Beyond Streaming: How Churches Can Build Real Online Community

By 2030, the online education industry is expected to be worth almost $200 billion*. But in this growing field, many entrepreneurs make a crucial (and understandable) mistake. They focus too much on the coursework itself. It makes sense. Even with a great idea and the necessary expertise, educators know presentation is key – but it’s not enough. These days, knowing how to market online courses is integral, too. Each year, thousands of new online courses are created. In order to stand out from the pack, creators need to present their products well and capture attention.      10 Methods on How to Market Online Courses   1. Know Your Audience Even before you create your online course, there are some marketing rules you should keep in mind. The first is to know who you’re talking to. Imagine a person who is likely to take your course – this is your ideal user. Along each step of the way, you will make decisions with this ideal user in mind. From the way you write instructions to the color scheme and pricing, it should all be designed to appeal to them.   2. Identify Your Lane The biggest question any brand faces is “Who am I?” so lock that answer down before moving forward. It should be crystal clear what problem your course solves or what need it fulfills. Make sure your course offers something of unique value with a unique voice, and remain laser focused on that identity. This goes hand in hand with knowing your audience. It may be tempting to try appealing to everyone, but you’ll end up appealing to no one.   3. Get Social Now it’s time to start spreading the word, and the most powerful tool in your arsenal is social media. You should create accounts on major platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, but don’t count out the smaller/newer ones. Ramp up to your course’s launch date by teasing small bits of valuable content, and then after the course is live, maintain a consistent posting schedule with quality content that drives conversation and engagement.    4. SEO Is King SEO stands for “search engine optimization,” and it’s the mantra digital marketers live by. Almost all of the internet’s search traffic (about 90 percent) goes through Google, so you should try to work within Google’s algorithm to become the top result for a given search term. There are lots of best practices for this, but the biggies include researching keywords and using those keywords in context on your online course platform. This will help push it toward the top of Google’s search results.   5. Targeted Ads Once you know what keywords you’re targeting, you can use Google ads to create an advertisement that will appear when someone searches for those keywords. These can be incredibly effective since they only show up for people who are already interested in the topic. You can also use Facebook to advertise, using that ideal user you came up with to target specific demographic features like age, occupation, and interest. Another idea is to buy some influence. Use a site like Fiverr to pay social media users for tweets promoting your course, just like big brands use celebrities to endorse their products.   6. Check the Reviews In today’s digital marketplace, consumers are understandably wary of getting ripped off by a fake product, so they often look for user reviews when deciding whether or not to buy. You can use this to your advantage by asking students to leave reviews of your course. Feature those positive reviews and testimonials front and center so potential customers know they’re getting the real thing.   7. Podcasting Podcasting has quickly become one of the fastest growing media segments, and it can be a great option when deciding how to market online courses. Set up a show that revolves around the topic you are teaching, and host a conversational discussion about that topic each week. You could also seek out other podcasts on the same topic and appear as a guest. But no matter what, make sure to include a shout out to your online course at the end. You’ll soon be building an audience who may also become students.   8. Create Mini Courses Once your online course is live, you might want to add a few smaller follow up courses, diving deeper into a related topic or something students expressed interest in. These add value to your brand and can also be promoted in the same ways we’ve discussed above. Tease them on social media before they launch, create a targeted ad to hook potential students, and talk them up on your podcast. It’s a great way to keep your content fresh and keep people coming back for more.   9. Sales and Bundle Deals Everyone likes a good sale, so be sure to consider them on a strategic basis. You could go the traditional route, offering new students a discount for signing up. Or, you could bundle services together. If you’ve got multiple standalone courses, why not sell them as a package deal (for a limited time? Or throw in access to those new mini courses you developed—anything to give people a little added value.   10. Live Events Finally, it may seem counterintuitive for a digital business, but getting in front of real people can still be a useful tool in how to market online courses. Seek out local events that are related to your course’s topic, and ask if you can give a presentation. You could preview part of your course for the audience and slide in a pitch to check out the rest at the end of your time. You can even consider hosting virtual events to drive even more course sales. Make sure you choose the right event management software to make your life easy. Some platforms even have event management and online course features already built in.     There's a ton of interest in the online course business:      In today’s online learning market, there is still plenty of opportunity for an expert with a great idea to start a thriving business. But in order to reach your full potential – and to maximize your return on your effort – you need to stand out. If you use these tips on how to market online courses, you’ll be on your way.     Get Started With Cause Machine Starting with a community engagement strategy is the secret to building a successful platform in the long term. Cause Machine helps customers build the plan of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy. We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your community. Learn how it can work for you here.

For any university, college, or school system, alumni networks are important. A network of alums doesn’t just help meet fundraising goals, but members can even act as public ambassadors, mentor students and offer post-graduation job opportunities, support athletic departments, and even help increase new student enrollment.  But the key to all that is good alumni engagement, and not everyone does it well. Today we’ll explore some alumni engagement best practices to make your network as strong as it can be.   How Important is Alumni Engagement? According to a 2020 report by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, alumni giving at U.S. colleges totaled more than $11 billion in 2019. That’s a lot of money, but it’s not spread out evenly. Only 8 percent of U.S. alumni give to their alma mater on average, according to that same survey of 1,451 ranked colleges. Meanwhile, the top schools in the study were seeing giving rates of 44 percent and higher. Once again, the difference is a strategic approach to alumni engagement. Donor Search notes that a full 93 percent of alumni associations “offer no direct benefits to their members.” Let’s make sure you don’t fall into that category.   6 Alumni Engagement Best Practices 1. Know Your Audience As with any community nurturing operation, the first step is to know who you are talking to. Your alumni network is mostly likely diverse, so create a few categories and different messaging for each category of alums. Make sure to keep your member database (CRM) up to date, too – there’s no point in reaching out to people who have dropped off the rolls. Update your database constantly. Make sure you have a system for getting 'new' alums involved. Segment your target members into categories.   2. Tailor Content to Your Alums Now that you have some categories set up, it’s important to create messaging that speaks to each one directly. If you’re talking to fans of the school’s sports programs, keep that in mind. Graduates from an Education program? People with a Finance degree? Take a different approach with each different group of people. Not everyone will want to engage with the school. But lifelong fans are ready to jump in and support/engage how they can.  Find out what content (videos, news, articles, podcasts, etc.) your alums will find valuable (test if you're not sure). Create a distinct customer journey alumni will work through, then insert relative 'asks' along the way.   3. Don’t Just Ask for Money Fundraising is a big part of why the network exists, but when it comes to alumni engagement best practices, you can’t just solicit donations and nothing else. Members will start to delete or ignore the content reflexively. Instead, send them news on new programs and sports updates, offer perks from local partner businesses, and anything that will make them feel like they're still part of the community. Free guides, offers, and perks are always good choices.  Add in non-fundraising communication. Include local news, program updates, and sports results are all good ideas.  Offer alumni discounts from partner businesses.   4. Mix Things Up People get bored easily, and if you’re only reaching out via one mode of communication, it will get old fast. Plan out a healthy mix of email campaigns, articles, video content, podcasts, snail mail, and even texting. Also, use video and social media to reconnect with old alums – especially alumni-generated content, which sees a high rate of engagement. Alumni photos from the big game? Student snaps of their favorite part of campus? That’s all great. Utilize different modes of communication. Vary between email, newsletters, alternate platforms, etc. Highlight user-generated content whenever possible.   5. Keep It Steady High on the list of alumni engagement best practices is regular communication. Plan out ways to be consistent in reaching out, even as you mix up the mode of contact and message. It shows you are engaged and that effort will be appreciated. It will also keep your school fresh in the alumni’s memory. Set up an editorial calendar to track content production and publishing.  Look to start monthly email nurture campaigns, quarterly newsletters, regular events, and reunions.   6. Deliver a Sense of Ownership Finally, the most engaging alumni networks have one thing in common: They make their members feel a sense of ownership in the institution. They probably already feel a sense of pride in the school, so you just have to take that one step further. Creativity is welcome here, but it could be done with something as simple as a survey. Take the results, listen to the members, and keep them in mind when making changes, planning events, or expanding. Then report back through your network. Remind alums that they (and their honest opinion) are valued. Create surveys and act on feedback. Build your site on a reliable membership platform that offers features to help engage alums.   To Succeed, You Need a Strategic Plan to Manage Alumni  As we’ve seen, engagement is the most important factor in a high-functioning alumni network, and the returns on your hard work can be game-changing. These alumni engagement best practices aren’t complicated, and most of them aren’t even hard to do, but they will help you give the most to your members and get the most for your institution.   Get Started With Cause Machine Starting with a community engagement strategy is the secret to building a successful platform in the long term. Cause Machine helps customers build the plan of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy. We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your community. Learn how it can work for you here.