Marketing Course

Prioritizing Your Inbound Marketing Strategies for 2021

Marketing is a continually evolving landscape. You know this. We know this. But 2020 presented a different challenge than previous years, leaving marketers to dig deep into what they need to do to attract and nurture leads and customers.

2021 will be no different – which shouldn’t make you panic! Part of marketing is doing your due diligence, and we’ve combined resources to come up with some powerful strategies to consider prioritizing in 2021.

SMS Marketing

The popularity of SMS was already accelerating pre-COVID, but the pandemic made the importance of quick, timely, relevant messages more necessary than ever. People needed fast updates on everything, from closures to switches to remote learning. And SMS marketing provided that, plus an average 98% read rate.

SMS marketing is also useful for both leads and customers in non-COVID-related campaigns, as you can implement various campaigns that are engaging to both audiences. For example, for current customers, you can send them text reminders of appointments or meetings. For leads, you may consider sending them branding awareness campaigns or coupons that may encourage them to buy from you.

The best part? With a platform like SMSZap, getting started with SMS marketing is a breeze. You can set up your account in a few minutes, link up with your contacts in HubSpot, and send personalized and engaging messages.

Content Marketing

COVID restrictions sent most people home at one point – to shop or work, or both. This made the demand for digital consumption skyrocket. What does that mean for your efforts in 2021? Your content needs to be high-caliber and plentiful, as well as:

Interactive
Emphatic
Engaging
Relevant to current events (2020 saw everything from social change, major elections, and COVID)
Made for the diverse crowds

That translates to creating and sharing educational, quality content about your products, services, and your company to your prospects and customers. You can use various resources like blogs, ebooks, infographics, social media, and videos to deliver your messages. No matter what type of content it is, it should address your target audiences’ specific pain points at every stage of their buyer’s journey, including the awareness, consideration, decision, and delight stages.

Video

Video can technically be considered a part of your content marketing – but its importance in our “new normal” isn’t something to shrug your shoulders. People longed for some human connection that they couldn’t get in person. Think about how you can use video in your previously “typical” marketing efforts. Are you switching to more online conferences, events, or webinars? These remote types of content are not going anywhere soon.

Similarly, video is just proven to be a useful tactic. In fact, 79% of consumers reported that a brand’s video convinced them to buy a piece of software or an app. A whopping 92% of those viewers also said they shared videos with others. That alone should help you realize the value of investing in video creation and distribution.

Chatbots and Customer Support Automation

When COVID initially hit, people scrambled to cancel flights, hotels, concerts, trips, appointments; you name it. The importance of a quick and solid customer support experience was integral. But customers weren’t the only ones dealing with the consequences of such an uncertain year. Support agents were hit with an influx of tickets to their helpdesk. Fortunately, chatbots and other customer support automation helped and will continue to in 2021.

Chatbots automate specific tasks and conversations by speaking with a customer or prospect through an easy-to-use interface. They lighten your teams’ workloads by tackling more straightforward conversational functions that are necessary but can eat up time. Advanced customer service automation can offload a large portion of support tickets with a high degree of accuracy. These resources also delight users because more and more people want information as quickly as possible and don’t mind speaking over a chat application.

Social Media

2020 certainly had a prevailing theme, and it was that a lot of people were at home for a good portion of it. Because of this, more people were also on their phones searching for news and updates from their favorite brands. One of the most common places to find this is generally a company’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Brands recognized this too. In fact, social media budgets accounted for 24% of all marketing budgets during the second quarter of 2020. And the momentum kept. There’s tremendous opportunity to ride these coattails and continue engaging and re-engaging with new and existing customers through fun, engaging social media campaigns or advertising.

SEO

When the pandemic subsides, businesses with brick and mortar locations will likely want to send as many people as possible back into their stores. Local search engine optimization (SEO) can help. Try:

Optimizing your “Google My Business Page”
Including local keywords throughout your website content
Strengthening your social media presence and including location-specific content

Position Zero, or Google’s featured snippet, should also take precedence in 2021. As humans become more reliant on technology, they expect the best answer as fast as possible. Position Zero has the most relevant information that answers that user’s question without clicking on any link. Some advice on getting a featured snippet includes:

Figure out what your company can get a snippet for
Writing out the exact question you’re trying to answer in your website or blog content
Use lists or tables
Research related questions and answers – any question can lead to another!
Create high-quality content that isn’t stuffed with keywords .

Another vital thing to consider when tackling SEO is to remember that people are searching for things differently now. People are asking more questions or phrases rather than just words. They’re also using devices like Alexa or Google Home. Search engines recognize this more nuanced context, meaning, and intent to deliver results, so keep it in mind for 2021.

By: Kelly Groover

Clwyd Probert

https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/ This presentation was made my Karen Rafferty from HubSpot as part of a seminar at the London HubSpot User Group in London. This video will show you the best tips for implementing a great inbound marketing strategy. You can download the free eBook here: https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/tips-… The full transcript of the video can be found here: https://blog.whitehat-seo.co.uk/inbou… Slides can be downloaded here: https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/londo… A summary article covering the main points is available here: https://blog.whitehat-seo.co.uk/tips-… We propose is to start to deploy a strategy to both your sales and marketing activities in your business.

It’s important just to reiterate here that with inbound marketing what we’re essentially doing is trying to focus on attracting good fit leads or opportunities for your business. And we do that through producing meaningful content that can enable you to have meaningful interactions with potential customers. It’s about just having good social etiquette. I’m, it’s not about interrupting people, it’s about actually being helpful, being responsive. Being very human in the way that you employ your marketing and your sales strategy. Which of the strategy from the video works best for you in 2018. Let me know by leaving a quick comment below. Details of the next London HUG event #LondonHUG can be found here: https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/hubspo…

How To Stand Out As a Leader In a Saturated Online Market

Fit in, or stand out? Serve existing markets, or serve those in untapped markets? As the online marketplace becomes increasingly saturated for entrepreneurs, and the amount of information available to us online leaves us feeling increasingly overwhelmed, we reach a point where we have no choice but to pull back and reassess what is important to us.

What is commonly referred to as the red or blue ocean strategy, business owners can create an offer so unique and differentiated that they can stand out in the market instead of drowning in a blood-stained red ocean.

Here are 3 ways you can stand out in a saturated market online, more so from a humane level rather than a strategic level.

Realize what is true for you, not what is true for others

It is easy for people to follow the cookie-cutter strategies of how things have always been done. But as the world, society, and humans evolve, so does the way we do business.

Many find this challenging because they lack a deep level of awareness and trust in themselves. They’re afraid that if they tapped into their own intuition and deep inner-knowing, it might not bring them the success they see everyone else achieving.

Long-lasting and sustainable success in business comes from doing what feels good to you, every step of the way. While you can achieve success following other strategies, if it doesn’t feel good to you, it will leave you feeling uninspired and unfulfilled.

Challenge the status quo of business

As humanity evolves into heightened levels of awareness and consciousness, we naturally begin to create a new paradigm of business.

Challenging the status quo is not a common desire amongst leaders. According to Harvard Business Review, 72 percent of leaders say they rarely, or never or rarely challenge their status quo in business.

Leading and serving from the inside out means we learn to know ourselves first and foremost. This can be a fulfilling journey of self-discovery for many, finding their own purpose and truth, which can become largely suppressed when we work in a typical traditional job that isn’t aligned with our highest desires.

To challenge the status quo of business comes with making one fearless and courageous decision at a time.

Find your “Zone of Genius”

Gay Hendricks identifies 4 different zones of genius in his book, The Big Leap.

In the “zone of genius,” we can zone in on and capitalize on our innate gifts and abilities that come naturally to us. In this zone, we become in flow and realize what we are uniquely gifted at, often finding ourselves skilled in a specific area more so than others.

In Hendricks’ book, he prompts you to ask yourself what you do you do that doesn’t seem like work, and what brings you ultimate joy, satisfaction, and abundance at the same time.

Related: 8 Reasons To Find Joy In Your Job

Ultimately, standing out in a saturated market online is about identifying what comes naturally to you and capitalizing on that unique gift and skill. We often attempt to do things that come naturally to other people, mimicking their steps and strategies while ignoring or denying our truest and inner-most skills and gifts.

To live a whole and fulfilling life, we must enjoy what we do, including how we run our business on a day-to-day basis. By focusing on what feels good to you (and not others), we can ultimately achieve the levels of joy and freedom we are all seeking.

Kelly Wing Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor

AlexandraTV

To put into action everything you learn here on AlexandraTV, download your FREE AlexandraTV resources HERE: https://www.creationsava.com/alexandratv Sign up and we promise to send you a ton of FREE valuable content! S U B S C R I B E for new AlexandraTV episodes almost every day of the week: https://www.youtube.com/user/Alexandr… ====================== O F F I C I A L W E B S I T E ====================== Meet Alexandra at http://www.alexandravillarroel.com/eng/ and subscribe to the email list for FREE gifts and resources directly to your inbox! ================= F A C E B O O K ================= Free daily inspiration & motivation: http://www.FB.com/AlexandraVillarroel… ================= I N S T A G R A M ================= The behind the scenes life of an author, life coach and businesswoman: http://instagram.com/AlexandraAbrego ================== ABOUT ALEXANDRA ================== Alexandra Villarroel Abrego is a Canadian trilingual international speaker, author, certified life coach, talk-show host and producer, and businesswoman, born and raised in Montreal, Canada. She is the owner of A.V.A. International, The School of Freedom™, A.V.A. Academy and AlexandraTV. Through her work, she teaches women how to unleash their true potential, gain real confidence in themselves, and find a balance between their personal and professional life so that they may finally live the life of their dreams. In 2010, she released her first internationally solicited book, “Beyond Beauty,” which takes readers on a journey of self-love, and brings to this new generation of women a better understanding of the concepts of inner and outer beauty, self confidence and feminine power. In 2012, the book was translated into French, and continues to sell worldwide. Since the release of her first book, Alexandra has been giving conferences nationally in her native Canada and internationally, in North America, South America and Europe, in three languages (French, English and Spanish). ================ THE A.V.A. STORE ================ If you liked this video and you want to dive more into the personal development and coaching world, visit our online store for life-changing resources and tools: http://www.alexandravillarroel.com/en…

3 Ways To Dominate Your Market

My area of expertise is in leadership development using the philosophy of Lean Six Sigma, in other words “process improvement strategies”.

Now join me on the journey I call A Tale of Two Companies: One business allowed its workers to be engaged by making improvements that allowed the customer to be first in mind. The second created an environment of “it’s not my job” eliminating employees from using client-first thinking. Now you might ask, “How can the customer not be first?”

Many believe Lean Six Sigma is solely for engineering and manufacturing companies. That’s the first misconception. This managerial approach is built on the premise of eliminating wasteful elements and focusing solely on the customer. Having taken that quick glimpse of Lean, as an entrepreneur, you can now see that this philosophy applies to all businesses. Every business operates in what Lean practitioners call SIPOC, (Suppliers, Input, Processes, Output and Customers). Understanding that small segment of lean thinking will open the door for you to look at the three ways to dominate your market.

How can I hinder?

Meet Office XYZ, a Dental Facility that has a small staff of 5-7 individuals each having their unique jobs when dealing with patients. I called this facility to make an appointment for my mother and was told they needed to verify her insurance and would call back once they received the approvals. Two weeks went by before I realized I had not heard from anyone regarding the insurance verification.

I called the office and asked to speak with the individual that was to call back, whom we’ll call Kelly. I was informed that Kelly was out of the office and had been ill for the past two weeks. My next question was: “is she the only person that verifies insurance?” The response was affirmative and I then asked to speak with a manager. I was told Kelly was the manager. Let’s stop here because now we enter that well-known rabbit hole of “it’s not my job.”

How can I help?

Meet Office ABC, A Pizza Company with a similar-sized staff. One night I called for a pizza. Upon placing the order I was told my meal would be about 30 minutes. Half an hour on a Friday evening? This company operated far differently than the first. When I placed my order something incredible happened, I received a text with the following message: “We’re making your order. It’s all coming together now. The kitchen staff is busy with your order making sure everything is just right.”

A few minutes later I received this missive: “It’s on the way. The driver has left the store and will be at your location shortly”, followed with, “Delivered! Time to eat. It’s been our pleasure serving you”.And it was within the time promised by the associate.

The “go and see” mentality

These two very different experiences gave me moment to pause. Did Company XYZ know about the importance of “lean thinking” and did Company ABC know they were using the lean six sigma philosophy in their operations? Did the leader of Company XYZ actually walk the process to see if there were any wasteful elements that allowed their service to lack the three main components of customer first thinking: quality, speed and delivery? And what about Company ABC, did that leader utilize the concept of Gemba, meaning “go and see” to improve their value stream and get to the point where they asked what their customers appreciate?

When exploring Lean Six Sigma’s methodology the first step is to find the root cause for the identified waste. Then you move into seeking what the customer defines as quality, you determine the speed of getting your customer the item or rendering the service and you seek an appropriate method of delivery.

Focusing on the three lean strategies

One can’t assume to know what the clientele defines as quality unless they have actually been asked. In Company XYZ it is evident that no one took the initiative to seek input through surveys, focus groups or used any feedback techniques. There is a concept in the Lean lexicon called (VOC) Voice of the Customer. It simply means find out what your customers want and are willing to pay for. This is where you will find that notion of quality.

In the tale of Company ABC, you can attest to the fact that quality for their customers, myself included, is hot pizza, and being notified as to what’s going on with their order. How did they come to know and implement this into their operations? After receiving such great service I had to call and speak with one of their leaders. I was informed this is how they compete as a reckoning force within the market.

The need for speed

Being the fastest in your field has a huge impact on your market. As you can tell from the visit with Company XYZ speed played no major role in what they deemed as important to customers. Two weeks to verify insurance is beyond an acceptable practice. And, by the way, I failed to mention that I did speak with another person, upon request, who did call back within 24 hours to inform me that they did not accept the insurance. Yet I waited 2 weeks for something that could have saved me both frustration and aggravation. Speed and convenience are major players in our buying experience.

Company ABC, epitomizes the importance of speed. On each text message I received that time stamp of delivery was also listed. Today there are ample services to ensure your customers get items and services in a speedy manner. This company has a system in place that allows employees to know time schedules for various sizes, as well as any increase in time based on selected toppings. Have you looked at your level of quickness, while keeping the high standard of quality appreciated by your customers?

Why is the method of delivery so important to your customers? Is it easy to obtain your product or service? Delivery in its simplest form equates to how a customer receives your product or service. Simple right? Company XYZ’s delivery was neither exceptional nor satisfactory. The level of professionalism of their staff created an angst for the customer and therefore any method of delivery they deemed appropriate was subpar. There was no option as to whether they could email, text me or call me. Based on their performance I don’t think any of those options would have changed the outcome.

Company ABC created a delivery method that allowed me to select how I wanted to receive the product. They of course deliver in their vehicles, but I had an option to have it delivered to my door and left in an appropriate place, to have them ring the doorbell and I receive it face-to-face or contactless, it’s in the trunk and I come out and retrieve it. This allows the customer to select an option.

We have just visited two companies: One eliminated waste and the other added to it. Which business are you?

By: Sheryl Mays Entrepreneur Leadership Network Writer

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★★★ Jay wants to mentor YOU with his exclusive Mastermind Mentoring Program! Start your journey with Jay here: https://bit.ly/2FbtM2X ★★★ For the first time ever in public, marketing icon Jay Abraham shares his business strategy that he has previously only shared with his high paying clients. He’s going go teach you the concept of Preemptive Marketing so you can instantly stand out in the eyes of your customers and dominate your market. Enjoy the session

How To Craft a Successful Social Media Content Strategy

The evolution of social media has given brands the opportunity to connect with their audience like never before.

For us, this means the ability to further our brand presence and voice, drive sales, and direct traffic all through utilizing our social media channels as an extension of our site.

Building a successful social media content strategy is more than just posting on every platform—it’s all about determining which platforms align best with your business.

There are so many different channels out there and more constantly popping up. (Seriously, it’s exhausting!)

Test what platform works best for you

My advice is to test out each platform and make it your goal to find a select group of social media channels that will really make an impact for your brand and drive ROI.

Take TikTok, for example. It’s one of the newest channels with huge potential for reach.

But when we tested it out as a new channel for AppSumo, it didn’t give us the ROI we hoped for. Because our audience demographic didn’t align as well on TikTok as it does on other channels like our Facebook Group, we decided our time was better spent focusing our efforts elsewhere.

And it was the right decision.

Here’s a graph of our Facebook Group engagement based on Posts, Comments, and Reactions from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 8, 2020. During that same time, we saw a 19.72% increase in our number of total members.

Example of progress from social media content strategy

It’s so important to set realistic content goals for your brand, figure out what the top priority is, and understand how your social media content strategy can help you reach those goals.

We set specific quarterly goals.

Whether you want to convert customers to buyers, drive brand awareness, or increase community engagement, the strategy you implement should be focused on those goals you set for yourself.

I found that when I focused on working towards a specific goal, I saw a noticeable improvement in our overall social media.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach and each social media platform you use may have a different goal.

Finding a social media content strategy that works best for your brand takes time, iteration, and patience. Consistency really is key when growing your social media presence!

Dive deeper into goals and metrics:

Know Your Audience and Conduct Research

Have a good understanding of who your target audience is when outlining your social media strategy. I find it helpful to do some research on your followers when determining what type of content will resonate best with them.

For example, in looking at AppSumo’s Facebook and Instagram data, I found that the majority of our audience is male and in the 25-44 age range. This is incredibly helpful when planning content out and trying to reach new target audiences.

By understanding our audience demographics, it helps us to determine which platforms we want to focus on.

Based on this data, we prioritize Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube in our social media efforts.

Think quality over quantity when you’re determining which platforms you want to utilize for your brand.

Demographics can help form a social media content strategy.

You also can use Agorapulse reports also to find out:

Where your fans are located
If your audience concentrated in a city or region
How old your fans are (the age brackets they fall into)

Example of demographics from Agorapulse’s reports

Dive deeper into research:

Know Your Competitors

In regards to the competition, I always suggest taking a look at what at least three competitors are doing on social media—this provides a great baseline for what works, what doesn’t, and which areas you can provide more value in than the competition.

To get started, find businesses that are in a similar industry, offer similar services, or what similar to what you aspire to be, and start your research from there.

What to look out for

Try to answer a few key questions:

What platforms are they using?
What type of content are they posting—videos, links, educational, photos, etc.?
How often are they posting?
What is their social media goal?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Once you have a good understanding of how your competitors are using social media, you can use this information to build out your own strategy.

Identify the gaps in their social media presence and use this to your advantage.

When you have this information under your belt, it’s easy to find ways in which you can improve and stand out among the competition.

We noticed that our competitors weren’t using video to promote their products and services. We decided to test this as a content strategy and saw a noticeable improvement in this metric.

Take a look at these results after we started creating daily videos:

Know your monthly gained subscribers to help form a winning social media content strategy.

When to Post

Consistency is key in regards to your social media presence.

When planning out content, I always do some platform-specific research to determine the best days and time to help maximize our reach with each time we publish.

At AppSumo, we make note of popular days and times, and schedule our most important content around them.

I also use a content calendar to help execute our social strategy.

It’s an easy way to help me plan, create, and manage all of our content in one place.

Tools We Use

We wouldn’t call ourselves AppSumo (where I work) if we didn’t namedrop some of the awesome tools we use for social media.

Along with the free linked tools, here are some personal favorites for my day-to-day work:

Agorapulse. This one’s an awesome way to manage your social media and schedule it in a clean way. I don’t have to dig through comments because the Social Inbox lets me filter through important messages. Plus, Agorapulse’s one-click reports are super-helpful for me to track metrics.
Canva. Canva is a powerhouse. This one’s great for inspiration and a lifesaver when creating graphics that don’t require a ton of graphic design skills. I like to incorporate these graphics into our Instagram when I can.
Crello. An AppSumo Partner, Crello is a great alternative to Canva and helpful for ideas. I use it to create graphics for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. It’s got awesome animations and requires no design skill.
Figma. I use this to create templates for things like our Instagram stories (blog shares, deal shares, etc.). It’s also great for quick and on-the-fly design edits for graphics.
Brand24. An internal marketing team fave, for sure. This one’s great for filtering all AppSumo content on the web. It shows you all mentions of specific keywords on your social media channels, even when you weren’t tagged.

Engage with Your Audience and Grow Your Following

Now that you’ve built out your content strategy, the goal is to continue to grow your following. (You’re not out of the woods yet!)

How often to post

The most important thing to remember when trying to grow your social media is to maintain a minimum number of posts per week based on days when your users are most active!

At AppSumo, we post about six days per week with a minimum of 2-3 posts a day.

How to create content for engagement

My advice is to create content that allows your audience to engage directly. I found that when I utilized interactive content, such as polls, we had significantly higher engagement.

Take a look at some of our recent polls, which directly ask our audience what types of content they would like to see more of. This is a super-easy way to promote engagement and actually get feedback directly from your audience.

Here’s us getting the conversation started:

The audience engagement doesn’t end with the content itself! Engage with them in the comment section, posts you are tagged in, and through direct messages.

One fun way to engage your audience is by creating a hashtag specific to your brand. That way, users can share the love when they post about your brand or products.

At AppSumo, we have a few: #AppSumo, #TacoToolsday, and #6FigureSumoling. This is a great way to get your followers talking about your brand and to see what is being said about your products, even when they don’t specifically @ you!

Dive deeper into engagement:

Check Analytics and Audit

Time to talk numbers.

No strategy would be complete without understanding which analytics are important for your brand.

Understanding what your audience likes will lead to more engagement, followers, and a cohesive feed! It seems simple, but creating content your audience actually wants to see can do so much for your social media strategy.

Invest $500 to get $2500 in a week completely legit

For example, on Instagram, I dive into our insights and take note of what content has the highest ‘Reach,’ ‘Shares,’ ‘Saves,’ and ‘Comments. These metrics are really great indicators of which content has performed well based on what our audience likes. That also gives it a boost with the algorithm and helps it reach a bigger audience:

To make the most of these analytics, I dive into our insights weekly. This helps me optimize our content and understand what works for the future!

In Conclusion

Building a successful social media content strategy takes time, but all the effort is worth it when you establish an audience that actually wants to connect and engage with you. That sort of reward will build upon itself tenfold!

Remember that consistency is key when trying to grow your social media presence. You should also keep in mind that finding the right strategy for your brand involves a bit of trial and error. (Trust us—we’ve had our share of hiccups at AppSumo. It’s all part of the learning process.) Set specific but realistic goals for your social media content strategy, listen to your audience, and the growth will follow.

Now get on that social media success track! Till next time!

By: Bronte Mojdehi

Get started on saving time and energy on your own social media management! Check out our free trial of Agorapulse to help you schedule, track, and measure all your social media efforts.

Caitlin Bacher

How To Quickly Create Social Media Content Most entrepreneurs spend WAY too much time creating content for social media. As a result, they avoid it entirely…leading to days or weeks without a single post. This is costing you traffic, leads, and customers…but it doesn’t have to be this way! In this video, you’ll learn my secret to quickly creating high-converting content on social media If you to learn EVEN MORE about how you can save time on social media, make sure to download your FREE copy of The Social Media Roadmap. FREE – THE FACEBOOK GROUP HOST ROADMAP: http://caitlinbacher.com/host-roadmap-3 JOIN THE #SOCIALBOSS FACEBOOK GROUP: http://caitlinbacher.com/fb-group TWEET THIS VIDEO: SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOS: http://youtube.com/caitlinbacher SAY HEY ON SOCIAL MEDIA! Instagram: http://instagram.com/caitlinbacher Facebook: http://facebook.com/caitlinbacher Twitter: http://twitter.com/caitlinbacher Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/caitlinbacher Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/caitlinb…

The Keys to Successful Online Course Creation

If you are employed as an instructional designer, then you know how challenging the job can be. Sure, it’s easy to just throw a course together and call it online learning, elearning, or digital learning, but it takes time, effort, and skill to create a quality course. So, we wanted to write a short blog that helps instructional designers do their jobs better, by listing the keys to successful online course creation.

1. Develop a clean class outline

Letting people learn at their pace is essential, but not guiding their path will almost always guarantee their failure. Remember, small wins lead to big wins. Big wins lead to success. Creating your classes with this in mind is the path to success. That’s why your class should be straightforward in nature, and learners should readily understand how to go about achieving the promised outcomes. It helps them know exactly what is the next step to take and what they have to gain from it.

Every module and lesson should have one objective or goal. When learners know what they’re working for and how they’ll benefit from it, they are much more likely to be motivated to follow along with the class, and they will learn faster. If a module has three to five or more goals, learners can’t wrap their minds around what they’re trying to accomplish, and it’s easy for them to get overwhelmed and drop out. Contemplate splitting a lesson into two or more shorter lessons to make the path easier to follow.

2. Create an exciting learning experience

A key aspect of making a successful online class is making it rewarding and frictionless. When learners feel empowered as opposed to confused and purposeless, completion rates increase! Better organization and reduced learner friction™ are what will keep customers more content.

Here are two effective techniques to create a rewarding and frictionless experience:

Content chunking
Content chunking is the technique of breaking content into smaller chunks that are easier to manage and learn. Small challenges or chunks are easier to handle and help learners comprehend the material faster and retain it all while exerting less effort.
Digital badges
If you want to inspire learners to finish your class, participate, and interact more with the teacher and the other learners, offering a tangible reward is an excellent method. Why? People love rewards. They want to feel unique, recognized, and essential. And if you can help them accomplish this, their self-confidence will increase, and they will be more willing to continue in your online class. How can you create tangible rewards for your learners? Start by using digital badges to reward your learners:
Provide a digital badge for class completion. People love sharing their achievements with the world and adding them to their CV.
Offer bonus points for accomplishments. When they reach milestones, they get points. They can then turn in their points for Amazon cash, gift cards, etc.
Design a virtual training “passport” and inspire participants to earn visas. The more modules they complete, the more visas (or badges) they receive.

3. Develop actionable class content

Although you may know a lot, resist the urge to pack your class with “nice-to-know” information. Learners want “must-know” information that they can apply to their daily lives. They want to know how to get ahead in their careers. They want marketable skills they can add to their resume.

Don’t ignore theory, but you need to find a way to connect it to the learners’ lives and make it actionable. You can do this by showing how theory can be applied to real situations, exposing case studies, finding applications in real-life issues, adding exercises, missions, and assignments to your class.

If learners can’t see how your content is relevant and don’t have a vision of what they can do with it, they will not learn it. Even if they do learn it so they can pass the assessment, they’ll likely forget about it in a short time. If they learn how to do something, they’re likely to complete the class, achieve their goals, apply the knowledge, and retain the information for a long time.

Actionable content not only tells your learners what to achieve but how to achieve it. It’s engaging, informative, and, most importantly, action-driven. Your learners bought a class instead of an eBook because they were looking for something more likely to help them achieve their desired outcomes. As a class creator, it’s your job to help them do that. You play a major role in helping your learners take action!

4. Separate your class into chunks

Many class creators feel like a longer class packed with lots of content is more valuable, but that’s far from the truth. Having too much content makes you lose customers and blurs the learning path. Remember, you want learners to come back for more, so keeping the lessons short and focused on a specific topic is vital. Breaking down a long class into smaller chunks or mini lessons that are easier for learners to digest increases motivation by giving them the feeling of progress.

The “zeigarnik effect” states that learners are more likely to remember tasks in progress than those they have completed. The zeigarnik effect indicates that people are more likely to want to complete a task once they have started it. This means that when you separate your class into small chunks, it gives learners the motivation to complete all the sections once they have started. It helps learners comprehend the content better, learn more of it, and remember it longer. It also makes each class goal clearer, more specific and easier to achieve.

Concluding thoughts

So that’s it for this article. We hope that it will help you in your quest to create successful online courses. Do you have any additional tips, techniques, or strategies that you would like to share with our readers? If so, leave them in the comment section below.

By Matthew Lynch

Latasha James 46.3K subscribers Sharing a step by step guide of how to create an online course! I created an online course in just a few days using Thinkific. My Video Content Creation for Business Course is out now: https://ajourneyeast.thinkific.com/co… Links Mentioned Thinkfic: https://get.thinkific.com/give-a-mont… ✖ WORK WITH ME » 1:1 Coaching https://latashajames.com/coaching/?ut… » Social Media and Influencer Marketing Courses https://ajourneyeast.thinkific.com/?u… » Social Media Marketing, Podcast + Video Editing https://www.jamesandpark.com/?utm_sou… ✖ LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH » podcast: the freelance friday podcast http://bit.ly/freelancefridaypodcast » instagram: @thelatashajames http://instagram.com/thelatashajames » twitter: @thelatashajames http://twitter.com/thelatashajames » facebook group: the freelance friday podcast community http://facebook.com/groups/microinflu… » business email: hello@ajourneyeast.com SUBSCRIBE for weekly videos on life as a social media manager, entrepreneurship tips, Detroit lifestyle, and travel: https://goo.gl/3Klxj9 ✖ DISCOUNT CODES » TubeBuddy is a must-have service for YouTubers: http://tubebuddy.com/latasha » Monetize your product links with Skimlinks: http://go.skimlinks.com/?id=67873X151… » Get 50% off your first 6 months of Quickbooks Self-Employed: http://fbuy.me/fumsv ☽ video is not sponsored. #SocialMediaManager #Freelancer #Entrepreneur

Tag: Marketing Course

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