Your Idea For Your Course Topic Isn’t The Only Consideration

The process of building out an online course can be so exciting! You’ve done your research, decided on your stellar topic, and maybe have even started to plan out some modules… and then it hits you. “I have the idea, but how do I actually put together an online course? Where does my course live on the internet? What features do I need to make my course function? Do I need additional supporting software or programming to make my course and lead generation function seamlessly?”

Making all these decisions and deciding what exactly you need to bring your dreams to fruition can be daunting, to say the least, but it doesn’t have to be! We are here to help you identify what you need from an online course builder so that when you’re comparing online course platforms you know exactly what functions to look for.

The Meat of Your Course: The Classroom

Student Interface

When you’re comparing online course platforms, this is probably your first concern. The interface between the student and the course material is extremely important. You want to make sure that your online course platform is streamlined and intuitive for your students. So what options do you need to have?

Your online course builder should have modules and categories that are easy for your student to navigate. Not only this, but when you’re comparing online course platforms, make sure that the platform gives you multiple layout options so you can choose what’s best for your style and material. It’s the little details that count and provide a branded feel to your course. 

Instructor Interface

It’s important to note that the online classroom shouldn’t only be easy for your students. It should be easy to set up on the instructor side as well. This includes having straightforward navigation tools and layouts. You don’t want to spend hours and hours delving into an overly complicated online course builder, so this too is an important consideration when you are comparing online course platforms.

Ideally, your chosen online course builder can break down each module you create into subcategories or lessons. These lessons should be easy to navigate and offer you a variety of ways to interact and engage with your student. When comparing online course platforms, you want to make sure that they support uploading video, audio, PDF, and other documents formats. This ensures that you can provide your student with all the materials they need to be successful in your course.

Course and Classroom Functionality

When you are comparing online course platforms, make sure you give some thought to exactly what features you might like. Do you, for example, want the ability to administer checkpoint quizzes in your course? These can help to keep students engaged in the material. 

Your online course builder should be able to score these quizzes and let you, as the instructor determine, if there is a minimum passing score. In addition to this, your online course builder should allow you to decide whether the student has to pass the quiz to continue with the course material. This might not be a function that everyone needs, according to their content and audience, but it’s an important consideration when comparing online course platforms.

It’s also important to give your students a way to provide feedback while they are going through your course. For this reason, you should make sure that your online course builder has the functionality to allow people to comment on lessons. These comments will provide valuable information for future edits to your course. 

When you are comparing online course platforms, making sure that your course school is set up properly is only one piece of the puzzle. Your course is only as valuable as it’s… marketing. 

The Backbone of Your Course: The Marketing

That’s right, having an amazing course isn’t all that valuable if you don’t have enough people finding your course who are interested in taking it! 

Unfortunately, when comparing online course builders, you’ll find that marketing and lead management tools are frequently left out. This is truly a shame because it means you’re stuck having to piece together a marketing system with multiple different services and subscriptions. Not only that, you’re then responsible for making sure that all those services are synced up and working together as they should be. There is enough research and work to create your actual course, let’s just agree to cut the additional marketing platform hassles out, sound good?

Those hassles are exactly why we suggest looking into all-in-one online course builders. There are other tools you'll need, in addition to the actual course school, in order to have a successful online course. 

Funnels

People need a place to go to learn about and buy your course. This makes having at least one sales funnel a MUST! This is set up to not only give people information on your course, but to sell them your course. 

Funnels can have videos, forms for you to gather information from potential enrollees, checkout pages, and so many other customizable options. Funnels are definitely one of the most important pieces to successfully selling your online course, but many course builders don’t offer this crucial component. 

Email Nurture Sequences

Unless your ideal client knows you really well from your social media presence or YouTube channel, they might need a little bit of nurturing before they purchase your course. This is the perfect opportunity for email marketing. 

Email marketing is so important to every online business, but again, it’s a piece of the puzzle that’s missing from many popular  online course platforms. Aside from only having to learn one system (instead of five or more), there are many other benefits to having your email management and course under the same platform.

You want to  continue to nurture people as they go through your course, and automated email marketing is a great way to do that. Email sequences can be scheduled and sent out automatically when someone takes action in your course. Say they finish the first module, or complete the whole course, an email can be automatically sent to them congratulating them on their achievement!

These touches and integrations make your student feel seen and encouraged which greatly improves their experience. If you’re new to email marketing, we’ve got a great guide here, laying out all the basics that you need to know.

Contact Management

Are you getting excited about creating and marketing your online course? We’ve discussed a lot of functions of both the course itself and the system in which it lives.  When you’re comparing online course builders, all these elements are important because they contribute to the big picture.

Now imagine your entire course creation ecosystem. The course itself, your sales funnel, your email sequence, and your contacts are all in one place. This enables you to fully follow your customer through their journey from first learning about you, to finishing your course and beyond.

You can track their course progress, keep a running transcript of communications with them, and use their experience to improve your overall system while keeping all your lead gathering, sales, customer communications, and courses in one place. Sounds like a course creator’s dream, doesn’t it?

Meet Social Fox: Your Course Creation Ecosystem

It’s a beautiful thing, right? Sounds too good to be true?

When you’re comparing online course builders what you typically find are good platforms with missing pieces. You are left to fill in the blanks. Spending your valuable time researching which funnel company is better or how to link your email management system up with your course platform.

With Social Fox, there are no missing pieces. You can have your entire course creation ecosystem in one place, under one login [who needs more passwords to remember anyways]. This allows you to track [and optimize] your customer’s journey from beginning to end. Hooray!

Whether you are starting your course business from the beginning and are looking for a one stop shop or you are an experienced course builder who’s tired of troubleshooting to make sure all your services are synced up, Social Fox is the place to house your course, and so much more.

Jump on a call with us today for a free demo and we will show you why.