Learning how to pre-launch your online course may be the one thing you need to hit your sales target.

It involves selling your course online when it’s still in the preparation stage while building anticipation for it. Also, it’s a great way to generate cash flow while your course is still in the works.

Let’s explore how you can pre-launch your online course and make massive sales from it.

How to Pre-launch Your Online Course

Here’s how to pre-launch your course successfully and make sales.

1. Set a timeline

The first step to pre-launching your course to sell out is to have a timeline. This timeline includes the time taken from the ideation of your online course to creating, editing, designing, pre-launch, and launching.

A timeline helps you know when you should finish creating your online course, and when you should start marketing.

To set a timeline;

• Determine your launch date: Choose a launch date for your online course and work backward from that date to create your pre-launch timeline. Consider factors such as holidays, weekends, and other significant events that may impact your launch. Ideally, you should have at least one month of pre-launch if you already have an audience. But if you don’t, you’d want to dedicate at least six months to building an audience before setting a pre-launch date.
• Identify pre-launch tasks: Make a list of all the tasks you need to complete before the launch date. This may include creating marketing materials, developing your course content, building an email list, and conducting webinars.
• Assign task deadlines: Assign specific deadlines to each task on your list. Be realistic with your deadlines and consider any external factors that may impact your ability to complete the task on time.
• Prioritize tasks: Prioritize your tasks based on their importance and impact on your pre-launch. Tasks that have a higher impact on your launch should be given priority.

It is important to know that you must not have completed your course content before pre-launching.

Ideally, pre-launching is a marketing strategy where you build anticipation for your product. You are letting your audience know that something is coming and they should be prepared for it.

But if you’ve set a launch date and have announced it, you must have your online course ready.

2. Build an email list

Once your timeline is ready, the next thing is to go email hunting. This involves moving your audience from social media to an email list where you can have closer communication with them.

If you already have a community on social media, it can be easy to move them to your email list.

However, if you want to expand your reach, consider giving out a valuable freebie to make people join your email list.

The most effective way is to offer a lead magnet. A lead magnet is an incentive to lure people to give you their email addresses. It could be in form of an ebook, template, worksheet, webinar, mini-course, etc.

The deal is to make sure that whatever you want to give out is valuable to your audience.

Next, once people have signed up for your email list, nurture them with valuable content, such as blog posts, videos, or webinars.

This will help build trust and credibility with your potential customers and keep them engaged with your emails.

And as your pre-launch date approaches, use your email list to announce your course, offer pre-launch pricing or bonuses, and create a sense of urgency. This will encourage your email subscribers to enroll in your course and help you achieve a successful launch.

LEARN: How to Successfully Launch an Online Course

3. Create buzz on social media

This is probably the best part of pre-launching an online course. It’s the part that most creators are most familiar with.

It simply involves running your mouth on social media and telling people to pre-order your course at a discounted price.

To do this you need to have a content strategy. One that outlines the type of content to share, the frequency of posting, and the aim of each content.

You may decide to share personal experiences that led to the creation of the course, or ideas you have that made you create the course.

You may also share snippets of your course content on social media to give your audience a taste of what’s to come. This can include short videos, infographics, or quotes that highlight key concepts.

Here’s an example of creating a pre-launch buzz on social media.

Next, engage with your followers by responding to comments, asking questions, and creating polls. This will help you build a community of people who are interested in your course and excited to learn more.

4. Host online events

Notice how during a movie release, the actors go on press releases, attend online events, share lots of behind-the-scenes content, and interact with their followers more?

It’s a way of promoting the movie to build anticipation for its release. And it works all the time.

Replicate this same strategy by hosting online events such as webinars, Instagram Lives, Twitter spaces, Q&A sessions, etc.

Webinars give potential students a taste of what your online course will be like. You can create a webinar around a specific topic related to your course and offer valuable insights and information that your audience will find useful.

Q&A sessions, on the other hand, help you generate interest in your online course. During the session, you can answer questions related to your course topic and provide valuable insights and information.

You can also offer a special discount or early-bird pricing to those who sign up for your course during the Q&A session.

By interacting with your audience online, you can introduce your course, create enough buzz around it, and even pre-launch it.

SEE: 7 Secrets to Hosting a Successful Webinar

5. Offer a pre-launch discount

Probably the most important way to pre-launch your course is to offer a pre-launch discount.

A pre-launch discount is a special offer that you make available to those who sign up for your course before it is available to the general public.

You can also use it to create a sense of urgency amongst your audience. This can encourage them to sign up for your course sooner rather than later, which can help to increase sales and generate buzz around your course.

Additionally, it encourages your audience to spread the word about your course to their friends and followers. This can help to increase visibility for your course and generate more sales.

With Selar, you can easily set a pre-order price for your course before its official release. All it takes is to tick a box.

LEARN: How To Create A Pre-order Product on Selar

Ready to pre-launch your online course?

Pre-launching your online course is an effective marketing strategy to help you sell out more of your online courses.

When people say “fake it till you make it,” we flip it to say, tirelessly talk about your course till you launch it.

By building anticipation and generating interest before your course officially launches, you can attract more students, build a community around your course, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your field.