One of the first clients I ever worked with was a consultant. This consultant’s entire business was built around traveling to large conferences and giving presentations. The consultant’s website was the “Online Town Square,” where the business lived online. The website featured integrated strategies and design to increase conversions. The consultant was highly successful and spent years traveling around the country non-stop, visiting all 50 states, blowing past revenue goals year after year.
The client has since scaled down and “retired” after a 3-year run from Alaska to Maine. Simply put, the client was burnt out.
Why is this relevant?
Last week, we launched an e-learning course for Dr. Claire Nicogossian. This robust online course provides immense value to her brand, but more importantly — to the online community of Thriving Mamas that Claire is creating. Dr. Claire’s brand can now scale across the entire world, all while she focuses on “living her own brand” (as she and I like to joke), and living in Thriving Mama Mode.
If the consultant I referenced previously had an e-learning course… would they still be in business? Could burn out have been avoided?
Should you build an e-learning platform for your brand?
Creating passive revenue sources is only one of the reasons we’ve seen e-learning courses gain popularity. Here are some other reasons to build an e-learning platform:
- Building out email lists of qualified prospects – giving away a quick, free e-learning course is a great way to increase engagement on your site and drive traffic back to your platform.
- Promoting a new book, presentation, or new content – telling your story online isn’t just about having a story, it’s also about creating a “buzz” around your brand. E-Learning courses allow you to introduce new content in a format that provides value to users.
- Creating a Community – building out a recurring e-learning course allows your brand to create a community of followers that consistently engages with your content and brand.
- Growing your audience – an e-learning platform has a global reach. Unlike a presentation, which is localized to the participants involved, an e-learning course allows for worldwide participation.
How to build an e-learning platform—
The first step is to address the “value exchange.” What will users who take and complete the course gain in value? Why should they interact with the course?
The second step is to create assets. A quality e-learning platform is fully integrated with the website and allows for payment processing on your site. This promotes consistent messaging, as well as the implementation of digital marketing strategies such as social media re-marketing.
By eliminating hurdles users may experience online, the process feels much cleaner to a user. A user can purchase the course online, receive their login credentials, and receive follow up reminders/encouragements. With each step being automated, the user experiences a smooth user flow — which is key to the course’s success.
Finally, the mission of any e-learning course is to drive traffic back to your platform and continue the client-consumer relationship. An e-learning course both capitalizes on an existing community, but it can also attract new audiences. A coherent marketing strategy is required in order to target users that would be likely to engage with the e-learning course. Whether that media is Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn- social traffic to a course helps boost organic rankings.
At Alter Endeavors, our Platform Development team is ready to help you build an e-learning platform that shares your mission with the world. Tell your story, teach your craft, make an impact — and do it all online.