How To Sell Online Courses Through Your Website ON AUTOPILOT

If you’re using a tool like Udemy or Skillshare (or thinking about it) please stop. 

You are going to have a lot more success selling your online course through your own website rather than a third-party website for a couple of reasons…

• There’s no middleman
• You can charge more money for your courses (and keep more)
• Better relationships with your customers
• More control of your business
• Can automate the process of selling your products

Today, I’m breaking down how to sell your online course through your website (assuming you have a course already)and, most importantly, how to make it automated.

We’ll cover: 

• How to get discovered online
• How to bring people to your website
• How to build a simple automated funnel to sell your course
• The best tools to use for selling your online course

Let’s dive in!

How To Get Discovered Online Without Working

Whether you already have a course built or you're in the process of building one, you have to get traffic to your website.

The most effective way to do that is by creating content, specifically, evergreen content.

Evergreen content is searchable, shareable, and constantly relevant over a long period of time for your viewers. (Think blogs and YouTube videos - podcasts work too but aren’t as searchable.)

For example, creating a blog post or YouTube video about “How To Cook The Perfect Brisket Every Time” is something that can never go out of style for BBQ enthusiasts - that’s evergreen content.

Not all content is created equal. For example, social media is not as efficient as blogs and YouTube videos for a couple of reasons…

• Social media posts don’t last forever, blogs and YouTube videos do.
• Blogs and YouTube videos are constantly being searched and shared.
• People are actively searching for topics on Google and YouTube every second of every day so you get more quality leads.
• Google and YouTube work for you when you’re not working (because they’re evergreen).
• Social media posts are limited in organic (free) reach and if you want to reach more people you need to pay for it to “boost” your post.

Here are the biggest things to remember when it comes to getting traffic to your website on autopilot…

• Focus on evergreen content (Blogs and YouTube videos - podcasts can work too).
• Make sure you’re keeping it relevant to your ideal audience and core topic.
• Find and answer your audience's most pressing questions related to your topic.
• Pick a posting schedule and be consistent (just like your favorite TV show)
• Always give a Call To Action (CTA) to comment, subscribe, share your content, or offer a Lead Magnet.

How To Turn Your Traffic To Website Leads

If you’re posting blogs, you’re naturally bringing eyeballs to your website on autopilot. But how do we turn “looky-loos” into leads that actually care about what we have to offer (i.e. your online courses)?

The answer is to create a Lead Magnet.

A Lead Magnet is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away in exchange for contact information (i.e. an email address or phone number).

Lead Magnets can come in many different forms:

• Short PDF guides, cheat sheets, checklists, or templates (2-10 pages is great)
• Video or audio workshops
• Webinars
• Online quizzes

I’d recommend just focusing on short PDF guides as these are easy to create and easily digestible for your audience.

We could talk all day about creating lead magnets but to create a great lead magnet, you just need to answer these two questions:

1. What is the most intense and consistent problem or challenge your audience is facing?
2. What is the SINGLE most valuable or immediate solution you can offer to solve that problem?

A great example is from a mentor of mine named Greg Faxon. He’s a business coach helping coaches fill up their client rosters.

One of the biggest challenges for coaches is finding clients. Greg knows this from understanding his perfect client so he created a short PDF guide called “21 Ways To Find Potential Clients”.

It’s short, actionable, and solves a specific problem his ideal audience is experiencing.

What's ONE common problem your ideal customer is facing that you could solve for them in a short pdf guide? Remember to keep it relevant to your content and online course. It should segue from your content to your course smoothly.

Creating An Automated Email Funnel That Sells Your Course For You

Now that you are creating evergreen content that is working for you 24/7, always offering a relevant lead magnet that only your perfect customer would be interested in, you’re officially getting discovered and driving leads to your website.

Now it’s time to convert those leads into buyers - automatically.

To do that, we’re going to build a simple email funnel that will build trust, add value, and pitch your online course for you while you get coffee with a friend, travel with your family, or whatever else you like to do.

Here’s the simple framework I use to do this myself:

• Email 1 - Teach, add value, and build trust (sent immediately after someone opts in)
• Email 2 - Teach, add value, and build trust (sent 1 day after email 1)
• Email 3 - Teach then introduce your online course and highlight its benefits (sent 1 day after email 2)
• Email 4 - Pitch your online course and highlight its benefits (sent 1 day after email 3)
• Email 5 - Pitch your online course and highlight its benefits (sent 1 day after email 4)

The most important thing to remember with our email funnel is that...

• It’s congruent with your core topic, lead magnet, and online course
• It’s building a narrative from beginning to end, introducing the most common problem your audience is facing, teaching them how to solve it, then offering your course as the “ultimate solution” to solving that problem.
• It’s automated every time someone opts in.

You can use many tools to make sure this process is automated through your website like MailChimp, Active Campaign, Convert Kit, or (my personal favorite) Kajabi.

Whichever plan you choose, just make sure that you have unlimited automations, otherwise, this process won’t work.

Remember to always put a Call To Action (CTA) button in our course pitch emails that links to your course's sales page.

If you haven’t built this, you can use a tool like LeadPages, ClickFunnels, or Kajabi.

How To Deliver Your Online Course

Now that people are discovering you online, coming to your website and becoming leads with your lead magnet, going through your automated email funnel and buying your online course for a premium, we need to deliver your course.

Here are the best tools I recommend: 

• Teachable.com

• Kartra.com

• Kajabi.com (30-day trial + FREE online course + 1-1 coaching)

If you’re looking for a free or low-priced option, you can always upload your videos to YouTube (make sure they’re Unlisted) and then embed them to a page on your website.

Using the tools I shared with you, you won’t have to worry about bandwidth (the amount of video content you are allowed to upload).

Conclusion

You now know how to sell an online course through your website!

Remember that selling your courses through your own website will give you more control over your business, better relationships with your customers, and you’ll be able to make (and keep) a lot more of your hard-earned money.

You now know how to get discovered online, turn casual viewers into interested leads, build trust with them and sell your course on autopilot.

Now it’s just about taking action.

To better help you with this, I’ve laid out the action steps for this process in my 5-Step Action Plan. Fill out the form below to get a copy!