5 reasons why online courses fail (and what you can do instead)
Let’s set the scene.
You’ve spent months creating an online course. You’re finally happy with it, and you’re ready to launch. The excitement, adrenaline and anticipation are all creeping in. Surely this is your moment to shine.
But instead of hearing KA-CHING, you hear… crickets! And you start to wonder why nobody is buying your online course.
The global eLearning Market is projected to reach $840 billion by 2030. That’s HUGE.
But the thing is, not every online course launch makes a splash. In fact, quite a lot of them fail. In my experience, there are five key reasons why this happens:
Reason #1: You didn’t build an audience first
Reason #2: Your course isn’t customer-focused
Reason #3: You started too big too soon
Reason #4: Your sales funnel is complicated (or non-existent)
Reason #5: Your branding & messaging are misaligned
In this article, we’ll dissect each of these reasons, and I’ll share my insights and practical tips on what you can do differently to ensure your next online course launches successfully.
Reason #1: You didn’t build an audience first
It may seem counterintuitive to look for an audience before launching your course but adopting an audience-first approach allows you to validate your course offer and ensure it aligns with your customer’s needs and wants.
If you already have a large audience, but they aren’t engaging, this could indicate that you might be targeting the wrong people. This can happen in many ways. Perhaps you used paid ads focused on the wrong audience group. Maybe you promoted the course in the wrong online groups or communities. Or perhaps you grew your online course audience by offering free products, and these customers do not resonate with a paid online course.
Building an online course audience with the right people can be challenging; it takes time and dedication. The good news is your audience doesn't have to be huge for you to start selling your online course: it only needs to be engaged.
To build an engaged audience, I recommend focusing on a consistent content marketing strategy – using strategic SEO tactics to attract traffic to your offerings and lead magnets effectively to convert course landing page visitors into prospects.
💡 What you can do:
To build a targeted online course audience with consistent content, I recommend the following:
Engaging with your ideal course customer with regular, targeted content that speaks to their pain points and offers your course as the #1 solution. This content could be podcasts, video content, blogs, social media posts, emails or a strategic blend of all the above.
Building an email list using powerful lead magnets. This lead magnet could be a downloadable freebie, access to a mini-course or even a promotional code for your course. You will use this email list to promote your course and deliver targeted messaging in the lead-up to its launch.
Nurturing your email list. When someone subscribes to your email lists, you need to earn their trust by sending them helpful tips and advice about your course topic over time. When it comes to promoting your online course, it will be more likely to result in a sale because you took the time to provide value upfront before rushing to promote from the get-go.
Utilising the power of social media to get the word out about your online course and build an engaged audience. Answer your customer’s questions during an Instagram or Facebook Live, create an informative carousel post highlighting your course's benefits or invest in a targeted results-driven ads campaign.
Reason #2: Your content is not audience-focused
One of the biggest mistakes online course creators make is assuming they know what their target audience wants to learn. They build our digital marketing around an assumed outcome rather than a researched one.
The thing is, if you build your online course in a vacuum without considering your customer, it’s possible that your online course will not speak to your audience.
It’s important to remember that your online course is not about you. At all. It’s about your customer and their wants and needs. And often, what we think our customers want and what they actually want can be worlds apart.
To create an online course your audience will want to buy; it needs to offer them value, deliver a unique experience and produce tangible results. And this starts with truly understanding your audience.
💡 What you can do:
To create a customer-led, customer-focused online course, I recommend the following:
Start with some reflection and detailed analysis of your online course audience. What are their core problems or challenges? What solutions can you offer to help your customers combat these challenges? What questions do your customers have? What type of content does your customer currently enjoy?
Send a survey to your mailing list or post a series of polls on social media to gauge interest in your online course topic and invite any questions. These questions will identify potential sticking points or barriers and help inform your course content and structure.
Provide clear learning outcomes that provide a solid idea of what your audience should achieve after each stage of your online course. If your customer cannot see how your course content is relevant to them or don’t have a vision for what they can do with it, they will not be motivated to sign up. Remove this barrier by clearly defining what’s in it for them, ensuring that the learning outcomes are results-driven and value-focused.
Reason #3: You started too big too soon
It’s common for online course creators to think if customers spend money on a course, they should get all the possible information on the topic in one go.
Even if you price your course at a premium, which you should, that doesn’t mean your online course should include everything you know. In fact, packing your course with too much information may actually hinder your success and ultimately confuse and overwhelm your customer.
The most successful online courses are not the ones with the most information on a particular topic but the ones that offer the right information. Your online course should contain clear, selective and easily digested information that will be valuable to your target audience.
Too many course sections with too much information can overwhelm your customers and may lead to dreaded drop-offs. Customers who don’t finish your course don’t get the value you’re offering. As a result, you won’t be as effective in helping them achieve their goals, making them feel deflated and unlikely to buy from you again.
💡 What you can do:
Split your knowledge into smaller bite-sized chunks and package them into separate online courses. This can offer more value to your audience than stuffing one course with too much information. Shorter, more targeted online courses allow you to provide a more powerful transformation and retarget your audience with future offers.
Align your online course content with your brand content pillars. Where possible, keep to one key topic with one clear goal with each course. This provides a clearer learning experience for your audience and allows you to establish yourself as a trusted authority and thought leader in that specific topic.
Make it as easy for your customers to finish your online course. To improve completion rates, I recommend choosing a user-friendly and accessible online course platform (Kajabi is a fantastic option), offering incentives that recognise progress and content completion and promoting participant interaction throughout the course (via an online community such as a Facebook group)
Reason #4: Your sales funnel is complicated (or non-existent)
Once you’ve created an online course, you can’t just plop it on your website and hope for the best. You need to have a strategy in place to promote and sell it. The aim is to create hype and excitement and get your customers thinking, “I NEED this course!”.
To do this, you need a clear and focused sales funnel.
A sales funnel is the entire process you guide your potential customers through, which ends with them deciding to sign-up (or not) in your course. Your funnel should echo your customer’s journey, from the awareness stage to action, and include a selection of tactics (outlined in this blog) that best serve each stage.
The best part is once you set up this sales funnel, it can run on autopilot – meaning it will continue enrolling new customers into your course even while you’re sleeping. Woohoo!
💡 What you can do:
Let’s walk through the three core components I recommend for every course lead generation funnel:
Freebie/Lead Magnet: To motivate your audience to join your funnel, you’ll need to offer something of value in exchange for their email address. This is where lead magnets or freebies come into play. These can range from eBooks, cheat sheets, a mini-course or a webinar. The format isn’t as important as ensuring you’re showing up in front of that ideal buyer with the right solution to their most annoying challenge. And doing it at the right time, when they need it most.
Opt-in Landing Page/Squeeze Page: This is a standalone page where you’ll send your leads to grab your freebie offer. The goal behind your landing page is simple: give your audience a compelling reason to provide you with their email address in exchange for your freebie.
Email Sequence. The ultimate end goal of your funnel is to get new leads onto your email list. Once a new lead joins your email list, you’ll want to do two key things: 1) engage with and nurture them further to build a relationship and 2) offer value upfront to help build trust and credibility. These key actions will help ensure your audience is ready and eager to buy your course when it’s ready.
Reason #5: Your branding and messaging are misaligned
When it comes to branding, many course creators typically fall into one of two camps: either they spend so much time wholly absorbed in getting the branding and messaging just right that their course never gets off the ground, or they fail even to consider branding or messaging and continue to muddle along without one.
Whichever camp you fall into, it’s important to understand the impact branding has on the success of your online course.
Your visual and written branding creates a memorable impression, helps connect with your customer and differentiates you from the competition. Branding helps stamp personality onto your online course and gives it a distinct identity.
If you are entirely new to the world of branding, here are some key factors to consider when it comes to determining the look and feel of your online course:
✔️ Colour scheme
✔️ Fonts
✔️ Language & Tone of voice
✔️ Logos
✔️ Icons & graphics
✔️ Photography
You’ll want to ensure your online course branding complements your overall business visual identity, but you can also market it as a standalone product across social media and online advertising.
💡 What you can do:
Keep your brand visual guidelines and tone of voice in mind when creating your online course content. Your online course should provide a recognisable on-brand experience for your audience that aligns seamlessly with all other platforms (from your social media and website to your email marketing).
Work with a professional online course designer (hi!) who can guide you through the process and ensure your online course looks and feels like your brand.
Coming up dry in the ideas department? Look to other successful course creators for inspiration, for example, Paige Brunton’s Square Secrets and Square Secrets Business or Amy Porterfield's Digital Course Academy.
Key Takeaway
Launching an online course isn’t easy, but with the proper groundwork and planning, it can deliver tremendous results for your business.
If you’re ready to launch your online course but need help along the way, let me be your support system! I have experience working with small business owners and entrepreneurs like you who want to monetise their expertise, expand their offering and generate passive income- all with an online course. Ready to make the first step and start selling online courses?
