The online environment enables organizing almost every event. Live stream interviews, training, concerts, as well as online courses do not surprise us anymore. What may be offered online got more valuable due to global lockdown and pandemic crisis. And landing pages are essential for online course advertising. This article will teach you how to use landing page for online course advertising and how to get first participants.
Why landing page?
Regardless of the type of course you’d like to organize and how you advertise your offer, your marketing activities should be focused on achieving one clear goal – getting online course participants. However, if your campaigns lead users directly to a course platform, you force them to make a decision in a ‘zero-one’ situation and give only one way to sign up – here and now.
When you or your brand are reliable, recognizable, and have some followers, it is likely there are people among them who would join your course immediately.
Your special landing page, prepared for course advertising, may be used in several ways:
- COURSE PRESALE – your course is almost ready and will be released soon? While finishing touches are being added, prepare a landing page informing about course presale and its attractive price. Your offer can become more unique if you limit its time or quantity (e.g. only 7 days of presale or only 50 accesses at a special price).
- SPECIAL OFFER – your course is available but you wish to drum up the sale? Prepare a landing page with a special offer for the interested. It may be any discount offer, e.g. 50% discount for access to the course, or two courses for the price of one. Similar special offers can be revived for Black Friday, Cyber Monday or other seasonal occasions.
- MARKET FEEDBACK – you have thousands of ideas for classes and subjects but still don’t know which are the best ones for the beginning? Prepare a landing page to collect information from the market. In return for filling the form on your landing page, offer free ebook, consultation or other benefits. You will learn – besides useful knowledge – what your potential participants need, so your course will be more valuable. Those who have gotten through that process may form a group of your very first participants.
Increase the conversion rate with a carrot
Customers love getting more than expected. They become even more interested in a product when they get a free sample. We see it in supermarkets, when we are treated to a new snack or when we choose miniature cosmetics or sample packets, so we can give them a try and think about a full-sized product. Your potential course participants think and act the same way. Provide a free demo or first lesson for free. A good appetizer whets the appetite and makes us reach for more. A unique, valuable offer or sample is the key element of course advertising. With a landing page, you can build a group of your potential customers who will learn about your product and buy it.
When creating your landing page for course advertising, remember that it has to solve a problem by teaching some techniques or giving valuable knowledge. To reach your potential customers better, think who your marketing persona is – your ideal trainee. Define their problem and show how your course helps with solving it. Describe the subjects and check what your persona is looking for or what their interests are. If you relate to some examples during your course, make them as close to your recipients as possible, not a total abstraction.
Your course’s value should be clear for every landing page visitor as soon as they enter the website. The first view above the fold (the part visible without scrolling) has the biggest impact on recipients, making them more likely to make some impulsive decisions. It is worth using that mechanism. Prepare a catchy headline and highlighting – with capitals and compatible graphics – the strongest assets of your offer and course, right in that place. Also, use this space for a Call To Action button. When the visitor is intrigued by an interesting headline and your proposition, make hay while the sun shines and encourage them to participate in your course. If your offer is time-limited, place a counter in a visible spot, reminding about the offer’s end.
Then, the landing page made for your online course should include the following elements: introducing you, your experience, competencies, certifications, education history. Describe in detail your course’s subject, its agenda or phases to give your recipients even more encouraging information. If you already have some background in courses or training events, add opinions and reviews from your previous participants and clients. Such social proof will confirm your experience and knowledge.
Landing page in online course advertising – example
One of the finest examples showing what potential lies in landing pages is Żaneta Żywiałkowska’s Permanent Makeup Academy (Akademia Makijażu Permanentnego). We’ve had the pleasure to cooperate in the scope of Lead Generation service. Our job was to develop the content and landing page project, set up analytics, prepare graphics for advertisements and manage lead-generating campaigns for a makeup course. We advised on planning further activities in email marketing campaigns, which enabled progressive engagement actions.
The landing page is consistent and informs clearly about the course’s subjects. Moreover, it is Ms. Żywiałkowska herself who invites to the course. The first website view includes the key elements: an informative headline, an indicating-reliable-experience subtitle, and a vivid CTA which encourages visitors to sign up and shows the benefits of free participation. Furthermore, a time counter reminds about upcoming end of the special offer, about what makes it limited and exclusive. Afterwards, landing page focuses on the trainer, courses subjects, benefits and bonuses. Landing page ends with simple contact form (to which leads every Call To Action button).
Another landing page created in the Landingi platform is Artur Jabłoński’s page. It invites viewers to participate in online marketing courses.
One look is enough to know what the course offers and what its benefits are. A strong CTA button encourages to sign up. Below, we can learn how the course is held, what we can benefit from it, what the online course looks like, what the plan is, and if there are any extras. The landing page is simple, almost minimalistic, and clear.
Artur – despite the fact he already is recognizable in the Polish internet marketing industry – uses landing pages to advertise his courses. Coincidence?
How to entice over 1000 people to sign up for an online course?
Landing page, made by us for Żaneta Żywiałkowska’s permanent makeup courses, stands out with elegant yet light and pleasant aesthetics and colors. However, it was not only the design that made the landing page successful. We supported it with a comprehensive advertising campaign.
Lead Generation campaign consists of a complete landing page infrastructure – project, analytics set up, advertisement graphics, popup, copywriting – but also of support in Facebook Ads and Google Ads campaigns, which reach proper target groups – and allow you to get valuable hot leads.
To make courses offer even more attractive, Ms. Żywiałkowska prepared a training with Soft Ombre technique course which was available free of charge in return for signing up on a landing page. Thanks to that, it was possible to get a group of the ones interested in permanent makeup knowledge. Moreover, further emailing campaigns enabled to continuously engage the group and familiarize them with other courses in an online platform.
As a result of our activities, there were 1087 sign ups for courses with Ms. Żywiałkowska’s landing page (coming from 2185 page visits). The conversion rate totalled 39,99%. Additionally, the exit intent popup resulted with 25 leads (CTR totalled 15,34% with 163 views).
This shows how efficient landing pages can be in attracting interested people to online courses. Clear infrastructure with a tailored advertising campaign proves itself during online course sign-ups. The times of crisis taught us to search for online solutions, so we cannot underestimate the tool given in the form of landing pages and internet courses.
