In this digital age, it seems like just about everyone has a smartphone or a tablet or both. You’d have a harder time finding someone who doesn’t have a smartphone or a tablet. Surely, some people are holding strong with their flip phones or their lack of cell phones in general, but these circumstances are fewer and farther between with each passing year.

It doesn’t matter where you live, where your company is based, or what kind of training you conduct, your online course platform needs to be mobile friendly. With as quickly as technology has progressed over the past few decades, we can’t imagine it will be slowing down anytime soon, and everyone needs to be prepared.

Here’s why it’s so important to make sure your online course platform is mobile friendly.

Why Being Mobile-Friendly is Critical

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that technology is shifting more toward mobile devices with each passing year. As of 2019, there were 2.5 billion active Android users — quite a feat in just 10 years, especially considering that this number topped 2 billion in 2017. Despite the ground Android devices have covered, iPhones remain at the top of the best tech sellers list. In 2019, Apple sold 185 million iPhones (which was down from 200 million the year prior).

Not only does it seem like everyone has a smartphone, it seems like everyone is constantly staring at their smartphones. As a whole, we spend so much time on our phones that people are developing ailments dubbed text neck and text thumbs at an increasingly rapid rate. These issues are a direct result of using our bodies in a way that they’re not meant to be used for long periods of time or too many times throughout each day. If they don’t have a medical billing code yet, they probably will soon.

Having a smartphone is essentially the same thing as having a computer in your pocket. In fact, it’s exactly like having a computer in your pocket. It can do the vast majority of the things you can do on a laptop or desktop computer — do complex math, update social media, edit documents, send emails, etc. (Let’s take a moment to appreciate the fact that 40 years ago, computers took up entire rooms and now they fit in our pockets — that’s a significant technological leap in a relatively short period of time.)

Mobile Use Trends

The applicable piece of important information here is not necessarily that people are purchasing more smartphones — although they are, and it’s still valid information. The most pertinent concern is that people are using their smartphones and tablets more than they’re using their laptops or desktop computers. In fact, some people don’t even own personal computers anymore. They simply use their work computer at work and use smart devices at home.

Anyone in a position to offer retail or training services in the 21st century needs to be prepared to consider whether or not their platform is mobile friendly. If you choose to overlook this crucial aspect of design, you are alienating a significant portion of your potential customers.

We’re at a point now where mobile devices are being used more than laptops and desktops. Nearly 51% of website traffic thus far in 2020 came from a smartphone, with about 46% coming from desktop computers. Tablets came in a very distant third, with only about 3%. Given that these trends have been continuing in this trajectory for quite some time, we can only expect them to continue — at least for a while.

Furthermore, more and more people are switching to remote work models, which will increase the prevalence of smart devices at home. If someone wants to ditch their computer for good, a tablet is the next best option. Many tablets come with keyboards so you can get the feel of a computer without spending as much money. Plus, tablets are typically lighter, have batteries that last longer, and are more versatile than a more traditional laptop.

At some point, the increasing use of mobile devices might level off and we don’t expect the use of laptops and desktops to completely disappear (at least, not anytime soon), but it’s safe to say that mobile device use will continue to increase in frequency — especially as the digital native generation gets older and gains buying power.

Before too long, generations of people who are uncomfortable with technology will simply cease to be. The Silent Generation (those born before 1945) is the last generation that didn’t either grow up with technology, or learn how to use it while they were still working. Many Baby Boomers (1945-1964) adapted to developing technology, even if they struggled with it.

Generation X (1965-1980) may not have had much of this technology growing up, but they certainly have in their professional lives. Millennials (1980-1996) had computers in school and were coming of age when smartphones were being released. And of course, Generation Z (also called Digital Natives) likely don’t remember life before computers being readily available at home, and cell phones being in everyone’s pockets.

The next generation won’t ever remember a time without smartphones. Mobile devices are second nature to kids these days — they watched you tap, scroll and zoom maybe two times before they mastered a device that you’re still learning how to use. (Have you ever handed your smartphone to a toddler? They’ll figure out how to add things to your cart before you’ve realized they even opened an eCommerce app.)

The point is, younger generations expect a solid mobile experience. In the same way that people get quickly frustrated with slow websites, digital natives won’t have patience for websites or platforms that aren’t mobile friendly. If you haven’t already been focusing on making your training courses easily adaptable for mobile devices, now is the time to do so.

The good news is that it isn’t horribly difficult to do — especially if you choose an online course platform that does the heavy lifting for you.

How to Be Mobile Friendly in Your Training Course Offerings

Being mobile friendly doesn’t have to mean developing a mobile app. While a mobile app version of any website or platform is a popular way of going about things, it’s not the only way to go about it. Regardless, designing in a way that is mobile friendly requires a bit of extra thought and effort.

How Mobile Design Differs

It may be obvious — in fact, so obvious that it’s easy to overlook — but it’s important to note the physical difference between mobile devices and desktop computers and laptops. Laptop screens start at around 13 inches, but mobile devices can be as small as 6 inches. Tablets are usually somewhere in between.

When the space you’re working with is a 16:9 aspect ratio on a laptop or a desktop computer, the way you lay out information. You can afford to have longer paragraphs, for example, because they don’t appear to be “long” on a laptop screen. Your images can be larger because it won’t affect the overall page layout as severely. You can have ads or banners on the side of the screen, if that’s something you want to do.

But when you’re designing for a mobile device, everything changes. Your paragraphs can’t be very long because they feel longer for your users. No one wants to scroll (and scroll and scroll) just to finish one paragraph. Your images need to be smaller because if they’re too large, your page will look choppy and will diminish the user experience.

Ads or banners on the side of the screen are completely out of the question because there really isn’t a “side” on a mobile screen. Any of that kind of stuff will need to be inline with the content. For that matter, they shouldn’t be very large because they’ll disrupt the content just like an image will, but not in a way that contributes to your product.

Physically speaking, there will always be less screen real estate on a mobile device, but the way content responds to them is different as well. Desktop monitors and laptops are stationary devices — they sit on a desk, or a lap, or a table and the user interacts with it via a trackpad or mouse. The content itself stays stationary aside from scrolling and navigation.

On a smartphone or tablet, the content is responsive to the user’s action on a much deeper level. If the user turns the device, the content shifts so that it remains right side up and then resizes so it fits the screen better. This response is the basis of what’s called responsive design and it’s what makes an online course platform mobile friendly.

Responsive Design

Without getting into the technical details of how it actually functions, responsive design is a method of web design that changes formatting depending on the device on which the website or platform is being used. When someone navigates to a website that uses responsive design, the code looks at the screen size and orientation, color capabilities, and resolution in order to determine how it should display the website.

What this does for business owners is allows them to design one platform or website, as opposed to multiple versions of the same thing (one for desktop, one that is mobile friendly). It’s less work for the business developing the page and creates a better user experience for your target audience.

Now, provided that you choose an online course platform that utilizes responsive design (or at the very least is making sure that their platform is mobile friendly), you won’t have to worry about the technicalities of this process. However, if you don’t specifically make sure your course platform provider is utilizing mobile-friendly design, you’ll likely be the one to take the blame for it because you’re the one offering the course. It’s not that you would have done anything wrong, but it’s a matter of your company name being the public face of the course. Your training platform isn’t likely to be very high profile.

We can’t speak for other online course platforms, but Inspire360 tries to be as transparent as possible. We want to simply be the delivery method that helps your students get the education they need, while you provide the content they need in order to learn.

Therefore, we do our best to be as mobile friendly as possible. We don’t want your students to fall behind because their course platform is difficult to use. That being said, we can’t foresee every single technical issue, so we offer tech support that your students can use whenever they find it necessary.

Choosing a Mobile Friendly Online Course Platform

We do our best to provide an easy interface for companies to design their training courses, regardless of whether it’s a new one or one you’ve offered hundreds of times before. Whether you want to use our learning management system, certification management system, or live workshop management system (or integrate all three), we’ve worked tirelessly to make sure the product you deliver is mobile friendly and reliable.

There’s no need to learn HTML or any other programming languages in order to use Inspire360. We utilize a simple drag and drop format with built-in responsive design so it will provide a consistent user experience, no matter what device your students have chosen to use. With features like multimedia, custom course certificates, drip course components, and reusable components, we’re confident that we can help you cultivate your training course exactly how you envisioned it.

If you’re ready to get started with Inspire360, or want to learn more about what we can do for you, contact us or request a demo so you can see our online course platform for yourself.

Offering online training courses is the way of the future — and also, the present. With the shift to online learning and remote work, the need for high quality online course platforms is more important than ever. Particularly in the health and fitness industry, we’re seeing more and more blended learning workshops being offered.

If you’re used to offering live courses and are looking to create online workshops instead (or in addition to), it can feel a bit overwhelming. How can you determine what separates a stellar platform from a lackluster one? Here are some important things to keep in mind as you do your research.

Easy User Interface for Everyone

The best online course platforms will be easy for everyone to use. Of course, this will mean your end user — the people taking your training courses — but it also means the people who are actually creating and building your training modules.

Your Creative Team

You’ve spent a lot of time creating the content for your online training course. You and your team have written scripts and instructions, shot videos, conducted photo shoots, and tinkered with everything until it was just right. You’ve poured a lot of thought into how you want it to be delivered, and you don't want a platform that slows you down, or can’t give you the options you need.

What you need more than anything is an online course platform that helps you deliver the course you’ve designed exactly the way you want. You want it to help you, not hinder you. You don’t want to waste time trying to figure out a user interface that feels clunky and cumbersome.

We think it’s important to make a training platform feel familiar and intuitive, so the Inspire360 user interface is based on design principles that will easily coincide with programs you’re already used to — even if you’re not particularly tech savvy. We take a lot of pride in making sure almost anyone can use our training platforms.

Your End Users

Obviously the most important party here is the end user. You need them to be able to navigate through your online training course with ease and efficiency because that’s what keeps your business running. Whether they’re working for you or for a client of yours, the faster you can get trainees through the course, the faster they can get to work.

Effective online courses are well-paced, user-friendly, intuitive, and most importantly, they offer quality content that helps the trainee progress in their career. Therefore, it’s critical that your course platform helps you achieve that goal.

The platform you choose must be quick and responsive. Slow load times and tech glitches will only serve to aggravate your audience, and will eventually cause complaints.

Mobile-Friendly Responsive Design

Speaking of end users, it’s important to remember that they won’t necessarily be using a desktop computer when they complete training courses. They might not even own a traditional laptop — they might be working with a tablet connected to a keyboard, a tablet without a keyboard, or even a smartphone. Therefore, you need to choose an online course platform that can accommodate mobile-friendly responsive design.

If the term “responsive design” is unfamiliar to you, it refers to the way content appears across multiple devices. Rather than creators needing to design four different versions of a training course (for smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc), responsive design allows you to create one design, which automatically adapts to whatever device they’re using. It’s done on the back end so your users all have a similar experience, regardless of what device they’re using to complete their training course.

Tracking Progress and Certifications

There’s something satisfying about seeing a checklist being completed, or a progress bar moving across a screen. It helps us conceptualize how much work has been completed and how much work we still have to do. User-friendly online course platforms will make it easy for trainees to track their progress and keep track of their completed certifications. This is helpful for both the trainees and those administering the training because it keeps everyone on the same page.

From an administrative point of view, it can also help determine where people might be getting stuck or having trouble with the course design. If people are routinely slowing down in one particular module, it may signal a technical issue, or unclear instructions.

Create and Print Certificates

One important aspect of certification is that the trainee is able to walk away with a certificate to prove completion. Students will need this piece of paper in order to show potential employers or clients that they have the necessary training in order to do a good job.

High quality online course platforms will incorporate digital pre-fabricated certificates (complete with your branding). The platform will autofill necessary information, such as the trainee’s name and the certification title, and then generate the certificate upon completion. Trainees can print them when they wrap up their coursework, or choose to save them as a file on their computer.

Multimedia Integration

Some experts theorize that people have different learning styles, meaning that the way in which they process information is different. Other experts believe that we all learn in exactly the same way. Regardless of which theory is correct, what’s important is that what attracts and holds people’s attention varies widely. As such, it’s important to choose an online course platform that will allow you to use multiple types of media.

Being able to incorporate images, videos, written content, graphics, and anything else you can dream of will help people stay engaged, process information in a way that is best suited to their needs, and keep the training interesting. No one wants to sit through a boring training course, but it’s also less likely that they’ll be able to retain pertinent information if they’re not engaged — and that’s not good for their careers.

Furthermore, we’re dealing with fitness education here. It’s important for trainees to see proper form demonstrated so they know what to look for to prevent injury. Having demonstrative images and videos are very helpful resources.

Built-In E-Commerce

The best online course platforms will also build in e-commerce capabilities so you can have a one-stop shop for all of your training course requirements. No one wants to sign up for your training course on one website and then go to another to pay — that’s far too great a hassle and will diminish the user experience.

With Inspire360, not only can you sell your courses through our platform, but you can allow people to choose payment plans, enter coupon codes, and even accept international payments. If you already have an e-commerce platform you prefer, you can even incorporate it into the Inspire360 platform to make the process as seamless as possible for your trainees.

Allows for Live Trainings

Perhaps one of the best parts of our digital, on-demand world is the convenience it affords. If someone needs to wait to complete their training requirements until their children are in bed, or until they get home from their full-time job, or in the middle of the night because of their work schedule, online courses are perfect. But it’s also nice to have the option to take live courses. It’s like taking college courses online versus taking classes in-person.

Being able to ask a live teacher questions in real time can be an important part of the learning process for some people. Inspire360 allows you to set up live sessions in which you can also provide materials for trainees to review ahead of time, plus follow-up materials, certificates, and necessary assessments.

Built-In Course Evaluations

Feedback is critical in all course development, but for online courses, it’s even more important because you don’t get the real life, nonverbal feedback of your trainees. You can’t see their reactions, or the fact that they’re doing something incorrectly. You need to know when something is confusing or needs improvement, and in order to get that information, you need evaluations.

Inspire360’s online course platform has the option of providing course evaluations upon completion so you can see what’s working and what isn’t. This will help you further fine-tune your courses and adapt as necessary. Having this all within the same platform increases the likelihood that your trainees will actually fill out the evaluation.

Tech Support

It should come as no surprise that your chosen online course platform needs to provide some kind of technical support component. You never know the level of comfort your potential audience has with technology and online learning. You may be dealing with a group of people who have never taken a course online, and if that’s the case, they’re going to have a lot of questions that you need to be able to answer.

Furthermore, people may have issues with processing payments or navigating the course (no matter how user-friendly you make it). The important thing is that trainees have someone to contact if they’re having trouble.

Security

In our digital world, it’s critical to take data security seriously. Not only do you need to protect your own training materials, but you need to ensure that your trainees’ personal and payment information is safely secured.

The best online course platforms will take care of this on the back end for you. This isn’t something you need to be worried about on top of everything else you’re working on. Inspire360 works tirelessly to keep our clients’ information safe.

Analytics and Reporting Data

Being able to track your trainees’ habits and data with regard to their progress throughout the course can help you determine what is working with your online training course and what isn’t. It can point you in the direction of a problem you didn’t realize existed.

When compared with testing data, you can also find patterns that can help you improve your courses. If you find that trainees are consistently getting something wrong in the assessments, you might realize that some information wasn’t as clear as it could be. This information can help you make adjustments for the next group of trainees.

Versatility

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of online course platforms is that they adapt to whatever you need them to be. Having a versatile, flexible platform that lets you incorporate exactly what you need to for each type of training will only serve to help you offer a better product, which will keep you in business.

Furthermore, being able to brand the training course with your own logo and color palette will help you offer a more professional-looking product, which will help garner faith and trust from newcomers.

Automation

Automated emails can be a great feature in an online course platform in terms of keeping trainees engaged. You can touch base before scheduled training courses to make sure they know what prerequisites are required, remind them which modules still need to be completed, send surveys upon completion, and ask for feedback.

You can set the terms of this automation based on conditional terms. For example, when someone registers for a new course, they can receive a confirmation email listing important information, such as the time of the live session and how to access the course. When they complete half of the course, they could get another email telling them that they’re doing a great job and they’re halfway done. When they finish, they could get an email reminding them to take the survey.

Most of the effort with these automated emails is up-front, so once they’re set, you can forget about them and let us handle the rest.

The Best Online Course Platforms

Regardless of the reason someone signs up for an online training course (professional development, personal fulfillment, renewing a certification, etc), they’re looking for the same qualities: an easy-to-use interface, clear instructions, engaging content, help when they need it, and secure data.

We might be biased, but our online course platform is one of the best because it ticks all of these boxes and many, many more. We want our clients to feel as comfortable creating their online training courses as the trainees feel using it, so we put a lot of effort into the development of a high quality platform. We want to make it as easy as possible for our clients to conduct business — and given the continual shift to online education, we only anticipate this need growing with time.

To get started with Inspire360, contact us or request a demo so you can see how our online course platform can work for you.

There’s never been a better time to launch your own — or your business’s — online workshop. More people are looking online to learn and expand their repertoire of certifications. Likewise, it’s easier than ever to build an online workshop thanks to full-featured learning management system platforms like Inspire360.

Truly — the possibilities for online learning and training are endless.

On the flip side, the amount of information and different tools and marketing aspects of creating and selling an online workshop can be overwhelming. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or invest huge sums of time and money to create a successful online workshop.

Here’s what you need to know to get started and to scale your online workshop and courses from the ground up.

The Benefits and ROI of Online Workshops

Even before the world was upended and many businesses and educators were forced to move their brick and mortar operations online, remote courses and workshops were already helping entrepreneurs and organizations of all sizes to increase revenue, attract new customers, and expand into different markets.

Since the start of social distancing and stay at home orders back in February, online fitness courses and workshops have seen new subscriptions and online workshop purchases surge anywhere from 80% to over 600%.

The demand for quality online fitness content and workshops is only projected to keep growing, so now is a great time to launch a new online workshop or revamp existing content to draw in new customers.

Taking the Live Workshop Experience Online

Fitness courses and workshops are just one slice of the online learning pie. Many businesses and organizations are also moving live workshops that were originally meant to be held in person to an online format, as well as creating new courses and workshops from scratch.

Our Live Workshop Management System streamlines the entire process for creating, managing, and selling live online workshops all in one place.

How to Create and Sell an Online Workshop

There’s more to creating an online workshop than shooting and posting videos on the internet. Despite the fact that there is so much free content available on channels like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Vimeo, among others, consumers and online learners are willing to pay for premium content that delivers value and offers a structured learning environment and community online.

The easiest way to create and ensure that your online workshop will be successful and profitable is to organize and break the process down into a few main categories:

• Concepting your workshop
• Research your market
• Create your content
• Make sure you have a powerful platform in place
• Price your workshop appropriately
• Begin your marketing efforts
• Ensure a clear path to certification for students

Step One: Define the Concept and Goals of Your Online Workshop

It might sound counterintuitive, but one of the secrets to selling online courses and workshops is to begin selling it before you go live. In fact, pre-selling is one of the most effective tools of the trade when it comes to generating buzz and driving interest and engagement for an online workshop.

You can start by answering a few simple questions:

• What topics and materials will your workshop include?
• Who is your target audience and workshop attendee?
• What are your deliverables?
• Will you offer certificates and certifications?
• What’s your value proposition?
• How much will the workshop cost?
• When can you go live?
• What are your tech specs and budget?
• Who are your competitors?

Answering a few simple questions and doing some research before you dive in to creating videos and content for your workshop will help you build a blueprint for the workshop, and for marketing and selling it before you’re ready to go live.

Step Two: Research the Market and Your Target Audience

What are your customers and users looking for (and willing to pay for) in a workshop experience? What type of content do they need? What’s already available and where can your workshop content add value?

Even with an existing audience and user base, you want to ensure that there will be sustained demand for your workshop before you begin creating content and marketing the workshop to your customers.

Some of the metrics you can use to gauge market demand for your workshop include:

• Trending topics in your niche
• User surveys
• Competitor analysis
• What’s already on the market?
• How much are your target customers already spending on similar content and resources?

Understanding your market will help you target your content and marketing message to the right audience, and save you time and money in the long run.

Step Three: Build Your Content

Your content is the heart and soul of your online workshop. At the end of the day, your content is your biggest tool: it’s what people are coming to you for, after all.

The type of workshop you’re trying to build will determine how you structure your content. If you are looking to build a blended learning experience, you’ll probably create a mix of content to keep your users engaged and invested.

That might look something like this:

• Live videos
• Waiver of liability
• Written lessons and material
• Testing and quizzes for certification
• Supplemental and bonus content

In addition to creating the content for the workshop, you’ll also have to decide the best way to organize and present the material so that it flows at an adequate pace and is organized in a way that delivers the best impact and allows for retention of the material.

Our live workshop management system is equipped with an easy drag-and-drop interface to help you design and organize your workshop to deliver an intuitive presentation of your content, and the best user experience for your students.

The best online classes help to simulate a communal learning experience from the comfort of home, which is why people are willing to pay for quality online workshops and courses despite the fact that there are already so many videos and content available for free.

We cover everything from e-commerce to testing and course administration tools so that you can focus on designing and delivering excellent content and value to your customers.

Step Four: Workshop Production

Creating content for your online workshop is just the beginning. Like a website, there are a series of nuts and bolts on the backend that are necessary to create a dynamic online workshop. You’ll also need:

• A responsive website
• A landing page
• E-commerce tools to sell and collect payment
• Registration and sign up tools for the workshop
• Testing and certification capabilities
• Customer service and tech support

Our live workshop and learning management systems provide an all-in-one solution so that you can create a robust, state of the art online workshop or course without breaking the bank or hiring an entire web development and production team. You focus on creating the content, and we’ll help you with the rest.

Step Five: Pricing Your Workshop

Unlike other online products and services that typically come with a fixed price and are completed in a single transaction, educational courses and online workshops usually have tiered pricing and delivery structures and subscriptions that make pricing a little more complicated.

For starters, you have to decide what to charge for the workshop. When determining what the workshop will cost, remember to factor in the time and resources that went into creating the workshop and course materials, as well as the value the workshop will deliver.

One of the biggest misconceptions (and miscalculations) around pricing for online courses and workshops is that charging less will attract more buyers and ultimately make it easier to sell the course to more people. While you want to make sure that the people who want and need to take your workshop can afford it, undercutting the price can actually hurt your sales and diminish the workshop’s value.

Setting the right price for your online workshop is about establishing both its actual and perceived value: if you price it too low, potential buyers may take that as a sign that the workshop is lacking in quality and won’t deliver the standard of educational content they need (you get what you pay for, after all).

The subscription and tiered pricing advantage

Depending on the structure and duration of your online workshop and your other courses, you’ll have different pricing levels that require recurring payments over time or a weekly or monthly subscription fee as opposed to a large up-front payment. This makes the workshop more affordable to a broader audience.

Our flexible payment options make it possible to offer your customers multiple options including:

• Payment plans
• Subscriptions
• One time payments
• Coupons and promotions
• Recurring payment processing
• International payments

Pricing is one of the aspects of performing market research, so see what your competitors are charging for similar content and study popular and successful workshops and courses in your niche to determine a fair market value for your workshop. From there, factor in the individual value and return on investment that your workshop will deliver to your students in the short and long term.

Offer as many payment options as possible, but resist the urge to undercharge. If your prices are too low, your customers may think they can get the same value through one of the many free resources available online.

Step Six: Marketing Your Courses

There are a number of ways to get the word out about your online workshop depending on your audience and the nature of your workshop. As we already mentioned, you want to start marketing and spreading the word about your workshop as soon as possible to generate buzz and pre-sell enrollment and subscriptions when possible.

If you already have a built-in audience and existing customers, start with a targeted announcement to your email list. If you’re new to creating and selling online workshops, there are many ways to market and sell your workshop including:

• Paid ads
• Social media
• Influencer marketing
• Landing pages
• Content marketing
• Advertising in industry and trade websites and publications

The steps for creating an online workshop aren’t set in stone and chances are that you’ll probably find yourself working on several steps at a time depending on your budget, experience and timeline.

When it comes to marketing, you’ll most likely have to use a few different approaches and do some testing to see what works and where you should invest more or less of your resources.

Analytics data will help you determine key demographic information about your customers and help you identify where your audience spends most of their time, and which websites and social media platforms are delivering the most traffic to your website.

Keep in mind that social media and content marketing campaigns take time to deliver results, so you should factor that into your timeline when deciding on your workshop launch date and marketing strategy.

Step Seven: Create a Path to Certification

Another problem with free or underpriced online workshops is that despite the savings, they tend to have abysmally low completion rates. According to industry data, the completion rate (number of students that actually finish a course) has been between 5% - 15% for free online classes and workshops, even if they include an option to obtain a certificate or certification.

By contrast, paid online workshops and courses with a blended learning experience and more structured content have completion rates as high as 88%. In addition to satisfying continuing education requirements, certifications and certificates add authenticity and value to your online workshops and courses.

Whether your workshop is part of a professional development program, educational training and advancement, or designed for personal fulfillment or to teach a new skill on an individual basis, the option to earn a completion certificate or certification will distinguish your online workshop from the competition and keep your students engaged and motivated to complete the course.

Likewise, a certification can allow people to see the value for themselves: if they complete the class, they can teach the skills they learned to other people.

Our platform allows you to create, market, and sell your online courses and workshops all in one place. For more information, contact us today to learn more, or request a demo.

Like every good product on the market, creating a popular and profitable online course begins with a great idea. From sharing your expertise and knowledge in your industry to helping individuals and businesses solve a problem, creating an online course gives you the opportunity to serve your customers and build your brand at the same time.

In order to successfully launch and sell your online course, you’ll need the right tools and a platform to host and deliver your course.

Whether you’re looking to revamp old courses, bring new ones online, or you’re just looking for a better platform, there are many options available to help you reach your goals.

When picking a platform to build online courses on, you need to make sure that it has a robust feature set that can support your — and your clients’ — goals. Here’s what to look for in a learning management system.

Online Course Creation Software: How to Design an Engaging Course

As online learning and e-courses become more popular and attention spans get shorter and shorter, the success of your online course depends on using the right tools and designing your content in a way that’s interesting and engaging enough to keep your students interested from start to finish.

Even with a great idea and the best content for your online course, presentation and delivery are everything. To create a profitable online course that will deliver value to your students (and your brand), you’ll need the right tools.

A good online course consists of a mix of text, audio, video, and collaboration tools that allow students to communicate with each other and create a dynamic learning community.

Presentation is Everything

The process for creating an online course is similar to building a website (by the way, you’ll also need a website to host and sell your course, but more on that later).

Unlike the mostly static content that makes up blogs, books, and other digital products, online courses are layered and have many moving parts that have to fit and flow together seamlessly.

While you can get started organizing and writing your content in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you’ll eventually have to upgrade to some type of course creation software to make the content interactive.

Online learning and education software tools are like website builders for an e-course: they let you create a professional, finished product without having to code or have extensive technical or software development experience yourself. Anyone can build an online course with the right software, even with little previous experience.

Authoring content is just the first step in creating an online course. You also have to consider factors like design, user experience, security, tools to create video and audio files, testing to track student progress, analytics and reporting tools, collaboration tools, security and troubleshooting, and e-commerce capabilities to sell the course and manage payments.

With so many options to choose from, narrowing down and picking the best program for your needs can be overwhelming. The best course building software program for your needs depends on a number of factors including:

• Type and complexity of your content
• Course building tools
• Size and scale of your business or organization
• Geographic location of your students/where will the course be offered
• Platform students will use to access the course
• Course administrator tools
• Your tech skills/level of expertise
• Your budget
• Plans to edit/expand course content in the future
• E-commerce tools
• Marketing needs and capabilities
• Hosting and file storage

If you’re not sure where or how to start, a course outline can help you figure out how much functionality you’ll actually need in the beginning, so that you don’t spend too much time or money on software tools that you don’t really need.

Essential Features and Functionality for an Online Course

Every online course is different. You want to create unique and exclusive content that will give your students the most value for their time and money, and that will also distinguish your brand or organization in the marketplace. However, there are a few things that successful online courses have in common.

Global Access

One of the greatest benefits of creating an online course is the opportunity to reach a global audience and deliver a great learning experience to anyone, anywhere in the world. With a few exceptions, e-learning is borderless and delivers educational material that students or clients can access from anywhere at any time.

The course building software and platform you choose to host and administer your course has to account for the fact that your students will most likely be purchasing and accessing your course from various regions around the world, on multiple devices, and with varying degrees of connectivity depending on where they live.

The content and all of the tools in your course have to be available 24/7, and guarantee uniform access whether your students are working from a co-working space in Los Angeles or New York during business hours, or late at night in Singapore or India.

Analytics and Testing Capabilities

Sales are just one way to measure how well your online course is doing. Unlike selling a book or a podcast, an online course is an ongoing transaction.

In order to know how well students are retaining the material and progressing through the course, you’ll need reporting and testing capabilities to measure progress (especially if you’re offering credits or credentials with the completion of the course).

Security

There are several layers of security involved with selling an online course. In addition to the standard security concerns that come with hosting a basic website, you’ll also need to be sure that your course content is locked down.

Your students’ course registration and payment information also needs to be secured, so you’ll need course management software that can handle every layer of security to ensure that your company and customers are well protected.

Responsive Design

You might not be familiar with the phrase, but you are absolutely familiar with what it is. When you build an app or a website that’s responsive, that functionally means that it will dynamically update to look good on any screen — regardless of if it’s your laptop, an iPhone, any Android phone, or a tablet.

This is important for a handful of reasons. For starters, you don’t want your users on different platforms to have drastically different experiences. Likewise, it’s impossible to account for every device — so instead of designing custom pages for everyone, responsive design lets you cover a wide range of users without having to create something custom for every possible screen combination.

According to industry data, almost 70% of students were using mobile devices to access and complete their coursework in 2018. As more people work from home and perform more and more essential tasks remotely, responsive design is critical to making your online course available to a diverse global audience.

A platform that is responsive will allow you to accommodate more users, regardless of if they’re on their phones or computers.

Paced Content

Every course is different — as is the pace of every course. Sometimes, you’ll want to give enrollees everything they need to complete the class immediately. Other times, however, you’ll want to slowly drip content to them.

In the case of the latter, you’ll want precise control over when students gain access to information. You might want them to have a week to focus on one specific lesson, but only a few days for another.

Customization is key — you want to really be able to tailor your courses toward the individual needs of the people taking them.

Customization/Brand Integration

Online course building software makes it possible to create and sell professional and beautifully designed courses with little to no design and programming experience. Even first-time course creators can design and sell highly profitable online courses by choosing and customizing a few templates.

However, the last thing you want is to end up with a generic or cookie cutter product. The software and platform you choose should come with the tools you need to create a great product according to your skills and comfort level, with the flexibility to customize and integrate your content with your own branding and existing website and marketing materials.

Accreditation Support

Maybe you want to add an extra incentive for taking your course — or maybe you’re specifically building it with accreditation in mind. Building around CECs, CEUs and CMEs should be easy with the right course creation software. Administering and assigning credits and certificates should be a breeze — it shouldn’t be something you have to think about.

To support accreditation, you’ll likely also need thorough and robust testing modules to meet program requirements. Once again, that should be something you don’t have to think very hard about with the appropriate course creation software.

(Our guide on creating an online fitness certification program might be able to give you additional insight here.)

Good UX

Even tech savvy students who feel comfortable with technology and online learning platforms demand smart, intuitive design. That means that if you want to keep your students engaged, your course materials will have to be well designed, be easy to navigate and understand, and have a logical and intuitive flow.

Your course materials should be multifaceted and challenging, but you don’t want to overload students with more information and material than they can possibly digest, or make the navigation and access so complicated and confusing that they get overwhelmed and give up.

Tech Support

From tech glitches to customer service and payment processing issues, you’ll need access to a good tech support team as you build and sell your online course. Make sure that you choose a software package and program that can provide the level of service and support that you’ll need, especially as your course offerings grow and expand.

Learning Management Systems

A learning management system (LMS) brings all of the tools you need to create and sell an online course under one umbrella, to make the process as seamless and cost effective as possible. Rather than paying for and learning a range of different software tools, an LMS can provide all of the tools you need in a single interface, from the templates you need to design and publish your course content, to website hosting, analytics and reporting, branding and marketing, accreditation support, and e-commerce tools.

Our learning management system can take your online course from an idea all the way through to your first sale and beyond. For more information and to get a firsthand look at our platform’s features and functionality tools, contact us today or request a demo to get started.

Online educational programs like courses, seminars, and workshops are currently having their moment, especially in the health and wellness community. Whether you’re already active in the online learning space, or you’re just starting out, there are a number of tools and resources available to help you sell your courses online.

Yet, building your online course is just the first step — getting it into the hands of your future clients is another thing entirely. Luckily, all the tools you need to sell and distribute your courses and workshops are already available.

To make sure you’re on the right path, we’ve put together this ultimate guide covering everything you need to know to start selling your course online.

The Marketplace for Online Fitness and Wellness Courses

The global health and wellness market has exploded over the last decade. According to data from the Global Wellness Institute, global consumer spending on health and wellness products and services was over $4 trillion by 2017, and only predicted to continue growing over the next few years.

And this was before a global pandemic forced millions of active people around the world to shift their time and spending online, making people even more eager to invest in content to improve their overall wellbeing and physical fitness at home.

How to Market and Sell Online Health and Wellness Courses

Unlike an in-person class or workshop at a physical location, online courses generally consist of packages that offer a dynamic and immersive experience to keep students engaged. The active engagement is key: there are millions of free courses online for just about anything you could possibly think of. The reason why someone is coming to your class is that it engages them — there’s something there that they want that they can’t get anywhere else.

You need to always remember that value proposition. You’re offering something unique — and in a unique way. Online courses also have a special edge in that they are convenient and flexible in a way that physical courses aren’t. Yet, that specific quality isn’t unique to just your online course — and in fact, it can be a curse as much as a blessing.

The downside to online courses is simple: with a physical course, you’re competing in your local area. When you’re online, however, everyone is fair game. When you’re building an online course, you’re really competing with everyone else, so you have to highlight the value of your course to make it stand out from the pack.

Here’s how to do that.

Start with Your Existing Audience and Community

Your first step should be to utilize your pre-existing audience. If you don’t have one, that’s okay, but we’re willing to bet that you do. Think about your wider network — too often people focus solely on their clients, forgetting about the network that they might have beyond that particular group.

Your audience is simply anyone you can get in front of — not just potential clients, but folks that can help you reach your target audience, too.

If you already have a following on social media (even if it isn’t very large), then you already have a potential customer base. Let your followers — and your network — know about what you’re building. Let them know the value that it brings to the table. Even if they might not be interested in what you’re offering right now, someone they follow might be.

You don’t want to be annoying — but you do want to be persistent.

If you don’t have an online following at all, here are three tips to get started:

• Join professional networks and groups.

Conferences, local networking groups, Facebook groups — it’s all fair game. You don’t want to spam them, but making your presence known is generally fine. Your goal isn’t necessarily to convert clients from these groups — rather, it’s to network your business and further your social reach.

• Don’t just use your social accounts for self-promotion.

Too often businesses use their social accounts only to promote their own business. While there isn’t anything wrong with a little self-promotion, when that’s all you’re doing, not many people are going to pay attention to you.

Instead, considering lifting up people from within your community. Take part in relevant discussions online — especially when you can show off your expertise.

• Understand the importance of each social network.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn — they all have their place. Do a little research and figure out which fits your business better. Where are your clients likely to be? Where are your colleagues likely to be? While you could have a presence everywhere, unless you have an unlimited amount of time, you’ll probably end up burning out.

Offer an Exclusive Pre-Sale to Your Existing Customers and Subscribers

One of the benefits of selling courses online is that unlike other products and services, you don’t have to wait until it has officially launched to start selling. In fact, pre-sales are a pretty standard practice for online courses. A pre-sale gives you the opportunity to test out your email list and social media channels as sales and marketing tools, and identify areas where you may need to make changes and improvements.

Your lists are most valuable when they consist of qualified and engaged leads that are interested and actively looking to invest in your products and services. If you’re still experimenting with pricing, a pre-sale is also a good way to test different price points.

Your presale price shouldn’t be too low, however. A common course selling myth is that lower prices translate into more sales.

Setup Dedicated Sales Pages for Your Courses and Workshops

In addition to your general website, your online course will need its own piece of real estate in order to sell, and to let you measure how well your offers are performing. Dedicated landing pages will tell you exactly where your customers are coming from so that you can tweak your marketing plan and ad programs accordingly.

The setup for a landing page is fairly straightforward. Unlike a standard page on a website which usually consists of general information about your business and services, the point of a landing page is to get people excited about a specific product or service — in this case your online course or workshop.

In exchange for an email, social media follow, and/or referral, you offer bonus content like a short video preview of a class, or an ebook sharing fitness tips, techniques, or any content that’s relevant to your brand and your online course.

You can (and should) also promote and sell your course on your website, but landing pages and dedicated sales tools are really powerful tools to get people to buy.

(Need more help setting up a blended learning workshop? Check out our guide!)

Create a Referral Program

Online education hinges on community and interactive learning experiences, especially in the health and wellness space. With so many resources and online courses to choose from, people put a lot of stock and value on the recommendations of their friends, family, co-workers, and community.

A dedicated referral program with incentives like bonus content, price discounts, or affiliate programs and partnerships allow you to capitalize on your existing network and client base without having to invest additional resources into more marketing.

Influencer Marketing

The benefits of influencer marketing can be difficult to measure accurately, but influencer marketing can be especially effective for those selling courses within the health and wellness space.

Some of the pros of influencer marketing include:

• Reach a highly targeted audience
• Establish brand recognition and trust in your industry
• Expand your brand’s network and reach
• Can be cheaper than other marketing channels
• Piggy-back off of the influencer’s content
• Get quicker sales than through other marketing and ad channels

That said, influencer marketing isn’t fool-proof and there are no guarantees that a large following or success for other products is going to translate into sales for you.

Some of the cons of influencer marketing include:

• You don’t have control over the message
• You might find out it’s a bad fit after it’s too late
• The wrong partnership could tarnish your brand
• Difficult to measure ROI
• Risk of alienating customers

If you decide to try influencer marketing, make sure to carefully vet all of their social media channels, content, and general online reputation before associating them with your brand. A quick Google search can tell you if there are any negative stories or incidents in your influencer’s past. It can also help you identify trends in order to pinpoint where to find the right fit for your brand.

Take a Survey or Poll of Your Audience and Customers

Online courses and workshops are great for convenience and reach — your students don’t have to leave home (wherever home is) to learn the skills they need to succeed — or the credits they need to keep their licenses and certifications. But they’re also sacrificing some of the intimacy and community of learning within a group.

Interactive content like surveys and polls allow you to create that connection with your students online and foster a sense of connectedness while asking targeted questions that will help you customize your offers and create more targeted and relevant content for your students.

These polls can often also help you keep students engaged — and as part of your content ecosystem — allowing you to create followers of your brand.

Keep an Active, Value-Focused Blog

Blogging is still one of the most effective (and cost-effective) methods for building an audience and following, driving traffic and improving your SEO, converting leads, and generating buzz for your courses. The health and wellness space is especially saturated, and the reality is that people are constantly bombarded with misinformation and subpar content in this area. Anyone interested in selling courses in this space should make blog post writing a priority.

An informative, fresh blog with high quality content can drive brand recognition, establish you as a thought leader and expert in your field, create a network and community for your students, build your email list, grow your audience, drive media attention and backlinks, and so much more. If you focus your digital marketing efforts in one area, a good blog will deliver the most bang for your buck.

Create a Limited Enrollment Period

People just can’t seem to resist an aura of exclusivity, and that holds true for online courses and workshops. Many online course creators create enrollment windows for a finite period to create urgency and incentive students to act quickly before the window closes and they have to wait for the next enrollment period to come around.

It can be a risky strategy, but one way to hedge your bets is to tie in an exclusive offer of bonus content along with the core courses or workshops that expires after a certain amount of time.

Memberships and Subscriptions

Different levels of membership and tiered subscriptions can help you to market and sell your online content to a broader audience at different price points.

Subscriptions also generate future revenue and lock your students in for specific periods of time depending on their needs and schedules. Memberships and subscriptions also allow you to upsell your main course and to establish an ongoing relationship with your customers beyond a single transaction.

Offer Certifications

Certifications provide authenticity, professional credentials, and a sense of personal accomplishment. Offering your students the option to obtain a certification or continuing education credits after completing your course can really distinguish you from the competition and add credibility to your brand.

If you’re developing a fitness product, for example, you could also create courses designed to certify others on how to educate their own clients in this particular technique. A certification, in this case, adds serious value for anyone looking to expand their own practice.

Tie it All Together with a Learning Management System (LMS)

There are many nuts and bolts involved in selling an online course and maintaining a strong online presence and personal brand. Wrangling various social media accounts, publishing content, processing transactions, managing registrations, and focusing on marketing and SEO can take up all of your time and resources.

The truth is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to successfully juggle every aspect of managing and selling an online course. A learning management system (LMS) brings all of the different elements under one platform to streamline the process and make it as easy as possible for you to focus on creating quality content, making money, and building your health and wellness brand.

Some of the basic features of an LMS include:

• A site branded with your look and feel
• Ability to easily upload content and create courses
• Tools to track users
• E-commerce solutions to seamlessly collect and process payments
• Testing and student assessment

The Inspire360 learning management system is an all-in-one platform that handles the creation, launch, and selling process from start to finish. In addition to the standard tools, our LMS also allows you to create courses, subscriptions, certifications and offer live training workshops for your fitness programs.

Selling your online fitness and wellness workshops and courses doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Our certification and learning management systems include all of the tools you need to create, launch, and sell your educational content. Request a demo or contact us today for more information about our features and services.

Online learning may be entering its golden era. More and more students and learners of all ages are taking advantage of the opportunity to learn and earn certifications and credentials online to meet academic requirements, for professional advancement, to learn new skills, and to meet personal goals.

A good online course can help you earn more money, build brand recognition, and scale your business or institution while establishing yourself as an expert in your field. With so many courses already on the market and new ones launching every day, creating a high-quality course with valuable and unique content is the key to cutting through the clutter and getting sales.

Here’s a guide to help you design a top-shelf online course that sells.

What the Best Online Courses Have in Common

Every course is different, even when they’re in the same niche. However, some do a much better job of offering their students a rewarding learning experience and the tools they need to get the most out of distance learning.

Here’s what some of the most successful and profitable online courses have in common:

They’re Well Paced

The best online courses and learning experiences appear effortless to the end user and have a natural rhythm that moves the course material along and builds in a logical order. Each lesson or class module should contain enough information to keep students engaged and challenged, but they shouldn’t be so jam-packed with information that the lessons are cluttered or difficult to follow.

If the pace is too slow, students will get bored and may abandon the course. On the other hand, if the lessons are crammed with too much information and don’t flow in a logical order over the duration of the course, the material may be too difficult to absorb and retain.

A good online course is like climbing a staircase: it builds in difficulty and intensity over time and offers a clear and achievable path of progression for the students.

They Offer Students Valuable Content Worth Paying For

This one might seem like a no-brainer, but with so much online content to choose from (much of which is free), the best online courses offer a unique and valuable learning experience that students can’t find anywhere else.

No two online courses are created equal, and the internet is cluttered with mediocre and bad content designed to increase email list sign ups, build personal brands, and of course, make money. Those are all valid and legitimate goals, but the finished product should deliver and be worth each student’s investment.

Your courses should genuinely give something of value to your students. The knowledge you are sharing should be actionable. Likewise, while leaving breadcrumbs to future courses is totally fine (and even advisable!) you shouldn’t gate your courses so hard that students feel that they have to trudge through hour after hour until they get to the real good stuff.

They Offer Multimedia Integration

Learning curriculums have come a long way over the last few decades, both online and in the real world. Technology has made it possible for students of all ages and backgrounds to access educational materials from around the world, on their own time and schedules.

In order to attract and keep online learners engaged, the best online courses take advantage of technology to offer their students a modern and integrated experience that includes everything from written course materials and workbooks, to video, audio, podcasts, digital presentations, and more.

To increase your sales and student engagement, make your online courses as dynamic as possible.

They Offer Self-Directed Learning

Flexibility and the opportunity to learn and take classes around personal schedules and across time zones is one of the main advantages of taking an online course. Unlike in-person lectures and blended workshops, online courses allow students to fit the material into their own schedules, and to refer back to the course material as needed to review and absorb the material.

They Don’t Reach a Dead End

If you’ve ever taken an online course before, you’ve no doubt experienced the infamous dead end. You’re moving through the course, getting genuinely excited about what you’re learning. You’re making good progress, and everything is clicking.

But that thing you’re really excited to learn — the proverbial carrot on a stick pushing you through the course — always seems just out of reach. But surely, you’re about to get to it, right?

Just when it finally seems like you’re getting that golden bit of information, you suddenly reach the end of the course. If you want anything else, you’re going to have to sign up for another course.

Suddenly, your entire online learning experience can feel a bit like a bait and switch.

For people developing online courses, strategies like this are common — folks will tell course creators to “space out” quality information, and to constantly tease value. While this sort of thing will certainly sell courses, it’ll also burn out many of your students, causing them to go elsewhere. After all, you’re not creating loyal followers who are buying your courses because of the value within them — you’re essentially just stringing them along until they realize that they’re part of a game.

Like we said — your courses should have inherent value — that’s why people should be rushing to sign up for them (and when they finish one course, why they should be immediately signing up for another). Don’t trick people — just create good content.

They’re User Friendly

Intuitive design and clear and easy to follow navigation are especially important for online courses. Even tech savvy students will get frustrated and struggle if there are issues like cluttered, confusing design and navigation.

Students of all levels should be able to clearly visualize and understand the course layout and how to move through the material. A table of contents that clearly outlines the course material and how to find it is a must for a good online course.

Responsive Design

Not only are modern students and learners no longer limited to a traditional classroom, they’re not even limited to a desktop computer. Responsive design accounts for the fact that people access content and shop on mobile platforms, so your students need to be able to access their course materials across multiple platforms including smartphones and tablets.

Reliable, Working Technology

Creating the content for your online course is only the first step. Once you’re ready to launch and start selling your course, you’ll need a good platform to host it and process your orders (you need to get paid after all!)

A learning management system (LMS) is a one-stop shop for creating and selling online courses.

Inspire360 offers everything you need to get started, from an easy to use website builder for your course with responsive design elements, to the e-commerce tools you’ll need to collect payments and deliver your content to your customers.

They’re Dynamic and Engaging

Online learning takes effort and discipline, even for the most dedicated students. When you factor in the many distractions already competing for people’s time and money on and off the internet, your online course will have to be dynamic and engaging enough to make people buy it and complete it.

Include Resources for Additional Learning

Good online courses are comprehensive and give students a good return on their investment. On the flip side, courses that are too dense and overloaded with information can be difficult to digest and navigate in a way where the learner can fully process and retain the information.

One way to add value to your online course without making it unmanageable is to include a resources section that includes material or links to information that people can research and refer to in their spare time. Offering bonus material can also be a great incentive for pre-sales, rewards, and to build your email and subscriber list.

Likewise, handouts and other materials can add to a perceived feeling of value.

Accommodate Multiple Learning Styles

Everyone doesn’t necessarily learn in the same way. While some people excel in classroom settings designed around the traditional structure of lectures, reading, and writing (known as verbal or linguistic learners), this is just one of several learning styles.

Some people are surprised to learn that there are as many as seven or more different types of learning styles which include:

Visual learners - Who learn and process information best when it is delivered through images and video.

Verbal/linguistic learners - Who learn and process information through text/vocabulary.

Auditory learners - Who learn and process information through sound/music/melodies.

Kinesthetic (physical) learners - Who respond to movement and take a “hands on” approach to learning.

Logical learners - Who respond to logic and use a mathematical approach to understand and process information.

Social learners - Who work well and thrive in groups.

Solitary learners - Who prefer to work independently.

Online courses are ideal for combining multiple learning styles in a single course. Using multimedia tools in your online course that include video, text, and audio will let you reach a broader range of students.

They Evaluate and Measure Student Progress Throughout the Course

One of the challenges that many online course creators face is monitoring and evaluating student progress as they make their way through the course material.

Incorporating quizzes, tests, and evaluations helps to measure how well students are doing in the course. They can also make the content more fun and interesting for students, and build engagement with the course material and the instructors.

Provide Certification and Credentials

Whether someone buys an online course for professional development or personal advancement, course certifications and credentials, add a layer of credibility and authenticity to online courses.

Our platform allows course creators to offer certificates and certification programs. We also support continuing education credits for credentialing institutions and agencies.

Creating and selling an online course has never been easier. As more and more people make the shift to remote work and distance learning, the demand for online education will only continue to grow.

Our learning management system, Inspire360, provides all of the tools and functionality you’ll need to get started, from course creation to hosting, selling, and certifications. Contact us or request a demo today for more information.

The current global health crisis has shone a spotlight on the crucial role that online learning courses and platforms play around the world, for people from all walks of life. As lockdowns and stay at home orders make it impossible for people to keep up with their daily routines for anything but performing basic and essential errands, more and more people are going online for everything from taking a yoga or meditation class, to learning a new skill.

Health and wellness companies, professionals, coaches, and educators have an unprecedented opportunity to bring their services and expertise to eager and captive audiences around the world. Whether you’re looking to launch a new course, grow your existing audience base, or upgrade your program credentials with professional certification, now is the time to make the leap.

All Online Courses and Workshops are Not Created Equal

Technology has made it possible for just about anyone to film a class on their phone and post it on YouTube, but quality and safety will vary significantly. Investing in high-quality production and a professional, organized online platform will be key to enticing consumers to pay for your courses.

A learning management system or other course creation software offers course creators the tools and technology to market and sell on a professional platform.

How a Learning Management Systems (LMS) Works

A learning management system (LMS) consists of software that allows educators and organizations to deliver educational and training content to its users, and also administer certifications. An LMS is a one stop shop for successfully launching, managing, tracking, and certifying online classes and education programs.

The most successful and engaging courses consist of a mix of high-quality content including video, audio files, slide presentations, tests and quizzes, and written content like e-books and articles. Content distribution and the ability to track engagement and completion of the programs is one aspect. An LMS also makes it possible to sell tiered access to your courses and content ranging from weekly, monthly, or yearly subscriptions and memberships.

The LMS is the engine that drives successful and profitable online learning programs. Thanks to technology, the software is available to companies and educators with modest budgets to larger and traditional learning institutions.

What to Look for in a Learning Management System

Your LMS isn’t just a delivery system for content. It’s also a full-scale sales and marketing engine that allows you to scale up your courses and offerings over time. Here are some of the main features of comprehensive learning management software:

A Robust Content Delivery System

Delivering course content is one of the biggest challenges many online educators and course creators face. Unlike a standard website, online courses are interactive and have a number of moving parts beyond hosting, especially for highly interactive and multidimensional content.

An LMS takes all of the guesswork, stress, and technical considerations out of the equation by offering a central platform where you can create, store, sell, and deliver your content in a secure and branded environment.

The difference between a bare-bones content delivery system and one that’s full-featured is noticeable for both educators and students. When content isn’t delivered to students in a manner that’s easily accessible for them, no one is going to be happy.

Assignment, Quizzes, and Exams for Certification

Depending on the type of course offering, most learning environments need a way to track and quantify student progress, for the educators as well as the students. This is especially important when you’re offering certification programs, which can offer your courses a level of prestige as well as personal fulfillment for your students.

Learning management systems provide tools to create custom assignments, progress reports, testing, and reporting so that you can quantify how well your students are doing, and adjust your learning materials as needed.

Collaboration

The ability to collaborate with other learners and educators is crucial — especially in the health, fitness, and wellness niche. The collaboration tools in an LMS allow course creators to craft communities of dedicated learners to enhance the experience for the students and also allow for brand recognition and growth in the process.

The concept of working and learning online together has become especially important, so having a platform that allows students to learn and grow with ample available communication tools is paramount. Someone may go to a live workshop to work on their personal fitness and knowledge base, but the connection to other learners and instructors is also part of the appeal. Tailored collaboration tools make it possible to replicate a community spirit online.

Progress Tracking

Static content like blog posts, articles, books, and even standard videos differ from educational content in that they are usually designed to share general information or entertainment. Once they’re out in the world, the metrics used to qualify whether the content is successful or not is typically limited to analytics data like traffic and general engagement.

With an online course, the engagement doesn’t end when someone purchases the product in most cases. Course creators need tools to measure how their students are retaining the content and progressing through the course, which is something a Google analytics or basic sales report can’t really capture.

Course creators also need feedback. While some are happy with just delivering content to their clients, the best creators will want to perfect their content. Knowing how many of your clients are making it through your courses is key to that — otherwise you simply won’t be able to see what’s working and what isn’t.

Customization and Branding

Even the best and most exclusive content, products, and services come down to the packaging. This is especially true for online health and wellness courses and programs competing with all of the content that’s already available on the internet as well as the new information coming online every day. Branding, marketing, and e-commerce tools are one of the best features of a good learning management system.

Likewise, consistent branding is important for the overall experience. If your LMS doesn’t allow you to customize it to fit your branding, it can be jarring for customers that have to leave your site and head to the LMS. Without a smooth transition, the process won’t look professional — and might deter some clients from purchasing courses.

The Benefits of Using Learning Management Software to Sell Your Courses

Managing all of the aspects that go into creating, launching, and selling an online course without the right tools can be challenging and frustrating. It can also cost you money. With so much content to choose from, online learners and consumers are constantly bombarded with more content and information than they know what to do with.

Even if millions of people are looking for or need the information provided in your course, they may never find it because they don’t know where to look, or the packaging doesn’t convey the quality and value of your programs.

Here are some of the many benefits that online educators and course creators find from leveraging the tools available through a learning management system:

Create a centralized hub for your courses and educational content

Whether you’re offering a single course or workshop or have an entire library of educational content, you’ll need a dedicated “storefront” to manage every aspect of creating, promoting, selling, and running your courses,

Provide tiered levels of access to your courses and content

Offer monthly or weekly passes, bonus content, yearly subscriptions, make the course materials available all at once, or drip the content according to schedule or calendar. An LMS allows you to control the levels of access and availability for all of your courses to give your students a range of choices depending on their needs and circumstances.

Save money on course and web development costs in the short and long term

Producing and selling high quality, multidimensional health and wellness courses and learning programs can be time consuming and prohibitively expensive if you try to do it on your own. An LMS streamlines the experience to make it more efficient and cost effective.

Allow students to learn and progress at their own pace

One of the benefits of taking a course online is that it offers students flexibility to work at their own pace and according to their own schedule. People will be more likely to invest in a program they know they’ll actually use and benefit from.

Revise, update, delete, and add course materials and content as needed

Another benefit of online learning is that it allows for highly customized content that can be expanded or changed as trends and information becomes outdated or improved. An LMS allows you to make changes and updates on the fly, and to offer a constant source of fresh content and information.

Integrate courses with social media for greater reach

Social media integration is an easy and cost-effective way to build community and buzz for your courses as students share their experiences with their own networks.

Other benefits of investing in an LMS include:

• Convenience
• Customization
• Create a modern, multimedia learning environment
• Streamlined monetization, marketing, and e-commerce tools

The good thing about a learning management system is that they can offer a simple, pared down set of tools for smaller or new course developers that are still growing their brand. On the other end of the spectrum, they can be customized and built out to offer enterprise level solutions as well.

With the right LMS, there really are no limits to what you can do with your educational content and programs.

The Inspire360 Difference

Our tools are unique in that we focus exclusively on the healthcare, wellness, and fitness space with over 35 years of combined experience.

Each of our clients is treated as a true partner and we work hand and hand with them to create an ongoing partnership that ensures they are successful.

Inspire360's all-in-one platform specializes in hosting online courses, certifications, workshops, and memberships and works with the best and brightest health, wellness and fitness companies, including TRX, EXOS, Schwinn, Yoga Journal, Dr. Jessica Peatross, Onnit, TriggerPoint, Mike Boyle, IDEA Health & Fitness Association, Spinning, and 200 others in the space to deliver and distribute their education online.

To get started, contact us to learn more about our features and services, or a demo today.

With the right partner, building online courses has never been easier.

No matter what your market is, there’s a huge audience out there that’s thirsty for the knowledge you’re trying to share. We’re in a golden era of online learning, and there’s no reason you can’t join in.

Yet, you aren’t the only one jumping into this market. What can you do to make yourself stand out, and how can you actually sell courses online in 2020?

Online Learning is Now the Norm

Online learning is not new, but it has evolved and become more sophisticated and popular with new and better technology, as well as market demand. Millions of people around the world have been learning to cook, sew, exercise, and speak new languages online for years. People earn some or all of their college credits online, and conduct global business over the internet on an unprecedented scale.

Due to the current global health crisis, more and more people are taking to online learning to brush up on their skills, stay on top of their health, and learn something new. This has created endless opportunities for online educators to build and reach new audiences on a local and global scale.

Like any online business, there are some formulas and best practices for creating, promoting, and selling an online course.

Online Course Sales are Exploding

There are numerous advantages to selling online courses. From brand recognition to revenue building, there’s never been a better time to create or build out your online course offerings. The market for high quality classes and workshops is constantly expanding as more and more professional and recreational activities become available online.

Even before the shutdown due to the ongoing global health crisis, the online learning space was already a booming market. According to industry data, the global online learning market is expected to experience over 8% growth and exceed $135 billion by 2025. The United States alone is projected to grow to over $157 billion at a rate of over 7%.

People are hungry for information, and for high quality classes and courses that help them to stay engaged from the safety and comfort of their homes. That’s where online learning courses and programs come in. But like every other product and service, most course creators and online educators have to spend most of their time marketing and selling their courses.

How to Create an Online Course

The most successful online courses are built from the ground up to succeed. You don’t create a marketing plan when your course is done — you build your course specifically to fit your marketing plan.

You should already be thinking about your ideal customer and how to sell your online course from the very beginning. That said, you need to create high quality, valuable learning materials and content in order to make your course profitable and to stand out from the competition.

Focus On the Central Idea of Your Course

If you’re thinking about creating an online course, you’ve probably spent some time thinking about the information and content you want to sell (and why).

Whether you want to create and sell a course catered to professionals or consumers, think about what you have expertise in and what people tend to seek out your advice for.

Start considering what makes your course special. Why would someone sign up for your course and not one of the many others? What makes your course worth the price of admission? You shouldn’t have to think too hard about this — it should be immediately apparent what your value proposition is.

If you’re building out a course designed to teach someone a specific exercise technique, for example, your focus shouldn’t just be on how good the technique is — it should be on what knowing it will do for your client. Will expanding their repertoire enable them to increase their income? If so, lead with that.

The benefits don’t have to be strictly economic, either — but you should always be mindful of precisely how your course is going to improve your client’s life.

What distinguishes you or your organization from your competition? What is the unique value that your online course or workshop will offer your students? What are your qualifications to teach or sell this particular class?

You don’t have to have it all figured out in order to get started, but thinking about what makes your brand unique will help you design a marketable course.

Research Your Market

Even if you’re offering a new concept in a narrow niche, one of the most important aspects of creating and selling an online course is to know your market and your competition inside and out. You also need to make sure that the market for your course is significant enough to create a demand before you invest the time and money into creating a course.

Arming yourself with research into your customers and your market will generate priceless insight and help you refine your ideas so that you can offer your students content and learning materials they can’t find with your competitors.

Design Your Course Content and Curriculum

Online courses run the gamut when it comes to design and types of content, but the best courses offer students a multifaceted experience that includes article and video content, and a way to track their progress, earn credentials, and collaborate with other students and their instructors.

Choose a Course Delivery Method

This can be the most challenging and frustrating aspect of the process. Creating a course is one thing, but you’ll need reliable tools and a platform to host, administer, promote, and sell your course. A learning management system (LMS) streamlines this part of the process so that you can focus on the creative and promotional aspects of selling your online course without worrying about the technical and backend requirements.

If you want to build a profitable business and brand recognition with online courses, a learning management system is the way to go.

Selling Your Online Course

Even in a booming market, products and services don’t sell themselves, and online courses are no exception. Even the best online courses and content need an integrated sales and marketing strategy to generate buzz and ultimately get people to sign up. There are many ways to go about it, and the sooner you get started promoting your online courses, the better.

Here are some common sales and marketing techniques to help you get started.

Start Promoting Your Course Before It Goes Live

If you already have an email list and built in audience, you’re ahead of the game in terms of selling and promoting an online course. Pre-sales and promotions are a market tested method to generate buzz and start selling your course before it goes live. Another benefit of a pre-sale is that it can help gauge interest and the market potential for the course before it goes live (you can also offer a pre-sale before you’ve finished — or even started — creating the course).

Hype Up Your Audience

This goes hand-in-hand with the above tip. You should do your best to get people excited about the course before it even begins. Get quotes from people in past courses, find ones from people excited about this one. Offer up sales, encouraging people to sign up early, or to join your newsletter. If you’re able, even share tidbits of information from the class itself.

This kind of thing can make many folks feel like they’re annoying potential customers, but the reality is that continuously staying in contact with — and creating a sense of excitement — will sell courses.

Create Promotional Content to Generate Leads

Blogs, social media posts, e-books, promotional video, podcasts, and free mini-courses are staples of a solid content marketing strategy. When it comes to selling an online course, offering your audience useful and high quality content can boost your credibility, establish you as an expert in your field, and give potential customers a taste of what they can expect when they pay for your online course.

Consider Hosting Webinars and Livestreams

Modern consumers like to know who they’re buying from and whether the brands they choose to spend their money on share their values. Video information sessions, Q&As, mini how-tos, and “behind-the-scenes” videos are cost effective and easy ways to form a connection between your customers and your brand.

Collect Testimonials

Testimonials from satisfied students, colleagues, and thought leaders in your field provide invaluable social proof, especially when launching and selling your first online course.

Don’t count on people trusting you off the bat. Work for their trust. Reach out to them however you can, with whatever content establishes your credibility.

Create Landing Pages

A landing page is a powerful sales tool, especially for online courses. A good landing page can help you build your email list, introduce your course, and convert leads into sales. Unlike other forms of content marketing, landing pages are highly targeted and measurable, so they’re a great opportunity to test and refine your promotional strategy.

Don’t just stop at one, either. Consider creating one for each inbound traffic funnel. That means making one for each social media channel, one for paid search traffic, and one for traffic coming in through email marketing.

Grow Your Email List

Even in the age of social media, people still use — and trust — email marketing. According to data, email marketing generates approximately $38 in sales for every $1 spent, and has an astonishing ROI of 3800%.

Even better, not only do people still actively rely on email, but the number of active email users around the world is expected to exceed 4 billion by 2023. Unlike other marketing vehicles, email is also highly measurable and easy to test. An active and robust email list is golden for online educators and course creators.

As we’ve hinted at, you need to do what you can to build up your email list. Webinars, handouts, free classes — while it might feel like a lot of work (and it might seem like you’re giving away precious information), it’s an investment that will absolutely pay off.

Grow Your Influence

Guest blogging and publishing educational content on third-party sites is a great way to expand your audience, build name and brand recognition, and grow your email list.

Network on LinkedIn to relevant parties, keep tabs on folks in your industry that are actively blogging, and make sure you reach out to them. This can enable you to get quoted, which can raise your profile (and bring more people to your courses).

Don’t Forget SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is an absolutely massive field — and mastering it will directly increase your sales. That’s easier said than done, however. Our advice is to focus on the basics: ensure that your website has good, well-optimized copy that targets keywords relevant to your audience.

A complete SEO strategy will go well beyond just keyword targeting and content writing, but if you’re just starting out and you (or your team) doesn’t already have this experience, it’s a good idea to start slow.

Sure, you might not have the most optimized website of all time — but simply getting content up will absolutely increase your visibility.

Offer Multiple Payment Options

Giving your students a choice of multiple payment options when possible can make your course accessible and affordable to more people, and make it easier to justify the investment, especially in times of economic uncertainty.

Build a Community

Facebook groups are one way to build a community and network, and to share valuable information with your audience. Virtually every social media platform has some type of online community building capability.

A community can quickly become a profoundly powerful marketing tool. When people feel like they are part of something, they’re more likely to reach out to friends and colleagues to try and get them to join in.

Community building isn’t effortless, though.

Ultimately, to keep a community running smoothly, you’re going to have to actively moderate your social groups, keeping them on-track and focused on your particular field. Getting people to join can also be a hassle, but we promise — the effort is absolutely worth it.

(As a note, though, you don’t have to have a large community to start selling courses — that’s one of the biggest course selling myths.)

Consider Buying Ads

Paying for ads on social media is not a silver bullet, and they can be expensive depending on your budget and target audience. If you decide to incorporate paid ads into your digital marketing strategy, don’t solely rely on them.

Many businesses fall into the trap of using ads to drive all of their revenue or traffic. While this method can work early on, you should try to transition to a more organic traffic strategy eventually. Over time, paid traffic streams tend to not be as reliable, and price fluctuations can damage your profitability.

Offer a Referral Program

Referral and affiliate programs are a great way to leverage your community and networks to drive sales for your online course. They also help to establish trust and brand recognition.

Offer a Certification for Completing Your Course

A certification can add prestige to your online course. Even online learners who take classes for personal enrichment might be more inclined to invest in a course that offers a certification and credentials they can share with their networks and prospective employers.

Likewise, in some fields offering a certification isn’t optional. If you’re offering a continuing education program of some sort, your clients will want to know precisely what they’ll be getting for completing your course. Make sure you tell them — and be as clear as possible as to what they’ll be coming away with.

Never Stop Refining and Testing Your Process

Finding the right mix of marketing and promotional strategies to sell your online course will require some experimentation and trial and error to see what works best, especially before your course launches. As your sales and brand recognition continue to grow, you can tweak and refine your strategy accordingly.

The Power of a Learning Management System

Our learning management system offers an all-in-one platform that specializes in creating, promoting, branding and scaling, online courses, certifications, workshops and memberships. You can also request a demo for your company.

With so many certifications being delivered online these days instead of in person, it can be difficult to know how to structure all of the content.

Two things to consider when creating an online certification program include:

• Aim to make the education compelling, just like you would if you were in a room full of people
• Create high quality education, both from an education and a visual standpoint

One of the ways to create captivating online education is to combine a variety of content types. On Inspire360, there are a variety of content types to choose from including videos, webinars, audio, slideshows, articles, annotated images, evaluations, waivers, certificates, tests/quizzes, and more.

Below is an example of a well-rounded certification structure:

1. Introduction: A brief look at what students can expect from the course.
2. Background & Philosophy: A glimpse into why the students are going to learn this information.
3. Video Content: Educational videos that make up much of the course.
4. Articles: Written information that include information about the module’s topics.
5. Quizzes/Final Exam: Multiple choice or open answer quizzes and tests throughout the program and a final exam at the end.
6. Additional Resources: Resources may include FAQs, research studies, protocols, partner information and course handouts.
7. Course Evaluation: Students rate various elements of the course.
8. Course Certificate: A downloadable certificate of completion is offered at the end of the program

Interested in offering a health or fitness certification? Create and deliver your certification using Inspire360’s learning management system. Click here for more information on Inspire360’s system. And if you’d like more direction on creating your online content, email kelli@inspire360.com for additional guidance.

Do you host live workshops? If so, you may want to consider adding an online component to your workshops to streamline your events. To meet workshop and event companies needs, Inspire360 has created a new blended learning Live Workshop Management system that handles all the administrative tasks so students can focus on having a seamless experience both in-person and online.

With a blended learning approach, a student’s experience taking your workshop can now look something like this:

1. Student purchases the workshop through your custom Inspire360 platform
2. Student is added to the roster automatically
3. Student signs liability waiver and completes prep material on your platform before the in-person workshop
4. Student attends the workshop
5. Student takes the test (either online or in person)
6. Student earns a certificate or certification (printed online)
7. Student gets access to supplemental materials on your platform
8. Student's certification auto-renews on expiration

As you can see, we call this “blended learning” because students are able to complete portions of the process both online and in person, creating a smooth experience from start to finish.

The Live Workshop Management system also takes on many unwanted tasks that someone on your staff is most likely managing now, creating more time for your team to focus on the education itself. Gone are the days of having to worry about sign-in sheets, printed-out liability waivers, and printed manuals.

Now with Inspire360, you can easily create liability waivers, certificates, roll call, handouts, and prep materials. You can even allow your host facility to set their own dates and locations for upcoming events! You can also provide students with follow-up activities such as course evaluations, reference materials, certificates, and assessments.

If you currently offer live workshops and want to streamline them, shoot us an email so we can see if there’s a fit at kelli@inspire360.com.

Inspire360 is proud to announce that the Schwinn Indoor Cycling Performance and Periodization Workshop is officially available as an online educational course.

Core Health & Fitness is a leader in developing and marketing advanced indoor cycling bikes, strength and HIIT training, as well as cardio equipment for the fitness industry with iconic brands such as Schwinn, Nautilus, StairMaster, Star Trac and Throwdown.

At Core Health & Fitness, they know how important instructor training programs and learning opportunities are to the indoor cycling community. In an ever-evolving industry, they know instructors want more content and opportunities to elevate their coaching skills that will in turn allow them to provide more for their clients and members.

In this new Schwinn Performance and Periodization Workshop, participants learn that METRICS are motivating, and POWER is King! Instructors will join Schwinn Master Trainers Keli Roberts, Jason Schneider and Janelle Veteri, and embark on a journey that will transform their coaching world. Expert riders indoors and out, the Schwinn team will make Functional Threshold Power (FTP) Training seem "fun" and provide the science of periodization to give instructors the resources to design and teach dynamic indoor cycling workouts that will produce the results members are looking for. Register now online and take advantage of an Early Adopter discounted price on this NEW workshop of $45!

Jeff Dilts, Vice President of Innovation and Product Development at Core Health & Fitness says, “We are extremely excited to expand the Core Health & Fitness online training platform with Inspire360. The launch of our Schwinn Performance and Periodization Workshop for indoor cycling has us even more excited to grow our programming partnership in 2020.”

Inspire360 empowers fitness and wellness companies to deliver beautifully branded online courses, certifications, workshops, and subscriptions. In addition to Core Health & Fitness, over 200 other world-class education companies including EXOS, TRX, BOSU, TriggerPoint, Power Systems, and Gray Institute use Inspire360 to deliver industry-leading education.

Jason Davis, President of Inspire360, said, “Schwinn always provides best-in-class education to fitness professionals and this workshop is no exception. Their course offers extremely valuable education for industry professionals to learn and grow from.”

Interested in creating your own courses, certifications, workshops or subscriptions? Email kelli@inspire360.com to request a demo of Inspire360.

Inspire360 is proud to announce that Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning has signed onto Inspire360 and is now offering the Certified Functional Strength Coach Certification exclusively on the Inspire360 platform.

Inspire360 empowers fitness and wellness companies to deliver beautifully branded online courses, certifications, workshops, and subscriptions. Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning has joined other world-class education companies including EXOS, BOSU, IDEA Health & Fitness Association, Freemotion Fitness, and TriggerPoint that also use Inspire360 to deliver industry-leading education to their customers.

The Certified Functional Strength Coach certification was developed with one simple intention: to revolutionize the fitness industry. CFSC gives coaches the tools to address situations as they occur in real time on the training floor.

Their mission is to raise the quality of the professionals in the industry by delivering the best educational experience possible. They are creating a skilled network of coaches that can deliver great demos, and provide clear and concise coaching cues, all within a systematic approach to programming.

“We are stoked to launch a new learning platform and an online version of our Certified Functional Strength Coach certification with the help of Inspire360,” says the team at CFSC. “Their expertise in online education allows us to deliver our education in a cleaner, more efficient and user friendly manner, without jeopardizing the high standards we hold ourselves and our members to. We’re proud of that. Moving our certification on to such a versatile platform will allow us to reach more people by offering online only courses to coaches around the world. We hope you join the other 6500+ CFSC coaches on a mission to elevate the fitness industry. Thank you Inspire360!”

Jason Davis, CEO of Inspire360, says “I’m so excited to have Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning on the Inspire360 platform. Their education is innovative and among the best in the industry. I can’t wait for more fitness professionals to have access to their education and I know coaches will gain valuable knowledge from their certification and courses. I’m looking forward to collaborating with them!”

Interested in creating your own courses, certifications, workshops or subscriptions? Email kelli@inspire360.com to request a demo of Inspire360.