Course Creators Need a Marketing Plan to Sell Effectively
Thinking about selling online courses from your own website? It’s a smart way to connect directly with students, build trust, and keep the earnings from your hard work. You’ve come up with some fantastic online course ideas, picked the best one, packaged your expertise and are ready to monetize your course and share your knowledge with others.
Creating your online course is only half the battle. You’re ready to publish and for people to buy, but selling it is a different story.
This guide will help you understand the benefits of self-hosting courses, find the best platforms, and make your online course business both profitable and sustainable—all while keeping your unique voice and style at the forefront.
But where do you start with actually finding and converting customers when selling an online course?
Why Sell Online Courses from Your Own Website?
Selling courses directly from your website opens up huge opportunities. First, it builds trust and credibility. When students sign up on your site, they connect directly with you, not through a marketplace with other creators. This direct connection strengthens your authority in the field and gives students a consistent, uninterrupted experience with your brand.
Selling directly from your site also keeps more of your income in your pocket. Many course marketplaces take a percentage of each sale, which reduces your earnings. By hosting on your own site, you keep 100% of what you earn. This income boost makes a big difference over time, especially as your course business grows.
Directly hosting your courses also gives you complete control over the learning experience. Your website reflects your branding, design, and the unique experience you want to offer students. Without limitations from other platforms, you can create a learning environment that feels personal and inviting. You have the freedom to add new features, integrate new tools, and adjust based on student feedback.
Over time, selling courses on your own site helps you create a sustainable and adaptable business. You can expand your course catalog, fine-tune the learning experience, and cultivate a loyal customer base. By building your own platform, you create a foundation you can grow over time—ideal for a long-term business.
Is Selling Online Courses Profitable?
Absolutely. In fact, the potential for passive income drives many people to create online courses. Once you’ve created your content and launched your course, it keeps generating revenue, even while you focus on other projects. Many educators, coaches, and entrepreneurs find this potential for passive income incredibly attractive.
Successful course creators often earn anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 each month, with some reaching six-figure incomes within just a few years. And with the e-learning industry expected to exceed $400 billion by 2026, demand for online courses keeps rising. This growing market gives you plenty of opportunities to succeed.
Factors like choosing the right niche, setting a fair price, and marketing your course well will affect profitability. Compared to physical products, digital courses cost less to produce, giving you higher profit margins. Courses on focused topics that solve a specific problem or teach a useful skill tend to attract more students. People want value that’s actionable and applicable, so a well-chosen niche helps you find an audience eager to learn what you have to offer.
Online courses also scale easily. You create the content once, then sell it repeatedly to new students. As long as you keep the course updated, it can continue generating income and building brand loyalty.
Identify Your Audience and Decide How to Target Them
The best time to identify your audience is before you create your course. But maybe you already did this, even without knowing it. Still, get this audience targeting important work down in writing. What problem does your course help your prospective customers solve? What new benefit does it promise them? Why do they need this course? Who are your customers, exactly? There are plenty of resources out there on how to research a buyer persona. Once you’ve done this, you also need to know where your audience “lives” (where they shop, hang out, get their entertainment, etc). Probably, you’ll do most of your marketing online. But while a course for older people might sell well on Facebook, if you’re marketing a financial planning curriculum for members of Gen Z – you’ll probably want to spend some time marketing it on TikTok. Research again will be your friend here, when it comes to deciding where to target your audience.Choosing the Right Platform for Your Course Business
Choosing a platform to host and sell your course plays a huge role in your success. A good platform should be user-friendly, customizable, and priced fairly. Look for platforms that support diverse content types—like videos, quizzes, and downloads—as these keep students engaged.
Here are a few great options:
– Thinkific: Thinkific simplifies course creation with a no-commission model, meaning you keep what you make. It lets you customize your course pages to match your brand and integrates with other tools to support marketing and customer service.
– Teachable: If you plan to scale your business, Teachable offers valuable options. It provides various pricing models, including subscriptions and one-time fees, and integrates with tools like ActiveCampaign to streamline student onboarding. Teachable’s flexibility helps you serve your students while maximizing revenue.
– WordPress: For complete control, WordPress stands out. Although it requires more setup, WordPress allows you to customize every aspect of your course experience. With plugins like Thrive Apprentice for course management and WooCommerce for payment processing, WordPress offers the flexibility to design a branded, professional learning environment.
Each platform has strengths. Thinkific and Teachable work well if you want an all-in-one solution that’s easy to manage. We’ve made it easy to compare them if that’s where you’re leaning. WordPress offers unparalleled control and scalability, which can support you as your course business evolves. For longevity, customization options and full control and ownership over your course this is generally what we would recommend.
Building a WordPress Website for Online Courses
If you choose WordPress, you unlock all the customization and control you need to design the exact learning experience you want. Start by selecting a memorable domain name that reflects your course topic or brand. Choosing a reliable hosting provider, like WPX Hosting or SiteGround, ensures your site loads quickly, stays secure, and provides solid customer support.
Once you set up WordPress, choose themes and plugins that suit your course needs. Something like LearnDash can help you organize and manage course content, while WooCommerce makes payments and checkouts easy. These tools help you create a branded, professional learning space that’s uniquely yours.
With WordPress, you can customize course pages by adding multimedia elements like videos, downloadable resources, and interactive content to keep students engaged. WordPress allows you to make changes as needed, so you’re never locked into one design. Using a theme builder like Thrive Theme enables you to experiment with layouts and visuals until your site feels like a true reflection of your brand and courses.
Creating Compelling Course Content
Great course content lies at the heart of any successful online course. Start by picking a topic that aligns with your expertise and resonates with your audience. Your course should solve a real problem, teach a valuable skill, or provide insights that people genuinely need. Research what’s out there already to see how your course can stand out in the market.
Structure your course content to make learning easy and enjoyable. Divide the material into modules and lessons that logically build on each other. Use quizzes, downloads, and interactive elements to keep students engaged and reinforce learning.
Listen to feedback from students to improve your course. Feedback shows you where students struggle, what they enjoy, and where you can make changes to add more value. Update your course content regularly to keep it relevant. When trends or standards shift, refresh your material to ensure students receive the best experience.
Delivering valuable content that’s easy to understand and apply helps you build a reputation for quality. Satisfied students stay loyal to your brand and often recommend your course to others.
Effective Marketing Strategies for Selling Your Courses
Creating a great course is only half the equation—you also need a strong marketing plan to reach students. Combining email marketing, social media, and paid advertising broadens your reach and attracts more students to your course page.
Create a Landing Page
A landing page is a standalone web page engineered to convert visitors into customers. Often it’s published on your web site. If you’re just getting started, however, it can be a good practice to begin instead with a separately-hosted landing page for your course, that’s focused only on driving sales. Build out other brand messaging later. Some popular low-cost options for landing pages (without the need for a site) include: – Carrd – ConvertKit – Unbounce – Leadpages Landing page designs can vary slightly across industries and product or service offerings but will generally include: 1. A strong headline and subheader that attracts target customer 2. Short, clear supplementary copy that helps communicate the value of your course 3. Any other benefits of taking your course 4. A clear call-to-action (CTA) to purchase Other common elements might include a video introduction or sample clip, testimonials (written and/or video), and snippets from press coverage or other similar forms of validation from entities outside your own. And don’t rush that intro video. For course creators, it’s often crucial to convincing prospective customers to buy your course.Deliver a Free Preview
Many visitors will be hesitant to buy your course without first gaining a clear idea of what they’ll be getting. Just as a great trailer can help sell a movie, course creators should strongly consider offering some strategically-curated materials for free on their landing page, and as part of any other digital marketing efforts. This could be all or one of the following: >> A sample video lesson from a core course module >> An introduction from you >> A preview of your course materials (your own version of a trailer) A free preview helps customers feel more confident that what they’re getting from your course is what they need, that it will work for them, and that it will deliver on the promises outlined in your landing page copy.Email Marketing
An email list gives you a direct connection to potential students. Use lead magnets, like free guides or mini-courses, to encourage sign-ups. Once people join your list, nurture them with a drip campaign that offers insights and valuable content, showcasing your expertise.
Platforms like Mailchimp help manage your list, while tools like Thrive Leads create opt-in forms for easy sign-ups. Send regular updates, exclusive offers, and new course announcements to keep subscribers engaged and more likely to convert into paying students.
Social Media
Social media lets you engage with your audience in a way that feels personal. Choose one or two platforms where your ideal students are active and share content that educates, inspires, and builds trust. Success stories, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of course creation give potential students a preview of the value they’ll get.
Use social proof—like testimonials and case studies—to increase interest. When people see that others benefit from your course, they feel more confident signing up.
Paid Ads
Paid advertising helps you reach new audiences quickly. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads allow you to target specific demographics and make it easier to reach potential students. Testing different ad styles and messages helps you find what resonates most and lets you improve campaign performance over time.
Start with a modest budget, see what works, and scale up as needed. Paid ads can boost visibility, especially during a course launch or when promoting a new offering.
Leverage Email and Social Media Marketing
A great course that no one can find, amidst the deluge of information being blasted at everyone every day, won’t sell well (if at all). So, as we mentioned at the beginning of this post, it’s essential to have a plan for marketing your course. If you’ve decided to sell an online course after already building an audience, you’ve got a head start. You can market it to people who may already be waiting for it, even if you have to help them understand that through your emails, social posts, and other communications. Creators starting with their course materials first will probably have to do more work to make sure they can reach enough of the same sort of people willing to buy it. But the good news is that they’ll hopefully have plenty of information and material to kick these efforts off, after completing their course materials with a specific audience in mind. When it comes to the actual execution of email and social marketing campaigns or plans, we obviously can’t cover much within the confines of just this section to get you all the way up and running. But do your homework (maybe try some online courses) and come up with some plans that fit your budget and abilities. You can always make changes to your plans and tactics later, and will probably even want to do that as you learn more about what works and what doesn’t for your particular course and business.Run a Promotion and/or Ads
Again, the path to selling an online course will be different for different creators in different niches. Similarly, not all audiences are the same. Prospective buyers may look for course recommendations in a number of disparate places, depending on their age and other demographic factors. Chances are, however, that they’ll all respond to ads and promotions. While it costs money to leverage ads to drive traffic to your course (to your landing page, for example), there aren’t many faster ways to “rent” an audience. Use your notes from targeting, and consider hiring some help to optimize your ads or at least to help yourself learn the basics of digital advertising, if you don’t know them already. There’s also a proven science behind the success of promotions, when it comes to selling online. Offering a discount or other type of promotion further incentivizes people to buy your course. Consider offering a percentage off the regular price, a price break when packaging with other products you offer, or a limited-time discount. Set clear start and end dates with promotions, and try to stick with them as you continue to communicate the value of your course. Stack promotions with your ad strategies so the methods can feed into each other.Partner with Influencers in Your Niche
Influencer marketing in the standard sense might not seem a fit for course creators. Consider, however, that there have long been what we now call influencers in every type of business that exists. Especially where you have direct relationships (but even when you don’t), reach out to people within your niche who have large and engaged audiences. Offer them some incentive in exchange for a review, and/or a promotion if they like your course. Note that audience size is a relative term. Engagement is arguably even more important when it comes to choosing the right marketing partners. An influencer in your niche with 5000 followers on a social media account – but high engagement from that “smaller” audience – may be a better partner than a costlier one with 100,000 followers and a lot of likes on their own posts but not many conversations outside of that. Networking in parallel can also be a great way to boost influencer marketing efforts. Find some peers in parallel niches to yours and help each other promote your complementary materials.Host a Free Webinar
A popular tactic for driving sales for an online course is to host a free webinar. This is extra work for you up front, and there’s a time investment required to do it effectively, but webinars are pretty low-cost and impactful way to convert interested buyers into actual buyers of your course. Discuss a topic related to your course materials, offer tips and advice, and deliver a good experience. At the end, or in a follow-up email (or both), offer a discount or other type of promotion for your course. Consider all this from the prospective of a customer who is interested in your course but hasn’t yet bought it: A well-designed and well-targeted ad provides a taste of what your course will cover and how it will help them The webinar provides additional context, content and value (but not too much) Your promotion and messaging then close the sale Passionate existing followers of your work might not need so much coaxing, but people who don’t know yet that they need your course may require some guidance along these lines.Launching and Growing Your Online Course Business
Launching your course successfully starts with a clear strategy in three phases—pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. Build excitement early with email announcements, social media teasers, and exclusive offers. At launch, ensure immediate content access to keep students engaged, and afterward, gather feedback to improve future launches.
To grow sustainably, foster a community where students feel connected and supported. Set up forums, live Q&As, or discussion spaces to help students engage with each other and stay invested in your course. Prioritizing a positive student experience encourages loyalty and referrals, expanding your reach organically.
By focusing on community, customer experience, and consistent engagement, you’ll create an online course business that builds credibility, grows steadily, and makes a lasting impact.
Conclusion: Creating a Course is a Project, Marketing It is A Job
By now, it should hopefully have been made clear that your course needs and deserves as much effort in the marketing and selling phase of its rollout than it did in the content generation phase. Most of the tactics discussed here today have to do with launching your course sale. But marketing and selling is an ongoing job. The great thing about having a course done and brought to market is that it’s always there, waiting to help you monetize your expertise. With the right mindset, a good and flexible long-term strategy, and some work and patience, you can serve your audience and earn abundantly over time while continuing on with your work.Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I sell online courses from my own website?
Selling directly lets you keep all profits, build a stronger relationship with students, and control your brand and user experience. This approach gives you a more personalized, profitable course offering.
How profitable is selling online courses?
Many course creators earn between $1,000 and $10,000 monthly, with some reaching six figures within a few years. By updating and selling your course repeatedly, you create a consistent income stream.
What are the best platforms for hosting and selling online courses?
Teachable, Thinkific, and WordPress offer unique strengths, so choose the one that aligns best with your goals. Teachable and Thinkific offer simplicity, while WordPress gives you full control.
How do I create compelling course content?
Pick a valuable, specific topic, research what’s already available, and add unique elements. Create an organized structure and use various formats like video, quizzes, and downloads to keep students engaged.
What marketing strategies should I use to sell my online courses?
A balanced strategy that includes email marketing, social media, and paid ads works well. Social proof and an engaged email list build credibility and drive sales.