7 Best Content Marketing Strategies for Online Courses

Whether you’re starting or have been an expert in the field, refining your content marketing strategy never hurts.

Unsurprisingly, content marketing strategy for online course creators can define success or failure – as you risk all your efforts.

Content is pivotal in driving the target audience and engaging them. If you want to get your audience’s attention, you must shape your content to improve conversions and generate leads. In today’s age, if you’re going to win the game, you need to stay consistent and organized.

But why content marketing for online course creators? Overall, content enables brand building for course creators and establishes relationships with potential students. Compared with other vital elements, content is the king for course creators, as it provides a much higher return on investment. No ad can deliver the outcome if your content isn’t well-crafted.

Let’s dive into the best 7 content marketing strategy to compete in your industry.

7 Content Marketing Strategy for Online Course Creators

A good content marketing strategy is nice-to-have and is the foundation of your attract and retain stage in the student sales funnel. When you want to promote an online course, you must understand your audience to create a compelling content strategy.

If you’re having trouble planning for content marketing strategies to increase online student enrollment, we’re here to help.

Let’s explore.

1. Developing a Compelling Content Plan

The content market industry will reach 107 billion U.S. dollars by 2026, and marketers worldwide use it to create brand awareness. Creating valuable, informative, engaging content marketing can help you drive engagement.

A robust content marketing strategy for online courses must resonate with your audience and address their pain points and interests. Here are some tips you can follow to create an effective content plan:

• Storytelling – As humans, we love stories. It connects on an emotional level and illustrates your values to stand out.
• Using visuals – Images, videos, and infographics can help you make your content more engaging and effective than text alone.
• Optimizing for SEO – Make sure your content is SEO optimized with relevant keywords to increase your visibility online.
• Use relevant hashtags – It can help discover your content through hashtags relevant to your online course and niche.

Always remember high-quality content that aligns with your objective and goals helps you create value and generate conversions.

2. Crafting Engaging Blog Posts

How much engagement you can achieve with an engaging blog post for your online course is unbelievable. Having a blog of your own can get higher rankings on search engines, establish trust and credibility, attract new leads, and provide additional learning resources.

Blogs can help you attract prospective students and convert them into sales for your online course. Benefits of having your blog to promote your online course:

• Long-term benefits
• Higher credibility
• Better SEO for visibility
• Control over content
• No charges for publishing

As a course creator, we recommend you create an online course and craft engaging blog posts to promote. Here are the best tips to consider:

• Know your audience
• Craft catchy headlines
• Hook your readers
• Ramp up on visuals
• Create matching content lead offers
• Leverage interactive content
• Make it sharable

Most importantly, insert a call to action in your blog and direct them to online course platforms where you sell your courses.

For example, a digital marketer and course creator, Andrew Hubbard, has a blog sharing relevant, informative, and engaging content.

Source: Andrew Hubbard

3. Creating Informative Videos

Increasingly, as content marketing training plans for online course pivots, course creators are looking for ways of creating new and exciting content. If the videos are not informative and engaging, students are less likely to watch the entire video. Here are some tips to help increase engagement:

• Make shorter video
• Be yourself – make it personalized
• Include a talking head video
• Add animations and drawings

As an online course creator, include videos in your content marketing strategy for online course education. Here are some examples of how to make videos relevant for your audience:

• Tutorials
• Instructional videos
• Explainer videos
• Animated learning videos
• Presentation videos

To make things even easier, you can even use platforms like YouTube or Vimeo to create engaging videos and help get the word out when you post.

For example, an entrepreneur and an online course creator and strategist with an online YouTube channel to promote online courses.

Source: YouTube

4. Hosting Podcasts and Webinars

You can use webinars to promote online courses and take them to the next level. It helps you connect with your audience and builds a community around your niche. Also, podcasts and webinars make you appear more knowledgeable and approachable.

There are many different types of podcasts and webinars that course creators can include:

• Interview industry leaders
• Monologue-style podcasts
• Conversational podcasts
• The panel episode
• Non-fictional storytelling
• Fictional storytelling

As the consumption of podcasts has steadily increased, research reveals that it will be 500+ million listeners/users by 2024. There is a shift towards more convenient and accessible content formats to engage prospective students more effectively.

Here are some advantages of podcasts and webinars for online courses:

• Engage and retain the audience’s attention
• Reach prospective students with on-demand content
• Build thought leadership
• Establish credibility in your industry

For example, Pat Flynn, an online content and course creator, hosted an interview with James Wedmore, who is an author of the YouTube Marketing Book and has relevant experience about the topic in the interview.

Source: YouTube

5. Utilizing Influencer Marketing

To promote online courses on social media, you can utilize the power of influencer marketing. It is a strategy that can help you generate leads and build credibility.

Influencer marketing is a tried and tested strategy that can help you drive more conversions and build a bigger audience. It can improve your online course marketing strategy by:

• Building authority and brand awareness
• Increase reach
• Strengthens trust among prospective students
• Helps with SEO
• Generating website traffic

Utilizing influencer in content marketing strategy for online courses provide great opportunities to connect with your prospective students, spark interest and create a following

6. Guest Blogging and Content Syndication

Syndicating your content to a third-party site or guest blogging is a proven traffic source for online courses that can boost your online courses. 

Why syndicate or guest blog?

• More visibility
• Added prestige
• Editorial assistance
• Hooks and anecdotes
• Targeted opt-in
• Lead generation
• Link generation

So make sure your online course content marketing strategy is syndicated on the right websites and in the right way. If you fail to do so, you won’t be able to reap the many advantages, and it could lead to more loss than gain.

7. Repurposing and Updating Content

Always remember great content is what grows your audience!

That’s why effective content marketing for online course creators is all about getting the most out of your efforts. Once you’ve crafted compelling content, you can always repurpose and update content.

Repurposing content is a time-saving way to build new content and amplify your audience’s reach. Benefits of repurposing include:

• Save time and money
• Establish your content
• Significantly boost your SEO
• Build topic expertise
• Reach new audiences
• Reinforce your message
• Keep your content on brand

You’ve already done the work and got all the points down. When repurposing, you’re not starting from scratch. Continuously refine content and keep updating to ensure it resonates with the audience.

Content Marketing Plan for Online Course

And, like every entrepreneur that sells online courses, you require a solid content marketing plan for online courses. Also, you can get help from an expert online course promotion agency with the expertise to set your online course apart through an effective content marketing strategy.

Let us first highlight the six crucial steps to any content marketing plan.

1. Set Your Goals for Your Online Course/Education
2. Identify Your Course or College Audience
3. Appropriate Content Channels 
4. Create a content calendar
5. Distribute and promote your content
6. Measuring the Success of Content Marketing for Online Courses

1. Set Your Goals for Your Online Course/Education

First and foremost, you should be clear about what you want to achieve from your content marketing strategy for online courses. As an industry norm, the following KPIs are usually set as goals:

• New student enrolments
• Mean online attendance
• Rate of student turnover
• Student satisfaction rate

2. Identify Your Course or College Audience

After setting your goal in the first step, you should identify and define your audience according to basic demographics such as age group, gender mix, location, etc. It is necessary because if you are not aware of who you are targeting your service towards, then how can you appeal to their needs with your value proposition?

3. Appropriate Content Channels

In the third step, select the most appropriate channels to disseminate your content marketing strategy, such as Facebook, a blog, and LinkedIn. The appropriateness of these channels depends on the presence and availability of your target audience on a particular platform. You would like to select those channels where your target market is actively present, and using them proves to be cost-effective and promises results.

4. Create a Content Calendar

Make sure you have a content calendar in place to not only help you keep track of which content is to go live by what date but also help you measure individual outcomes of each strategy used for any channel. With the content calendar, you’re less likely to miss out on publishing deadlines and content closure dates.

5. Distribute and promote your content

Now that your content calendar is in place, it’s time to start executing and marketing your course content in line with your content marketing strategy. It is a critical phase because it’s the main execution of all the hard work and research you would do for your online course platform.

6. Measuring the Success of Content Marketing for Online Courses

In the final stage, you learn whether or not your efforts have been fruitful. There are multiple sets of metrics that the industry is using to measure the success of a content marketing strategy. You can select those relevant to your online course platform and analyze those parameters. Some of the popular ones are:

• Website traffic by source
• Current vs. Past Trends of Enrolment
• CTR and Website Impressions
• Onsite Engagement
• Leads conversion to sales

Final Words

Compelling content holds huge value. It can deliver an excellent experience to prospective students and encourage them to take the desired action.

It’s your chance to draw your target audience’s attention and create a brand image. A well-researched and planned content marketing strategy is a no-brainer that helps you sell online courses. As long as you make an effort to build a high-quality content marketing strategy for your online courses, you can always choose an expert online education marketing agency to collaborate with.

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