Starting a startup is not easy. The hardest thing startups face is finding ways to grow quickly and acquiring new clients. There is so much that could be done but often a lack of resource and time to get these things done. There are many ways you can grow your startup such as marketing your brand online and creating a buzz but one way that is often overlooked is creating and selling online courses. There are three benefits your startup will receive if you sell courses online.
Monetize your knowledge
If you create an online school and populate it with courses, then you can add an additional revenue stream to your business. You have expertise and knowledge that is valuable, so why not monetize it and sell courses online to help your startup grow. HowNow allows you to create and brand your own online school so you can take complete ownership over it. Decide how you teach (many different formats available from live classes – great for discussions to ways to keep learners engaged– gamification). Your knowledge is worth a lot, so if you can’t get people to invest in your product or service just yet then get them to invest in your knowledge and in you.
Create a community
If you do create an online school, then you can build a community with your learners that have signed up to learn from you. Through teaching live classes, you can get to know each learner and create a discussion forum where you can establish a community. The benefit this has to your business is that it allows you to find new customers and to build up stronger relationships with potential customers who are more likely to recommend you to someone else. We all know that a recommendation from someone you know is the strongest form of advertising your business can receive. In order to reach a wide audience you could host bi-weekly webinars on HowNow which would enable you to broadcast your lesson to up to 1,000 people. This is a great way to get your startup out there and to provide value for your target audience. After attending a free webinar then these people might turn into community members who choose to sign up and pay for the online courses you run.
Establish yourself as an expert in your field
If you sell online courses, then people are going to deem you as an expert. This is a great way to command authority and expertise in your field. Don’t worry if you haven’t taught online before, you can read this handy guide. If you have courses that people can buy and experience before maybe investing in your service, then their level of respect and trust in what you do is ultimately going to increase. Your audience will see the value in what you offer and will want to come and employ you to carry out that service or to buy a product from you. If you have a product then using courses as a training resource can be a great way to add additional value to your consumers. These training courses could be an internal training guide to bring staff up to speed as you grow and make for an effective training source. Or they could be used to demonstrate how to use your products to achieve different things. Let’s say for example your product was an online subscription tool that enabled people to manage social media networks. If you sell courses online in how to use this for developing leads on multiple social networks then, you are providing a great deal more value than just your product.
Startups need to differentiate themselves on the market to grow and if you sell courses online in your expertise then this makes you much more interesting to your audience. Grow your startup, build a community, establish yourself as an expert in your field and generate a new source of revenue.