Between the general shift in student preferences and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, e-learning platforms have experienced a major increase in popularity. In 2018, the e-learning market was valued at approximately $190 billion. Its estimated value for 2025 is $300 billion, largely because e-learning platforms can be accessed from any corner of the world, even during a global lockdown.
It’s important to note that when we talk about e-learning, we’re not just talking about higher education. There has also been a significant increase in demand for online courses in cooking, photography, yoga, etc.
The next step is to get these courses in front of as many prospective students as possible.
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, with about 30 million daily visitors. 83% of prospective students watch YouTube an average 3+ times a day. In addition to a source of entertainment, YouTube is widely used as a learning platform and promotional tool for online courses.
The best way to start promoting your online course is by creating a Channel Trailer. This is how many businesses turn their channel page visitors into subscribers.
A Channel Trailer is a video designed to help people quickly learn about you and your business through your YouTube channel. It’s recommended to keep the video short; i.e. approximately 30-90 seconds. The trailer should start with a quick introduction of you and your channel, followed by short clips of your course content and a call to action for viewers to subscribe. Remember, your first goal for visitors is not to get them to sign up for a paid course. You’re merely educating them about your channel so they will subscribe.
Common ways to communicate this goal include: “If that sounds good, make sure to subscribe to my channel right now”, or “Make sure to hit that subscribe button.”
Once a visitor has subscribed, you can strengthen the relationship with teaser videos that provide more value. These videos should explain what kind of people will benefit from your paid content, what these benefits are, and what they can expect from future content. The main goal of teasers is getting visitors to subscribe to paid premium content.
Example: “Photoshop Course”
In this case, you could begin by showing a sped-up video of a photo being edited from original to the final. This gives viewers a taste of what they will be able to achieve after subscribing to your premium content. It shows, but doesn’t tell.
The video should also feature a call-to-action that specifically tells viewers exactly what they should do next. All the energy and emotion of your video will be useless without a clear call-to-action. Possible examples include “Talk to our specialist,” “Sign up for our email newsletter,” or “Buy today and get 20% off.”
The final ingredient should be social proof, as posting testimonial videos to YouTube can have a tremendous influence on viewers. If your viewers know that other people trust, use, and benefit from your course, they’re much more likely to buy it themselves. Testimonials don’t have to be professionally shot: using content from your phone will do just fine. You can even use screenshots from online reviews or quotes from print media.
And of course, it always helps to ask viewers for a thumbs up or to leave a comment. Both of these will boost your video’s rank.
