Cheap Revolution

Launching an online course or product: Platforms and Process

This summer I set out to launch an course for people seeking to enter the medical marijuana business in PA.   I wanted people to pay for the course online and planeed to deliver much of the content through recorded course modules.    I had never launched an online course before so I had some research to do.  In this post, I'll share what I learned. 

Besides the actual course content and interaction, there are three key components to consider in launching an online course:

1) The Online Course Studio

2) The Online Course Back Office

3) The Online Course Marketing 

The Studio - online platforms for recording the course

The first key decision involved recording the course material.   I planned on having multiple faculty members collaborating from different locations, needed the ability to visually share a presentation and (ideally) the video of the speakers.   Having had too many negative experiences with online technology failing, reliability was important to me.   I looked at a number of platforms including Adobe Connect, WebinarJam and GotoWebinar.    

WebinarJam has an excellent price point and a wide range of sophisticated features.   However, as a frequent user of Google Hangouts, I couldn't get past the fact that WebinarJam is built on top of the Google Hangouts technology.    I've found this technology to be fine for informal meetings and conversations with other team members, but way too unreliable to use with clients or serious business meetings.   Maybe this will change over time, but I wanted my classes to go off without a hitch and couldn't take the risk.  It's also possible that WebinarJam is built on a more reliable version of hangouts then I use casually.   This platform is definitely worth a close look!

AdobeConnect was almost my first choice.  This industrial grade platform has a range of capabilities that go beyond a webinar platform.   I can manage course catalogs, track learner progress, develop tests and more.   At the end of my evaluation, I decided it was overkill and overly expensive for my fledgling training company.   

The final choice came down to GotoWebinar.   I had experience with its little sister, GotoMeeting and found it to be reliable and effective.   It has a simple interface but it has never failed me.   (Once I forgot to push the "record" button and had to re-do a 1 hour course as a result - but I can't blame GotoWebinar for that).   GotoWebinar allows me to easily set up a new event, send out invites to panelists, record and publish the resulting recording.    Publishing your recorded module can be done through a managed interface which captures names and emails for future contact when someone accesses your platform.   I also like that GotoWebinar allows you to optionally record video of the participants in addition to whatever is showing up on your desktop.   For me, that was usually a PowerPoint presentation.   I found that having dual monitors made management a lot easier - although a single monitor can be used to pull this off. 

 

GotoWebinar allows you to capture live video with presentation

 

 

 

Setting up a new webinar is simple

 

 

Managing the polls, questions and live interaction are all manageable.  The user interface for the questions and polls could be improved, but we've used them with success in our online course modules.

 

Once live - you can chat with panelists ahead of time, get the audio/video right - and THEN broadcast

I refer to GotoWebinar as my virtual studio.   Using the cameras built into our laptops and a headset (or even built in microphones), you can record and integrate anyone with a laptop (or smart phone) and internet connection.   As I told many of our faculty, it works better if we are in different rooms, each on our separate "studio" portal.   Once you put multiple people in the same room, you need different kinds of audio and camera equipment.   GotoWebinar keeps it simple and straightforward to produce an online course.  

Of course, these aren't the only games in town.  Webex from Cisco, Google Hangouts and Join.Me  represent other online platforms for collaboration and recording.

The Online Course Backoffice

My next question is how to process the back-end?   I considered using Paypal directly from my Website and I looked at an eCommerce platform called e-Junkie (promotion shown in the button below).

After evaluating the options, I settled on a platform called GumRoad.   This platform makes it easy to add modules to your course... 

 

Adding course components is drag and drop - with different publishing options 

In addition, GumRoad processes credit card payments.   For $10/month, the processing fee is 3.5% plus $0.30 per transaction.   Students are given a platform that they can log into and access their course material.   One feature I'd like to see is a more in-depth review of which modules were viewed by each student.   At this point, I only get which modules were viewed.   

GumRoad makes it easy to create new versions of your product, something I'm experimenting with as I re-purpose many of my modules to an "online only" version of the product.    They also have an affiliate process which allows me to share links with special discounts that can be credited to partners willing to promote my class. 

GumRoad support is currently through email only.  This can be a little frustrating if you want to talk to a person.  At this time, that's all they offer - but my experience is that they do respond in a timely manner.   GumRoad fit the need I had for managing my courses and collecting revenue.

The Online Course Marketing

Your Website should have a strong landing page for your course offering.  A well-designed landing page can mean the difference between converting the sale or losing the sale.  

I found that using live information sessions through GotoWebinar, promoted in advance through social media and email marketing, were the most effective conversion tools.   Since I recorded the information sessions, I could embed the video into my Website's landing page.   This powerful combination worked well to drive course sales.

 

A strong landing page that gives detail and a flavor of the instructors can help convert customers

For interested parties, I use the Divi Wordpress Theme and it makes editing and manipulation of pages like this easy to do.

Conclusion

The combination of GotoWebinar, GumRoad and a strong Wordpress theme are used to create an online course offering.   The beauty of this platform is that it is easy to use, accessible to all Internet users and can be easily reconfigured and re-purposed to future needs. 

Do you have some online course tips you'd like to share?   Please leave a comment for us!

Top Tips on How to Set Up a Location-Based Social Media Marketing Campaign

By now you should already be aware of the value of social media where marketing is concerned. These days, there is another aspect of social media marketing that has become a very powerful tool. It focuses on something that has long been considered important in traditional marketing: location. Known as location-based social media marketing, it aims primarily to encourage people to “check-in” physically at your business location by offering discounts and other incentives in exchange.

The Advantages

A location-based social media marketing campaign costs practically nothing. Therefore, if you’re able to get significant results from this campaign, it can indeed be very cost-effective. For the most part, the only investment you need to launch a successful location-based campaign on social media is your time and effort.

It doesn’t even need that much time and effort as compared to other types of online marketing campaign. As soon as you’ve set up your account on a location-based platform and put your marketing campaign into place, your customers can pretty much do the work for you and spread the word about your business.

The Disadvantages

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of launching a location-based marketing campaign on social media is that if you fail to make your customers do much of the work for you, then your campaign is likely to fail as well. This is why most businesses offer discounts and freebies as part of their location-based marketing strategy.

While this is likely to cost you a significant amount in the long run, the returns you get from such offers could more than pay for the cost. Another thing that may be seen as a disadvantage where location-based marketing is concerned is the fact that concrete data as regards its effectiveness is hard to come by at the moment.

For some reason, only a few businesses have so far revealed how much business they’ve been able to generate from location-based platforms like Foursquare and Scvngr.

Offering discounts and freebies is one of the strategies businesses use as part of location-based marketing. Flickr.com photo by bargainbri

The disadvantages notwithstanding, you may indeed be able to reap huge rewards from location-based marketing as long as you know how to do it right. Here are some tips on how you can create your own location-based social media marketing campaign:

 1.      Choose Your Venue

There are several platforms on which you can build your location-based online presence. You’ll have to create an account and claim your venue on your chosen platform.

 Sign-up specifics vary from one platform to the other and you’ll have to make sure you follow these specifics on every platform you choose to use.

 Foursquare is perhaps the most popular location-based platform to date and the good news is that this platform is completely free to use. It even gives you some useful suggestions on how you can stay engaged with your followers.

 2.      Configure a Location Marketing Page

Any platform you choose for your location-based social media marketing campaign won’t require you to change the default information in your profile. However, it is highly advisable for you to do so.

 A good number of online visitors do take the time to check out the profile information of a business account, so it’s definitely a good idea to make sure anyone who takes a peek will like what he or she sees on your account profile.

 Bear in mind as well that major search engines like Google also index information in social media profiles, which can make it a lot easier for people to find you.

You need to do your best to ensure that anyone who peeks into your profile on a location-based platform will like what he or she sees. Flickr.com photo by LabyrinthX-2

 3.      Set Up a Performance Monitoring Plan

In order for you to know how well your location-based social media marketing campaign is faring, you’ll have to set some specific goals at the outset. These indicators may include the number of daily check-ins, the number of check-ins that are cross-posted to Facebook and/or Twitter, and the number of offers or deals visitors redeem on a daily or weekly basis.

 4.      Come Up with Relevant Offers

Remember that location-based marketing is all about incentives. Most people check-in to online venues only because there’s something in it for them, which they consider of value. Therefore, you have to make sure the deals and incentives you offer are relevant not only to your business, but also to your target market’s expressed and implied needs.

 You could perhaps offer a small discount or reward simply for checking in. Bigger discounts or more valuable rewards may be offered to those who leave comments (preferably positive, of course) regarding your business. 

You have to give people a good reason to check-in to your online venue. Flickr.com photo by dennis

You could also make the experience more fun by coming up with, say, weekly games and challenges. Winners may be rewarded with a sample of new products or a free product of their choice, among other things.

Sometimes even simple pins and stickers would suffice as rewards because people often just enjoy beating their friends at games and challenges.

 5.      Offer Strategic Incentives

 Create special offers that help you increase your volumes during typically low-business hours or days. For example, if you are in retail business and see low footfalls on Mondays, you could use Foursquare to start a discount campaign with offers valid on Mondays only.

 6.      Offer Your Customers Incentives

 Challenge your customers to do something at your location and offer them incentives for the same. For example, a fashion-clothing store, could issue a challenge to its customers to mix, match, and create a party outfit in under one-minute.

 The pictures can then be shared on platforms like Facebook and Pinterest, etc. The customers in the pictures would in all likelihood share the pictures on their networks, thus bringing in more publicity and exposure for your location based social media campaigns.

 7.      Review, Adjust, and Optimize

Using the monitoring system you’ve set up based on your identified performance indicators, review how each component of your location-based marketing campaign is doing. If one or more component isn’t doing very well, find out where it is failing and then make the necessary adjustments to improve your performance in that component.

 Be sure to set a schedule for reviewing your performance to ensure that your campaign is optimized and sustained for the long term.

 With people relying on mobile devices more and more these days, it may indeed be smart for you to start taking advantage of geo-location technology for your business. With the right tactics and proper management, a location-based social media marketing campaign may just be one of your most useful and cost-effective projects to date. 

Emma-Julie Fox writes for Pitstop Media, a Vancouver based SEO company. Pitstop Media has been helping businesses across North America successfully increase their search visibility. If you want to invite the author to guest post on your blog please contact www.pitstopmedia.com

Learning LinkedIn From the Experts: How to Build a Powerful Business Presence on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the most under-utilized networks by startups. Besides networking, it's useful in acquiring new customers, attaining partnerships, and even raising money. 

Hubspot recently released a new eBook focused on helping businesses leverage LinkedIn's 20+ million members by building a powerful business presence. It was written by five LinkedIn specialists who divulged their secrets in how they used LinkedIn to successfully grow their network and business. The content discuss how to build and grow your network, how to market your business, how to market yourself and ends by discussing how to measure the ROI of your efforts. 

This free eBook is available for a limited time. Download it here. Enjoy!

Posts You May Have Missed Last Week: Young Entrepreneur Steven Courtney and 20 Ways to Close A Business Letter

Life sometimes prevents us from enjoying ourpleasures. And by pleasures, we mean Cheap Revolution. 

Just in case you missed our top posts from last week, we compiled them into a short list for your convenience:

20 Ways to Close A Business Letter

More often than not, we write some sort of formal communication each week. Whether that be in form of a typed letter or an email, we are constantly writing to a prospective client or to another business. Even though the bulk of our letters are standard, our chance to be creative is in the way we close our letters.

Young Entrepreneur Steven Courtney Provides Insight On Networking

Steven Courtney began working in restaurants at age 14 and fell in love with food. Due to his fascination, he quickly moved through the ranks at several restaurants. Steven understood that he wanted something bigger then restaurants, which is how he discovered a new and different career : food science.

After graduating, he was hired at Campbell Soup Company. It was here where Steven was introduced to an entirely new world and quickly became fascinated with how everything worked in corporate America. Steven began to think bigger and started his own company. He began joining organizations, reading, researching, brainstorming, sitting in on lectures, networking, and attending entrepreneur events.

Steven is surrounding himself with, and learning from, the smartest and most talented entrepreneurs in Philadelphia. Steven is very interested in networking and believes that the lessons he's learned from others are priceless. Steven is currently working on an exciting new idea in which he plans to disrupt the social world.

Posts You May Have Missed Last Week: 4 Ways to Promote Your Business Online in 2012 and Seth Godin

Life sometimes prevents us from enjoying ourpleasures. And by pleasures, we mean Cheap Revolution. 

Just in case you missed our top posts from last week, we compiled them into a short list for your convenience:

Top Entrepreneurs on Twitter: Seth Godin

Each week, we will seek to provide you with one entrepreneurwho can be considered to be a must follow on Twitter. We will base our selections on inspirational entrepreneurs who providevaluable insight, as well as content for our readers. 

 We encourage you to follow our reccommended entrepreneurson Twitter, so that you absorb various viewpoints and opinions.By using Twitter, you enable yourself to consume an endless database of knowledge.

This week's top entrepreneur: Seth Godin.

Top Entrepreneurs on Twitter: Seth Godin

Each week, we will seek to provide you with one entrepreneur who can be considered to be a must follow on Twitter. We will base our selections on inspirational entrepreneurs who provide valuable insight, as well as content for our readers. 

 We encourage you to follow our reccommended entrepreneurs on Twitter, so that you absorb various viewpoints and opinions. By using Twitter, you enable yourself to consume an endless database of knowledge.

This week's top entrepreneur: Seth Godin.

Top Entrepreneurs on Twitter: Guy Kawasaki

Each week, we will seek to provide you with one entrepreneur who can be considered to be a must follow on Twitter. We will base our selections on inspirational entrepreneurs who provide valuable insight, as well as content for our readers. 

 We encourage you to follow our reccommended entrepreneurs on Twitter, so that you absorb various viewpoints and opinions. By using Twitter, you enable yourself to consume an endless database of knowledge.

This week's top entrepreneur: Guy Kawasaki.

Twitter Tip of the Week: Schedule Your Tweets Weekly

During the week our schedules fill-up with appointments, which sometimes forces us to put our social media strategy at the bottom of our to-do list. Due to this unfortunate occurrence, our social media presence suffers, since of the main ideas behind social media is that you are updating users in real-time. However, the majority of small businesses do not have the capacity to contiously update users with enough content to effectively provide engaging updates. Scheduling your tweets weekly is one way to provide you with a safety net. 

Review of Hubspot's Inbound Marketing System – An Entrepreneur’s Perspective

I started using Hubspot a few years ago as part of my digital marketing business.  After watching a demo of the tool's capabilities, we decided to try using Hubspot within our company.  We quickly introduced it to some of our entrepreneurial clients as well.   I don't use Hubspot in my Philadelphia marketing consulting business today.  I'll explain why later, but first...