How to market online courses, in the order that works

Published prices, verified

Marketing a course in four stages

1. Build the list before the course. A free lead magnet that solves one small piece of the course's problem, promoted wherever your buyer already is, gives you the list the launch needs. A course launched to no list sells to almost nobody, however good the page; a course launched to a thousand warm subscribers sells at 1% to 3% on a normal launch.
2. Launch with a deadline and one reason. Open the cart for a defined week with a founding price, a bonus, or a cohort start date, and email the list daily with one reason each day: the problem, the method, a student's result, the objection, the close. Most sales arrive in the last two days, which is why the deadline has to be real.
3. Add evergreen search and partners. After the first launch, publish answers to the questions buyers asked, aimed at the searches they typed before finding you. Approach creators and newsletters that serve the same buyer with an affiliate arrangement; the platform's affiliate tracking, where the vendor's page says the plan includes it, is what makes this administrable.
4. Buy traffic only to a page that already converts. Paid ads amplify what the page does. A page converting warm traffic at 2% will convert cold traffic at a fraction of that, so run ads to the lead magnet rather than the checkout, and only once the launch has shown the funnel works.

What the platform provides for marketing, and what it does not

Course platforms differ most in what surrounds the course: an email tool, landing pages, a checkout with upsells, affiliate tracking and a community. On some entry plans these are included; on others they are the reason to upgrade, and on the newsletter-first platforms the email tool is the product and the course is the add-on. Read the vendor's own page for what the entry plan carries, because a $39 plan that needs a $50 email tool beside it costs more than a $89 plan that includes one.

The verified table shows the price and the cut; the platform-type pages show which vendors are evidenced for courses, newsletters, memberships and communities, which is the fastest way to see which shape each vendor actually serves.

Marketing claims to avoid

Income claims about what students will earn are the fastest route to a regulator's attention and to refunds; describe what the course teaches and what students have done, with permission, not what buyers will make. This site follows the same rule about creators: nothing here says what a course will earn.

Discounting is the other habit to avoid. A founding price that rises is a reason to buy now; a sale that repeats teaches the list to wait.

Common questions

What is the best way to market an online course?

An email list built with a free lead magnet, a launch to that list with a real deadline, then evergreen search content and partner affiliates. Paid ads come last, to a page that has already converted warm traffic.

Do course platforms include marketing tools?

Some include email, landing pages, checkout and affiliate tracking on the entry plan; others reserve them for higher tiers. Check the vendor's own page linked from the table, and price the tools you would otherwise buy separately.

How much should I spend on ads for a course?

Nothing until the launch to your list has shown the page converts. After that, spend to acquire subscribers at a cost below what a subscriber is worth over a year of launches, which you can only know from the first one.

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