Should Your Online Course Website Really Be That Salesy?

Having a website that actually yields conversions is a goal of marketers worldwide. When it comes to creating an online course website that sells without being pushy or ‘salesy’, there is more behind-the-scenes hard work than meets the eye.

Salesy is a term used to describe a salesperson who sells their product to someone in the wrong stage of awareness in an aggressive or superficial manner. It makes the prospect feel uncomfortable and unresponsive.kyleads.com

Selling online can be tricky. No doubt there. But the fact that some online course platform appeal to the visitor right away and some are plain hideous is also true.

On the brighter side, here’s how to create a website that acts as a sales enabler for your business while not making it look like a hard-selling machine.

First thing first, take a good hard look at your online course website, is it boring or monotonous?

If you have built it yourself and you are not a designer, it might be hideous.
If you use overused photography tricks like a customer success associate wearing suits and shaking hands, your website is anything but attractive. Get a new one.

A clean and crisp website that makes the visitor feel understood on their pain points while offering a practical solution is the best you can get your hands on.

Simplicity is the name of the game. We know you want to make your online course website worthy of visitors and conversions.

Here is a list of all that you need to do to make your online course website salesy enough to get conversions (and not make people sick by hard-selling).

1.Learn The Art of Story-Telling

The first trick to being a people-oriented company is story-telling. Your audience is looking for relatable anecdotes and stories that make them feel like they belong.

Tell them how your online course came into being and what drove you to create it and share it with the world.

We put this number one on our list because we cannot lay enough emphasis on how crucial this is for your online course website.

A sales proposition on your website is always stronger and more effective when a story is told that bounds the reader to how helpful and life-changing the product (in this case, your course) is.

2. A Clean Landing Page is Better than a Cluttered One

‘Less is more’ is especially true of websites and landing pages. If you think you can do away with it, remove it. Keep pulling until you can remove nothing more and only essential details are on your page.

Decluttering is the name of the game here. This tactic ensures you leave no room for distractions for your visitors and help them focus on what matters about your business.

Regardless of the audience you serve and the niche you operate in, there are some non-negotiables for your online course website-

A Compelling Headline
Introduction to Your Problem
Benefits of the Solution
Introduction to Your Course as a Solution

Source – Medium

3. Trust is Supreme – Use Testimonials and Case Studies

Marketing ninjas coined terms like social proof and customer trust to emphasize that people trust other people more than they trust brands.

Most companies need to pay more attention to the importance of including relevant case studies and testimonials from their past clientele. It is paramount that you have these on your online course website and other effective landing pages, wherever appropriate.

Source – Pinterest

It is better to let your prospects know how satisfied your customers are with your services than to work from scratch every time to impress and get them onboard.

There are also good testimonials and bad testimonials, the best ones are those which are written by actual customers who are happy to use your products and would love to use them again. You can politely ask them for more descriptive words when they write reviews and testimonials for your course.

Source – Pinterest

4. Get Creative for Capturing Email IDs

Email marketing strategy has retained their charm. Many argue, but the fact remains that email marketing is one of the highest ROI-grossing methods of digital marketing.

Most people will disagree because they want instant results. It is easy to forget that email marketing is more effective not because it produces instant results, but because it always produces more returns than the rest of the marketing methods combined.

According to the report – 2014 Benchmark Report on B2B Content Marketing and Lead Generation, 80% of B2B content marketing assets are gated.

Hence it is imperative that you get as creative as you can for collecting email addresses.

Source – Pinterest

Besides the tried and tested method of putting up a valuable content piece as a lead magnet or a lead-gated asset, we recommend going through these best practices to get more emails for your list-building exercise.

Lead magnets are the valuable assets your content marketing team produces to make the visitors give up their email ID for access to that content.

Putting up webinars, newsletters, useful and comprehensive guides, and other valuable resources on your online course website consistently is essential to keep those email leads pouring in.

5. Pricing Details Should be Explicit with a Clear and Compelling CTA

When it comes to being salesy, creating a snackable website is of paramount importance. But make a point to mention your pricing details as that is where your visitors’ attention is concentrated. You want to use benefit-driven language while justifying the course fees.

Adding a clear CTA which tells your future students how to buy your courses is something you can afford to take advantage of. Be bold and ask them to ‘Buy Now‘ instead of going down the soft-selling path and using not-so-pushy CTAs like ‘Learn More.’ This is where you want to be salesy enough to make them (your future students) take action.

These are the five non-negotiables that online course creators need when creating an online course website for your business. But, this list is incomplete; things such as building credibility by using instructor bios, risk reversal strategy, the importance of objection handling (FAQs), and a strong value proposition also matter. Keep following us, we will pop out an article explaining these in detail very soon!

Read here on some must-have elements for a great landing page for your online course website

Now that you know you have what it takes to start building your online course website, we say ditch the delay, it’s time to get going!

If you liked what you read, please share it with someone who you think would appreciate and benefit from it. Also, do let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Knorish – Finally everything you need to launch your online stores that sell courses and content.