How can I market my course?

12357

Comments

  • ariyam66
    ariyam66 Posts: 132 storyteller rank

    Thank you!

  • Some great points here and good advice. I've got a question about #6 and #13

    Why do #6? You'll be spending a lot of time in groups, but how do you know for sure it's generating business? You're part of a group, you join in the discussions, but how would that lead to people going to your Udemy classes? How would people get there anyway? Will they really go through all the effort to check you out and then buy your classes? I'm doubting that the time spent on this will actually reflect the sales generated. I could be wrong though.

    #13 Youtube. I'm going to put it this way, won't you face the same problem as with Udemy courses? People aren't just magically finding your courses and neither will they magically find your YouTube content. I know it's the thing to do, to start a YouTube channel and I see many Udemy teachers do it, but let's be frank here, they all end up with a few followers and a lot of work. Developing a YouTube channel is a lot, and we all know really a lot of effort and most do not succeed. They spent countless hours trying to build it with little result.

    The question rises, wouldn't it be way wiser to spent all this time on developing more and better classes? At least at Udemy you do have chance to grow organically and make sales from it directly. Growing on YouTune is a lot harder and may not even lead to sales at all.

    Sure, if you have an audience somewhere already, by all means, drive them to YouTube, but if you don't have that, you might be wasting a lot of time. Speaking from observation and experience here.

  • @Art_by_Benjamin
    I guess you are asking me, although others may be able to answer as well.

    As to #6: I think this is very dependent on your subject matter. It is all about establishing your brand, becoming known in your field. You would have to know what discussion groups are relevant to the courses you teach. It may be that on LinkedIn there may be relevant discussions, or even on Twitter. To be honest, I don't do much of this, but I know that others have found it helpful and particularly if you do not yet have an established reputation in your field.

    As to #12: This is about a broad media strategy. You never know exactly what will work. I have a YouTube channel and it is all of the intro/promo videos to each my courses, with links back to those courses. But, I also have my own website/blog and email list. I think you have to do everything you can to build a brand presence. This is one way. But, it is certainly not any magic solution.

    I hope that helps.

  • Thanks Lawrence for answering and elaborating a bit more. Broad media strategy could indeed be helpful, though quite some places to establish your presence these day, to broad might also be ineffective.

  • @LawrenceMMiller
    I really appreciate this post. It feels like it's full of sensible suggestions of things I either am doing, have done or know I should be doing for my online business (even beyond the scope of Udemy). But as a newbie to this platform, I'm really grateful to learn from instructors like yourself who have multiple courses and many (many) thousands of students. Thank you, Sir. I have bookmarked this post so I can revisit it again and again as I build out my offerings on here.

  • @CarolineSouthwell
    Thank you Caroline. I'm glad you found it helpful.

  • Yes, people only sign up so they can "watch it later" which I don't think ever comes

  • Great addition

    I do that on Quora but never liked Reddit.

  • @LawrenceMMiller
    This article is much appreciated. I just launched my course, and I will use this advice wisely. Thank you!

  • Excellent article and tips. It will help most of the new instructors here.

  • Seldiaba75
    Seldiaba75 Posts: 7 researcher rank

    Thanks so much. This will be of a great help to me and my course. Happy to read this.

  • Thank you very much...Your suggestions are a great inspiration and light to my efforts.

  • MERCI POUR VOS CONSEILS, CA VAUT DE L'OR

  • Hey @MassimilianoAlf

    Love that quote. Failure can be such a nice learning experience. I quickly checked your YouTube channel and was surprised to see a fellow artist... Loved it! I might also be able to help you with your channel if you would need some help...

    I currently reach 551K people/month on YouTube and would be able to answer all your YouTube questions for FREE. Questions concerning title & thumbnail creation, intro's, SEO, getting more views, getting more subscribers, topic research, etc... ). I love helping, I love sharing knowledge and growing together. I believe those who help each other out are the ones who come out on top.

    In exchange for my knowledge I would like to tap into your knowledge about Udemy courses. I would love to ask an experienced Udemy instructor questions about Udemy (course marketing, reviews, social proof, course creation, advertisement, etc.) Let me know if you would be interested in exchanging information.

    For your information here are my YouTube stats:

    - @DriesKetels (YouTube handle)

    - 551K people reached/month

    - 230K watch time/ month

    - 400 shares/month

    - 18K subs total

    - 700 subs gained/month

    - 55K interactions/month

    - 52% aged between 25-44

    Hope to hear from you, let's grow together and educate each other,

    Friendly,

    Dries

  • FYI clicking on your website and youtube links, both don't work. You might want to check them out.

  • @LawrenceMMiller
    You're right... old links. Just fixed it. Thanks Lawrence.

  • Prof
    Prof Posts: 27 traveler rank

    @LawrenceMMiller
    thanks a lot for your list of advice. I just got my first course approved and I'm learning what needs to be done to be successful here. Slow, steady, resilient, committed..... I'll learn and grow. Cheers.

  • Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this!

  • Great insights here. I am struggling to choose between a youtube channel or a free newsletter as a marketing tool for my course.

    Which one do you recommend starting with?

  • I recommend BOTH! You can add a link to your newsletter in the description of your YouTube channel, and reference your YouTube channel in your newsletter.
    The reality is that everyone consumes content differently so by cross connecting these two platforms you increase the likelihood that your information will be seen.
    The question is, what to put into each? I would recommend your newsletters containing short tips, an occasional checklist, and link references to resources you know, like and trust, to engage your reader. Then point ever edition towards your course(s) for training.
    For your YouTube channel I suggest for a short piece, a 5 min “How to” segment, and for a long piece, an interview with a colleague, another expert, or even an occasional live Q&A broadcast - that you can record, edit, and repurpose for your course(s).
    Finally, as a bonus, you could create a short ebook on your training topic, and provide it free (for a limited time) to new clients.
    For example I use my book Introduction to Fine Art Drone Photography https://a.co/d/fMTWuiB as a lead magnet. It only took a few days to write and even less time to produce and publish on Amazon.

  • I greatly appreciate your response.

  • Thanks! Valuable advice!

  • Thank you

  • Hey @LawrenceMMiller

    You are simply a blessing to this generation.

    Thank you for not holding back on

    sharing all theeese.

    Thank you.

  • armalik
    armalik Posts: 9 researcher rank

    Helpful but older post. Technology is updating daily.

  • armalik
    armalik Posts: 9 researcher rank

    If I compare Udemy with amazon w.r.t marketing. amazon provides buy box to sellers for specific time that a specific seller would sale its products. however this is educational platform, i understand the priceless knowledge would never has any price to buy. every instructor's content is unique and priceless. Many instructors would earn more and rest of all would get some pennies. this is the flaw in Udemy's marketing strategies. There are some possible solutions to handle these flaws
    1: Udemy should announce a price for any student/free/paid separately. there's no policy if someone would be enrolled free of cost and you would get nothing even you worked hard to create content of this website and published after publishing of course : if you would give free coupons :you would get nothing even you are giving traffic to Udemy. This should be concerned
    2: In course Page of instructor when an instructor would publish new courses and after publishing of courses; if your course would be related to tech/IT and professional, in course page, you would find the message / alert like "Your course eligible for Udemy Business etc." it means your course can be selected for companies employees, the companies which are registered their employees for their career development. There's no policy of selection of your course even the content of course would be related to fully professional for employees. Udemy Business courses selection program has not any transparent policies. Udemy just select randomly when you would ask they would tell you; courses would be chosen randomly, rating etc. the question is that, if someone would publish course today then how an instructor can get the reviews and rating and even after reviews/rating what is the random policy of udemy for selection in udemy business. the help page related to Udemy Business doesn't provide any question/answer in this regards. According to Udemy Business; when subscribed company would refer a course for their employees for career development; your course would be promoted and you would get share in some percentage of subscription of companies. This should be transparent.

    3: There's no instructor oriented policies for marketing/promotion/sale of new courses.

    4: Many instructors don't know how to promote their courses on social media because they only rely on Udemy's promotional team/Marketing team. if Udemy's team think that they (instructors) should do it themselves on social media to promote then why they use this platform. they should use social media or YouTube for teaching instead of Udemy or what is the benefit for instructors, they create contents, record and publish on Udemy and they need to promote also?. What is the role of Udemy Promotion? and why Udemy's team is not efficient to promote new courses and it has now become under discussion. does Udemy audit their promotional/marketing team. if yes then where is the report on monthly promotion on instructor's portal. Please provide transparency in this regards how Udemy is promoting; where; when; how many students etc.

    Note: The above mentioned points are related to the experience and best of my knowledge. I hope Udemy would work on these points immediately and the discussion is not based on the negative perspective. it is only for the betterment of this platform/Udemy. Thanks

  • @armalik
    As the author of the original post in this thread, let me point out that this discussion is about what YOU can do to market YOUR courses. There are many dozens of posts by instructors suggesting things that Udemy could/should do better. So your comments, independent of their merit, belong somewhere else.

  • Veasna, M.
    Veasna, M. Posts: 178 storyteller rank

    Thank for your great advices!

  • armalik
    armalik Posts: 9 researcher rank

    @LawrenceMMiller
    thanks for your appreciation. i just explained the facts that every instructor is facing very hardly to promote courses even there's question mark on the marketing team of Udemy.

  • armalik
    armalik Posts: 9 researcher rank

    I think instructors community first resolve the matter of instructors benefit. they prepare ,record and publish unique contents. Moreover, they generate traffic for Udemy at 0 price. it seems to be a joke for instructors. i am just watching the traffic on my courses it's really low traffic because of the anti-instructor algorithm of promotion/marketing team of Udemy and Udemy's team should consider the above mentioned points for instructors. Furthermore, by participating in this community for new comers the experience instructors should be rewarded too.