Creating an online course is easy. Selling and promoting the course is where the difficulty lies.

Of course, there are several ways to sell your online course. But these online mediums just drive traffic to your course. You need a platform that further persuades people to buy it.

That’s where an online sales page comes in.

A sales page is your best option for highlighting the value of your online course in detail and selling your audience the transformation they’d get when they enroll in your course.

Its importance cannot be overemphasized as it can either boost sales or dwindle them for you.

Let’s get into detail about everything you need to know about an online course sales page.

What is an Online Course Sales Page?

An online course sales page is an online page where you sell your course. A sales page is the house where people visit to see the gold (your online course) you’re keeping.

So while your online course is waiting for your reader to enroll, the sales pages direct the reader’s attention to one thing – enrolling in your course.

Sales pages are very important to creators looking to sell their digital products. Every word, sentence, and image should lead to one action – influencing your student’s buying decision.

Types of Sales Pages

There are three main types of sales pages used to sell online courses. They all serve the same purpose and can be very effective if done correctly.

1. Text-only sales page

As the name implies, this type of sales page is in text form. All the information you want to pass on about your online course is written in texts. You may also include images to improve the reader’s experience.

2. Text and video sales page

This type of sales page is a combination of texts and videos. The video format is often a shorter and more direct form of the content. It could be a video that shows the product you’re trying to sell, or one that shows the benefits and features of the product. It could also be a video that includes all the sales copy, as well as product descriptions, giving the reader the option to either read or watch the video.

3. Video sales page

Here, all the content is written as scripts for the video to ensure its effectiveness. A video sales page is a video, hosted on a page that talks about your product, its features, and benefits. Instead of writing texts for the various sections of your sales page, you can record a video. When done correctly, a video sales page can be very effective.

How to Build an Online Course Sales Page

To build an effective and successful sales page, you need to have the right elements on the page. The most effective sales pages contain two most important things – text and elements.

The texts, also known as copy, are written to compel the reader to take action. While the elements further complement the copy in influencing the reader to take action.

We’ll look at how to write a compelling copy in detail later but for now, let’s look at the most important elements to add to your online course sales page.

Here are the major elements of an online course sales page.

• A gripping headline
• Descriptive subtitle
• Visual representation
• An opening story
• Course description
• Solution/offer
• Bonus
• Testimonials
• Instructor bio
• Pricing
• FAQ
• Call-to-action (CTA) buttons
• Guarantee

The order of these elements often doesn’t matter. But the most effective sales pages contain most, if not all of these elements. Let’s look at them in detail below.

1. A gripping headline

Your headline is the first thing your customers notice on your sales page. It’s your first shot at impressing your audience and winning them over. In this example from Triciabiz, her sales page headline says “Make money doing what you know and love.”

This headline is effective for this sales page because it resonates with her audience, and this is the kind of copy she needs to attract buyers to her course.

To write a gripping headline;

Understand your audience

Who are you selling to? How do they like to be known or referred to? Are they millennial bosses? Gen Z creators? Angel marketers? Whatever they are, call it out and let them know you are talking to them.

Go straight to the point

Your headline isn’t where you need to explain yourself or your course or why you decided to create it. For 80% of your audience, your headline is the only shot you have at capturing their attention. So, you do not want to blow it.

Write benefits, not features

One marketing hack when creating content for sales pages is to write in benefits and not features. Explain how a feature of your product or a module in your course makes life better, easier, and cost-effective for your reader.

Take your time

Write your headline, then rewrite it again. Continue trimming till you take out all the fluff. Sometimes it may take lots of writing and rewriting to come up with the perfect heading. So, don’t be afraid to do so.

2. Descriptive subtitle

Now that you’ve hooked your audience with your headline, it’s time to stimulate their interest with a detailed subtitle description. One that will get them excited and eager to take your online course.

When writing a subtitle, you want to be clear on what they stand to gain when taking your course.

Here’s an example of a description from Tricia Biz’s Monetize your Online Course

I won’t let you sign up without knowing what you’re signing up for, so here’s a breakdown of what you’ll be getting from me: An 8-week course that helps you CREATE, LAUNCH & SELL OUT your digital products PROFITABLY. This course is split into 3 phases to give you the results you need.

This description is very effective because Tricia;

• Describes what the course will teach the students.
• Uses power words like “Profitably” to make the students know that the course teaches them how to make money.
• Defines who the course is for.

Remember, no one is buying your course. They are buying an experience and transformation that they believe will change their lives.

3. Visual representation

Visual items are a powerful conversion tool you can use on your sales page. Items like high-quality stock photos, mockups, charts/graphs/diagrams, and videos.

Using visuals helps to break up your long forms of text to help your users better understand the concept of what you’re writing.

Here are several ways to use visuals on your sales page.

Mockup

Online courses can be hard to visualize unlike ebooks and other forms of digital products. Hence creating mockups for your online course helps your users to understand what your course looks like.

Image

Where texts don’t aid your marketing efforts, images are a better solution. A good-looking image will keep your users on your sales page and convey your information faster than when you have large chunks of text. More so, images help to give your user a break when reading your long sales copy.

Charts/graphs/diagrams

You can use charts to influence your user’s decisions by showing them relevant data. It can be used to further convince your users why they need to get your online course.

Video

Video is the most powerful visual for marketing. Everyone loves to watch videos. Whether it’s you narrating your personal experience and what motivated you to sell the course or a testimonial from one of your students, or a demo of how your course works, you’re sure to capture your reader’s attention with videos.

#4. An opening story

An opening story is where you show your reader that you understand their pain, need, or desire. At this point, your aim is to build a rapport with your students because you understand their current situation.

Typically, we recommend you share a story, a personal story of some sort if it fits with the course. You can share how a series of experiences that occurred in your life led you to create that course. By doing so, you build trust with your audience and get them to believe that they can get similar results.

Creating online video courses? Here is How to Make Online Video Courses That Sell

#5. Course description

Your course description should be short details about the content of your course as well as what the students stand to gain.

In this section, you tell your readers what they’ll learn, what they should expect to do after the course, its benefits, and a list of what is contained in the course.

Additionally, you break them into modules, lessons, and topics to give your prospects a full idea of what they stand to get.

#6. Bonus

Everyone loves to get stuff for FREE or at a discount. So, include any bonus material or offering that’s included in your course. These are meant to supplement your course material and enhance the overall learning experience for your students. They also help to increase the perceived value of your course.

Here are some examples of bonuses you could offer.

• Course completion certificate
• Downloadable resources
• Access to you
• One-on-one coaching sessions with you

Attaching a dollar price to each bonus you’re offering is an effective technique for increasing the perceived value of your course.

When people see that they are getting more in bonus than the amount of the entire course, they tend to be spurred to pay for it.

#7. Testimonials

Also called social proof, testimonials are a good way to influence the buying decisions of your students. If you say your course is great, there have to be people who think it’s great too!

Your reader needs to be assured that your course is as good as you say it is. And you’ve done your part. From the beginning of your sales page, you’ve emphasized so much on the awesomeness of your course. Now, it’s time to show what others are saying about it too.

So, highlight how awesome your course is by sharing someone’s experience with it. You could ask students already taking your course to write you a review.

However, do not use a fake testimonial. If it’s your first course and you’re just trying to get people to enroll, you can give access to a selected number of students in exchange for a review.

With Selar, you can collect reviews from your students and display them on your course sales page.

Yet to decide whether an online course is best? Read this guide on How to Sell Online Courses: Everything You Need to Know

#8. Instructor bio

The next thing people want to see is you. They want to be sure that you are qualified enough to teach the course.

Basically, you’re answering the question, “Who are you and why should we listen to you?”

The aim is to assure your readers that you have the experience, knowledge, and skills to create an XYZ course and sell it.

#9. Pricing

If you’re going to make a living from selling online courses, you might as well add your prices to the page. Since you are going to be driving traffic to your sales page, that serves as the best place to add your prices.

Additionally, your prices should be written clearly and concisely. List out all the prices you offer if they are of different tiers, spell out the benefits of each tier, and ensure you have a CTA button ready to be clicked for purchase. Having different price tiers gives your readers various options to choose from.

Never assume your reader knows what to do. Always guide them through the next step.

#10. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Give your readers all the answers they need before they start asking questions. An FAQ section is an opportunity to overcome your reader’s skepticism and make them believe that you’re here to provide all they need.

To form a list of FAQs, imagine a scenario where you had a 1 on 1 session with your prospects, what questions will they ask you?

Make a list of these potential questions, put them up on your sales page, and watch your readers turn into loyal customers.

#11. Money-back guarantee

The next thing you want to add to your sales page is a money-back guarantee. Let’s face it.

Before you get that new vacuum cleaner you want but have been doing without, you want to check if you can either get your money back or at least a one-year warranty. It’s the same everywhere and your prospective students are not an exception.

By adding a money-back guarantee, you show confidence in your product and bear the risks too.

You may decide to give a 100% money-back guarantee after the first 30 days or the first 2 weeks. Either way, do what works for you and your students.

#12. Call to action (CTA) buttons

The main aim of your online course sales page is to convert your readers into loyal students. Hence, for that to happen, you need to give them an easy way to enroll in your course. The most effective way to do that is to give them call-to-action (CTA) buttons.

Think of your CTA buttons as the opportunity you have to scream “enroll in my course now!!” So make them bold, loud, in-the-face of your students, and everything else that screams “enroll.”

Place them at strategic points on your sales page like the beginning, middle, and end. If your readers have to scroll down to the end of your page to find the button, then you’re wrong.

Use colors that pop and scream “buy me.” You’re marketing your online course, there’s no reason to be gentle, calm, or sexy about it. Go all out and place them at various points on your sales page. You can never have too many CTA buttons.

#13. A summary section

Some people may not have the patience to read everything on your sales page. They’d rather prefer to skim from top to bottom till they see something that captures their attention.

For these sets of people, it’s important to add a summary section, otherwise known as P.S. sections.

You can use this section to summarize your online course sales page and personalize it. It’s like the last piece of advice you give to your readers to get them to enroll.

Here’s an example;

Here’s a video on how to build high-converting sales pages.

How to Write a Compelling Copy for Your Online Course Sales Page

As established earlier, an effective sales page must contain a compelling copy. There are two ways to write compelling copy for your sales page like a pro. They are;

• PAS method – Problem, Agitate, Solution

• AIDA method – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

Let’s explain;

#1. PAS (Problem, Agitate, Solution) Method

This technique of copywriting involves stating your reader’s problem, agitating its problem, and providing a suitable solution.

Here, you let them know that you understand their plight. Then show them how worse their condition can get if they don’t take any action. The psychology of this is to show your readers how bad their lives can get. And the truth is, no one wants a terrible life especially when they can do something to prevent it.

So, to sell your Digital Marketing Made Easy course, tell your audience (potential digital marketers) how they’d be at the bottom of the ladder if they don’t evolve with the fast-paced digital marketing environment. Or how they’d probably continue the rat race of looking for a job or working at an excuse of a company producing less than the barest minimum results because they have nothing else to offer for the rest of their lives.

Then you can offer your course as their get-out-of-jail-free card. Taking your course equips them with all they need to know to excel at Digital Marketing. Feel free to make it sound cooler.

You’d also need to sell them an outcome, who they’d become after taking your course. What they’d know and be able to do after taking your course. The presentation of the solution should be very detailed. Details add credibility.

You will also need a call to action, of course. Multiple calls to action since you’re writing a sales page.

Thinking of which digital product is ideal? Here are 10 Best Digital Products to Sell Online

#2. AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) Method

In this copywriting method, you aim to first grab your reader’s attention, spark their interest, make them want more, and get them to take action.

Here, your first sentence is all you need to hook your readers. You only get one shot at this so if you’re going to use the AIDA formula, ensure you grasp their attention.

You may decide to use a general problem, personal experience, or fact to grab their attention. Afterward, you build interest by educating your prospects on your course and illustrating how it will make their lives better.

Desire, on the other hand, is about helping the consumer develop a favorable position for your brand. You can do this by using personal, emotionally-driven content to make your course irresistible.

Once you’ve succeeded in creating desire, the next step is to persuade prospects that they should take immediate action.

Tips to write better copy for your online course sales page

Here are some tips to bear in mind while writing copy using either of these methods.

1. Keep it simple

The last thing you want to do is pursue your customers with long, compound sentences, and ambiguous words. Present your course in clear simple terms that help your reader easily understand what they stand to gain.

2. Go straight to the point

People who come to your sales pages aren’t waiting to read your life’s challenges or why you’ve decided to sell a course. They’re skimming your page to find out what you’re selling and how it benefits them.

To present your points clearly, use bullet points, and strong headlines and write in short sentences.

3. Sell

It’s called an online course sales page for a reason right? So sell. Sell your course, its content, and yourself. You’re allowed to be more pushy than normal. There’s no need to be cute about it. You’re selling, so do just that.

4. Have a unique selling point (USP)

Also known as a unique value proposition, a USP helps your reader to better understand your offering.

Your online course USP comprises three things – Who your course is for, What it helps them do, and Why it is beneficial to them. Bringing these ideas all together helps you to create a USP in one sentence that speaks directly to your reader and gets them to take action.

5. Write for benefits not features

Writing for benefits positions your course as one that understands your reader’s plight. This means that instead of talking about how rich and valuable the content of the course is, you can talk about how having the extra knowledge from your course helps your audience land better job opportunities.

Read this guide on 6 Secret Formulas To Writing Effective Sales Copy for Your Online Course

Create an Online Sales Page Designed to Sell

It’s time to build your own online course sales page. We’ve already talked about the components of an effective sales page, as well as tips to help you write better copy.

Selar offers you an easy-to-build sales page. No technical knowledge is required, just drag and drop the various sections of your sales page to life.

Remember that a good sales page is supposed to sell your online course, so take your time and create the best sales page you possibly can.