How to Use Online Courses to Build Your Personal Brand? 

Introduction

Did you know that 42 percent of companies report an increase in revenue after implementing eLearning? 

Creating courses is an excellent way to build your brand and attract new customers. You can cover topics that teach your customers how to use your products. Or you can create a masterclass to train them to be experts too. 

But how do you create a successful course? What tools and resources do you need? Stay tuned.

This blog will discuss the importance of online course creation for your business and you’ll learn how to use online courses to build your personal brand.

What is a Personal Brand?

A personal brand is a set of unique identifiers that distinguishes an individual or company in the eyes of the target audience. Personal branding can include everything from a name and logo to a tagline and social media presence. These elements can help businesses stand out from the competition and attract new customers.

Whatever your business goals, a personal brand can help you achieve them. But building a strong one takes time and effort. Some key characteristics of a strong personal brand include authenticity, consistency, a clear purpose and message, and adding value to customers.

However, creating branding courses is one of the most effective and rewarding ways to go about it. These courses can showcase your expertise and share your unique point of view with the world. They can also help build your reputation as an authority in your field.

Why is Branding Important for Business Owners?

Branding is essential for any business owner because it helps to create a unique identity for the company and sets it apart from its competitors. 

By creating a recognizable name and logo, businesses can promote their products and services more effectively, attract new customers, and build a loyal following. Moreover, a well-crafted brand can help business owners to attract investment, gain competitive advantage, and increase market share.

Personal branding can be a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes. Small businesses can create a more distinctive identity and attract attention from potential investors and customers using personal branding. Large companies, on the other hand, can use personal branding to build a loyal customer base and raise awareness of their products and services.

Ultimately, branding ensures that customers know who to contact when they need assistance or need to purchase a product or service. By developing a clear and distinctive identity, businesses can ensure that customers easily find them online.

How Can Online Courses Help You Build Your Personal Brand?

1. Attract More Clients

When you create a course specifically for your business, you signal that you understand your unique selling proposition and what your customers need. This will help you stand out from the competition and attract more clients who are interested in your services. 

By providing them with information that they can use to improve their lives, you will make them more likely to seek you out for help. Additionally, creating a course can help you improve your customer service skills, making it easier for you to serve your current and future clients. 

Overall, creating online courses is a great way to increase your business’s reach and potential client base.

2. Increase Your Credibility and Authority

Creating online courses establishes you as an expert in your field. It demonstrates your knowledge and professionalism. And your audience looks to you as a source of information and guidance. 

You can also include additional resources, such as links to further studies. This allows you to show your audience that you have done thorough research within your field.

Think about it—if you’re looking to become a better cook, wouldn’t you want to take a cooking course from a professional chef? Of course, you would. And the same concept applies to online courses. People want to learn from the experts, and that’s exactly what you’ll be when you create and teach your brandable courses.

3. Build Community and Loyal Fans

When you create online courses, you’re also building a community of people interested in what you offer. And that can be a precious asset for your business. 

People are more likely to stick with you if they know that they can count on you to teach them the latest and most effective information. And if your content is top-notch, they’ll likely recommend it to their friends and colleagues.

The best way to grow your course is to create a forum where learners can connect with you and their peers. You can post to your Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or Pinterest accounts, and you will be able to reach a large group of people at one time.

4. Drive Scalable Revenue

Online courses can help drive scalable revenue for businesses by providing an opportunity to reach a new audience, increase customer engagement, and drive down costs for customer acquisition. 

They can provide valuable employee training and development, improving efficiency and productivity. 

You can also earn passive income by charging a fee for access to content, selling products or services associated with the course, or charging for certification or other achievements.

The Online Course Industry Outlook

The online course industry is growing by leaps and bounds, with new players and platforms always entering the market. In 2017, about 77 percent of US corporations used online courses, but 98 percent planned to incorporate them into their program by 2020. 

Consequently, the US eLearning market is set to grow by $21.64 billion between 2020 and 2024. The COVID-19 pandemic played a major role in this development. In the wake of the pandemic, numerous schools and universities were forced to shut their doors and move their courses online. This created a boom in the online course industry, as more people turned to online classes to continue their education. 

Moreover, many lost their jobs and needed new skill sets to fit into new markets or supplement their existing income streams. Fortunately, online courses proved to be generally more affordable than traditional courses, making them an excellent option for budget-conscious learners.

The online course industry still has immense potential for growth in the coming years. There is an increasing demand for education and training due to the increasing workforce needs in the current economy. And the proliferation of internet-enabled devices has made it easier for people to learn new things. 

No longer are people limited to attending traditional classes in person. They can learn whatever they want, when they want, from the comfort of their own homes. With more and more people preferring to learn from online sources, the online course industry will remain relevant for a long time.

10 Steps to Creating a Successful Online Course to Build Your Personal Brand

1. Pick a Course Idea

You’ve probably heard the saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Well, the same is true for creating a course. You need to start with a solid idea before putting all the pieces in place. 

But how do you pick the right course idea? Start by brainstorming a list of topics related to your target customers’ search intents and narrow down your list by focusing on specific and relevant ideas to your niche. You can use idea management software to collect your data in one place.  

It’s best to stick to one main topic and teach one thing. As your brand grows and you start to get more traffic, you can branch out and create more detailed and in-depth courses on different topics.

This way, even if your main topic begins to plateau or slows down in terms of interest, you have other courses you can fall back on to continue building your brand.

2. Validate Market Demand for Your Course Idea

Before you put in significant time and effort into creating a course, it’s essential to validate the market demand for your idea. After all, you don’t want to create a course no one wants to take. 

Validating the market demand for your course will help you understand if there’s a market for it. It will also help you determine what type of audience would be interested in your course.

To validate market demand, you need to research your competition and analyze the performance of their courses. Similarweb can provide you with reliable insights about your competitors. 

3. Create Compelling Learning Outcomes

What do you want your target market to accomplish when they finish the course? Creating compelling learning outcomes will help you focus on what’s important. 

Informing your target audience beforehand about the learning outcomes gives them a target to aim for and helps them measure their progress as they work through the course. 

One way to create compelling learning outcomes for your online course is to develop a clear and specific educational goal. You should articulate this goal with regard to what your target audience will learn and be able to do as a result of completing the course. 

4. Write Your Course Outline

A course outline will help you determine what content or key areas you need to address in your course. It will help you stay on track and focused as you create your course so that you don’t stray from the relevant topic or miss out on essential details. 

To create an outline, start by brainstorming the topics you want to cover in your course. Once you have a list of topics, start organizing them in a sequence. Begin with the most important topics and fill in the details as you go.

As you write your outline, keep your target audience in mind and include any resources or materials they will need to complete the course. Define the purpose of each module in your course and draft a table of contents for each one. Finally, create a timeline for each module.

5. Determine the Most Engaging and Effective Delivery Methods for Each Lesson

It’s essential to think about how you’ll deliver each lesson. After all, you want to ensure that your customers are engaged and learning as conveniently as possible. It would help if you switched things up a bit to keep them interested and engaged. Variety is the spice of life, and it’ll keep your target customers on their toes.

Different delivery methods work better for different types of learners. Some people prefer listening to a lecture, while others prefer reading a text or engaging in problem-based learning activities. 

You need to cater to all their needs if you want them to effectively understand your brand. You may not plan everything right in the first stage, so you must pay attention to customer reactions and ask for their feedback.

6. Film and Edit Your Course

When filming and editing your online course, you must have the right tools for the job—starting with a good camera. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but make sure it’s in good working order and has a decent zoom. 

High-end mobile devices with excellent cameras can also suffice for the job. Next, you must invest in good video editing or capture software. 

Once these resources are in place, find a quiet space with plenty of light to do the filming. This will help to make your course look polished and professional.

7. Choose a Platform for Your Online Course

There are several platforms where you can upload your online course. The most popular ones include Udemy, Course Report, and Skillshare. You can also use learning management systems like Thinkific and Podia to sell your online course. Each platform has unique pros and cons, so it is important to choose the one that is best suited for the specific course.

Thinkific allows users to create and sell courses on various topics. It offers user-friendly tools, such as a course creator toolkit and an easy-to-use marketplace, which makes it easy for course authors to get started. 

However, Udemy does not offer a dedicated email marketing service, so course authors must invest in their marketing campaigns to reach potential audience.

Course Report is a more specialized platform that focuses on educational content. It offers a range of features, such as video and audio hosting, course evaluation tools, and an instructor directory, which makes it easier for course authors to find qualified instructors. 

However, Course Report does not have a large user base, so there may be a shortage of courses available when a user searches for them.

8. Create a Community

You need to create a community of active people engaged with your course, asking questions and discussing topics with each other. You can do this through email marketing, social media, or your course’s forums. Each of these communication channels has its pros and cons. 

For example, email marketing tools allow you to send targeted emails to large groups of people at a go. However, it doesn’t foster interactivity, so you’ll likely miss out on engagement if you rely solely on email communication. 

On the other hand, social media is an excellent option for engagement. You can create groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, or telegram. Or host Twitter spaces to discuss with learners. 

These platforms enable you to get feedback from your target market to tweak your course content as needed. Whichever social media platform you choose, ensure you have control over the comments on your posts so that it’s easy to track what they say about your course.

9. Market Your Course

So you’ve created a course—fantastic! Now it’s time to start marketing it to ensure it reaches your target market. How do you go about doing that? 

First, set up a landing page that’s attractive and easy to navigate. This page is where potential customers will learn more about your branded course and sign up, so you need to create strong, persuasive sales copy to convince the prospect to take action.

Next, create a social media campaign posting your course on various platforms. Use the search function of these platforms to find groups and conversations where your target audience revolves. 

However, this process can be stressful. Instead, use paid advertising to drive traffic to your landing page. Finally, optimize your landing page for SEO, so it pops up in search engine results.

Final Thoughts

Now that you know how to use online courses to build your personal brand, it’s time to get started on your own. 

Keep in mind that your online courses are an extension of your brand, and you should take the same care in creating them as you would any other aspect of your business. Make sure they’re high quality, informative, and engaging, and you’ll be well on your way to establishing yourself as a leader in your field.