The Ultimate Guide to Pre-selling Your Online Course

Published on 24 July 2023

The Ultimate Guide to Pre-selling Your Online Course blog header image. So, you’ve got this awesome idea for an online course that you think will take the world by storm.

But hold on a sec, before you dive headfirst into creating it, let me spill the beans on a game-changing strategy: pre-selling your course!

Pre-selling is a powerful strategy that can significantly impact the success of your online course, so you are going to want to pay close attention to what I am about to share with you.

In this ultimate guide, we’ll explore the concept of pre-selling, its benefits, and the step-by-step process to effectively pre-sell your online course.

So, grab a coffee and let’s get into it! ☕

Understanding Pre-selling

What is Pre-selling?

Pre-selling refers to the process of selling your online course before it is created. It involves building anticipation and generating interest in your course among your target audience, even before the course content is fully developed.

Here’s the deal: instead of spending ages creating your entire course and then crossing your fingers that people will buy it, you offer it in advance when it’s still in development.

Why is Pre-selling Essential for Online Courses?

Pre-selling is a valuable strategy for online course creators for several reasons:

Validating Course Demand: By pre-selling your course, you can gauge whether there is sufficient interest in your topic. It helps you avoid investing time and effort into creating a course that may not sell very well.
Generating Early Revenue: Pre-selling allows you to generate revenue upfront, which can be used to cover course production costs or reinvest in marketing efforts.
Building Anticipation: The pre-launch phase creates excitement and anticipation among potential customers, increasing the chances of successful course sales in the future.
Early Feedback and Improvements: Feedback from pre-sale customers can be invaluable for making improvements to your course content and delivery.

Pre-selling is also extremely valuable to your customers because it gives them:

Early Access to Valuable Content: They get a backstage pass to your amazing course content before anyone else. Who doesn’t love feeling special?
Influence Course Content: Your customers can voice their thoughts and shape the course. It’s like giving them a say in their learning journey!
Exclusive Discounts: Everybody loves a good deal, right? Pre-Selling usually involves steep discounts or special bonuses, making them feel like VIPs.
Engaging Community: Pre-selling creates a buzzing hive of enthusiastic learners. They become part of a like-minded tribe eager to learn together.

Benefits of Pre-selling

Building Anticipation

Creating anticipation is crucial for a successful course launch. Tease your audience with sneak peeks of your course content, share behind-the-scenes footage, and offer early access to a select few. This builds curiosity and excitement, leading to more sales during the pre-sale period.

Validating Course Demand

Pre-selling gives you concrete evidence of whether your course idea is viable. If you have a substantial number of pre-sale customers, it’s a strong indicator that there is a demand for your course from your community.

If your audience is willing to take their credit cards out and invest in your pre-sell offer, the chances are that your course idea has hit the mark.

Generating Early Revenue

Launching your online course with a pre-sell allows you to generate revenue even before you release the full content. This early income can be reinvested into marketing, used to improve the course further, or just pay for your development time.

I found that pre-selling my first course made it so much easier to set time aside in my diary to develop the course content. Because I had already been paid, it was easier to treat development time as if it were a client booking.

Early Feedback and Improvements

Feedback from pre-sale customers is invaluable for refining your course. Use this feedback to address any potential issues or gaps in your content, ensuring a higher quality course for all buyers.

One of the things I did when I pre-sold my first course was ask participants how much they would be prepared to pay for the course, if it were sold at the full price.

The answers you get to this question may very well surprise you!

You should ask that question when they first start the course and then again at the end, once they have gone through the content. It’s highly likely that people will be willing to pay more for your course after they have gone through the content, than they would have at the start, but understanding those two figures will help you market your course effectively, choosing a price that ensures the ‘price’ to ‘value’ ratio is correct.

Ideally you want your customers to feel like your course provided far more value than the price they paid for it!

Finding Your Winning Course Idea: Listen Up!

Alright, now you know what pre-selling is and why you should do it, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Before you start creating your online course, you need to identify who the ideal target audience for the course would be. It’s time to play detective and do some market research. Who are your potential students? What keeps them up at night? What problems are they trying to solve?

Once you’ve got these answers, you’re on the right track. Understanding their needs, pain points, and desires will help you create a compelling course outline that clearly communicates their desired transformation.

Not sure if you are ready to create your online course yet? Take our Quiz and find out!

How to Pre-Sell Your Course Successfully: Crafting Your Strategy

Now that you’ve got an awesome course idea, let’s put together your winning strategy. First things first, set clear and achievable goals and timelines for your pre-selling campaign. How much money do you want to make during the pre-sell? How many students do you want to enrol on your course? When is it happening?

Often the main goal of the pre-sell is not necessarily to make a lot of money, but to prove the concept and gain valuable feedback; so you’ll want to get clear on the primary purpose for doing the pre-sell and balance that against how much you need to bring in, in order to make this work for you, before you set ambitious financial targets.

Maybe you only need a small number of people to go through your course the first time. It’s important to establish this from the get-go, as this will impact how much or how little marketing you will need to do, in order to enrol sufficient numbers of people.

Next, let’s cook up a compelling value proposition. Why should your audience invest in the course? What’s in it for them? What will their life/business be like after they have gone through your course? Make your messaging so compelling that they can’t resist clicking that “buy now” button!

You should now be in a position to create your course landing page.

Launching Your Pre-sell Campaign: Ready, Steady, Go!

Now it’s time to kick things into high gear! With your landing page published and your Learning Management System (LMS) primed and ready for your first students, you’re all set to make it happen.

An LMS (Learning Management System) serves as a central hub for your online course, providing a user-friendly platform for course creators to manage and deliver their content. It offers essential features like enrolment management, progress tracking, and interactive communication tools, ensuring a seamless learning experience for students while handling the administrative tasks behind the scenes.

Your landing page showcases your course and persuades potential customers to enrol. When they’re ready, they simply click “enrol now” and secure their spot in your pre-sale.

Your LMS takes care of the payment and enrolment processes smoothly, like a backstage manager, while countdown timers and exclusive bonuses can be used on the sales page to create a sense of urgency and excitement.

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Building Pre-launch Buzz

Leveraging Email Marketing

Use email marketing to build anticipation for your course. Send teaser emails, sneak peeks, and exclusive offers to your mailing list to keep them engaged.

A great strategy here is to create a wait-list that you can set up and share with your subscribers at the start of your campaign, which will help identify and nurture early leads.

Use your email list to invite subscribers to attend any webinars or Lives that you are planning. More on this coming up!

Utilising Social Media Platforms

Leverage the power of social media to create buzz around your course and promote your webinars and live broadcasts. If you plan to go live on social media, consider scheduling these so your audience can receive in-platform notifications and reminders. Tools such as Restream.io and StreamYard allow you to broadcast on multiple platforms simultaneously.

Partnering with Influencers and Affiliates

Collaborate with influencers or affiliates in your niche to reach a wider audience. Influencers can promote your course to their followers, increasing your course’s visibility.

Hosting Webinars & Lives

Now it’s time to impress your audience and win them over! Offer valuable free content to showcase what your course is all about and encourage your audience to spread the word.

Webinars and live social media broadcasts are a great way to educate your audience and build excitement, before you announce your pre-sell offer. This lets you connect with your audience, answer questions, and build trust. They’ll feel more connected and eager to join your course.

As a quick aside, when you announce your pre-sell offer to your audience, don’t refer to it as a “pre-sell offer”. Most people are unlikely to be familiar with the term, “pre-sell” and it will just come across as marketing jargon, so instead, call it a Pilot Course or a Beta Course. This will make the offer much more relatable to your audience, and more likely to be successful.

By referring to the pre-sell offer as a ‘Pilot Course’ or ‘Beta Course,’ you tap into the psychology of exclusivity and participation. Potential customers feel they are getting early access to an exclusive opportunity and becoming part of a select group of learners. This sense of being part of a ‘pilot’ or ‘beta’ program adds perceived value to the offer, making it more enticing and encouraging them to take action.

Plan in advance when these webinars and lives are going to happen and make sure you allow yourself enough time to promote them to your audience. I usually recommend promoting your webinar approximately 2 – 3 weeks in advance.

Overcoming Obstacles: Earn Their Trust

Make sure you are ready to address any doubts or concerns head-on. Social proof, like testimonials from happy customers, can boost their confidence in your pre-sale.

Now it’s time to present your pre-sell offer and give them a clear Call-to-Action, telling them exactly what they need to do to take up the offer. Explain the benefits to them of joining the Pilot version of your course. Mention any offers, discounts or bonuses that they will get when they join your course, and let them know what the deadline is for getting in on the action.

Closing the Deal: Deliver the Goods

Your pre-sale is booming, and enrolments are pouring in. Crunch some numbers, analyse your campaign, and fine-tune where needed.

Encourage last-minute sign-ups with a strong call-to-action. Deliver top-notch content, provide support, and create an amazing learning experience.

Don’t forget to let your customers know what’s expected of them, in terms of feedback, testimonials etc. It can be helpful to let them know at the outset how they should submit feedback to you. Do they just email you when they encounter something of note? Or do you have a more formal method of collecting feedback, like a survey, that you send out at the end?

Congratulations on a successful pre-selling adventure! Keep up the great work and create courses that leave a lasting impact on your eager learners. Here’s to many more!

Conclusion: Your Pre-selling Adventure

Pre-selling your online course is a strategic and effective way to validate your course idea, generate early revenue, and build anticipation among your target audience. By following the step-by-step process outlined in this guide, you can maximise the success of your pre-sale campaign and set the stage for a successful full course launch.

So, go out there, my friends, and rock that pre-sale! I can’t wait to see your course soar to new heights!

Rock on! 🤘

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

Q1: How do you plan a course launch?

Planning a successful course launch involves several key steps:

Identify your target audience and their needs.
Create a compelling course outline and content plan.
Set clear goals and timelines for your launch.
Build anticipation through pre-launch marketing and teasers.
Choose the right platform for your course delivery.
Engage with your audience through webinars and live sessions.
Implement a strong call-to-action to encourage enrolments.

Q2: Can I give people free access to my Pilot Course?

Well, it’s your course so you get to make the rules, but I would highly advise not giving people free access to your Pilot course. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, you are not properly validating your course idea if people are not actually investing their money in your programme; and secondly, in my experience if you give people free access to your course, it can be challenging to have them go through the course and give you feedback in a timely manner, again because they have no skin in the game.

You don’t need to charge a lot of money (typically Pilot courses sell at approximately half of what you think the full cost will likely be), but it’s worth charging at least a nominal amount, for the above reasons.

Q3: What is the best month to launch an online course?

The best month to launch your online course depends on your target audience and industry. Generally, it’s wise to avoid major holidays or peak holiday times when people might be less engaged. Instead, consider launching during seasons when your audience is most active and receptive to learning.

Q4: How do you create a pre-launch strategy?

Crafting a pre-launch strategy involves:

Building anticipation through social media, email marketing, and teasers.
Creating a waitlist or early bird offer to identify and nurture leads.
Hosting webinars or live sessions to engage and educate your audience.
Collaborating with influencers or affiliates to expand your reach.
Offering exclusive discounts or bonuses for early enrolments.

Q5: How long does it take to launch an online course?

The timeline for launching an online course will vary depending on its complexity, your tech savviness and level of preparedness. On average, it can take several weeks to a few months to develop course content, set up the platform, and implement a pre-launch strategy effectively. Working with a VA can help you dramatically reduce the time it takes to set up all the behind-the-scenes tech.

Q6: What are the best practices in pre-sales?

Effective pre-sales involve:

Building anticipation and buzz through pre-launch marketing.
Offering early access and exclusive benefits to entice customers.
Using social proof like testimonials to build trust.
Engaging with potential customers through webinars and live sessions.
Providing clear call-to-action to encourage immediate enrolments.

Q7. Can you Presell a course on Udemy?

Udemy does not support pre-selling courses directly on their platform. However, you can build anticipation for your Udemy course using external marketing channels, like social media and email lists, and then direct interested learners to your course once it’s live on Udemy.

Please note that platform policies may change over time, so it’s always best to check Udemy’s current guidelines for the most up-to-date information.