Why Sales Are Slow And How The Right LMS Software Can Help You Sell Courses Online
Nabbing that first sale can put you over the moon. But you might immediately fall into a panic over your next sale, especially if it takes a while. Once you’ve established predictable sales volumes, you can begin to relax. When those course sales suddenly dip, there has to be a cause. How do you identify and repair this turnaround in your income levels? Let’s look at likely suspects and how the best tools to sell online courses can help—namely, an LMS that takes care of the eCommerce component for you.
7 Reasons Why You Should Consider Investing In An LMS
1. Inadequate Market Research
“Build it, and they will come” may work for fictional baseball stadiums…not so much for online courses. If you design a course no one wants, sales will suffer. LMS implies your course may be in-house. Even if it’s built for external sale, the log-in option suggests some measure of pre-purchase customer access. Use it to survey prospects and find the exact content they’re interested in. It provides a ready market and assures ongoing sales. One of the best tools to sell online courses is an LMS that makes checkout a breeze and offers valuable marketing data.
2. Lack Of An Online Presence
Uninitiated business-people fall into two categories. Some think social media can fix everything, but they’re not always willing to pay for effective campaigns. Others think their sales worked “just fine” before the internet and see no need to jump in. The digital space is today’s most effective sales channel, and it’s irresponsible not to be online, especially for eLearning products. An LMS with a shopping cart can help you venture into the eCommerce world with minimal experience. The backend checkout coding is already in place, for the most part. Plus, having a built-in shopping cart lends your course more credibility so that you can expand your online reach.
3. Ineffective Shopping Cart Support
Almost everyone has abandoned a virtual shopping cart, and it’s not always planned. Some check-out processes are just way too detailed. The form has so many tabs that it almost feels like setting a password. Invest in LMS with the cart built in. This eases the purchase process and can allow you to run promotions, discounts, coupons, pre-orders, and other sales techniques. Ask your LMS vendor what eCommerce tools their product possesses.
4. Poor User Experience
Pretty products are important, especially online. You may think it’s an eLearning course, so tech gets the better of aesthetics, but your buyers may not be as tech-savvy as you are. If they’re going to spend weeks staring at your screen, they want a pleasant visual experience. They also need it to be easy to use. Develop simple video tutorials and a chatbot/assistant that pops up when they seem stuck. Make sure it doesn’t distract them, though, or offer help so often that your learners feel patronized. Balance is everything. Many LMSs with shopping cart functionality give you the power to customize your checkout template.
5. Low Focus On Problem-solving
Why do we buy new items? Maybe our existing ones are old or damaged, or maybe we want to stay in fashion. It could even be a treat after a hard week. There’s always a distinct reason for purchase. With online courses, it may be an element of compliance or a career progression tool. Before you put your product on the market, be clear on its raison d’ être, then clearly chart this existential query for prospective buyers. They need to see what the problem is and how your online course solves it. It may help them spot a challenge they hadn’t realized they were facing.
6. Extended Module Length
The main selling point of online courses is their flexibility. Trainees may need to study in spurts of five or ten minutes. So, if your units are fifteen minutes or longer, you may want to reconsider your strategy. You may worry ten minutes is too brief to teach in-depth. Solve the problem with course summaries. It could be a bullet list or an infographic. They can review these when they’re short on time. Then when they have space and scope, they can study your longer modules. You can even use an LMS with a shopping cart to give them a free sneak peek so that they can see the benefits for themselves.
7. Inadequate Media Options
If you’ve recently read anything about online marketing, you know video is all the rage. They get more click-throughs than text or static images. Bonus points if you offer subtitles, translations, and closed captions. But…and this is important…not everyone can learn by watching a video. So, if you’re over-relying on recorded tutorials, find an LMS that offers variety, such as one that can edit audio clips, design infographics, and easily format text, as well as provide you with the best tools to sell online courses.
Conclusion
There are lots of reasons why your sales may be lower and slower than anticipated. A good LMS with a built-in shopping cart can solve most of them. Sales barriers include inadequate research, lack of digital marketing, poorly configured carts, and unappealing interfaces that are hard to use. It’s also a problem if units are too long, your course doesn’t solve learner problems, or your media is too restrictive. Invest in LMS that’s eCommerce-ready, and you can resolve these challenges, pushing up your sales in the process.
Find the ideal LMS with a shopping cart for your new online course. You can filter results by pricing model, use case, and other key criteria to invest in the best LMS for your needs. As well as view the latest ratings and reviews for each platform and compare your top choices.
