How To Start Your Own eLearning Business

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Technology has transformed both teaching and learning. Education is no longer confined to the classroom. As instructors and students now have digital tools to virtual eLearning systems to facilitate teaching and learning. Statistics on the eLearning market size in 2020 show that mobile learning remains one of the fastest-growing industries in the sector. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever-growing number of mobile users across the world. Experts predict that mobile eLearning will rise to $37.6 by the end of 2020. With the eLearning industry projected to be worth $325 billion by 2025, online learning or eLearning seems to be one of those lucrative business ideas. 

What Is An Online Learning Business And Why Should You Start One? 

Online learning business is an online learning platform run by a brand or an individual who is passionate about or skilled in a particular niche. 

An eLearning platform allows you to run a profitable business that can generate revenue in numerous ways including: 

● Selling online courses and eBooks 
● Selling subscriptions where students get access to a broad range of eLearning materials. 

Online schools have become a staple of modern-day education. For budding eLearning business, this creates a brilliant opportunity if you are proficient at a certain skill. You can also allow other educators to be a part of your online learning platform to add their courses and sell them to the target audience. 

Here are some effective tips to help you build an eLearning business and set up an online eLearning platform. 

Choose An Industry 

If you are already in an industry that fits the eLearning space, you are half done. However, if you are just beginning, choose an industry that is perfect for online learning like business opportunities, education, computer and information technology, health and fitness, art, etc. 

Set Learning Objectives 

When starting an eLearning business, it is very important to set the objectives clearly. The objectives will set a guideline for both educators and students and offer them insights on the outcomes. Define a detailed business plan using your objectives to develop a vague idea of a full-fledged plan to accomplish your goals. 

When starting out, your business plan need not be in-depth. Instead, you can use the basic business plan as an opportunity to set objectives and goals. Create your operational and marketing strategy and define how you are going to launch and run your eLearning business. 

Choose A Business Model 

Selecting a business model is an important step towards creating an eLearning business. Along with the business model, define a sales funnel that determines how a potential learner can research and buy your learning courses without the need for any help. 

A business model primarily defines how your business generates revenue from your services. eLearning is a profitable industry, but with the fierce competition going on, it is important to find effective ways to make a profit out of your online courses. 

Here are some of the effective ways to generate revenue by selling your online courses. 

● Selling Individual Courses 

Charging your students for individual courses is the easiest to implement revenue model. Paying for single courses is less intimidating than paying for subscriptions for students who are new to your eLearning website. And once they are familiar and satisfied with your offerings, they would be ready to pay every month for accessing your online learning platform. 

● Charge Students For Certifications 

Subscriptions are yet another best revenue strategy where you offer your courses to learners for free and just charge them for certification. This will attract more users as you are offering the courses for free. 

This also helps in establishing trust and collecting information to create an email list of interested students which you can utilize for marketing purposes. Offer your students the benefit of accessing your courses for free and then charge them for certifications that most of them would be interested to pay for. 

● Charge Membership 

When a user trusts your brand, they would be interested to pay a subscription fee for ongoing classes. Build a bundle of online courses that will attract your users to sign for your program if they are convinced they would gain value out of it. 

Set Up An Online Learning Platform 

The most important step of launching your eLearning business is building your online learning platform. When setting up an online eLearning platform, you need to choose the right development method- whether you are going to build the platform from scratch or use ready-made solutions. 

If you want to address the unique requirements of your business and launch your business on a large scale, you can consider creating your online learning platform from scratch. 

However, that’s a lengthy and expensive method. Why spend your valuable efforts and money when the work is already done. The best recommendation to build an eLearning platform is to use a white label solution that comes ready with important features like integrated tools for creating and publishing courses, payment integration, multi-language support, admin dashboard, etc. 

These readymade solutions are open sources that will help you edit, modify, and customize your eLearning platform according to your unique requirements and goals. 

If you need fast deployment, investing in an eLearning software will prove to be more cost- effective in the long run. Moreover, you can implement the unique branding of your business without investing a lot in the development process. Instead, you can channelize your efforts and time on creating your online eLearning brand and selling your online courses. 

Create Great Online Courses 

Before you launch your online platform, make sure you have relevant courses that align with your niches. No one would prefer visiting your website where there is no rich content. Make sure your online courses feature a combination of rich images, videos, infographics, PDF, etc. to make it appealing to your target audience. 

The best thing about having your own eLearning platform is that you can modify the content to your courses according to the feedback of your students. 

Price Your Online Courses 

Strategize your online courses in a way it fits your business model. Each course must be designed according to the value it offers. When it comes to setting the price for your online courses, it greatly depends on what you are offering to your target users. 

To understand the standard market price, take a look at the pricing of your competitor brands. If your online courses have better value than theirs, you can price your courses even higher. 

Promote Your Business 

Once you set up your online learning platform, the next step is to promote your eLearning business. The marketing strategy you select must align with your target audience and the current network as well. 

Here are some of the marketing strategies you can leverage to promote your online business. 

● Email Marketing 

Email marketing is one of the efficient and primary marketing strategies used by businesses to drive a good amount of traffic to your eLearning platform. To make your emails work, customize each of them when you send out to your students. 

Leverage the analytics to understand the interests of your students based on their browsing history to send out emails that appeal to them. 

Personalized email campaigns always bring in the best results. If you already have a big network of users, use email marketing to notify your community when you launch your online learning business. 

● Social Media Marketing 

Social media marketing is another way to promote your online courses. When launching new online courses, you can use YouTube to publish the promo videos of your courses to reach out to new customers. 

Not just YouTube, you can also use social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc. to promote your online courses and business. 

● Influencer Marketing 

Influencer marketing is yet another marketing strategy that is easy to establish. Once you have an established identity of an authorized online educator, you can start gaining momentum by inviting popular personalities from the industry and offer appropriate invitations and links to your students. You can also offer them an affiliate deal and share 50% revenue of the enrolments done via influencer marketing. 

Set Up Ratings And Reviews 

Setting up a review system is important for the organic ranking of your eLearning platform. Search engines continuously analyse reviews and 5-star ratings and this significantly affects your ranking in search results. 

Good customer reviews will increase the willingness of potential students to enroll in your courses. When you have got excellent customer reviews for your educational websites, you can post them on social media as well to spread the word. 

E-Learning Business Conclusion 

Online learning is one of the most lucrative industries and to enter into it, it takes less effort and minimal costs. With that said, you must approach your eLearning business with a strategic mindset. Take enough time to choose your niche and acquire all the essential tools you need to build a professional eLearning brand. 

Now is the best time to enter into the profitable online learning market. So why wait to get started, launch your own eLearning business now.

Kathy Alameda is working as a leading experts on building and implementing the learning strategies. She has led learning and performance improvement projects over the last several years. Currently a marketing consultant at https://www.pinlearn.com/

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