This is also posted in the Published Instructor Club -however, if you are planning to release your first course soon then this could be of help for you.
In 2014 - my first Black Friday - I had never heard of it before - caught me by a pleasant surprise. For some bizarre reason, my courses just started selling. Then I didn't know NOW I do.
It isn't just Black Friday - it is much bigger than that.
This is big so take advantage of these sales, you’ll be creating and distributing promotional material for more than Thanksgiving.
Your campaign work spans approximately three months.
My thoughts:
- Pre-Holiday Campaign: Starting in September get your new course tuned up and ready to release. I like to release in October BEFORE the Black Friday madness of nearly every instructor waiting for their courses to be approved to go in November.
- October, you’ll start running campaigns to push your new course hard - lots of written reviews. Posting to all your usual social media outlets to get the course moving.
- Leading up to Black Friday. Start playing around with promotional styles. Refine the look and messages you want to push.
- Pre- Black Friday – During this period in November, you might like to send out your own promo - well clear of BF. Think about your course images/ landing pages and how you can maximise sales to everyone who will drop by and spend a few seconds looking at what you have to offer.
- Black Friday – Udemy basically to all the promotional work revealing your courses to the world. What can you do to maximise this? Maybe add some extra downloads. Students love free material. Think about using scarcity, use your Course Landing Page to suggest the free material is ONLY available during the BF & CM Sale.
- From my website and social media I direct people to my Udemy profile page and or individual courses - I use a mix to distribute all over social media. There is no point competing with Udemy during these big sales - work with them!
- Cyber Monday – On Cyber Monday, use different images to push your courses. Focus - even though it was originally a tech kinda day I have always done well on CM.
- Post-Black Friday Campaign – Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, you’ll want to make sure you are on top of your educational announcements - make the most of the new influx of students to let them know who you are and how best to begin their courses with you - any tips, info that is relevant.
I am no marketing expert. I follow the threads of all the great marketers here on Udemy. Thus I need to prepare in advance so I am not caught dithering!
ps, I am dithering now avoiding creating my new course... bye for now... hope this helps all the new instructors...
