Learning online has become an essential part of how we teach and learn. Therefore, there are great promises with offering online courses. Online courses are scalable, easy to create at a low cost, and are promising in how to generate passive income. Are you interested in how to create an online course? You are in luck – we have made a guide for how you create an online course in 8 steps. 

This is how you create an online course to sell in 8 steps 

We have broken the process of creating an online course into 8 steps, from picking the topic and aligning it with your target audience, to launching, marketing and selling your course. 

Step 1: Pick the topic 

You need to choose a topic that is relevant and that you are passionate about. You should also have in-depth knowledge on the topic. After all, you are selling your expertise when you are creating a course. The knowledge and skills that you have in this area, you want to share with your participants in the most fruitful way. Passion and expertise is a good start – but it must also be targeted to your audience, and in demand.  

Who is your target audience? 

Ask yourself whether there are people who want to learn about this topic, and if so, why? What are their demographics, or background? This information will help you determine how to design and structure your course and meet their needs. 

Check out our best advices to narrow down on your target audience: 

• Forget your expertise for a second and put yourself in their shoes. Imagine what a novice would want to know about the topic. 
• Address the concrete problems that the audience have 
• Use the information on the target audience and build a targeted profile that you can use to sell your course. You need to narrow down on your target so that your course attracts the right crowd, not the masses. Something that sells to everyone, will sell to no one. 

Is there a demand?

The most important element to a successful course, is that you are contributing proactively and positively to a demand. But how do I respond to a demand, you ask? You pick a relevant topic that you know people want to delve into or that is not being sufficiently covered on the market today. If the topic is relevant, in demand, and is targeted to a specific audience, then you have a good foundation for gaining a sustainable pool of potential customers, which you can sell your course to.

Step 2: What learning outcome do you want for this course?

You need to have a clear understanding of what you are offering your participants. The learning outcomes are what they will gain from taking your course. In other words, the value they are promised when they buy your course, most likely some new knowledge and improved skills sets. 

To help with this process, you should ask yourself what learning personas you are dealing with and which characteristics do you need to be aware of. Use the information you have gathered on your target audience. You should be able to answer what your participants are able to do after the course has ended, as well as what they will know and feel when they complete the course. 

Step 3: Structure your course 

You need to invest time and money when creating your course. It is imperative that your course offer is attractive to customers, which is why you need to spend some time planning and developing your course catalogue. When you have credibility and display authority, your offer will have value for many businesses.

What format should the course take?

You can choose various formats for the course, ranging from a mini course to a masterclass. Decide how in-depth you want to go on the topic, which should be dependent on your target audience. For example, someone who is completely new to marketing would benefit from a multi day course, while someone who is somewhat familiar with marketing might do a mini course in certain areas of marketing.   

Different formats to choose from: 

• Mini-course 
• Multi-day course 
• Masterclass 

What is the course outline? 

Create a focused outline for the course, where you determine the roadmap for your online course. This includes a detailed description of the steps and how your participants are moving from start to finish through the course. Determine the output, including the skills and knowledge they are developing, and set clear expectations for how to achieve their goals. 

What modules will the course be structured into?

Related to the course roadmap, is the structure of the course. You should consider how you want to structure your course, including the timeline and frequency of the lessons. 

Consider the following elements: 

• Activities 
• Learning resources 
• Individual lessons

Put effort into creating the most effective content for your course.

Step 4: Produce your course 

When you have structured your course and planned for a roadmap, then you need to put these words into action. It is time to produce the course, where you choose the delivery method that best suits your course catalogue. You need to consider modes of learning and how to engage the participants best with various formats and materials. 

Modes of learning 

People learn in different ways and at different speeds. You should consider your target group and choose a mode of learning that coincides with them. 

• Social learning: People learn through observation and experience, which are reinforced by social interactions with other people. 
• Blended learning: It combines online learning and interaction with physical place-based learning, and includes several methods of learning by combining face-to-face interactions with online activities.  
• Bite-sized learning: Microlearning where complex information is broken down into smaller, easily digestible pieces, which allows learners to absorb and retain information more effectively. 

Formats and materials 

You should create targeted, interactive and inclusive content, which includes using various formats in the course material: 

• Video 
• Screencasts 
• Text content 
• Downloadable content 
• Workbooks 

Tips for how to engage the audience 

• Use a blend of learning techniques, like mixing digital and physical training.   
• Choose open, accessible and engaging learning materials.
• Ensure that the course is not too long, or too much to handle for your participants.  
• Use digital tools in a deliberate and thoughtful way. 
• Consider adding social elements and interactive activities to the course to boost engagement.  

Step 5: Choose your online course platform 

There are many platforms that can help you create an online course that will do much of the heavy lifting for you. However, it requires you to think strategically about where to host your online course. You should think holistically about it and choose a platform that will provide features that you need to offer a well rounded course offer. For example, course evaluation and certification is something you should have the opportunity to do and offer participants.  

Use a learning platform where you can design and organise digital learning sessions, which facilitate online courses. Ensure that it fits all your current needs, but that you also can scale with as you grow your training business. Ideally it should be easily integrated with your training management system (TMS), that allows you to easily administrate your courses and streamline the process of organising your courses.  

Ensure that you have a TMS with the following features: 

• Marketing integrations 
• Course evaluations
• Metrics and tracking 
• Opportunity to build and sell bundles
• Integration with a LMS 

Step 6: Establish your pricing structure 

Pricing your course is a crucial factor in how attractive your course offer is for customers. Course pricing impacts if people can afford it, if they perceive that the price and offer is aligned, and that they feel like they get the proportionate value from the course price. 

Pricing is impacted by:

• Course content
• Competitive landscape
• Impact
• Market demand
• Credibility and authority

Remember that the price is not fixed, meaning you can test, experiment, discount and change it. You can also implement an alternative pricing structure, like a recurring subscription, payment plans or a buy-now-pay-later-structure.

Step 7: Launch it and market your course 

It is time to launch the course and implement the correct marketing strategy to reach your desired target audience. In order to achieve this, you must be strategic in your planning, creative in your execution, and proficient in your communication and customer service skills. You should collect data on your course participants and targeted customers and use this to build an effective digital marketing strategy that creates buzz around your brand, course catalogue and upcoming events. 

Interested in how to market your course? Read our complete guide to course marketing.

Step 8: Sell your course 

Once the course is launched and you have decided on a marketing strategy, you are free to sell your course. This might seem like a no-brainer, but it requires some effort and energy to achieve your desired sales goals. Customers will only use your course offer if they trust you, and like the saying goes, trust is earned over time. Therefore, you must put in the effort to establish trust between you and your target audience. 

Need more advice on how to sell your course? We have gathered our best tips for selling courses to your target audience.

The key to a successful online course is making sure that your participants are engaged.

Designing your online course  

A big part of creating an online course is designing the course. And when you are designing an online course, the devil is in the details. How you design your course will impact the learning outcomes. Your participants are interacting with the course design in day-to-day activities, in how they experience your course materials and interact with the course structure. 

Tips for your course design 

Of course we encourage you to gather feedback and use course evaluations to improve your course, but it is less accessible to get the continuous and direct feedback in an online course compared to a traditional classroom environment. Therefore, it can be more difficult to get a sense of where your participants are and it can become harder to keep them engaged. 

A sensible course design is something that can combat these challenges. While you create your course, you must be aware of the challenges that might arise for your participants. 

Tip 1: Facilitate learning and meet the participants where they are

The course should be targeted to your audience. This means that you must put in the effort to tailor the course materials and structure to how they learn the best. An online course, where it might be difficult to engage the participants, should be centred around the needs of the participants. Establish learning goals and set expectations for each other. Once this is established, it will be easier to choose the right content and formats that will provide the most effectiveness in terms of increasing the engagement. 

Tip 2: Use content deliberately 

You should organise the content in a thoughtful way, and ensure that the materials provided, activities you have planned, and the structure of the course are aligned. Keep in mind that the content who have chosen must meet the learners’ needs and encourage engagement. Image and video content should boost engagement, while social learning methods like collaborative projects or peer reviews will make it necessary to interact with each other. 

Tip 3: Evaluate and add assessments 

Feedback should always be twofold: Firstly, you should make it possible for the participants to evaluate the course. Their feedback and experiences with the course are valuable for you when you assess what works and what does not work in the course. Use their feedback to improve the course and increase the quality of the course. 

Secondly, you should provide feedback to them. Be concrete and direct in your feedback, and it should always be timely and constructive. When you are assessing their ability to take the course and their willingness to learn in the course setting, you demonstrate that you care about their progression. In addition, they will experience the alignment between course objectives and realised course achievements, and hopefully feel more confident and motivated to keep up the work. 

Summary of how you create an online course: 

• Step 1: You pick the course topic. 
• Step 2: You validate that there is a demand for the topic. 
• Step 3: You establish the learning outcomes for your target audience.  
• Step 4: You make the course design and make a plan for how to structure the course which is aligned with your target audience.
• Step 5: Once you have created your course, it is time to launch, market and sell it. Remember to choose the right operator and platform to launch and sell your course.  

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