to your advantage. M-learning should be your target. Choose an online learning platform that supports this. Gurucan works great here.
Embody the holiday spirit
This season comes with kindness. Do this either through a charity or via a giveaway to both your current clients and prospective ones. Promoting a charity is not only a good way to support a good cause but also a smart marketing strategy.
For instance, a course that promises to give a certain percentage of all proceeds to a charity that will make Christmas better for someone else will pique people’s interests.
Use affiliate programs
Affiliate programs, especially when they are integrated with a strong SaaS company work well to generate constant revenue. It's also very easy to use.
All you’ve got to do is create rich and valuable content. Next is to promote it sufficiently. Work with affiliates who are promoting Christmas specials. This shouldn’t be too hard to find.
Start with an affiliate program such as that from Gurucan. You get a high commission, great services and tools, and a highly personalized style.
Then, you can search for partners from several sources including conferences, affiliate directories, or even your customer base. Ensure these sites are holiday oriented.
Help people to find you
SEO is a powerful marketing tool. Regardless of it being ordinary times or holiday seasons, SEO can be used to help promote your course.
Consider adding holiday keywords to your course title. If that’s too much of a hassle, then add them to the subtitle or course description. This will help push your course to your target audience.
Pro tip: A learning management system, or LMS, that supports the use of multiple course formats such as video, text files, and audio will come in handy here.
A simple screencast/video adds an extra touch of professionalism to your course. You could use this as bonuses in line with the holiday season to bring in more clients.
At the end of the day, holiday season or not, for you to succeed as a course creator, you must come up with ingenious marketing strategies for your online courses and use the tools at your disposal.
Gurucan is sure to help you out here. From steps to creating your online course to successfully marketing it this period, you’re spoilt for choice on the best practices in the online course creation business. For a step in the right direction, reach out to Gurucan to create an online course now.
References
- Just 8% of People Achieve Their New Year’s Resolutions. Here’s How They Do It. Martin Luenendonk. Cleverism. https://www.cleverism.com/new-years-resolutions/. Accessed: 30-11-2020.
- Webinars and online classes. Gurucan. https://www.gurucan.com/features/webinar-platform. Accessed: 30-11-2020.
- 106 Email Marketing Statistics You Should Know In 2020. Snovio. https://www.google.com/amp/s/snov.io/blog/email-marketing-statistics/amp/. Accessed: 30-11-2020.
- Holiday Email Marketing by the Numbers. Campaign Monitor. https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/infographics/holiday-email-marketing-by-the-numbers/. Accessed: 30-11-2020.
- Retail spending on mobile rises 68% during holiday 2019. James Melton. Digital Commerce 360. https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2020/01/28/retail-spending-on-mobile-rises-68-during-holiday-2019/. Accessed: 30-11-2020.
- Affiliate Program with High Commission. Gurucan. www.gurucan.com/resources/learn/affiliate-program. Accessed: 30-11-2020.
- The world’s first real mobile LMS*. Gurucan. https://www.gurucan.com/solutions/mobile-lms. Accessed: 30-11-2020.
- Create Courses with Online Course Builder. Gurucan. https://www.gurucan.com/features/online-course-builder. Accessed: 30-11-2020.
