How to Attract Students to Your Online Course: 8 Key Ways

Where to find students for your online courses? Perhaps you already have tactics that work for you yet want to explore new ways to refresh your methods? Let’s do it!

In our guide on attracting students, we explore a bunch of effective methods, from tried-and-true classics to some unconventional approaches. We hope this will inspire you to rethink your student acquisition strategies and reignite your passion for your course!

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Improve your SEO

Whether you host your online courses on popular platforms or your own website, smart SEO is literally your gateway to better online visibility and more students.

Imagine a student in Canada searching for “continuing education for editors Canada” – SEO ensures such a course appears at the top of their search results if the website page is optimized properly.

We have quick killer tips to optimize your site pages:

• Research relevant keywords people use to find your course type. In the mentioned example, “continuing education for editors Canada” would be a primary keyword. To find the exact way people search it, use tools like Ahrefs or Ubersuggest. Your course page/website content should naturally incorporate these keywords inside the valuable information about your course.
• Boost your technical SEO: test if your site is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and has a clear structure for search engines to crawl.
• Collect more quality links to your site to boost the authority of your domain name (works best for interdependent websites).

Repurpose your online course

Students learn in different ways, and you find more ways to meet the needs of more learning styles, it can be your win-win strategy. Your course content can be easily repurposed to attract students in different ways:

• Podcasts: transform your audio lectures into engaging podcasts, allowing students to learn on the go.
• Guest articles: share your expertise with relevant websites by writing guest articles based on your course materials. Include a call to action directing readers to your full course.
• Short videos: create short videos with extracts from your course to tease potential students.

The best thing about this approach is that you can monetize your actual course or even earn extra money from the ways you repurpose content!

Invite guest authors 

For courses hosted on your own platform/website, consider inviting industry experts to contribute guest lectures or simply tips articles, video interviews, etc. This strategy offers several benefits to attract students to online courses:

1. Experts bring credibility to your course, attracting students seeking various perspectives and experts they can trust. 
2. New voices keep your course engaging and relevant, making your course always look fresh and up-to-date!
3. Collaborate with guest authors who can promote your course to their audience and build stronger cross-promotion relationships.

Start with a personal consultation

Many students don’t just look for relevant resources, they need a teacher with charisma. Become not just a teacher but offer true coaching.

Go beyond the standard course description for attracting students and offer potential students a free consultation instead when considering your course. Booking software specifically designed for teaching and coaching can streamline this process.

Moreover, a personal touch allows you to understand their needs and showcase your expertise, which is just the right thing to build trust and boost enrollment with your charisma! 

Build a brand around the personality of a teacher

Following the previous idea, think of how to increase your authority as a teacher – because, well, you know that students invest in instructors they connect with. Building a strong personal brand positions you as a thought leader and attracts students who love to see a unique teaching style.

Here are five ways to stand out:

• Social media: run live sessions and workshops on social media like Facebook or Instagram, or dedicated platforms you use. Create a video about your habits and working day, showcasing your human traits and lifestyle.
• Blog posts: share your personal insights, tips, and course benefits related to your course subject by posting text and media content on your blog.
• Free webinars: host free webinars to show your teaching style and the benefits of your course.
• Video tutorials related to the topic of the course: create short, informative video tutorials on YouTube with a sample lesson.
• Success stories: feature testimonials from past students on your website and social media – focus on those that describe you as a person.

Invest in interactive and engaging workshops

You can do that alone or collaborate with other teachers, but workshops are an essential part of promoting your online courses and attracting more students. Where to host interactive workshops? Platforms like Twitter Spaces or Clubhouse allow you to present mini-lessons and answer questions in real-time – make it easier to get closer to potential students!

Start a membership community

Don’t leave students alone with their course materials, build a dedicated space that allows them to connect, share experiences, and learn from each other. With modern membership software tools, it’s easy to build a membership community. It can be Circle, Mighty Networks, Skool, or your independent site, for example, created with a WordPress membership plugin. These platforms offer features like discussion forums, live chat rooms, and content libraries.

As a course creator, you can boost such communities with live events, bonus lessons, and various challenges. Since such memberships require a lot of time commitment, you can even make those communities paid ones and earn recurring revenue!

Modify your course model

The tips to attract more students to your online courses above focus more on finding new people. But probably there is something you can do to make your actual course better, more user-friendly, or offer an easier threshold of entry, thus never losing those prospects who finally found your online courses on the internet?

1. Offer free trials: Provide a taste/an idea of your course with a free introductory module, video lesson, or practice part.
2. Run contests and giveaways: Why not boost excitement with social media contests that can open free course access and increase word of mouth.
3. Experiment with subscription plans: Learn the marketing behind various subscription plans, lifetime options, and the way to deliver new content.

To Conclude: Think outside the box

Some of these strategies will help you attract students who are the perfect fit for your online course. Invest in creating valuable content, contact communication, and do-togetherness with your audience, and build a successful online learning community.

But don’t limit yourself to traditional approaches, think outside the box to find a method that would work for your course topic, learning style, and the online resources you can use to your benefit.

Learn more:

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